paid what he never owed and acquits the Sinners of their debt for what could better cover our Sins than his Righteousness What better way could the Rebellion of Servants be expiated than by the obedience of the Son The iniquity of many is hid in one just One and the justice of One alone makes it that many are justified What then are we not to pretend to God commendeth has love towards us Rom. 5.8 9. in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Much more then being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him All was for us by Jesus Christ Grace holiness life glory blessedness the Kingdom of the Son of God is our Inheritance there is nothing above us provided only that we do not degenerate and make our selves vile Whilst Jesus Christ was filling up our desires and surpassing our hopes he finished the work of God which was begun under the Patriarchs and in the Law of Moses Then God resolved to make himself known by sensible Experiences he shewed himself very magnificent in Temporal Promises good in heaping upon his Children such Blessings as flattered the Senses powerful in delivering them from the hands of their Enemies faithful in leading them into the Land of Promise to their Fathers just by the Rewards and Punishments which he openly sent them according to their works All his marvellous Works prepared the way for the Truths which Jesus Christ came to teach If God be so good as to bestow on us what is agreeable to our Senses how much rather shall he give unto us what is agreeable to our Souls which were made after his own Image If he be so tender and beneficent towards his Children shall he shut up his love and his bounty in those few years which make up our life Will he give to those whom he loves only a shadow of Felicity a fertile Land in Corn and Oyl Will there not be a heavenly Country wherein he will abundantly recompence us with true and everlasting good things There will be one without all peradventure and Jesus Christ will come to shew it us For indeed the Almighty would do works very unworthy of himself if all his magnificence should terminate in Grandeurs that were only exposed to our weak and infirm Senses Whatsoever is not eternal is neither correspondent to the Majesty of an Eternal God nor does it answer the hopes of man to whom he hath made known his eternity and that unchangeable fidelity which he bears to his Servants will never have an Object proportionable to it until it be extended to something that is immortally permanent Therefore will Jesus Christ at last come and open the Heavens to us to disocover there to our Faith that abiding City Heb. 11.8.9 10 13 14 15 16. which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God where we are to be gathered together after this life He shews us that if God make Eternal to be one of his Titles the Name of the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob it is because those holy men are always living before him Matth. 22.32 Luke 20.38 For God is not the God of the dead but of the living It is below him to do only as men accompany his friends to the Grave without giving them any hope beyond and it would be if I may speak with reverence reproachable for him to call himself with so much of force and energy the God of Abraham if he had not founded in the Heavens an Eternal City wherein Abraham and his Children may be happy throughout all Generations 'T is thus therefore that these Truths of a Futurity were unfolded to us by Jesus Christ Heb. 11.14 15 16. He shewed them to us even under the Law the true Land of Promise was the heavenly Kingdom 'T was that blessed Country that Abraham Isaac and Jacob desired Palestine did not deserve to be the Boundary of their fervent Vows nor to be the sole object of so long an expectation of our Fathers Egypt from whence we were to come out the Wilderness through which we were to pass Babylon whose Prison-walls we were to break to enter or to return into our Country that was this World with all its delights and vanities for here it was that we were truly Captives and Pilgrims led astray by Sin and Concupiscence we were to shake off this Yoke to find in Jerusalem and in the City of our God true liberty and an House or Sanctuary not made with hands 2 Cor. 5.1 eternal in the Heavens where the Glory of the God of Israel should be manifested to us By this Doctrine of Jesus Christ the Mystery of God was laid open to us the Law was all Spiritual its Promises were introductive of those of the Gospel and served as a Foundation to them One and the same light was visible throughout it arose under the Patriarchs under Moses and the Prophets it increased Jesus Christ who was greater than the Patriarchs who came with more Authority than Moses and who was more illuminated than all the Prophets discovered this unto us in his fulness To this Christ to this God-Man to this Man who held upon Earth as St. Austin speaks the place of The Truth and discovers it to be personally resident amongst us to him I say it was reserved to shew us all Truth that is to say so much of the Mysteries of the Vertues and of the Rewards as God had designed for those whom he really loved These were the Grandeurs which the Jews ought to have look'd for in their Messiah There is nothing so great and glorious as to carry in it self and to discover unto men Truth in its fulness and perfection which seeds them and directs them and clears up their eyes so as to make 'em capable of seeing God Now in this time when the Truth was to be discovered to men with that fulness it was also commanded to be promulged throughout all the Earth and at all times God gave to Moses but one single People and one determined time but all Ages and all the People of the World were given to Jesus Christ he hath his Elect every where and his Church extensive as the Universe shall never leave off her bringing them forth Go saith he therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Matth. 28.19 20. and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the World Amen VII The Descent of the Holy Ghost the Establishment of the Church The Judgements of God on the Jews and on the Gentiles To disperse into all Places and in all Ages such eminent Truths and to put such pure and admirable Practices in force amidst such Corruption there was need of a Vertue more than Humane Wherefore Jesus Christ promised to send the Holy
promised Land and others those when they were re-established by visible Miracles To convince the incredulity of a People who were wholly devoted to their Senses God took a long extent of Ages in which he distributed his Miracles and his Prophets that so he might often renew the sensible Testimonies by which he attested his holy Truths In the New Testament he tooks another conduct He would no more reveal any thing anew to his Church after Jesus Christ In him was perfection and fulness and all the Divine Books that have been composed in the New Testament were made in the times of the Apostles That is to say that the Testimony of Jesus Christ and of those whom Jesus Christ hath been pleased to choose for the Witnesses of his Resurrection hath been sufficient for the Christian Church All that has come since has edified it but it has not been looked upon as purely inspired by God but what the Apostles have written or what they have confirmed by their Authority But in that difference which is found between the Books of the two Testaments God hath always observed that admirable order of making things to be written just at the times when they happened or at least when the memory of them was very fresh And so those that knew them wrote them those that knew them received the Books which bore witness of them and both the one and the other have left them to their Posterity as a most precious and invaluable Inheritance and they most carefully and piously have preserved them And thus was formed the Body of the Holy Scriptures as well the Old as the New Testament Scriptures which from their Original have been regarded as true in the whole as given by God himself and which have been also kept with that great Religion that it was thought none could dare to alter the least Letter of it without a strange Impiety And thus it was that they came down to us always holy always sacred always inviolable the one kept by the constant Tradition of the Jews and the other by the Tradition of the Christians so much the more certain as it was confirmed by the Blood and Martyrdom as well of those who wrote those Divine Books as of them that received ' em St. Austin and the other Fathers demand upon whose Faith we attribute the profane Books to certain Times and Authors Aug. cont Faust 11. 2. 32. 21. 33. 6. Every one readily answers that the Books are distinguished by the different Relations they have to the Laws Customs and Histories of a certain Time by the Stile it self which bears impressed the Character of particular Ages and Authors and more than all that Iren. 1.2.17 Tertul. adv Marc. 4. l. 4 5. Aug. de utilit ced 3. 17. cont Faust Manich. 22. 79. 28. 4. 32. 33. Cont. adv leg Porph. 1. 20. c. by the publick Faith and by a constant Tradition All these things concur to the establishment of the Divine Books to distinguish the Times and to mark out the Authors of them and the more Religion there was in preserving them entire the more indisputable is the Tradition which preserved them for us Thus hat it been always acknowledged not only by the Orthodox but also by Hereticks and even by Infidels Moses has ever passed in all the East and afterwards in all the World for the Legislator of the Jews and for being the Author of those Books that are attributed to him The Samaritans who had received them from the ten separated Tribes have as religiously kept them as the Jews You have seen their Tradition and their History Two People so opposite took them not one from the other but both received them from their Common Original in the Times of Solomon and David The ancient Hebrew Characters which the Samaritans still retain do sufficiently shew that they have not followed Esdras who changed them Thus the Pentateuch of the Samaritans and that of the Jews are two compleat Originals independant one on the other The perfect conformity that is seen in the substance of the Texts justifies the Sincerity of both those People They are faithful Witnesses that agree without understanding one another or to speak better who agree together notwithstanding all their Enmities V. sup 1. part p. 24 25 34 49 59 63 80 86 87. and which only Immemorial Tradition of both Parties hath united in the same mind Those therefore who say tho' without any reason that those Books being lost or having never been were set up or composed a new or altered by Esdras besides their being contradicted by Esdras himself as may very well be observed in the course of his History are likewise so by the Pentateuch which is even now at this day to be seen in the hands of the Samaritans so as it had been read in the first Agas by Eusebius of Cesaria St. Jerome and the other Ecclesiastical Author so as those People had kept it in their Original and a Sect so weak as that seems not to continue so long but to bear this Testimony to the Antiquity of Moses The Authors that wrote the four Evangelists received no less assured Testimony from the unanimous consent of the Faithful the Heathens and the Hereticks That great Number of various People who received and translated those Divine Books as soon as they were made agree in their date and in their Authors The Heathens have not contradicted this Tradition Nor Colsus who attacked those Sacred Books even in the first beginning of Christianity nor Julian the Apostate tho' he was neither ignorant of any thing nor omitted any thing that might descredit them nor has any other Heathen ever suspected them to be supposititious but on the contrary they have all given them the same Authors as the Christians The Hereticks although they were confounded by the Authority of those Books yet durst not say that they were not of the Disciples of our Lord. Nay some of those Hereticks saw the beginnings of the Church and before whose eyes were written the Books of the Gospel So that fraud if there could possibly be any would have appeared too near to have been successâ—ul 'T is true after the time of the Apostles and when the Church was already spread over the face of the Earth Marcion and Mannes always the most rash and the most ignorant of all the Hereticks notwithstanding the Tradition coming from the Apostles coâ—tinued by their Disciples and by the Bishops to whom they had left their Chair and the Conduct of the People and unanimously received by all the Christian Church were so bold as to say that there Evangelists were supposititious and that that of St. Luke which they preferred to all the others they knew not why since it came by no other way had been falsified But what proofs gave they of this nothing but meer Visions no positive Matters of Fact All the reason they gave was that what was contrary to their
desolate without a Governor The King of Persia Chosroes II. under pretence of revenging Mauritius had attempted to destroy Phocas He push'd on his Conquests under Heraclius There was seen the Emperor beaten and the true Cross carryed away Years of J. C. 620 621. by the Infidels after by admirable return Years of J. C. 622 623 H raclius five times a Conqueror Persia over-run Years of J. C. 625 626. by the Romans Chosroes killed by his Son and the Holy Cross re-taken Whilst the Power of the Persians was so sharply repressed a worse mischief rose up both against the Empire and indeed against all Christianity Mahomet set himself up for a Prophet among the Saracens He was driven out from Mecha by his own People with his Flight commenced that memorable Hegyra from whence Years of J. C. 622 the Mahometans compute their Years This false Prophet gave his Conquests for all the sign of his mission In nine years he brought all Arabia under Subjection either on their own accord or by force and laid the Foundations of the Empire of the Caliphi To these Years of J. C. 629 Afflictions was superadded the Heresie of the Monothelites who through an almost inconceivable Blindness in owning two Natures in our Lord and Saviour would own that there was but one Will in him Man according to their Doctrine had nothing of Will in him and there was nothing in Jesus Christ but the sole Will of the Word These Hereticks concealed their Venom under ambiguous terms A false Love of Peace made them propose that there should be no speaking either of one or of two Wills By these Artifices they imposed upon Pope Years of J. C. 633 Honorius the First who entered with them into a very dangerous Menage and consented to that Silence whereby the Lye and the Truth were both equally suppressed And for the complement of all Afflictions some time after the Emperor Heraclius undertook Years of J. C. 639 to decide the Question by his Authority and proposed his Ecthesis or favourable Explication to the Monothelites but the Artifices of the Hereticks were at length discovered Pope John IV. condemned the Ecthesis Constance the Grandchild of Heraclius Years of J. C. 640 maintained the Edict of his Grandfather by his own called the Type The Years of J. C. 648 Holy See and Pope Theodoret opposed that Years of J. C. 649 attempt Pope St. Martyn I. assembled the Council of Lateran where he sentenced the Type and the Chiefs of the Monothelites to the Anathema St. Maximus celebrated over all the East for his Piety and his Learning leaves the Court which was infected with this new Heresie openly reproves the Emperors who had dared so to pronounce upon the Questions of Faith and suffers a world of Afflictions for the Catholic Years of J. C. 650. 654. Faith The Pope dragged from one Exile to another and always rudely treated by the Emperor at length dyes in the midst of his Sufferings without complaining nor remitting any thing he owed to the Function of his Ministery In the mean while the new English Church strengthened by the industrious Cares of the Popes Boniface V. and Honorius grew very famous over all the World Miracles abounded there with the Vertues as in the times of the Apostles and nothing was more splendid than the Years of J. C. 627 Sanctity of its Kings Edwin with all his Years of J. C. 634 Subjects embraced the Faith which had given him the Victory over his Enemies and converted his Neighbours Oswald served as an Interpreter to the Preachers of the Gospel and renowned by his Conquests he preferred the Glory of being a Christian to Years of J. C. 655 them all The Mercians were converted by the King of Northumberland Oswin Their Neighbours and their Successors followed their Steps and their good Works were infinite Every thing went to wrack in the East whilst the Emperors were destroying each other in Disputes about Religion and Years of J. C. 634 in inventing of Heresies the Saracens run Years of J. C. 635 through the Empire possessed themselves of Years of J. C. 636 Syria and Palestine the Holy City was subjected Years of J. C. 637 to them and Persia lay open to their Power by its Divisions so that they took that great Kingdom without any Resistance They entered into Africa in a posture of Years of J. C. 647 making it in a very little time one of their Years of J. C. 648 Provinces the Isle of Cyprus paid them Obedience and in less than thirty years they joyned all these Conquests to those of Mahomet Italy always unfortunate and forsaken groan'd under the Arms of the Lombards Constance despairing of his ever driving them out was resolved to ravage what he could no longer defend and was more cruel than the Lombards themselves He came not to Years of J. C. 663 Rome but to pillage the Treasures of it the Churches escaped not free from him He ruined Sardinia and Sicily and made himself odious to all the World and at last fell by the Hands of his own Servants Under Years of J. C. 668 his Son Constantine Pogonat that is to say Years of J. C. 671 the Bearded the Saracens possessed themselves Years of J. C. 672 of Cilicia and Lycia Constantinople Years of J. C. 678 was besieged and was saved even by a Miracle The Bulgari People that came from the mouth of Volga joyned with all those potent Enemies wherewith the Empire was infested and got themselves Masters of that part of Thrace called since Bulgaria which was the Antient Mysia The English Church was the Mother that brought forth new Churches and St. Wilfrid Bishop of York being expelled from his See converted Frieseland The whole Church received a new Light by the sixth general Council of * Alsted Chron. Years of J. C. 696 Constantinople where Pope St. Agatho presided by his Legats and explained the Years of J. C. 680 Catholic Faith by a most admirable Letter That Council anathematized one Bishop famous for his Learning one Patriarch of Alexandria four Patriarchs of Constantinople that is to say all the Authors of the Sect of the Monothelites without sparing Pope Honorius himself who had abetted and countenanced them After the Death of Agatho which happened during that Council Pope St. Leo II. confirmed their Decisions and received all their Anathema's Constantine Pogonat an imitator of the great Constantine and of Marcian entered into the Council after their Example and as he paid them the same Submissions they honoured him with the same Titles of Orthodox Religious and peaceful Emperor and the Restorer of Religion His Son Years of J. C. 585 Justinian II. succeeded to him then an Infant From his time the Faith increased and spread it self gloriously towards the North. Years of J. C. 586 St. Kylian sent by Pope Conon preached the Years of J. C. 589 Gospel in Franconia In the time of Pope Sergius Ceadwalla one of the Kings of England
principal matters that are dependent thereon You may now without any great difficulty dispose of according to the order of Time the great accidents of the Antient History and range them as I may so speak each under its proper Standard I have not in this Abstract forgot that celebrated distinction which the Chronologists make of the continuance of the World in 7. Ages The beginning of every one of them serves us for an Epocha If I have mixt any others with them it is that so things may be more distinct and that the order of time may be opened to You with less confusion When I speak to You of the order of Time I do not pretend My Lord that You should scrupulously charge Your memory with all the dates much less that You should concern Your self with all the nice disputes of the Chronologists where most an end they differ but in a very few years There is no question but that this contentious Chronology which scrupulously is taken up about those small matters hath its use but that is not Your object and is of very little service to enlighten the mind of a great Prince I would not be too refined upon this discussion of Time but in the calculations I have already made I have still followed that which has appeared to me the most probable without troubling my self to be Guarranty for it In the supputation of years which is made since the time of the Creation down to Abraham we had best join with the LXX which makes the World older whereas the Hebrew makes it younger by many Ages Although the Authority of the Original Hebrew seems as if it ought to carry it yet it is a thing so indifferent in it self that the Church which hath with St. Jerom followed the supputation of the Hebrew in our Vulgar Translation hath left that of the LXX in its Martyrology In effect what matter is it for History either to diminish or to multiply void Age where also there is nothing to give an account of Is it not enough that the times where the dates are important have their fixed Characters and the distribution of them be supported on certain foundations And tho' even in those times there should be a dispute about some years it should scarce ever make us perplexed and uneasie As for instance if we should put it some years sooner or later when Rome was founded or our blessed Saviour born You must own that such a diversity makes nothing to the course of Histories nor to the accomplishing of the Councils of God You must be careful to shun the Anachronisms which ruffle and embroyl the order of Affairs and leave the others to the disputes of the Learned I will not further oppress Your memory with the account of the Olympiads tho' the Grecians who make use of that render them very necessary for the fixing of Times It is fit You should know it that You may when there is occasion have recourse to it But it will be sufficient to keep to the dates which I propose to You as being the mosâ— simple and the most followed which are those of the World to Rome those from Rome to Jesus Christ and those from Jesus Christ to all succeeding Generations But the true design of this Abridgment is not to explain to You the order of Time tho' it be absolutely necessary in the reading of all Histories and in shewing how they relate to one another I have told You My Lord That my principal Object is to make you consider in the order of time the course of the people of God and that of great Empires These two things roul together in this great Movement of Ages where they have as I may say one and the same course But it is needful to understand them truly to detach them sometimes one from the other and to consider whatsoever hath relation to each of them THE SECOND PART OF THIS DISCOURSE ABove all Religion and the course of the people of God considered in this manner is the greatest and most useful of all the objects that can be proposed to men It is pretty to have before our Eyes the different States of God's People under the Law of Nature and under the Patriarchs The Course of Religion I. The Creation and the first Times under Moses and the Written Law under David and the Prophets since the Return of the Captivity until Jesus Christ and in summ under Jesus Christ himself that is to say under the Law of Grace and under the Gospel in the Ages which waited for the Advent of the Messias and in thosâ— in which he appeared in those where the Worship of God was confined to one Angle People and in those were conformable to the antient Prophecies it was spread abroad over all the face of the Earth in those at last wherein Mankind still clogged with Infirmities and gross Ideas has had need to be supported by Temporal Rewards and Punishments and in those wherein the Faithful that are the most instructed ought now only to live by Faith setting to minds upon Celestial good things which will yield them Eternal pleasure and satisfaction and suffering through the hopes at last of coming to enjoy them all the evils and miseries of this World which can exercise their Patience Certainly my Lord nothing can come into the heart of man to conceive more worthy of God than that he should first of all choose to himself a people which should be a most manifest Example of his Eternal Providence a people whose good or evil depends on Piety and whose condition bears evidence to the Wisdom and Justice of him who governs them Here it was where God began and this he fully discovered in the people of the Jews But after he had by so many sensible manifestations established this immutable foundation whereby he alone after the pleasure of his own Will did manage all the events of the present life it was time to exalt men to higher thoughts and to send Jesus Christ to whom it was reserved to discover to a new people collected out of all the people of the World the Secrets and Mysteries of a life to come You may easily follow the History of these two sorts of people and observe as Jesus Christ doth the Union of them both since that whether looked for or given it was ever the Consolation and the Hope of the Sons of God Thus then Religion was always uniform or rather always the same from the beginning of the World they always acknowledged the same One God as the Author and the same Jesus Christ as the Saviour of Mankind Thus You will see there was nothing more antient among men than the Religion which You profess and it is not without reason that your Ancestors have accounted it their greatest glory to be the Protectors of it What Testimony is this of its truth to see that in the times wherein the prophane Histories have nothing in them but
was clear enough and sufficiently present if we would have been attentive to it was just ready to vanish and be gone Prodigious Fables and such also as were as full of Impiety as Extravagance took their place The time was come where Truth but ill kept in the memory of men could no longer keep it self with being written and God having besides resolved to form his people to Virtue by Laws more express and in a greater number he was pleased at the same time to give them in writing Moses was summoned to this work That great Man recollected the History of past Ages That of Adam that of Noah that of Abraham that of Isaac that of Jacob that of Joseph or rather that of God himself and of his admirable Works He was not to search far for the tradition of his Ancestors He was born a hundred Years after the Death of Jacob. The old Men of his time might have conversed several Years with that Holy Patriarch The memory of Joseph and the Miracles which God had wrought by that great Minister of the Kings of Egypt were yet fresh in their Minds The Lives of three or four Men reached up even to Noah who had seen the Sons of Adam and as I may so say had touched the beginning of time and things Thus the antient traditions of Mankind and those of the Family of Abraham were not hard to be collected the Memory of them was still alive and we need not wonder if Moses in his Genesis speaks of things that happened in the first Ages as things certain whose memorable Monuments are still to be seen both in the neighbouring People and in the Land of Canaan In the time when Abraham Isaac and Jacob inhabited that Land they had in several places erected the monuments of things which had happened to them There is yet shewn there the places where the lived the Wells they had dug and sunk in those dry and sterile Countries to find their Families and their Flocks Water the Mountains whereon they Sacrificed to Almighty God and where he manifested himself to them the Stones which they had laid on Heaps to serve as a memorial to Posterity the Tombs wherein their blessed Ashes are deposited The memory of those great Men were fresh not only in all the Country but likewise in all the East where many of those famous Nations have still remembred that they have come from their Race So when the Hebrews entred into the promised Land every place there did celebrate their Ancestors both the Towns and the Mountains and the very Stones themselves did there speak of those marvellous Men and of those astonishing Visions by which God had confirmed them in the antient and true belief Those who are ever so little conversant in Antiquities do know how curious the first times were to erect and to preserve such Monuments and how industriously careful Posterity has been since to retain the occasions of their setting of them up 'T was one of the ways of their writing History the Stones have since been better fashioned and polished and Statues have succeeded after Pillars to great and solid Masses which the first times erected 'T is also very rational to believe that in the lineage wherein was preserved the knowledg of God were also preserved by writing the remembrances of antient times For Men have never been without that care At least this is most certain that they made Songs which the Fathers taught their Children Songs which were sung at their Festivals and in their Assemblies gave a perpetuity to the remembrance of the most remarkable actions of the past Ages From hence came Poetry which was afterwards changed into various forms and modes the most antient whereof is still preserved in Odes and those heroick ways used by all the Antients and still to this day by those People who have not the use of Letters in Praising God and great Men. The stile of those Songs is bold extraordinary natural always in what it is fit to represent Nature in all its Transports which for that reason is forced by the most lively and impetuous Sallies disengaged from these ordinary Bonds that are requisite in an united Discourse confined besides to just Numbers and Cadences which advances their force surprizes the Ear seizes the Imagination gives an Emotion to the Heart and with more ease imprints it self in the Memory Among all the People of the World none have so much used these kind of Songs as have the People of God Moses takes notice of a great many of them which he denotes by the first Verses because the People knew the rest Numb xxi v. 14.17.18.27 c. Exod. xv 1. He himself hath made two of this Nature The first is his Song for their triumphant passing over the Red Sea and the Enemies of the People of God some already drowned the rest half conquered by the dread and terror of it By the second Deut. xxxii v. 1. Moses confounds the Peoples ingratitude by setting forth Gods Mercyâ— and Vengeance Following Ages imitated him 'T was God and his marvellous Works were the Subject of those Odes which they composed God himself inspired them and it was only to the People of God that Poetry came truly by Enthusiasm Jacob declared in that mystical Language the Oracles which contained the Destiny of his twelve Sons that so every Tribe might the more easily keep in Mind what particularly related to it and learn to praise him who was no less magnificent in his Predictions than faithful in performing them Thus you see the means made use of by God to preserve even down to Moses the remembrance of past transactions That great Man instructed by all those means and raised upon high by the Holy Ghost hath written the Works of God with an exactness and simplicity which attracts belief and admiration not only to himself but even to Almighty God He hath joined to past actions which contained the original and antient Traditions of the People of God the wonders which God actually wrought for their deliverance Of that he produces to the Israelites no other Witnesses than their own Eyes Moses tells them not of things which were done in impenetrable retreats and in profound Caves he speaks not in the Air he particularizes and circumstantiates every thing as a Man that fears not to be caught in an untruth He grounds all their Laws and their whole Republick on the wonders which they themselves have seen Those wonders were nothing else but Nature changed all on a sudden on different occasions for their deliverance and the punishment of their Enemies the Sea divided it self in two the Earth opened herself heavenly Food abundance of Water gushing out of Rocks by a stroke of the Rod and the Heaven which gave them a visible sign to direct their March and such like Miracles which they themselves had seen for forty Years The People of Israel were no more intelligent nor more subtil than other
to him all the Royal Prerogative 1 Macc. 14.41 is remarkable 'T is thus expressed That the Jews and the Priests were well pleased that Simon should be their Governor and High-Priest for ever until there should arise a faithful Prophet The People used from the beginning to a Theocracy or divine Government and knowing that since the time of David's being set upon the Throne by the order and appointment of God the Soveragain Power belonged to his House to whom it was to be at last surrend'red at the time of the Messiah puts expresly this Restriction to the Power which he had given to his High-Priests and continued to live under them in the hopes and expectation of that Christ which had been so often promised Thus did that Kingdom which was absolutely free make use of its Prerogative and provided for its Government The Posterity of Jacob by the Tribe of Judah and by the rest who were ranged under its Standards preserved themselves like a Body of a State and independently and quietly enjoyed the Land which had been assigned to them By virtue of the Peoples Decree which we now have been speaking of John Hyrcan the Son of Simon succeeded to his Father Under him the Jews grew very great by their considerable Conquests They subdued Samaria as Jeremiah and Ezekiel had foretold they conquered the Idumeans the Philistins Ezek. 16.55 56 58 61. Jer. 31.5 1 Macc. 10.30 Joseph an t 13.8 17 18. Zach. 9.1 2 c. the Ammonites who were their perpetual Enemies and those People embraced their Religion as Zachariah had observed At length in spight of all the Hatred and Jealousy of the People who were round about them under the Authority of their High-Priests who afterwards became their Kings they founded the new Kingdom of the Asmoneans or the Mascabees more large and extensive than ever excepting only thâ— times of David and Solomon Thus you see in what manner the People of God subsisted always amidst all this variety of Changes and that People who were sometimes chastised and again sometimes comforted under their Afflictions and Grievances by the different Treatments they received according as they deserved bears a sufficient publick Testimony to that Providence which governs the World But in what Condition soever they were they lived still in the expectation of the Messiah which was in the fullness of time to come wherein they looked for new Graces and much greater than any of those they had yet received and there are none but see that this Faith of the Messiah and of his Miracles which continues still to this day among the Jews is descended to them from their Patriarchs and their Prophets from the beginning of their Nation Joseph 1. cont Apion For in that long succession of Years where they themselves did confess that by a Council of Providence there was not any other Prophet risen up among them and that God made them no new Predictions nor new Promises this Faith of the Messiah which was to come was more sprightly active and vigorous than ever It was found so firmly established when the second Temple was built that there was no need of a Prophet to confirm the People in it They were supported by the Faith of the antient Prophecies which they had seen so exactly fullfilled before their Eyes in so many chief Points The â—est from that time never was in the least question'd by them and it was not at all difficult for them to believe that God who was so faithful in every thing should not also accomplish in its due time that which concern'd the Messiah that is to say the very main of all his Promises and the Ground and Foundation of all the rest In effect all their History all that daily happened to them was but as it were one perpetual opening Scene of those Oracles which the Holy Ghost had left with them Being so settled again in their Land after the Captivity they enjoyed for three hundred years a most profound Peace if their Temple was reverenced and their Religion honoured over all the East if at last their Peace was ruffled and shaken by their Dissentions if that proud King of Syria made unheard of attempts to destroy them if he sometime prevailed if he were a little after punished if the Jewish Religion and all the People of God were restored with a more marvellous glory than ever before and the Kingdom of Judah grew greater toward the end of the time by new Conquests you have seen all this was no more than what was found written in their Prophets Yes every thing was particularly taken notice of there even to the time that the Persecutions were to last even to the places where the Battels were to be fought and even to the Lands which were to be conquered I have in the gross related something to you of those Prophecies the Particulars would be matter of a longer Discourse I will here only give you the first Tincture of those important Truths which is so much the more acknowledged as we shall enter forward into the Particulars I shall only observe here that the Prophecies of the People of God have had during all those times Porph. de Abst lib. 4. Id. Porphyr Jul. apud Cyr. l. 5. 6. in Jul. so plain and manifest an accomplishment that since when the Heathen themselves when a Porphyrius when a Julian the Apostate otherwise Enemies of the Sacred Scriptures would at any time give Example of Prophetick Predictions they have been forced to seek them among the Jews And I may also tell you for a truth that if during five hundred years the People of God were without a Prophet all the estate of those times was prophetical The work of God went on and the ways were preparing insensibly for the full accomplishment of those ancient Oracles The Return from the Captivity of Babylon was only a shadow of the Liberty both more great and more necessary which the Messiah was to bring to men that were Captives unto sin The People dispersed in several places in Vpper Asia in Lesser Asia in Egypt and even in Greece began to make the Name and the Glory of the God of Israel shine forth more conspicuously among the Gentiles The Scriptures which were one day to be the Light of the World were put into the most known Language of the World their Antiquity is confessed Whilst the Temple was had in reverence and the Scriptures given to the Gentiles God shews some representation to their future Conversion and lays a great way off the foundations of it What also happened among the Grecians was a kind of preparation to the knowledge and understanding of the Truth Their Philosophers confessed that the World was governed by a God far different from those whom the common sort of People worshipped and whom they also served with the common People The Greek Histories believe that this excellent Philosophy came from the East and from those
places where the Jews had been dispersed but from whence soever it came a Truth so important spread among the Gentiles however it was opposed and how ill soever it was followed even by those who taught it began again to awaken Mankind and by way of anticipation furnished them with certain Proofs who were one day to deliver them from their Ignorance As always the Conversion of the Gentiles was a work reserved for the Messiah and the proper Character of his coming Error and Impiety prevailed every where The most illuminated and wisest Nations the Chaldeans the Egyptians the Phoenicians the Greeks the Romans were the most ignorant and the most blind concerning Religion so true is it that we are to be advanced to it by a particular Grace and by a Wisdom more than Humane Who should presume to relate the Ceremonies of the Immortal Gods and their impure Mysteries their Loves their Cruelties their Jealousies and all their other Excesses were the Subject of their Feasts their Sacrifices and the Hymns which were sang to them and of the Pictures which were consecrated in their Temples So that wickedness was worshipped and confessed as necessary to the Service of the Gods The gravest of their Philosophers forbad drinking to Excess Plato de Leg. 6. unless it were in the Feasts of Bacchus and to the honour of the Gods Another Aristot 7. Politic after he had severely condemned all immodest Pictures yet excepted those of the Gods who would be honoured by those Infamies We can't read but with astonishment what honours they were obliged to pay to Venus and the prostitutions they framed for worshipping her Greece as learned and as wise as she was had yet received those abominable Rites and Mysteries Barach 6.10 42 43. Herod lib. 1. Strabo lib. 1â— Athen. lib. 13. In the most important Emergencies both private Persons and the Republick too vowed Courtisans to Venus and Greece never blusht to attribute her safety to the Intercessions which they made to their fair Goddess After the defeat of Xerxes and his formidable Armies there was a Table set up in the Temple where were inserted their Vows and their Processions with this Inscription of Simonides the famous Poet These have prayed to the Goddess Venus who for their sakes hath saved Greece If Love be to be adored it ought at least to be that which is honest but here it was not so Solon who could believe and indeed who could expect from so great a name so great a reproach Solon I say set up at Athens the Temple of Venus the Prostitute Ibid. or of illicite Love All Greece was full of Temples Consecrated to that Deity and Conjugal Love had not one erected in all the Country But yet they abominated Adultery both in Men and Women Conjugal Society was held Sacred among them But when they applyed themselves to Religion they seemed as if they were possessed with a strange Spirit and their Natural Light forsook ' em The Roman Gravity treated Religion with no more seriousness since it consecrated to the honour of the Gods the Impurities of the Theatre and the bloody Spectacles of the Gladiators that is to say whatsoever could be imagined that was most corrupt and barbarous But I know not if the ridiculous Follies which were mingled in their Religion were not also more pernicious to them for it made them very contemptible Can any respect which is due to Divine things be kept up amidst the Impertinencies of as we say old Wives Tales the Representation or Remembrance whereof makes up so great a part of the Divine Worship All the Publick Service was nothing else but a continual Prophanation or rather a Derision of the Name of God and there must needs be some Power that is an Enemy to that Sacred Name which having undertook to revile it should push on men to make use of it in such contemptible things and even to make riot of it upon such unworthy Subjects 'T is true the Philosophers at last were brought to confess that there was another God than those which the common People worshipped but then they durst not publickly avow it On the contrary Xenoph. mem l. 1. Pl. de leg 5. Socrates laid it down for a Maxim That every one ought to follow the Religion of his Country Plato his Disciple who saw Greece and all the Countreys of the World filled with a mad and scandalous Worship forbore not to settle as a Foundation of his Commonwealth That one ought never to change any thing in Religion which one finds established and a man must be lost to all common Sense that ever thinks to do it Such grave Philosophers who have otherwise said such excellent things about the Divine Nature yet durst never presume to contradict the Publick Error and have despaired of ever being able to conquer it Apol. Socr. apud Plâ—ton Xenophon Ep. 2. ad Dionys When Socrates was accused for denying the Gods whom the People adored he defended himself from it as from a Crime and Plato in speaking of the God that had formed the World says That it is hard to find him and that it is forbid to declare him to the People He protests that he never speaks of him but in the dark for fear of exposing so great a Truth to Mockery In what an Abyss of blindness was Mankind who was not able to comprehend the least Idea of the true God Athens the most learned and knowing of all the Cities in Greece Diog. Laert. l. 2. Soc. 3. Plat. Id. lib. 2. Stilp took those for Atheists who spake of things Intellectual and that is one of the reasons for which Socrates was condemned If any of the Philosophers should offer to teach That the Statues were not Gods as the common People apprehended them they saw themselves forced to retract it and besides after that they were banished for their Impiety by the Sentence of the Areopagus All the Earth was bewitched with the same Errour for the Truth durst not then appear That great God the Creator of the World had neither a Temple nor any worship paid him but in Jerusalem When the Gentiles sent thither their Offerings they gave no other honour to the God of Israel but to joyn him with the other Gods Only Judea knew his holy and severe Jealousie and knew consequently that to divide Religion between him and the other Gods was to destroy it And yet towards the latter end the Jews themselves who confessed him and who were the Guardians of Religion began so much do men labour always to weaken Truth not only to forget the God of their Fathers but to mingle in their Religion strange Superstitions which were unworthy of him Joseph Antiq. 13.9 Under the Reign of the Asmoneans and from the time of Jonathan the Sect of the Pharisees began among the Jews Ibid. 18. At the first they gained a mighty Credit by the Purity of their Doctrines considering
Temple and made the Holiness of that place to be respected and sent the Lepers whom he healed unto the Priests Thereby he taught men how they ought to repress and correct abuses without ever being prejudiced at the Ministry established by God himself and shewed that the Body of the Synagogue subsisted notwithstanding the Corruption of some of its private Members But it did apparently incline to ruine The High-Priests and the Pharisees stirred up the People of the Jews against Christ for their Religion was almost quite turned into Superstition They could not indure the Saviour of the World who called them to substantial tho' difficult Practices The most holy and the best of all men nay even holiness and goodness it self became the most envied and the most hated But that did not discourage him for he ceased not doing good to his Citizens but he saw their ingratitude he foretold their punishment even weeping and denounced to Jerusalem her hasty destruction He also prophesied that the Jews who were Enemies to the Truth which he declared should be delivered up to Errour and become the Mockery of the false Prophets In the mean time the jealousie of the Pharisees and the Priests brings him to a most infamous and accursed death his Disciples forsake him one of them betrays him the first and the most zealous of all denâ—es him thrice Being accused before the Council he honours even to the last the Ministry of the Priests and answers the High-Priest particularly to the Questions he interrogated him in a Judicial way But the hour was come that the Synagogue was to be reproved The High-Priest and all the Council condemn Jesus Christ because he called himself The Christ the Son of God He was delivered up to Pontius Pilate the Roman President his Innocence was confessed by his Judge whom yet Polity and Interest made to act against the convictions of his own Conscience The just One is condemned to death the greatest of all Crimes gives place to the most perfect Obedience that ever was Jesus the Master of his own life and of all things else gives up himself voluntarily to the fury of the wicked Multitude and offers the Sacrifice which was to be the expiation of Mankind On the Cross he sees in the Prophecies what yet remained to be done and he fulfils it and then says It is finished At that word every thing in the World was changed the Law ceased John 19.30 the Types were over its Sacrifices were abolished by a more perfect Oblation That done Jesus Christ expires with a loud groan all Nature was moved the Centurion who watched him being greatly astonished at such a Death cried out and said Matth. 27.50 54. Truly this was the Son of God and those that had beheld it returned to their own homes smiting their Breasts On the third day he arose again from the dead appeared to his Disciples who had forsaken him and who could by no means believe his Resurrection They saw him spake with him touched and handled him and were convinced To confirm the Faith of his Resurrection he shewed himself at divers times and in divers circumstances His Disciples saw him in private and likewise saw him all together He appeared to above five hundred Brethren at once 1 Cor. 15.6 An Apostle who wrote of it assures us that the greater part were then alive at the writing of his Epistle Jesus Christ being risen giveth to his Apostles what time they required throughly to consider of him and after he had put himself into their hands all the ways they could desire so that not the least scruple of a Doubt could possibly remain in them he commanded them to bear witness of what they had seen of what they had heard and of what their hands had handled And that none might doubt of the credit of their Evidence any more than of their Persuasion he obliged them to seal their Testimony with their Blood Thus their preaching was not to be shaken the foundation of it was a positive fact unanimously attested by those that saw it Their sincerity was justified by the strongest proof and trial imaginable which was that of torments and of death it self Those were the Instructions which the Apostles received Upon that foundation did twelve Fishermen undertake to convert all the World which they saw so set against the Laws that they were commissionated to prescribe to them and the Truths they had to declare They were ordered to begin at Jerusalem Luke 24.47 and from thence to scatter themselves throughout all the Earth Acts 1.8 Matth. 28.19 20. instructing all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Jesus Christ promises them to be with them alway even to the end of the World and by that very word assures them of the perpetual Continuance of the Ecclesiastical Ministry And when he had said that he ascends into Heaven in their sight The Promises were accomplished the Prophecies had then their Scene fully opened The Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God by the Command of Jesus Christ that was risen from the dead a new Ceremony was instituted for the Regeneration of the new People and the Faithful are taught that the true God the God of Israel that one and indivisible God to whom they are consecrated in Baptism is together in himself Father Son and Holy Ghost There are then propounded to us the incomprehensible Depths of the Divine Being and the ineffable Greatness of his Unity and the infinite Riches of that Nature more fruitful yet within than without able to communicate himself without any manner of Division to three equal Persons There are explained the Mysteries which were folded and as it were sealed up in the antient Writings We understand the meaning of that saying Gen. 1.26 Let us make Man in our Image and tne Trinity set forth in Man's Creation is expresly declared in his Regeneration We learn by it what that Wisdom was which was conceived before all times in the Bosom of God as Solomon speaks Prov. 8.22.23 24 25 26 27. That Wisdom which made up all his Delight and by which all his Works were made We know who he was that David saw in the Psal 110.3 Beauties of Holiness from the Womb of the Morning and the New Testament informs us that it was the Word the inward Word of God and his eternal Thought who is always in his Bosom and by whom all things were made By that we can answer that mysterious Question which is put to us in the Proverbs Prov. 30.4 Wâ—o hath ascended up into Heaven or descended Who hath gathered the Wind in his Fists Who hath bound the Waters in a Garment Who hath established all the ends of the Earth What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if thou canst tell For we know that that so mysterious and so hidden name of God is the name of
Sparks of it in the Old Testament Solomon said that the Dust should return to the Earth as it was Eccles 12.7 and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in that Hope and Daniel had foretold that there should a time come Dan. 12.1 2 4. that those who slept in the Dust of the Earth should awake some to everlarting Life and some to shame and everlasting Contempt But at the same time that those things were revealed to him he was commanded to seal up the Book even to the time of the End to let us understand that the full discovery of these Truths was reserved for another Season and another Age. But though the Jews had in their Scriptures some Promises of eternal Happiness and that towards the time of the Messiah's coming in which they were to be declared they spoke much more of them as appears by the Books of Wisdom and the Maccabees yet however this Truth gained so little Reputation among the antient People that the Saducees without ever knowing it not only were admitted into the Synagogue but also were advanced to the Priesthood It was one of the Characters of the new People to lay down as a Foundation of Religion the faith of a future Life and that was to be the Fruit of the coming of the Messiah Wherefore not being satisfied with telling us that a Life eternally happy was reserved for the Children of God he hath told us wherein it consists The happy Life is to be with him in the glory of God his Father John 17. the Life of happiness is to see the glory which he hath in the bosom of the Father from the beginning of the World the Life of happiness is that Jesus Christ is in us in his Members and that the eternal Love which the Father hath for his Son extendeth it self to us he fills us full of the same Gifts In a word the Life of happiness is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent but to know him in that manner which we call a clear sight 1 Cor. 13.9 12. 2 â—p 3.2 face to face the sight which reforms in us and perfects there the Image of God that according as St. John says We shall be like unto him because we shall see him as he is That sight shall be followed with an Immense Love and unexpressible Joy and a Triump that shall have no end Rev. 7.12.19.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. An eternal Alleluja and an eternal Amen shall be heard to resound through all the heavenly Jerusalem and all Calamities shall be done away and all Desires shall be satisfied there shall be nothing else to do but to sing Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God and to fall down and worship him who sits on the Throne for ever and ever With these new Rewards it was but neâ—essary that Jesus Christ should propose to us new Ideas of Vertue more perfect and purified Practices The End of Religion the Soul of Vertues and the Abridgment of the Law is Charity But until Jesus Christ was come into the World we may say that the perfection and the effects of that Vertue were not throughly known It was truly and properly our blessed Saviour that taught us to place our Satisfaction in God alone To set up the Kingdom of Charity and to reveal to us all the Duties of it he lays before us the Love of God even to the hating of our selves and continually persecuting that Principle of Corruption which we all carry about with us in our hearts He propounds to us the Love of our Neighbour even to the extending that beneficent Inclination to all men including therein even those that hate and persecute us he proposes to us the moderating of our sensual Desires even to the absolute cutting off our own Members that is to say that which gives us the most lively and sensible impressions He proposes also to us submission to the Will of God even to the rejoycing at the Sufferings he lays upon us as also Humility and that too to the loving of Reproaches for God's sake and to the believing that no Indignities how injurious soever can make us so vile in the eyes of men as we truly are in God's sight by our shameful and abominable sins Upon this foundation of Charity it is that all the conditions of Humane Life are perfected It is by that that Marriage is reduced to its primitive form the Conjugal Affection is now no more divided so holy a Society is only terminated by Death and Children do not now see their Mothers cast out for entertaining of a Step-dame in their places Celibacy is set forth as an Imitation of the life of Angels which is wholly and entirely taken with God and with the chast delights of his Love Superiours do learn that they are the Servants of others and devoted to their Good and Inferiours do acknowledge the wise order of God in their lawful Powers although they abuse their Authority this very thought sweetens to us the hardships of Subjection and under the most troublesome Masters Obedience is not at all troublesome to the true Christian. To these Precepts he superadds Councils of eminent perfection to renounce all pleasures to live in the Body as if we without the Body to forsake all things to give all we have to the Poor that we may possess nothing but God to live upon a little yea almost upon nothing and to expect that little too from Divine Providence But that Law which is most proper to the Gospel is that of bearing his Cross The Cross is the true Trial of Faith the true Foundation of Hope the perfect purifier of Charity in a word the true way to Heaven Jesus Christ dyed on the Cross he bore his Cross all the while he lived 't is by the Cross that he would have us to follow him and he hath promised to reward it with Eternal Life The first to whom he particularly made this Promise of Everlasting Rest was a Companion of his Cross This day saith he Luke 22.48 thou shalt be with me in Paradise Immediately after his Expiration on the Cross the Veil which covered the Sanctuary was rent from the top to the bottom and the Heaven was opened to holy Souls It was after he came from the Cross and from the horrours of his Punishment that he appeared to his Apostles glorious and a Conquerour over Death that they might thereby learn and understand that it was by the Cross they were to enter into his Glory and that he would shew no other way to his Children Thus in the Person of Jesus Christ was given to the World the lively Image of an accomplished Vertue who had nothing nor did expect nothing here in this World who received from men only continual Persecutions yet he never ceased doing of them good and for all that on whom
Ghost to fortifie his Apostles and eternally to inspire and invigorate the Body of the Church This power of the Holy Ghost to declare it self the more was to appear in weakness Behold I send saith Jesus Christ to his Apostles Luke 24.49 the promise of my Father upon you that is to say the Holy Ghost in the mean time tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem be quiet do not concern your self about any thing until ye be indued with power from on high And to shew their submission and conformity to that Order they continued shut up for forty days at the prefixed time the Holy Ghost descended Acts 2.3 cloven Tongues like as of fire falling upon the Disciples of our blessed Saviour do shew the efficacy of their preaching and so being filled with the Holy Ghost Id. 4. they began to speak as the Spirit gave them utterance the Apostles bore witness of Jesus Christ they were all ready to suffer for the Testimony that they had seen him rise from the dead Miracles followed upon their preaching At two of St. Peter's Sermons eight thousand Jews were converted and bewailing their Errour and Blindness they were wâ—shed in the Blood which they had spilt Thus was the Church founded in Jerusalem and amongst the Jews and notwithstanding the perverse incredulity of the Gross of the Nation yet the Disciples of Jesus Christ made known unto the World a Charity a Power but tempered with so much sweetness and condescension as never had been seen in any Society before Persecution arose the Faith increased the Children of God began more and more to aspire towards Heaven the Jews by their obstinate and inveterate Malice drew upon themselves the just Vengeance of God and hastened on them the sad Calamities and Desolation wherewith they had been threatned their Estates and their Affairs grew worse and worse Whilst God was setting apart a great number of them whom he placed among his Elect St. Peter was sent to baptize Cornelius a Roman Centurion He learned first of all by a Heavenly Vision and afterwards by Experience that the Gentiles were called to the Knowledge of God Jesus Christ who was willing to have them converted speaks from on high to St. Paul who was to be their Doctor and by a Miracle till then unheard of from a Persecutor he is made not only a Defender but a zealous Preacher of the Faith The profound Secret of the Calling of the Gentiles by the Reprobation of the ungratefull Jews who were still made more and more unworthy of the Gospel was discovered to him St. Paul reached forth his hands to the Geniiles and treated upon those important Questions with a wonderful force and power that Christ should suffer Acts 26.23 and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew unto the People and to the Gentiles He proved the Affirmative by Moses and the Prophets and called Idolaters to the Knowledge of God in the Name of Jesus Christ that was risen They were converted by Multitudes St. Paul shewed that their Calling was an effect of Grace which made no distinction betwixt either Jew or Gentile Fury and Jealousie transported the Jews so as they laid terrible Plots against St. Paul being chiefly incensed that he preached up the Gentiles and brought them to the true God At last he was delivered to the Romans as they had before delivered up Jesus Christ to them All the Empire was in commotion against the rising Church and Nero the Persecutor of all Mankind was the first Persecutor of the Faithful That Tyrant put both St. Peter and St. Paul to death Rome was consecrated by their Blood and the Martyrdom of St. Peter chief of the Apostles established in the Capital City of the Empire the Principal See of Religion In the mean time the time drew on when the Divine Vengeance was to fall upon the Impenitent Jews Disorders grew up amongst them a false Zeal blinded them and made them odious to all men their false Prophets infatuated them by the Promâ—ses of an imaginary Kingdom Thus being seduced by their deceitful tricks and artifices they could no longer endure any legitimate Empire and so they were unlimited in their attempts God gave them up to a reprobate Sence They revolted against the Romans who overthrew them Titus himself that destroyed them confessed he only lent his hand to that God that was provoked against them Adrian made a full end of them Philost vit Apoll Tyan lib. 6. Joseph de bell Jud. lib. 7.16 They were cut off with all the marks of the Divine Vengeance driven out of their own Land and made Slaves to all the World they no longer had either Temple or Altar or Sacrifice or Country and there was seen in Judah not so much as a form of People But God had notwithstanding provided for the Eternity of his Government The Eyes of the Gentiles were opened and they were united in Spirit to the converted Jews By that means they were joined to the Race and Stock of Abraham and became his Children by Faith and so inherited the promises which had been made to him A new People were formed and the new Sacrifice so much celebrated by the Prophets began to be offered throughout all the World Thus was that antient Oracle or Jacob fulfilled to a tittle Judah from the beginning was multiplied more than all his Brethren and having always kept a certain Preheminence he at last received the Kingdom as Hereditary to him Afterwards the People of God were reduced to his single Race and shut up in his Tribe they were called by his Name In Judah were continued that great People who were promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob in him the other promises were perpetuated the worship of God the Temple the Sacrifices the possession of the promised Land which was only called Judah Notwithstanding all their several States the Jews continued always in a body of a regulated People and Kingdom making use of their Laws There were always seen to arise either Kings or Magistrates and Judges even till the Advent of the Messiah he came and the Kingdom of Judah quickly fell to ruin It was utterly destroyed and the Jewish People were driven without hope from the Land of their Fathers The Messiah was the expectation of the Nations and he reigned over a new People But to keep the Succession and the Perpetuity it was necessary to have this new people engrafted as I may so say upon the former and as St. Paul speaks if thou being a wild Olive tree were grafted in amongst then Rom. 11.17 and with them partakest of the root and fatnâ—â—s of the Olive-tree So it happened that the Church which was first established among the Jews at length received the Gentiles to make up one and the same Tree with them one and the same Body one and the same People and to make them partakers of her Graces and Promises What
holy Ghost himself hath computed the Years But whilst they renounced them they fulfilled them and shewed the Truth of what they said both as to their Blindness and their Fall Let them answer the Prophecies as they would the Desolation which they foretold came upon them just at the appointed time the Event was of more Efficacy and Force than all their Subtilties and if Christ did not come just upon that fatal Conjuncture the Prophets in whom they trusted very much â—eceived them And for the Complement of their Conviction please to observe two Circumstances which accompained their Fall and the Advent of the Saviour of the World The one is that the Succession of the High-Priests which was perpetual and unalterable since Aaron then came to an end The other that the Distinction of the Tribes and Families allways kept up till that time was then no more by their own Confession That Distinction was necessary till the coming of Messiah From Levi were to be born the Ministers of sacred Things From Aaron were to come the Priests and the Pontifs From Juda the Messiah himself If the distinction of Families had not continued till the Destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ the Jewish Sacrifices would have ceased before the time and David had been frustrated of the Glory of being known for the Father of the Messiah Was the Messiah come Was the new Priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedech begun in his Person And the new Kingdom which was not of this World did that too appear Then was there no longer need of Aaron nor of Levi nor of Juda nor of David nor of their Families Aaron was no more necessary then when the Sacrifices were to cease as Daniel had foretold The House of David and Juda had accomplished their purpose when that the Christ of God was come out from thence Dan. 9.27 And as if the Jew themselves had renounced their own Hopes they particularly at that time forgot the Succession of Families until then so carefully and so religiously kept up Let us not omit one of the Signs of the Messiah's coming and peradventure the chiefest if we can tell how to understand it aright tho' it be to the Scandal as well as Horror of the Jews 'T is the Remission of Sins declared in the name of a suffering Saviour Dan. 9.26 27. of a Saviour humble and obedient even to the Death Daniel had observed among his Weeks the mysterious Week which here we take notice of wherein Christ was to be sacrificed wherein the Covenant was to be confirmed by his Death and the antient Sacrifices were to lose their Power and Vertue Let us joyn Isaiah to Danâ—el and there we shall find all the depth of that so great a Mystery we shall see there the Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Grief Isai 53.3 5. who was wounded for our Transgressions bruised for our Iniquities The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we were healed Open your Eyes ye Incredulous and look about you is it not true that the Remission of Sins was preached to you in the Name of Jesus Christ Crucified Was ever so great a Mystery throughly considered Did ever any other than Jesus Christ either before or after him loudly proclaim that he was come to wash away Sins by his Blood Should he have an express Order to be Crucified only to acquire a vain and empty Honour and to fullfil in himself so bloody a Prophecy 'T is duty here to be silent and adore a Doctrine that is in the Gospel which could not so much as enter into any Man's Conception if it had not been true The Jews are extreamly perplexed and put to it in this point They find in their Scriptures too many Passages describing the Humiliations of their Messiah What then will become of those that speak of his Glory and Triumphs Why their natural Resolution is that he will come to his Triumphs by the Victories he gains and to Glory by his Sufferings What an incredible thing is this the Jews had rather have two Messiah's We see in their Talmud Tr. Succa Comm. sive parraph sup Cant. c. 7. v. 3. and other Books of like Antiquity that they look for a suffering Messiah and a Messiah full of Glory the one dead and risen the other always happy and always a Conqueror The one to whom all the Passages do agree that relate to his weakness the other to whom all those agree which speak of his Greatness the one indeed makes him the Son of Joseph for they could not deny him one of the Characters of Jesus Christ who was the reputed Son of Joseph and the other the Son of David without ever being willing to consider or allow what that Messiah the Son of David was to do according as the Royal Prophet had foreshewn drink of the Brook the way before he should lift up his Head Ps 110. v. ult that is to say he should be afflicted before he triumphed as the very Son of David says himself O Fools and slow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Luk. 24. v. 25 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and so to enter into his Glory But if we do understand that great Passage of the Messiah wherein Isaiah doth so lively represent to us the Man of Sorrows wounded for our Transgressions Isai 53. and brâ—ised for our Iniquities and disfigured as one that was Leprous we are likewise justified in this Explication as well as in all the other by the antient Tradition of the Jews and in spight of all their Preventions the Chapter so often cited in their Talmud teaches us that that Leper who should be stricken for the Transgression of the People Gem. Tr. Sanhed l. 11. Ibid. should be the Messiah The Afflictions which the Messiah should feel for our Sins are celebrated in the same place and in several other of the Jewish Writings They often speak of his Entrance as humble as it was glorious which he was to make in Jerusalem when riding upon an Ass and that famous Prophecy of Zachariah was applied to him What reason to have the Jews to complain Every thing was pointed out to them in express Terms among their Prophets their antient Tradition had preserved the natural Explication of those admired Prophecies and there was nothing more just than that Reproach which the Saviour of the World made to them saving O ye Hypocrites ye can discern the Face of the Skie Matt. 16.2 3 4. Luke 12.56 but can ye not discern the Signs of the Times For ye say when it is Evening it will be fair Weather for the Skie is red and in the Morning it will be foul Weather to day for the Skie is red and lowring Therefore we may very well conclude that the Jews had all the reason in the World to confess that all the signs and times of
of his People hath also caused them to foretel the Succession of the Empires You have seen the places where Nebuchadnezzar hath been pointed out as he that was to come and punish the proud People and particularly the Jews so ungrateful against their Author You have heard Cyrus named two hundred Years before he was bâ—â—n as he that was to set up again the People of God and to punish the Pride of Babylon The Ruine of Nineveh was as clearly foretold Daniel in his admirable Visions hath caused to go before your Eyes in a moment the Empire of Babylon that of the Medes and Persians that of Alexander and the Grecians The Blasphemies and the Cruelties of Antiochus the Illustrious were there foretold as well as the miraculous Victories of the People of God over so violent a Persecutor We see there those famous Empires to fall one after another and the new Empire which Jesus Christ was to set up is there so expresly described by its proper Characters that there is no way to mistake it 'T is the Empire of the Saints of the most high the Empire of the Son of Man an Empire which was to subsist in the midst of the Ruine of all the rest and to which alone Eternity is promised The Judgments of God upon the greatest of all the Empires of this World that is to lay upon the Roman Empire have not been kept hid from us You have just now had it from the mouth of St. John Rome her self hath felt the Hand of God and hath been like others an Example of his Justice But its fate was happier yet than that of others for being purged by her Punishments from the remaining dreggs of Idolatry she now no longer subsists but by that Christianity which she declares to all the World Thus have all the great Empires which we have seen upon the Earth concured by several ways and means to the weal of Religion and the glory of God as God himself hath declared it by his Prophets When you read so often in their Writings that Kings in troops shall enter into the Church and be the Protectors and Nursing Fathers of it those words presently put into your mind the Emperours and other Christian Princes and as the Kings your Ancestors have more than any other signalized themselves in protecting and enlarging the Church of God I shall not be afraid to assure you that it is they who of all the Kings are most clearly foretold in those eminently remarkable Prophecies God therefore who was resolved to make use of divers Empires either to chastise or exercise or to enlarge or protect his People willing to make himself known for the Author of so admirable a Councel revealed the Secret of it to his Prophets and hath caused them to foretel what he had resolved to execute Wherefore as the Empires began the order of Gods Decrees on the People whom he had chosen so the fortune of those Empires were found declared by the same Oracles of the Holy Ghost which foretold the Succession of the faithful People The more you accustome your self to follow great things and to recal them to their Principles the more will you stand in admiration of those Councels of Providence It behoves you to take the Ideas of them betimes which will clear up every day more and more in your Minds and you will be the better able to refer humane things to the order of that eternal Wisdom on which they depend God doth not every day declare his Will by his Prophets concerning Kings and Monarchies that he sets up or destroys But having done it so often as to those Empires whereof we have been speaking he shews us by those famous Examples what he does in all others and he teaches Kings these two fundamental Truths First That it is he who forms Kingdoms to give them to whom he pleaseth And Secondly That he knoweth how to make them serve in the time and order which he hath decreed to the Designs he hath on his People This may it please your Highness ought to keep all Princes in an intire Dependance and to make them always careful of the Orders of God that so they may lend their Hand to what he purposes for his own Glory upon all Occasions that he offers them But this Succession of Empires if we will consider it more humanly hath very great Advantages especially for Princes seeing that Arrogance the ordinary Companion of so exalted a Condition is so very much quelled by such a Spectacle For if Men learn to moderate themselves by seeing Kings die how much more will they be struck by seeing Kingdoms themselves to perish and from whence can they receive a more plain Lesson of the Vanity of humane Greatness Thus when you behold as in an instant before your Eyes the Death and Downfal I do not say of Kings and Emperors but of those mighty Empires that have made the whole Universe to tremble when you behold both the antient and the new Assyrians the Medes the Persians the Grecians and the Romans all before you successively and all to fall as I may say one upon another this dreadfull Destruction presently makes you sensible that there is nothing solid among Men and that Inconstancy and Agitation is the proper Partage and Portion of humane things BUT that which will render to your Highness this Spectacle both more advantagious a more agreeable II. The Revolutions of Empires have particular Causes which Princes ought to study will be the Reflection you shall make not only on the Rise and Fall of Empires but also on the Causes of their Progress and on those of their Ruine For Sir that same God who hath made the Chain of the Universe and who as he is Almighty by himself hath resolved for the establishing of Order that the Parts of so great an All should depend one upon another that same God hath also decreed that the course of humane things should have its Issues and its Proportions I mean that Men and Nations have had Qualities commensurate to the Advancements to which they have been designed and that expecting some certain extraordinary Strokes wherein God hath been willing to manifest his own Hand in particular there are no very great Changes happen but what may deduce their Causes from precedent Ages And as in all Affairs there is that which prepares them that which determines to undertake them and lastly that which makes them have Success So the true Science of History is to observe in every time those secret Dispositions which have prepared and made way for great Changes and the important Conjunctures which have brought them to pass Indeed it is not sufficient to look only just before one that is to say to consider those great Events which all on a sudden do decide the fortune of Empires He that would reach to the Bottom of humane things ought to take them at their first Head and Spring and he must observe