at the last Day shall be carried up to heaven All the Miracles from the first to the last tend to carry man to heaven And by their beginning God would shew what should be their conclusion Why Adam was not carried bodily to heaven as well as Enoch The translation of Enoch was a preludium of ours which we expect and a testimony of eternal life where we shall be gathered together in body and soul But it is worth the enquiring Why God wrought not this Miracle in the person of the first man but deferred it until the seventh generation Behold then what may be said concerning it If Adam who represented all mankinde had been carried up to heaven as Enoch afterward was there would not have wanted some that would conclude that heaven appertained naturally unto men as children and heirs of Adam Now to prevent this errour and to teach us that heavenly beatitude is given by Grace and not by Nature the Wisdom of God found it not good that the common father of men should ascend corporally to heaven but would that he should die and that his body should remain in the earth Besides that which is most worthy of observation God would not translate Enoch till such time as Adam was dead and yet Enoch had already lived above three hundred yeers before the decease of Adam But after that Adam was dead Enoch was the first Patriarch that went out of the world For great reasons the going forth of Enoch was preceded by that of his grandfather In that of Adam who died God did shew what it is that men hold of their Nature to wit death In that of Enoch who was carried up without dying God hath shewed what it is that the righteous ought to expect from Grace to wit immortality In that of Adam the father of all is seen the condition of all men to whom it is appointed once to die In that of Enoch is seen the priviledge of Believers who shall be carried to heaven And as the death of Adam went before the rapture of Enoch so it behoveth that we die iâ— Adam before we can be carried up with Enoch Why God hath shewed the glory of heaven to some that were yet upon the earth and yet never shewed hell to any person while he was in this world Saint Steven being as yet here belowe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the glory of God Saint Paul being as yet mortal was in the third heaven and heard unspeakable words that there were uttered But none whether Elect or Reprobate ever saw hell but after his death Why hath not that place of torment been shewn unto mortals as well as Paradise The cause for which God hath caused the joys of heaven to be seen hath been to the end to comfort his children and to encourage them to those sufferings which should be followed by such a glory The sight of hell maketh not for this purpose Nor is it enough to say that it might serve for the conversion of unbelievers For if a wicked man had seen hell he would no more amend then the brethren of the wicked rich man would have done upon the word of one dead that had come back from the bosome of Abraham Luke 16.31 Why Saint Paul being come back from the third heaven speaketh not of having Seen but onely of having Heard 2 Cor. 14.4 It may be that in effect he was transported thither rather to Hear then to See And this Either because being yet mortal God revealed himself to him as to Moses not by the sight of his face of which every man living is uncapable but by the words of his mouth Exod. 33.18 c. Or because being to descend yet from heaven hither below to instruct others he had need to receive instructions and by consequence it was more necessary for him to Hear then to See more profitable both to him and to those that were afterward taught by him For howsoever the words which he had heard were unspeakable yet they furnished him with great lights the which he forgot not but brought them from above to enlighten both himself and others Of Faith The Conclusion of this Treatise Two onely things at which Jesus Christ as man wondered THe one was the Unbelief of his country-men the Galileans Mark 6.6 The other was the Faith of a stranger to wit the Centurion Matth. 8.10 We read not that Jesus Christ in the days of his humiliation ever admired any thing but these two It is truely a thing to be admired that many are unbelievers in a greater light and that many have a great faith being enlightened but by a little spark Of a strange method by which God obligeth men to believe It were an impertinency and folly for one man to say to another I command thee to believe this for Belief is not formed by Commandment but by Perswasion None is master of the Belief of another no not of his own For a man cannot Believe all that he would yea he is often constrained to believe that which he would not as the devils believe against their will that there is a God The object of Belief is not Imperative but Indicative nor is it proposed in form of a Commandment but in that of a Narration Neverthelesse God doth not onely invite us to Believe in presenting to us the Truths which are the objects of our Faith but himself commandeth us This is his Commandment that we should Believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 Upon which we ought to consider that in commanding to believe he can cause us to believe His words when it pleaseth him to animate them with his Spirit plant Faith in the heart of man Nor doth it import that they be narrative or prohibitive or otherwise conceived For their efficacy dependeth not upon the form of the expressions but upon the secret vertue of their Author It were a great impropriety every way if a man should command me to believe for with all his commandments he cannot cause me to believe as long as my spirit perswadeth me to the contrary But God who is the Father and the Master of spirits can speak in the terms of Commanding because in commanding to Believe in effect he giveth the grace to Believe So that language which were absurd in the mouth of man is admirable in the mouth of God Of those that promise to Believe if the truth be shewn unto them There is nothing more ordinary among them which dispute against the true Religion then these words Prove me that which ye say and I will believe it But these people speak as if Faith onely depended upon themselves They promise that which is not in their power This is as if a blinde man should promise to know colours provided they be shewed unto him The Truth what evidence soever it bringeth with it is not perceptible but to him that hath eyes capable of discerning it Now this
among them which have relation more to the subject of which we treat If we speak of him who hath saved us the name of Jesus is appropriate to him If the question be of the means by which he hath saved us they are comprised under the name of Christ If we mention his Commandment we should say This is the Ordinance of the Lord. If we consider him as authour of the communion which we have with his Father there presenteth it self to us the title of the Son of God There are also other subjects to every one of which there may be referred one or more of these titles It will be said upon this The Scripture it self doth not observe these distinctions useth these names indifferently upon every occasion Now I confesse that in so great a multitude of passages of the New Testament in which these names are repeated it is impossible to say why one is rather expressed then the other Yet there are some reasons And then when all these names or the greater part of them are found joyned together it is to expresse the plenitude and perfection of him to whom all these titles appertain In the History of the Gospel he is almost everywhere called Jesus without other epithet or attribute because this was the onely name which men gave him while he conversed in the world The man whom they call Jesus said the man that was born blinde Joh. 9.11 Sometimes the Apostles themselves call him Jesus of Nazareth but this is when they speak to the Jews who called him so This language would not be so convenient at this day I passe by a question which might be moved Why the Apostle Philip. 2. saith that every knee shall bow at the name of Jesus And why he doth not say at the name of Jesus Christ nor at the name of the Lord Jesus A reason might be given But for the rest We adore not the syllables but him that is represented by that name And the Name of Christ or the Name of the Son of God are no lesse venerable then then the Name of Jesus But I am to make an observation against the ordinary practice of Christians and of the greater part of Preachers themselves When they pronounce the name of Christ alone this is either by way of abbreviation or else by way of custom without thinking whether it be to purpose to say onely Christ or to say Jesus Christ or Our Lord Jesus Christ It is therefore to be noted that when the Scriptures speak of his sufferings and his death ordinarily they give him none other then the onely name of Christ Christ is dead Christ hath suffered It was necessary that Christ should suffer The sufferings of Christ c. This may be forasmuch as the name of Christ includeth that of Priest which is the quality in which Christ offered himself to death The Apostle Rom. 6.8 11. saith that we are dead with Christ but living in Jesus Christ our Lord. I know that there may be opposed some exceptions yet in every one of them there is a particular cause why one of those Names is rather used then another I will produce one example There is no man that thinketh he speaketh amisse when he saith The Supper of Christ or The Supper of Jesus Christ And of a truth this is not an heresie but neverthelesse it is an impropriety For if we will speak according to the Scripture we should say The Supper of the Lord not The Supper of Jesus Christ This is a particularity remarkable that in the whole description of the Supper exhibited by the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. and in all the discourse which he maketh of this subject and the authour of it he never giveth other name then that of The Lord. The Supper of the Lord I have received of the Lord that which also I have delivered unto you The Lord in the right in the which he was betraid took bread You shew the Lords death The cup of the Lord The body and blood of the Lord Not discerning the body of the Lord. I forbear to speak why in all this deduction the name of Christ is not once mentioned and that of the Lord is continually expressed But this example teacheth us that we ought to use discretion even then when we pronounce the titles of him to whom God hath given a name above every name Wherefore Jesus who received the Sacraments as well of the one as the other Testament had not that external Anointing which was given to Prophets Priests and Kings He received the Sacraments common to the whole Church to shew among many other reasons the communion which we have with him And for other causes he would not have that material Unction which was particular to certain persons Not the Royal anointing which was a mark of a temporal dominion whereas the Kingdom of Christ is of another nature Not the Priestly that was for Aaron for the Priesthood of Christ is not of that order but according to the Order of Melchizedek Not the Prophetical for when one Prophet anointed any other to be a Prophet by this action he declared him his successour So Elâ—sha was anointed to succeed Elijah But our Soveraign Prophet who preceded all the Prophets succeeded none of them and therefore ought not to receive their Unction Whence cometh it that divers discourses uttered by Jesus Christ seem to be without method And an admirable secret which ought to be observed The History of the Gospel reciteth unto us divers Sermons other excellent discourses which Jesus Christ made when he conversed among men Now we may observe that in the same discourse Jesus Christ passeth oftentimes from one matter to another which is very far distant and seemeth to be quite beside the subject It seemeth to us to see pieces brought from several places ill joyned and without any dependance or tie one with another Expositours labour hard to finde the contexture thereof but their ordinary Logick which they bring with all their Analyses can never attain it I passe by that Jesus Christ preaching had the perfection of Divinity We have but the shreds of this Science a little scantling of this great piece and some few drops of that Ocean but in Christ are inclosed all the treasures of wisdom Now he had the entire body and we have but a few parcels so his style hath other rules and other measures then ours But behold the secret which we ought here to consider Jesus Christ saw the thoughts and the hearts of those to whom he spake If an Oratour had this advantage to see the thoughts of them that hear him he would apply himself to them rather then to the ordinary rules of his Rhetorick which knoweth not this method This desultory style which we see in the discourses of Jesus Christ hath been often occasioned by the thoughts of his hearers According as these were formed in them he addressed himself to them and according as others thoughts
in speaking of some it expresseth the Day of their death as we see in the history of the ten sons of Haman Esth 9. but of whomsoever it speaketh be they Patriarchs or Kings or private men or good or bad it never expresseth the Day of their Nativity though such a date may seem to import greatly the sacred Chronologie Now wherefore the Scripture never nameth the Day of the Birth of the children of Adam no nor one of them there is without doubt some reason though to us it be obscure But whatsoever that reason be the Birth Day of Jesus Christ is clouded in the same silence Wherefore Surely to the end that among other things which are common to him with the other children of Adam he might also be comprised among them in this point not to have his Birth-Day expressed in the holy History But what doth it concern us that this day is not expressed more then that of other men As much as it doth concern us that Jesus Christ hath been reckoned among sinners even from his Birth Neither doth it serve for an Objection that he hath been put into their rank more evidently when he was circumcised and when he underwent that purification which the Law imposed upon the first-born for this truth excludeth not others that second it though they be not founded upon expresse words of Scripture It is enough that they are implied This is out of doubt that the Scripture never said on what day a man was born It is also out of doubt that Jesus Christ is comprised in this universal rule The question is Wherfore If I have not found the true reason I have at the least pointed out a principle upon which it may be searched Adde to this that in stead of the Birth Day of Jesus Christ the Scriptures expresse that of his death That is among divers other reasons because he died on the same day on which Adam was created to wit the sixth day of the week The creation of the first Adam and the death of the second met in the same day The impurity of our birth which we have from the first had not been purged but by the death of the second Of the service which the Angels have done to the Son of God from his manifestation in the flesh until his Ascension Ten times they have served him in this space of time 1. They carried the message of his miraculous conception to the Virgin 2. They advertised Joseph whom the ignorance of this mystery had held perplexed 3. They published his birth unto the shepherds 4. They gave order to carry him into Egypt to avoid the fury of Herod 5. They had care to cause him to be brought back into Judea after the death of the tyrant 6. They accompanied him and ministred unto him after his temptation in the wildernesse 7. They comforted him in his agony in the garden 8. They rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre wherein he had been enclosed 9. They declared his resurrection 10. They instructed his disciples who looked up after him ascending into heaven that one day he would return Never did the Angels serve any person so often nor in so great a number of occurrences nor in so high charges nor through such diversity of means as they served the Son of God This also ought to be reckoned among the marks of the preeminence of our Lord. Of the Miracles which our Lord wrought so long as he conversed in the world Of the advantage of the New Testament above the Old in regard of the number of persons which have had the gift of Miracles IN all the extent of the Old Testament there are not above seven men to whom God gave the power of working Miracles Moses and his brother Aaron famous for the wonders wrought by them in Egypt in the Red-sea and in the wildernesse Joshua who stayed the Sun and Moon in their course Samuel who changed the whole face of the air in an instant affrighting Israel by thunders and miraculous rain 1 Sam. 12. A Prophet mentioned 1 King 13. who rent by his word alone the Altar set up against the Ordinance of God and scattered the ashes The same Prophet also healed the hand of Jeroboam which was dried up Elijah who shut and opened heaven caused fire to come down raised from death the son of the widow c. And lastly Elesha famous for divers great Miracles There have been none but these seven men upon whom this power hath been conferred The other Miracles which are recited in the Old Testament or which have gone before the coming of the Son of God have been wrought without the intervention of men There may be to speak this by the way some allusion or reference of the seven Angels of the Revelation working upon the Sun and upon all the elements to these seven men which have heretofore exercised this miraculous power But this matter concerneth not the present subject That which I have here to say is this That the New Testament hath been furnished with a greater number of persons endued with the power of Miraeles then the Old was yea with a very far greater number At one onely time the Lord ordained seventy men with power to heal the sick to cleanse the lepers to raise the dead to cast out devils to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the force of the enemy And this without reckoning the twelve principal disciples who were also provided of the same gift and those which afterward had it as Saint Paul and others I account this point among the advantages of the New Testament that in it the miraculous power of God hath raised so great a number of instruments in comparison of them which it employed for the Old Testament Wherefore till the coming of the Son of God there have passed many ages without that any person hath had the gift of Miracles The last of all those which wrought Miracles before the coming of our Lord was Elisha Now from Elisha till that time when the Son of God began to manifest his glory by Miracles there passed welnigh eight hundred yeers In so long an interval of yeers there was not found a person that had the gift of Miracles although many had that of Prophecie Certainly the wisdom of God would that this great length of time should serve to make them desire that which had not been seen after so many ages to wit Miracles wrought by the hand of man as afterward those that were spectatours glorified God that had done this honour unto men in giving them this power Matth. 9.8 That it should dispose their spirits to the expectation of the Messiah who was to come with miraculous works That it should serve to make them the better to weigh the importance of his Miracles after so long a surcease of the gift of Miracles And lastly that which is the principal that it should serve to distinguish him from other