Salutation to the blessed Virgin is after this manner recited in the Alcoran in the next Chapter to that before named O Mary God sends thee a good Messenger by his WORD which is out of himself His Name is Messias or Jesus Christ the Son of Mary powerful in this present World and in the World to come Where the forenamed Paraphrast says he was powerful in the present World by Prophecy and in the World to come by Intercession and Celestial preparation He should have added also what he said before that he was powerful here by that which is properly called power the healing Diseases opening blind Mens eyes and such like works of wonders the Divine Majesty resting on him and abiding in him in so glorious a manner that he might properly be called the Temple of God For whatsoever demonstrations there were of Gods presence in the Tabernacle of Moses or in the Temple of Solomon which were alike filled with the glory of the Lord xl Exod. 34 35. 2 Chron. v. 13 14. the very same tokens there were of his presence in our Saviour Nay it is easie to show that he manifested himself in all his glorious Attributes more in our Saviours Person than ever he did in either of those places And it will be such an evident demonstration of the truth I am asserting and give such light to this testimony of the Holy-Ghost who appeared in that excellent Majesty which descended on him that I think it will be worth my pains to make good the Parallel in some instances I. And first you may observe that from the holy place in the Tabernacle God declared his mind and will and made known to his People what he would have done There God told Moses he would meet and commune with him of all things which he would give him in commandment to the Children of Israel xxv Exod. 22. And we are told the manner of it vii Num. 89. When he was gone into the Tabernacle he heard the voice of one speaking to him from off the Mercy seat that was upon the Ark from between the two Cherubims From thence God gave out to Moses his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle calls them iii. Rom. 2. Oracles or such words of direction and command as were necessary for the good Government and preservation of his People whose Laws Statutes and Judgments came from the holy Oracle in the Sanctuary of God This was a marvellous favour of Heaven to them though nothing comparable to the manifestation of the wisdome and counsel and will of God by our blessed Saviour Who not only revealed his Mind more clearly and abundantly thereby showing he is the Temple of God but told us such things as never came from the former holy place things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither did they enter into the heart of man to conceive He was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or WORD of GOD in this sence as well as any other because he acquaints us with Gods mind and declares to all Mankind his sacred will and as from an holy Oracle utters things secret from the foundation of the World For the Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. The word full relates to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the WORD in the beginning of the Verse the other part of the Verse being inserted between in a Parenthesis and carries this sence in it that Jesus being fully acquainted with all the gracious counsels of God concerning Men hath declared them to us and made us also acquainted with them He was so full of truth that he calls himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the truth it self xiv Joh. 6. No man hath seen God at any time the onely begotten Son he hath declared him i. 18. That is he hath made God visible to us he as an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expounder or interpreter of anothers mind hath opened to us all his secrets concerning our Salvation and thereby declared that he is no less than the Wisdom of God When he appeared in the World then Wisdome built her self an house as Solomon speaks ix Prov. 1. Which words * Orat. 3. contra Arrian Athanasius not unfitly accommodates to our Lord Christ Whose body is the house of Wisdome And a most holy house the dwelling place of God from whence he hath revealed himself not to so few as one Nation but to all the World whom if they would open their eyes he hath illuminated with his Wisdome R. Bechai I remember will have the Ark from whence Moses heard God speaking to him to be called in their Language by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as to say because of the light which was there Which he will have to be the Law preserved in the Ark which was the Light of Israel And just thus writes S. John concerning this WORD of God 1.4 In him was life and the life was the light of men That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World v. 9. For so Jesus proclaimed himself saying viii 12. I am the LIGHT of the World And such a Light he was that all the wisdome which was discovered before from the Sanctuary of God was but Clouds and darkness in compare with that which was made manifest by our Saviour The best knowledge they had was covered and wrapt up in types and figures till God appeared in Jesus and rent those clouds in pieces by the brightness of his beams They had but such a confused apprehension of things in former times that S. Paul compares this discovery of God in Christ to the breaking forth of light out of the rude Chaos in the beginning of the world 2 Corinth iv 6. For God who commanded light to shine out of darkness i. Gen. 2 3. hath shined in our hearts the hearts of the Apostles to give the light of the knowledge of the GLORY OF GOD in the face of Jesus Christ Some flashes of which light and majesty of God in him came from his face not long after he entred into the World When he was but a Childe they wondred at his wisdome and were astonished at his understanding and answers ii Luk. 47. But when he was grown up and the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven upon him like the Glory of the Lord which filled the Tabernacle and Temple then his Wisdome appeared the more illustriously And was the more amazing because they knew he was not trained up in the Schools of Learning nor had any better breeding than a Carpenter's shop could give him For so his Countrymen say in S. Mark vi 2 3. Is not this the Carpenter the Son of Mary How comes he by these things and what wisdome is this which is given unto him They were astonished at his Doctrine and as S. Luke tells us iv 22. Wondred at the gracious words which proceeded out of his
whereby the nature of things is inverted so that it appears it could not have been done by any power but only by his who is the author of Nature and made all the things we see out of nothing at all And secondly this miracle must not be wrought in secret but to gain belief it must be done before the eyes of a multitude who may see it and be satisfied of the truth of it And lastly diligent inquiry must be made and it must be examined strictly that no doubt may be left in mens minds but they may be fully satisfied it is no fancy nor done by any trick or subtile imposture Now if we consult this History of Lazarus we shall find there is none of these wanting to settle the most doubtful mind in the belief of our Saviours Almighty power and authority For to raise the Dead is a work that exceeds all natural powers There is none that can restore life as has been said already but he who at the first gave it So much the Jewes themselves acknowledge who have a common saying that the Key of the Grave is one of the four keys which is kept in the hands of the Lord of the World alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither to Angel nor to Seraph as the Jerusalem Targum speaks upon xxx Gen. 22. that is neither to lowest nor the highest of the Celestial Ministers is this power given but it is reserved to him onely that made them and all things else Now that our Saviour indeed raised a dead man there were many witnesses as you heard before from xi Joh. 45. where it is said that many of the Jews which came with Mary and had seen these things which Jesus did believed on him And the fame of it was so great that it drew a greater concourse of People thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report For he tells us xii 9. that much People i. e. a multitude of the Jews came to that place not for Jesus his sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Nay the Pharisees as I told you had the news of it brought to them by some that were present and had seen the things which Jesus did xi 46. who were curious enough no doubt to inquire into the business and had satisfied themselves that indeed he was dead laid in his Grave and continued in that state till according to the course of Nature he must begin to turn to corruption and stink Which was all that needed any proof for that he was now alive their eyes were witnesses And therefore they could not deny this miracle vers 47. But to extinguish the light and take away the convincing power of it they thought it was best to remove Lazarus out of the way and to put him to death as well as our Saviour For the sight of him converted a great many as you read xii 10 11. The chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus It was a thing confessed then that this wonderful work had been done There was the testimony of the man himself and of his Sisters and of our Saviour's Disciples and of MANY of the Jews who were come to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their Brother xi 19. In so much that not long after our Saviour coming to the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem Much people went forth to meet him and brought him in with a triumph due only to so great a Person saying Hosanna blessed is the KING of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord xii 12. And if you would know what excited them to meet him it was the fame of this miracle which the eye-witnesses of it had brought to them as you read there ver 17 18. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead BARE RECORD For this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle Here it is visible were two Troops or Companies both called much people one of which went from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead ver 9. The other met Jesus the next day as he was coming from Bethany to Jerusalem ver 12 13. For they had been informed by those who were present at the time when it was done that for certain Lazarus was raised from his grave by the word of Jesus and now they were confirmed in this belief by the company that went to Bethany the day before to enquire of it who testified to these that came to meet him that they found it to be an undoubted truth that he had been really dead and now was alive again by no other means but those words of his Lazarus come forth which might well make them all acknowledge him to be their KING who was come unto them in the name of the Lord as appeared by this miraculous work which none but the hand of Heaven could effect What heart would not be moved to bow to him who had such power over quick and dead who could think him to be less than the Lord of all who they saw was the Lord of life None but proud ambitious Pharisees who were afraid they should lose as much authority as he got These were more startled than ever to see such crouds of people flock after him to do him honour and to hear them applaud him as the great Son of David and follow him with their Hosanna's in the highest This made them despair of blasting his fame and discrediting him with the people as long as he lived and therefore they grew the more resolved to hasten the execution of their decree against him that he should be put to death For they said among themselves as you read in the following words ver 19. Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing behold the world that is vast multitudes is gone after him followed him that is as their KING notwithstanding all that had been done to disparage him They are forced here to speak more truth than they were aware of that it was in vain to oppose him For even when they had killed him they perceived presently that they prevailed nothing but found this literally true that indeed the world went after him Men of all Nations and not the Jews only followed him zealously and became his Disciples notwithstanding the scandal of the Cross which they had cast in their way to discourage them Of which there immediately follows in this story an illustrious presage For some Gentiles desiring to see our Saviour ver 20. there came a voice from Heaven upon his prayer that God would glorifie his own Name saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again ver 28. The glory of God that is had appeared lately as I have explained it before in
and his wonders his mighty power and stretched-out arm all the grea◠acts of the Lord as they are called xi Deut. 7. which Chapter be pleased to reade unto that verse which were eminent tokens that GOD had taken the◠to be a peculiar or speciall people to himself as he frequently speaks and was able to fulfill his word to their Forefathers of giving them the Land wherein they were then strangers for their inheritance Just such as this is our case whom He hath called by his Son to an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away reserved i◠heaven for us To obtain an eternall Redemption for us and deliver us out of the hands of all our enemies his own most precious BLOUD was shed as of a Lamb without spot or blemish Whereby also as you have heard he testified to the World that he was no Deceiver but came to them from God with the words of Eternall Life Many things concurred to make this BLOUD a witness of his Truth and of his power to fulfill his own promises And yet notwithstanding this was the very thing that offended many and kept them from following him They could not endure so much as to hear him speak of giving them his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink though he told them thereby he would give life to the World And therefore to strengthen this Testimony of his BLOUD and to convince them evidently that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World and gives life to it there was another Witness which attended it both before his BLOUD was shed and likewise afterward which was the SPIRIT That is as I shewed in the former Treatise on this subject the power he had to work wonders and the miraculous power which raised him from the dead and presented him to God in the heavens This was abundantly sufficient to prevent any offence they might take at Christ crucified and to settle in their hearts an unmovable belief that he was their mighty Redeemer who would bring them to the eternall Rest which he had promised For this is the last and greatest argument which St. John here produces ver 6. He came no◠onely by WATER but by BLOVD also and it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness for the SPIRIT is the Truth Or as Arias Montanus translates it the SPIRIT is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Witness that undoubted testimony on which we may certainly rely For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that SPIRIT which I speak of is truth an◠infallible Witness which cannot deceive you that Jesus is the Son of God And so it is likewise that Eternall Life is in him and that we shall enjoy it by his means for this RECORD of God is given to make us as sure of the one as we are of the other Let us briefly therefore consider first what his Miracles say to this and then secondly what force there is in his Resurrection and Exaltation to prove it I. And at our entrance upon the first of these let us before we go any farther weigh those words of this Apostle St. John in his Gospell xx 30 31. where he tells us that he wrote the signs which Jesus did suppose after his Resurrection in the presence of his disciples for this very purpose that they might believe that he was the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have LIFE through his Name They were wrought by Him and recorded by his Disciples for these two ends that the World might be convinced He was the great Lord of all and that they might by faithfull subjecttion to him look for Eternall Life from his omnipotent love It was the design of all his wonderfull works throughout his whole life to which the Apostle may have respect as well as to those after his Resurrection to perswade men to believe that he would make his followers so happy For by these he manifested forth his glory as I observed before of the beginning of his Miracles in Cana of Galilee ii Joh. 11. and declared to the world he could work as great a change upon our mortall bodies as he did then upon the Water making them as much nobler then they are now as the Water excelled it self when it was become Wine They were mighty instances of his Power and of his Goodness too they made him appear to be the King of Israel who was to deliver and bring Salvation to them though much greater then they expected That our Lord did work Miracles is a truth which they that crucified him can no more deny then that he died The wisest of them could never find any colour to affirm that the Gospel-story was but a fabulous Legend which related Wonders that were never done For if they had been able to say this Maimonides the very best of them would not have been put to such distress as to let fall these words which we reade in his Treatise of Kings Cap. xi Do not imagine that the King Messiah shall have any need to work wonders or alter the course of Nature or restore the dead to life again with such like things that fools talk of Had he not known as well that these things could not be denied which are related of Jesus as he did that their force to prove any thing being granted they would be an unanswerable testimony to him he would never have thus slighted as he doth in many other Books things of this nature which brought the greatest reputation to Moses among their ancestours and were the cause why they believed on him though he attempted no such wonder as the raising dead men to life again Our Saviour he was not ignorant very often appealed to his works as the testimony of God to him and thought it sufficient to tell John's disciples when they came to inquire who he was that he opened blind mens eyes cleansed lepers and raised up the dead by which they might answer their own question And therefore something was to be said by this Jew to disparage these upon which he saw the credit of our Saviour in great part relied Now had it not been the readiest way to deny that there were such Miracles wrought Nothing but the notoriousness of the facts made him wave that course which drove him upon this wretched shift of denying utterly that Miracles are credible witnesses to him that works them By this means he thought to rob our Saviour of the glory they brought him and was so blind as not to see that at the same time he took away from his own Master the greatest support he had of his Authority And therefore herein he is deserted by his own Country-men particularly by Abarbinel who as I observed before makes the power of working Miracles one of the principall gifts of the Messiah In which our Lord it is apparent to his very enemies was so eminent that one cannot imagine why he did not believe on him unless with the
it is a plain demonstration that he is dear to God and hath his very Spirit in him Now next to this there is nothing more necessary and desirable to be known than how we may obtain this great and matchless victory over every thing in the world that opposes our Christian resolution and so undoubtedly approve our selves heroical persons as they were anciently called that are born from above And here also the Apostle lends us his assistance telling us in the latter end of that fourth Verse that we must atchieve it by Faith And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith So couragious so powerful so successful is an hearty lively Faith that you see he calls it by the name of victory it self If we believe stedfastly we shall tread the world under our feet and easily despise all its temptations as those valiant Worthies did whose example another Apostle sets before us in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews A portion of Scripture which he that means to be a conqueror should think he can never read too oft But there is a farther enquiry remaining which every body will be apt to make and that is what this Faith may be which is so victorious and triumphant And therefore the Apostle takes care to satisfie us in this matter also when he tells us Verse 5. it is nothing else but to believe that Jesus is the Son of God To be heartily perswaded he means that that great person who was born of the Virgin Mary and was known by the name of Jesus and overcame the world so gloriously was indeed sent from God unto us and owned by him as the express image of his person so that we may as infallibly depend upon the truth of what he hath said either of himself or concerning us as we can upon any thing of Sense or Reason by which we think our selves bound to guide and determine our resolutions and actions in this life But still after all this there is one thing more that we cannot but desire to be very sure of without which all the rest will stand us in no stead but we shall flag and despair of success viz. That Jesus is indeed the Son of God This if it be not well proved by substantial arguments we can have no solid faith and so no victory and so no son-ship no hope in another world The Apostle therefore that he may serve us in bringing some evident demonstration of this so important a truth tells us in the next words Verse 6. that Jesus did not only say he was God's Son and confidently affirm himself to be the Divine person so long look'd for to come into the world but that he came with very sufficient and unreproveable witnesses of it viz. the WATER the BLOUD and the SPIRIT which made this truth good to all those who considered their testimony If the first of these WATER should not be thought great enough to merit belief yet the BLOUD joyned with it adds great force to its perswasion Or if both these seem too weak yet this last the SPIRIT the Apostle doubts not is so strong to conquer mens minds and make them believe in Jesus that he says The Spirit is truth That is such an undoubted proof that Jesus was what he pretended to be the Son of God that no man can be deceived who relies upon it and no man can refuse if he give heed to it to rely and depend upon such a witness Now this was a thing notorious in those days and needed no proof at all the whole Country of Judaea could witness it that he came by or rather with Water Bloud and the Spirit And therefore the Apostle doth not go about to make this good that there were such Witnesses it being a matter confessed but rather repeats it over again as the strongest proof of his Divine Authority adding moreover there-withal that there were three other Witnesses who by their concurrent testimony would unanimously justifie this Truth For saith he in the words I have chosen to explain There are three that bear record or witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one As if he had said You cannot reasonably doubt of that which we preach concerning Jesus if you go but to those three witnesses to which I have sent you the Water the Bloud and the Spirit for they all affirm with one mouth that he was the Son of God And as they testifie this to you upon the Earth so there are three other Witnesses also who declare it to you from Heaven to whom I first direct you and then to those three that here on Earth as I have told you bear their record to him There are not a few Copies of the New Testament it must be confessed which leave out the Testimony of these three Witnesses that speak from Heaven not reading the seventh Verse as is noted not only by Socinus and his followers but by Erasmus Grotius Curcellaeus and our Learned Selden whose collections to this purpose far exceed all former observations But yet this last named Great Author hath said so much * L. 2. de Syned cap. 4. num 4. to justifie the Antiquity of our present Reading and to keep the seventh Verse in the place wherein it now stands that I make no question these are the words of S. John concerning the three Heavenly Witnesses the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and accordingly I shall in the first place appeal to their testimony for the confirming of this Truth and for the supporting thereby of our Faith that Jesus is the Son of God And if any body shall say What need is there of this in a Christian Country There are no Infidels sure among us nor are we in danger to turn Pagans Turks or Jews who blaspheme the Lord Jesus I shall not labour to stop their mouths by casting reproaches on others nor complain of the apostasie which some think they have reason to lay to the charge of too many in this present untoward generation But desire them to take their Answer from S. John himself in the thirteenth Verse of this very Chapter Where they will find that he thought it not unnecessary to write these things to them that believe on the name of the Son of God that they might know how happy a thing it was to be a Christian and that they might believe i. e. continue to believe on the name of the Son of God And I may modestly suppose that what he thought good to assert here with so much care and exactness it will not be thought an unprofitable diligence if I study to expound and enlarge for the benefit of believers It will be some satisfaction to me however to have had it in my heart to do some honour to my Saviour
and to have endeavoured to make any part of his holy Book more clearly understood especially if what I write shall encrease the Faith of any Christian Soul and fill it with an assured hope in Jesus by abiding constant in this belief that he is the Son of God That being the thing which is to be proved by these witnesses it will be necessary to search a little into the meaning of the Phrase before we take their examination about it And it must be confessed that though Jesus be the Eternal Son of the Father God of God begotten of him before all Worlds yet this is not always meant when he is called his Son which is a name in the holy stile not so much expressing his Nature as his high Authority and Sovereign power which he hath received as the Mediator between him and us from God the Father Almighty So I think we are here to understand the Apostle who under the Name Jesus comprehends all that belongs to his person both his Divine and Humane nature and affirms that this person hath Sovereign Authority committed to him by God the Father of all who hath given him Commission and deputed him in his stead to declare his mind and acquaint us with his will and having by himself purged our sins promoted him to sit down on the right hand of the Majesty on high as that great King and Lord of all by whom we are to be governed now and to be judged at the last day Sure I am in many places of the holy Scripture which say he is the Son of God the meaning is expounded in other places to be this that he is the Christ or the anointed of God That is Jesus who was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary crucified under Pontius Pilate rose again from the dead and afterward appointed S. John and the rest of the Apostles to preach those things to all Nations which we read in the holy Gospel was indeed sent of God according to the ancient Prophecies with his own power and authority and is now by the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour to be our King and Sovereign Lord whom we are all to obey and from whom alone we are to expect all our rewards And there is great reason to think that these are phrases of the very same import here in S. John if we compare but the first Verse of this Chapter with the fifth In the former we read that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God In the latter he tells us that he who overcometh the world believeth that Jesus is the Son of God It is the very same Faith no doubt whereby we are born of God and whereby we overcome the world and therefore it is the very same thing to believe that Jesus is the Christ and to believe that Jesus is the Son of God Express it how you please either of these ways this alone is the Faith which can regenerate a man and put a Divine Spirit into him that is make him a conqueror over the world as Jesus was Let the second Chapter of this Epistle ver 22. be consulted also and there you will find that Christ and the Son are terms equivalent and have the same signification To which if you add some places in the Evangelists they will make you see this more evidently When S. Peter made this confession xvi Matth. 16. that Jesus was Christ the Son of the living God there is no more meant one would think by those words the Son of God than what the other word Christ includes because when our Saviour would have them know that it was not fit for them as yet to divulge this truth which S. Peter confessed he only charges his Disciples ver 20. that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ And if this be not ground enough to conclude the identity as we speak of these words the other Evangelists will put it out of doubt For S. Mark makes the confession of S. Peter to have been no more than this Thou art the Christ viii 29. And S. Luke relates it not much otherwise when he says that he acknowledged our Saviour to be the Christ of God ix 20. To be the Christ or to be the Son the Christ of God or the Son of God according to the understanding of these Divine writers is the very same and in these places nothing different And indeed it is very probable that S. Hieroms opinion is true who believed that the Apostles were not yet such proficients as to understand the eternal generation of our Lord Jesus from the essence of the Father For we find them very ignorant of divers things that were easier to be learnt than this which if they had known they would not have expected to see him settle his Throne upon Earth nor doubted of his Resurrection from the dead and many other things as they did But the comparing of two other places will make this still more manifest In the xxvi Matth. 63. we read that the High Priest adjured our Saviour to tell him if he were the Christ the Son of God They all expected one to appear under this character This was the common title of that great person who they believed would shortly come But they meant no more by it than one appointed by God to be their King as is apparent from S. Luke who relates that question barely thus xxii 67. Art thou the Christ tell us And after our Saviour had made that answer which we read both in him and S. Matthew he tells us ver 70. they all replied again Art thou then the Son of God which was no more than to say must we take this for confessed then that thou affirmest thy self to be sent anointed and set over us by God Wilt thou stand to that which thou just now ownedst when we asked thee that question For without all doubt the Chief Priests and the Scribes intended nothing by that phrase the Son of God but what was comprehended in the other the Christ And therefore when Pilate upon their accusation examined him upon the same matter he asks nothing else but this as this Apostle S. John relates xviii 33. Art thou the King of the Jews which is the plain interpretation of the word Christ For that is not the proper name of any person as Lactantius * Nuncupatio potestatis regni Sic enim Judaei Reges suos appellabant L. 4. Cap. 7. rightly observes but a name of power and dominion signifying him to be their Sovereign For in this stile says he the Jews were wont to speak of their Kings whom they called Christs or Gods anointed Once more when they were enraged at our Saviour for calling himself the Son of God as S. John tells us Chap. x. He justifies himself by a reason which signifies no more but that he called himself the Christ the anointed of God as you
adv Marcionem C. 22. was going in the same manner to give testimony to them concerning his Son Jesus and to confirm them in the belief of whatsoever he should teach them For thirdly this was not Mut◠Nubes as the same Tertullian there speaks a dumb cloud a silent glory but a voice came out of it which was Novum Patris testimonium super filio the Fathers New testimony concerning his Son In which testimony He was pleased to apply those very words to Jesus which had been spoken by Moses concerning a Prophet whom he had bid them look for after him For in the xviii of Deuteronomy he tells them from God himself ver 17. that there should be raised up to them a Prophet like unto him into whose mouth ver 18. the Lord would put his own words and who should speak all that he should command him UNTO HIM SHALL YE HEARKEN ver 15. as much as to say Be sure you attend to his words and give obedience to them Now these very words and syllables HEAR HIM are by that God who made that promise to Moses spoken in this place to the Disciples with a manifest application to Jesus clearly denoting him to be the person whom Moses foretold the Lord their God would send to declare his mind unto them as he himself already had done And that this was really the voice of God as much as that voice which spake to Moses we have the greater reason to conclude from this following which is the fourth observation That Moses now stood by and heard it and from thence learnt a great deal more than he knew when he wrote his Book that this person of whom he spoke was more than a Prophet being the Son of Gods dearest love For these words which declared him so were spoken there where he was present who durst not contradict them as sure he would have done had he not known them to be the very voice of God and no delusion I need not enlarge this because the Evangelists tell us so plainly that not only He appeared in glory talking with our Saviour upon this Mountain but Elias also accompanied him which is next to be considered Who being a great Prophet might pretend as fairly as any other man to be the person designed by Moses in the words forenamed and yet consented by his silence to the same undoubted Truth that the prophecy of Moses was not till now fufilled but had its utmost completion in Jesus And indeed this voice from Heaven making such an open Proclamation concerning Jesus before him that gave the Law and before the chiefest of the Prophets who had asserted it and being heard by them with the profoundest silence without any contradiction it did as good as tell the Apostles that they might be assured this was He of whom the Law and the Prophets had spoken whom they were now to give ear unto and that the Law and the Prophets must from henceforth give way to an higher Revelation from God by this Jesus If this had not been true we cannot but think that this great Zealot Elias who had been always so jealous for the Lord of hosts 1 Kings xix 14. and this trusty servant of God Moses who was so faithful in all his house xii Num. 7. would have presently entred their protestation against it and required the Apostles in the Name of God to give heed only to their voice but not to this Which now might the rather be believed to come from Heaven because these inspired persons reverence it and dare not venture in the least to speak against it when they were highly concerned so to do if it had not been the voice of God And if any one shall ask how these Disciples could tell that these two were Moses and Elias whom they never saw I think Theophylact hath well resolved it that they knew them not by their faces but by their discourse Certain it is that persons living in far distant Countries known to others merely by their works and manner of writing have after a little converse at an unexpected meeting been challenged by the Names that their Books carried without the help of any noted character in their face to distinguish them Nothing is more common than the story of Erasmus whom his Friend here in England greeted by his name after a few repartees pass'd between them though he had never seen him and little thought then to embrace him Now we are expresly told by all the three Evangelists that Moses and Elias talked with Jesus and by S. Luke that their discourse was concerning his decease or departure out of this world which he should accomplish at Jerusalem and consequently it is very probable of the glory that was to follow it by his Resurrection Which conference the Apostles hearing they might easily know though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their pictures which many of that Nation held it unlawful to be made yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their words and discourse wherein either Jesus or they before it was done had occasion to mention their Names or their offices or to describe their persons that they were none else but those two men who then appeared to them And it is possible as Theophylact adds that Moses might say I acknowledge thee to be the person whose death I prefigured by the Lamb which was slain at the Passeover And Elias might joyn with him and say Thou art He whose Resurrection I did likewise fore-show by calling again the Widow's son to life Some such kind of discourse we may reasonably conceive passed between them whereby they discovered themselves to be the one the Law-giver the other the noblest of all the Prophets who now came to wait upon Jesus and acknowledge that he was greater than they as the voice from Heaven presently testified which declared him the beloved Son of God to whom now all must attend as they had formerly done to them And therefore it is very remarkable which is the last thing I shall observe that no sooner was this voice heard but Moses and Elias vanished and were seen no more As much as to say That Jesus alone was now to be heard the Law and the Prophets were gone and had nothing to do but only to serve him So S. Mark relates ix 8. that suddenly when they had looked round about after the hearing of this voice they saw no man any more save Jesus only with themselves They turned their eyes every way to look for Moses and Elias but there was no further news of them Nay S. Luke tells us ix 36. that in the very uttering of the voice from that Heavenly glory they disappeared So those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly signifie While the voice was speaking Jesus was found alone The clould out of which it came covered them and took them into it At the same time it opened it self to manifest him and to obscure them that it might be evident
evidences which He produced while he was on Earth to justifie his high Authority which is comprehended under the Name of the Son of God but enquire after those only which He hath given of it since He went to Heaven and ascended to the Throne of his glory From whence this Word of God hath been pleased to speak or in some very remarkable manner to assert this Truth upon no less than three several occasions I. First of all He showed himself to his first Martyr S. Steven in a sensible Majesty standing at the right hand of God in the splendor of the Divine glory Read but the vii Acts 55 56. and there you will find He made himself so plainly appear to be the Son of God and that with power as S. Paul you have heard speaks in 1. Rom. 4. that is the King of Heaven and Earth next to the most supreme Majesty of God the Father Almighty that nothing can be said against it unless any man will be so audacious as to fancy that this holy and glorious Martyr was strongly deluded But there is a clear demonstration against that from the whole story of his Life and Death For He was a man of great note and eminency in the Church who held the very first place among the seven Deacons vi Acts 5. that were chosen to attend the daily ministration to the poor The feeding of whose bodies He did not think the only thing belonging to his charge but such was his zeal he likewise broke and dispensed the Bread of life to all his neighbours He justified the Christian Faith of which he was full vi Acts 5 8 10. against all opposers with singular wisdom great fervour and mighty demonstrations by the power of the holy Ghost He confounded all those whom he disputed withall though he could not overcome them He stopt their mouths by the wisdom and spirit wherewith he spake which made them wish they could stop his though there was no other way they saw to silence him but by taking away his life They suborned therefore false witnesses against him whom they knew not how to confute They brought him before their Great Council to be tried Where all his Judges fixing their eyes upon him saw he was so far from being at all daunted that there was a sparkling Majesty in his countenance like that of an Angel when he appeared to their forefathers vi Acts 15. They could never devise or fancy any thing greater to say of them or of their most eminent Doctors than now they beheld in this illustrious person The face of the Patriarch Isaac they tell us was so changed when the holy Spirit rested on him that a Divine light or splendor came from his face And they would have us believe that Phineas his countenance did burn and flame like a Torch by the inhabitation of the holy Ghost in him Nay Maimonides himself to omit the other Authors in which I find these reports will have the Prophets to be Angels So he interprets more than once the first and the fourth verses of the second Chapter of the Book of Judges Where by the Angel of the Lord he understands a Prophet whom God sent to them to bring them to repentance And expresly says * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. that their wise men have told them This was Phineas for at that time when the Majesty of God dwelt upon him He was like to an Angel of the Lord. And it is the opinion of some of them whose Names are not worth mentioning that in the Prophetical visions the form of a man vanished and the appearance of an Angel came in the room thereof till such time as the Vision ceased The light which shone within was so great that it broke through their bodies and externally appeared if we could believe these Doctors who would fain adorn their wise men with that glory which they really beheld in this man of God S. Steven Who was so full of the holy Ghost and had such glorious illuminations in his mind that there was indeed an amazing lustre in his face and he lookt more like an Angel than a man This emboldened him to speak to that grave Senate with all the assurance in the world and to reprove them for resisting the holy Ghost Which so cut them to the heart that it enraged them to the highest degree of fury and they lookt upon him as if they would eat him up But he still full of the holy Ghost and nothing fearing what he saw he must suffer from an exasperated multitude cast up his eyes above and fastned them stedfastly upon the Heavens from whence cometh our help Where He bade them all take notice vii Acts 54 55 56. that he saw the glory of God and Jesus shining at his right hand in a far greater glory than they had seen in his face That was only a glimpse of the Majesty of Jesus whom he preached to them and now feared not to affirm that he saw in his royal splendour and greatness incomparably above all the Angels in Heaven And is it not a great deal more reasonable to believe that He indeed saw Jesus there than to think that he would obtrude thus boldly a mere imagination upon them with the certain loss of his own life If he had not been sure that he beheld him whom they crucified now most highly glorified a person of his wisdom and spirit would have been more cautious than to follow him in that bloudy path to which this assertion led him when if he would have held his tongue there lay a fairer and smoother way before him But so visible was the royal Majesty of our Saviour that he could not but proclaim it aloud and speak as S. Peter said the things which he had seen though he knew they would call it blasphemy and punish him for it with present death He was willing to suffer that for the honour of his Master and to testifie his love to him who told him his Faith was no fancy as he might see by the glory wherein he appeared Which abundantly satisfied him that he was the Son of the Highest able to reward all his faithful servants with immortal glory It is true we read of never a word that our Lord spake to this Saint but the splendour of his appearance in such glory and Majesty at God's right hand was as significant as any words could be and bid him be assured of the truth of what S. John is here proving that indeed he is the Christ the anointed of God anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows made the Lord of all things inferior to none but only him who hath put all things in subjection under his feet If any one ask me how he could see the glory of God and how he knew this to be Jesus who appeared at Gods right hand I Answer to the first enquiry that He saw God's glory in the same sence that
and whereby he justified himself against all accusers This was his warrant to this he appeals upon all occasions that He saw Jesus in the way to Damascus And he had great reason to stick to it for he knew that no body could shame him by so much as pretending that he lied and that there was no such thing as this apparition of Jesus to him He had his companions in his journey to be witnesses of the Miraculous glory which on a sudden surprised them as well as him xxvi Acts 15. They heard then the voice of some body discoursing with him though they did not distinctly hear the words It became presently notorious every where for this thing as he tells Agrippa ver 26. was not done in a corner but openly and at noon-day to the astonishment of divers persons who attended him And it left a sensible effect upon his body and upon his mind He could neither see nor eat nor drink for three days In which space he saw a vision of a man named Ananias coming to him and bidding him receive his sight All which proved true and together with his sight he received a new spirit whereby he confounded the Jews at Damascus For they could not deny all this and yet were loth to believe in Jesus They were amazed to hear him preached by a man who they knew was come thither with a quite contrary intent ix 21. They could not but ask what is the matter whence comes this marvellous change Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this Name in Jerusalem And is not that the business for which he came hither to bring them bound unto the chief Priests What ailes him now that he thus justifies them and condemns himself And there is no doubt but to answer such Questions he took the opportunity to tell them what he had seen and what he had heard for so Ananias charged him xxii 15. He did not keep this as a secret it was not carried in privacy but presently divulged that all might inquire if they pleased into the circumstances of the fact Which was so strange that as it amazed and confounded them at Damascus so King Agrippa ' knew not what to say to it but was almost perswaded to be a Christian xxvi Acts 28. No man of sence could think that a person of his education and learning would venture the loss of his ease of his reputation of all the preferment he had and of all that he might justly hope for from the Sanhedrim without the least expectation of any gain unless of that only which Jesus could give him if he had not been fully assured it was no delusion when he presented himself to him as the Lord of glory Much less could any man imagine that a person of his vertue and unblameable life under the Law and of such strange piety and perfect contempt of all worldly things after his receiving Christianity would feign and devise such a story by which if it were false he could get nothing in the other world and if it were true he could get nothing in this Nothing but misery trouble infamy and reproach which attended him every where and never left him till it had brought him to a shameful death If you will but consider what he quitted for Christ's sake after he had thus appeared to him and how the world treated him when he became a preacher of this Gospel as you find it described by himself in several Epistles particularly iii. Philip. 8. 1 Cor. iv 9 10 11 c. 2 Cor. vi 4 5 c. xi 23 24 c. you will soon be satisfied that he was more in his wits than either to invent this story or publish it without strong assurance of its truth He was as sure that he saw the Lord Jesus in his glory and heard the voice of his mouth as every body else that knew him was sure he had been a blasphemer of him and a persecutor of his servants And therefore whatsoever it cost him he would be obedient to that Heavenly Vision And having a Ministry from him as he speaks in the 2 Cor. iv 1 2 3. according as he had received mercy so he accounted it a very great favour to become one of his Ministers he did not faint nor discharge his office sluggishly Nor did he think of making up his losses by this new profession of preaching the Gospel but abhorred such a dishonest thought and utterly renounced all such base and shameful arts though never so secretly managed and covered over with never such specious pretences He did not walk in craftiness nor appear other than he really was Much less would he to please any men handle the word of God deceitfully either by concealing any thing that was true or by mixing any false stories of his own inventing No by plain truth he commended himself to every mans conscience as in the presence of that God who is the avenger of all fraud and imposture And therefore he justly concludes that if any man did not receive these things nor think them evident enough it was because he deserved to perish for the love he bore to some naughty affection or other which would not let him submit to Jesus For it was him the Apostles preached ver 5. not themselves they did not do their own business but his only whom they proclaimed to be the Lord and themselves no more but his servants nay the servants of all Christian people for his sake But I must no longer follow the story of this great man who became so strong in the Lord and in the power of his might after He had from Heaven appeared and spoken to him that as nothing could daunt him so nothing could hinder the sucecess of his labours He became the most eminent servant of the Lord Jesus and prevailed so mightily against all the opposition which the Devil or men raised to frustrate his endeavours that he gives thanks to God in the second Chapter of that Epistle ver 14. Who always caused him to triumph in Christ and made manifest the odour of his knowledge by him in every place All his travels and long journeys proved in the issue as if they had been but the carrying of him about in a triumphal Chariot to make him a glorious spectacle in all those places as the Syriack translates it where in spite of all that the most powerful cruelty and rage could do he was still victorious and brought divers Souls into a chearful subjection to his Master Christ Jesus III. Who was pleased last of all but more frequently than to any other to show himself after he went to Heaven to this very Apostle whose words I am expounding his beloved Disciple S. John By whom he comforts and encourages all other Christians to continue stedfast in their Religion and to take their share with him in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ Who many ways declared to him
that he was the Son of God the King of glory able to reward his patient servants and moreover sent Letters by him to several Churches of the Saints testifying the very same things which He made him see and hear in several visions They are recorded in that Book which tells us in the very first words of it that it is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which he sent and signified by the Ministery of his Angel to his servant John Who had already born record so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be rendred ver 2. of the WORD of God and of the testimony of Jesus and of all things that he saw Had declared that is in his Gospel Jesus to be the WORD of God and made known that which he testified to be Gods will concerning men together with all the evidences by Miracles and other ways which he had seen of the truth of that which Jesus testified There could not be a fitter person than he who perhaps also was the only Apostle now remaining in the world to hold communication with this WORD of God and receive new revelations from Jesus He being at this time likewise banished and confined to the Isle which is called Patmos ver 9. for the cause now named that is for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ In this lonesome place separated from the rest of the Earth our Lord opened Heaven to him and shewed him the glory which he had there For he fell into a rapture on the Lords day ver 10. and heard one speak behind him with a voice as loud as a trumpet saying I am before and after all things that is God blessed for ever Write what thou seest in a Book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia whose names are there expressed ver 11. Whereupon he turn'd about to see whence this voice came and then he beheld in the midst of seven golden Candlesticks representing those Churches a very glorious person appearing in the most royal majesty and power He did not ask him as S. Paul did who he was for he had been long acquainted heretofore with that countenance and knew him perfectly well to be our blessed Saviour Who by his very habit wherein he appeared declared himself to be as he had said the Lord of all who had no superiour nor any second in that Kingdom which God the Father had given him but disposed all things according to the sole pleasure of his will For he beheld him clothed with a garment down to the foot and girt about the paps with a golden girdle c. ver 13 14 15 16. He saw that is as Irenaeus truly expresses it L. 4. cap. 37. Sacerdotalem gloriosum regni ejus adventum him appear in his Priestly and glorious Kingdom For a long Robe and a golden Girdle belonged both to Kings and to the High-Priest in the Jewish Nation And all the rest of the description it were easie to show is a plain representation of a person shining in the glory of God the Father and invested with such an irresistible power in the Heavens as might justy make all his Friends rejoyce who acknowledged him to be the Son of God most high and all his Enemies quake and tremble who opposed his sovereign Authority In short so glorious was the sight that S. John himself was not able to bear it but when he saw him fell at his feet as dead ver 17. till the WORD as Irenaeus speaks in the same place on whose breast he had reposed himself at his last Supper revived and comforted him with these gracious words Fear not I am the first and the last I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keys of Hell and of Death As much as to say Thou wast not deceived when thou thoughtest thou saw the Son of man appear to thee It is I indeed therefore be not so afraid though now thou beholdest me in such Heavenly Majesty and Divine glory for thou oughtest rather to rejoyce to think that I am the eternal God I whom thou knewest when I lived upon Earth and whom thou sawest shamefully put to death am now alive as thou seest also never to die any more and am intrusted with a power to rescue you from death and raise you out of your graves It would be too long if I should tell you all that he says in his Letters to those Churches to assert his title to the Name of the Son of God which he expresly takes to himself in one of them ii Rev. 18. and to declare his royal power which he exercises in all the world especially in his Church the house of the living God where he hath such an absolute authority expressed by having the keys of the house of David c. iii. 7. that none can contradict him either by preserving any man in the Divine favour if he reject him or by excluding any man from it if he receive him It may suffice to observe these two things First that there is not one of those Letters but it begins with some such description of our Saviour's sovereign Majesty as this now mentioned For the character he had given of himself in the first Chapter is again repeated by parts in the following messages to the Churches Where he sometimes calls himself He that walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ii 1. that is inspects and governs them Sometime the first and the last which was dead and is alive ver 8. that is the Lord God who can raise him from the dead who parts with his life for me And to name no more he calls himself ver 12. He that hath the sharp sword with two edges to cut in pieces either them or their enemies according as they deserved of him And indeed it being the office of a King which is the second thing to be observed or a supreme Governour to punish offenders and to reward vertuous persons he constantly assumes both these powers to himself in every one of these seven Letters telling them what evil should befall them from his hand if they did not amend and what blessings he would bestow upon them if they did overcome Which is a plain declaration of his Regal power and authority which he now hath at the right hand of the Throne of God There S. John saw him in a second Vision as Irenaeus calls it v. Rev. 6. where he appears in such power with God that none hath the like For there was a majesty represented to the Apostle sitting on a Throne with a Book in his right hand ver 1. which none could open or read or so much as look into And then behold this Lamb of God who had been slain comes and appears in the midst of the Throne being the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah as one of the Elders calls him ver 5. that royal person whom
and ever Which was accomplished also with very great speed as he saw represented by an Angel which appeared flying in the midst of Heaven xiv 6. Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth That motion of flying seems to signifie the haste which the great Ministers of Christ made who are compared in this book to Angels to publish his Gospel to the world Which had mighty success because it came with authority from Heaven as is represented by the Angels flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the air between Heaven and Earth to denote something he had in hand which was decreed above and to be done here below The greatest powers on Earth indeed set themselves against it and made war with the Lamb xvii 14. that is persecuted Christianity But he foretells his conquests even over these Kingdoms who were such furious enemies as to seek to destroy his Religion For which he gives only these two reasons because God had made him Lord of Lords and King of Kings and because those who followed him were such choice persons that their patient constant perseverance in his service to which he had called them helpt to overcome his and their Enemies and to bring them in subjection to him I can think of nothing that can be objected against what hath been said but two things which deserve briefly to be considered One of them concerns this last particular now handled and the other seems to cross all that hath been delivered in this Chapter Against what hath now been alledged from the Revelations it may be objected that this Book of Visions was doubted of among some of the ancient Christians To which the Answer is very obvious That there was a particular reason why this Book did not always go along with the rest into every bodies hands and by that means being not so generally known was afterward questioned because the making of it as publick as the Christian doctrine might have too much incensed the power of the Roman Empire whose downfall is here so plainly predicted Yet it was not kept so private but that it is cited very early both as a Divine Book and as the writing of S. John the Apostle by those who deserve to be believed Justin Martyr had that opinion of it and so had Irenaeus as I have already said and Theophilus Antiochenus and Origen especially S. Cyprian who I have observed produces testimonies out of no book of the New Testament so oft as this From whence he encourages Christians to follow their Master and all that worthy company who had hazarded their lives for him It being the peculiar glory saith he * De Exhort Martyr of our time that whereas ancient examples might be numbred now there is such an exuberant abundance of vertue and faith that Christian Martyrs cannot So the Revelation witnesses I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands vii 9. And these he was told are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. I shall not produce the words of any of the rest nor of divers others who without any manner of doubting pronounce this to be the Revelation of the WORD of God to his servant John But pass to the other thing which may be alledged to the prejudice of the whole foregoing discourse For I produce nothing some may say but the testimony which one gives of himself which all confess to be of no validity This WORD of God himself saith so as this very Apostle hath recorded v. John 31. If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true And yet what is all that S. Steven saw or that he spake to S. Paul and S. John but his witness of himself I answer in his own words also which you read in another place of that Gospel viii 14. where the Pharisees objecting to him his own concession ver 13. that a mans testimony to himself is nothing worth he seems to revoke but in truth only explains it by telling them in terms quite contrary though I bear record of my self my record is true The former words are not so to be understood as if what a man says of himself were always false or not to be regarded when he hath a concurrent testimony from others no it may be true though it will perswade no body else to believe it without other evidence That 's all our Saviour means in the Fifth Chapter if he had alone born witness to himself and there had been no other testimony given him it had not been true that is not a valid unexceptionable testimony by which he might demand credit from them So the word true is used viii John 17. in the sence of the Law which required two or three witnesses for the establishing or setling any thing in question They had no reason to believe he was Gods Son but might still have disputed it if he had been the only person that said so and could have brought no other to witness for him And yet notwithstanding He tells them here that even in this case his testimony of himself is true as truth is opposed to falshood though it wanted that truth which was necessary to make it a legal testimony That is though it could not have passed in Law nor stopt the mouth of gainsayers because it was a single testimony and the Law required more than one yet it would have had nothing of a lie in it but his words would have been perfectly true when he affirmed himself to be the Son of God But 〈◊〉 was not his case He alone did not bea◠witness to himself but there were others beside him who bare witness of him and said the same thing that he did as he shows v. John 32 33 36 c. and said it before he assumed this name to himself And therefore his testimony which single would have had no strength being joyned to the other is of great force and ought to be regarded He did not desire to be received merely because he said he was the Son of God though he ought not to be accounted a liar for saying so alone no he referred them to other proof of that truth But when they had heard and considered them then there was reason they should hear what he affirmed concerning himself and not think the worse of him because he spake those words which were no other than the very words of the Father whereby he bare witness to him So he tells them in the viii John 17 18. It is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me That is you have no reason to disparage my
testimony of my self because I do but repeat the very same thing which the Father hath said before me For though alone as I have confessed heretofore my testimony of my self is worth nothing and cannot challenge belief yet added unto so high a testimony as his it ought to be duly regarded and accepted But besides this I must add another consideration of great moment Which is that the Testimony of the WORD concerning himself now that he is in the Heavens is of great validity even singly considered though it had no such authority alone when he was upon the Earth For during his stay here on Earth it could not appear by his bare saying so that he was the Son of God the King of Israel because he was in a poor mean and low condition altogether unlike a King And therefore if the Father and the Spirit had not testified so much none could have believed on him But when he was in the Heavens then what he said of himself carried great authority and power with it because he could not say those words to any one but he must appear as a King in glory There were things as well as words to speak for him At the same time that he bare witness of himself they to whom he spake must needs see the truth of his Testimony by the royal state and majesty wherein they beheld him If the question should be whether a person be alive his own appearing in Court would be the best testimony that could be given of it If whether such a one be a King his sitting upon his Throne with his Crown on his head in his royal Palace and his Ministers round about him would be the surest evidence that could be desired to put it out of doubt In this case therefore where the question is whether Jesus be the Son of God or no there cannot be expected a better resolution of it than his own witness to himself by appearing upon the Throne of his Glory There several persons of unblemished credit beheld him and had the confidence to venture their lives upon the certain knowledge they had that they were not deceived From thence he spake to them and directed them to speak and carry his messages to others that they might believe on the Name of the Son of God And let it but be remembred which I noted at the beginning that we are now examining those witnesses which speak from Heaven and not those which speak on the Earth and then you will soon discern that these testimonies of the WORD though concerning himself ought to be received with great reverence and to be judged very full and powerful to prove Jesus to be the Son of God Especially since besides his own word for it we have also the word of the Father who several times called him his Son and that before he took this honour to himself A PRAYER LET all mankind therefore honour thee O blessed Jesus even as they honour the Father Be thou adored every where upon Earth with the same reverence and love wherewith all the Angels in Heaven worship thee whom they and we acknowledge to be the LORD the WORD of God the Wisdom of the Father the bright morning Star the Light of the World the Prince of Life the Heir of all things the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS God blessed for ever Thou art the King of glory O Christ Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father The Beginner and the Finisher of our Faith the Judge of the World the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey thee O how happy are they that know thee and stedfastly believe in thee and sincerely love thee and heartily obey thee and have a good hope that thou wilt bless them and imploy thy power for their promotion to that glory wherein thou reignest I rejoyce to hear thee say that thou who wast dead art alive for evermore Amen and hast the keys of Hell and of Death I thank thee for appearing so often to assure our Souls that thou sittest at the right hand of God and hast all power in Heaven and in Earth Great is the consolation which thou hast given us by the sight of that Glory wherein thy first Martyr beheld thee ready to succour all thy faithful servants Marvellous was thy work O Lord for which all thy Church will for ever praise thee in calling S. Paul to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God Adored be thy glorious Majesty which appeared to him for this purpose to make him a Minister and a Witness of what he saw and heard that he might go and open the eyes of the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in thee O how full of comfort is that Revelation which thou hast made of thy self to thy servant John Who received the brightest discoveries of thy glory in Heaven when he was in the most desolate condition upon Earth who beheld thy care over thy Church and thy conquests over thine enemies thy Priestly and thy Royal power to the perpetual joy of those that love thee and the terror of all those that oppose thee O blessed Jesus far be it from any of us in the least to contradict thy will who art so highly advanced far above all principality and power and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come May every Christian Soul be so sensibly affected with the belief of thy Glory as to prostrate it self before thee and say with the same spirit that thy blessed Apostle S. Paul did when thou appearedst unto him Lord what wilt thou have me to do May that ardent love burn in every one of our breasts towards thee and towards one another which was in thy beloved Disciple who bare record of thee and testified to us these things And may none of us prove so false and unkind as to leave our first love but our work and charity and service and faith and patience may be ever commended by thee and the last be more than the first Then shall we be able with a chearful countenance to look up unto thee and to think of thy majesty and glory with exultation and triumph and not with terror and amazement of spirit We will joy in thy strength O Lord and in thy salvation how greatly shall we rejoyce We will rejoyce even in the midst of tribulation and though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil but stedfastly looking up unto Heaven call upon thee O Lord Jesus and beseech thee to receive our Spirit Into thy hands be they recommended both now and ever with most earnest desires and hope that thou wilt help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud and make them to be
taken the boldness to foretell and promise such a thing as this from God the Father what hope had he to make it good if he had not been sure that the Father and He were one as he speaks vers 20. of that xiv Joh. and that what He said was by his Authority who would justifie his word Nothing could have been more vain or done him greater discredit after all the glory he had got than to give this as a sign of his truth if he himself had not been sure that God had given all things into his hand and that he came out from God and was going unto God as it is xiii Joh. 3. And what greater argument could there be that he did not assume a Dignity or Title which he had no right unto than the verifying his word in so hard and difficult a case as this even then when his Enemies thought he could do nothing because he was dead and buried This must needs make the Apostles as sure as he was for his confident belief could not work belief in them and therefore He did fulfil his promise and indued them with such power from on high that in a moment He brought all things which he had taught them to their remembrance enabled them to speak with all manner of Tongues to make a Man whole with speaking a word nay to raise the Dead and to give the Holy Ghost likewise to others who believed their word How came He by this power if indeed He was not the Lord of all Why did nor his Word dye with Himself and fall to the ground if he usurped upon the prerogative of God and laid claim to a glory which was none of his How could it come into any Mans mind let me ask again to promise such a thing as this if he did not know what he could do And could any man do such a thing if he were not more than a man even the King of infinite power at the right hand of God So the Apostles could not but conclude when they felt the effects of his royal power in their own hearts and when they could make others feel them by innumerable benefits which they bestowed both on their Souls and Bodies To be able to do such things on Earth as he had done shewed plainly what He was but to be able to make others do more wonderful things when He had left the World was still a more convincing Argument that all things were put in subjection under his Feet Nothing now was more evident to them than this great Truth whatsoever distrust of it they might have before With this mighty Inspiration all their doubts were blown away like the Dust before the Wind. This fire which appeared on their Heads purged their Souls quite from all the reliques of Infidelity if there were any remaining They could do nothing now but speak the praises of Jesus and proclaim Him with these Tongues to all the world to be the Lord with a zeal as hot as fire The People indeed it may be said did not hear him foretell this glorious day and make any such promise of the Holy Ghost and therefore how could it convince them I answer it is confessed that He did not speak of this so plainly to them as He did to the Apostles and therefore I have not alledged it all this time for that purpose but only to show that they to whom he so often gave hopes of the coming of the Holy Ghost upon them had reason to rely upon its Testimony when it came even upon this account that it was the performance of his gracious promise to them There are many proofs which we produce seem to carry less force in them than really they have when careless minds stretch them too far to prove more than was intended The Jews were to be convinced by it upon another score not by the fulfilling of his particular promises to the Apostles which could work no further upon the People than they believed their testimony who came with such power from Jesus to them But I must add also that our Saviour had said something of this to all the people at a publick Feast vii John 38 39. And when he was arraigned he openly declared to the High Priest and the whole Senate that they should presently receive sensible tokens of his Majesty which now they so affronted For when they adjured him to tell them whether he was the Christ the Son of God xxvi Matth. 63. though he knew they would neither believe him if he told them nor give him a good reason if he argued with them why they did not believe xxii Luke 67 68. yet he told them in express terms that he was ver 64. And then adds these remarkable words Nevertheless I say unto you i. e. though now you do not believe what I have told you yet mind what I say hereafter from this moment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 xxii Luke 69. or very few days hence you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power Which can refer to nothing but the mission of the Holy Ghost which presently ensued and was a certain argument that he was at God's right hand ii Acts 33. When this came they could not but see unless they would be wilfully blind that he was possessed of the Kingdom he had so much spoken of It was an irrefragable testimony that he was the Son of the Blessed and could the less be gain said because he told them before-hand they should see what they would not then believe That is have a manifest demonstration of his glorious Majesty in the Heavens Which if it would not move them nothing remained but to see him after another fashion coming in the clouds of Heaven as it there follows To destroy that is such incredulous wretches who killed their King and persisted so obstinately in their rebellion that they resisted the Holy Ghost whom he sent to convince them of their crime and convert them to his obedience So it is interpreted xxii Luke 27 31. II. For the power of it was so great that setting aside this consideration if he had said nothing at all to them or his Apostles of his sending the Holy Ghost yet its coming in this manner was an evident testimony both to them and all others that he made a just claim to be their King He could not else have scattered such royal gifts so bountifully among them as the manner of Emperors was in their Triumphs and of Kings at their Coronation This showed that indeed he had the power which the Jews denied him It vindicated his rights which they would have taken from him It made it appear he was what he pretended and that not He but they were the guilty persons who had condemned him for saying he was the Son of God This was the very end of its coming as our Saviour also told his Apostles a little before his death xvi John 7 8 9. where He
reverence to his Majesty Whatsoever Moses hath written against Idolatry S. John here from Jesus in the conclusion of his Epistle hath summed it up in a few words Little children keep your selves from IDOLS In this the Jews could not accuse him nor durst let such a word fall from their mouths that he was a false Prophet because he endeavoured to draw their hearts after other Gods which was the great mark of an Impostor xiii Deut. No he tells them that this is Eternal Life to know the only true God which words are spoken in opposition to all others and Jesus Christ whom he had sent But in this they might have seen that his design was far more noble and glorious than that of Moses who contented himself to preserve that one Nation from the infection of Idolatry whereas our Lord Jesus plainly declared his intention was by his Apostles to turn all Nations from Idols to serve the living and true God There was never any man that appeared so great a lover of God as he was Never any man that undertook to set on foot such a design for the advancement of the universal knowledge of him All the Divine Attributes and Perfections also He hath revealed so perspicuously that there never was such a manifestation made of them to the World as we see in Him From whom we learn how Just how Good how Wise how Faithful and how Powerful the Blessed and only Potentate is who only hath immortality whom no man hath seen or can see And if we would know our Duty either towards God in actions of Piety or towards Men in actions of Righteousness or towards our selves in actions of sobriety we can learn it no where so easily and completely as if we go to him and to those who have delivered it to us with great care and plainness from his mouth As for the Actions of PIETY He teaches us inwardly to Honour God v. Joh. 23. that is to have an high esteem of him as our Lord and as our chiefest Good to Love him also and that with all our heart and all our Soul and all our mind and all our strength xii Mark 30. And to Fear him seeing he can cast both Body and Soul into Hell which makes him again and again bid us be sure to Fear him xii Luke 4 5. To confide likewise and Trust in him the living God 1 Tim. iv 10. To Hope in his mercy 1 Pet. i. 21. And to rejoyce evermore 1 Thess v. 16. And as we are thus to worship him in our Minds so we are taught by his Religion externally to adore him and fall down before him iv Matth. 10. iv Rev. 10. to pray to him both for our selves and others 1 Tim. ii 1 8. and to be incessant in our Prayers or to perform this holy duty very oft xviii Luke 1. 1 Thess v. 17. and to offer up by him the sacrifice of Praise to God continually xiii Heb. 15. And in every thing to give thanks which is the will of God concerning us in Christ Jesus 1 Thess v. 18. and especially to shew the Lords death that is publish it with thanks and praise till he come to judge the World 1 Cor. xi 26. The manner also of addressing our selves to God he hath taught us so fully that nothing can be added to it For he tells us The Father will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth iv John 23. And that we must lift up holy hands 1 Tim. ii 8. And that when we pray we must forgive others xi Mark 25. and ask in Faith xxi Matth. 22. and avoid vain babling and not affect much speaking nor desire to be seen of men and to joyn Fasting and Alms with our Prayers and Devotions to God Matth. vi It is impossible to conceive any thing more Divine than these Instructions To which he adds as rare Precepts for Actions of RIGHTEOUSNESS concerning which he hath given us such an absolutely perfect Rule that it comprehends the measures of CHARITY too No wit of man can think of any thing more holy than that LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THY SELF or that WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO TO YOU DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM This is a rule that reaches all men and compendiously yet completely tells them how they should behave themselves towards each other If a man were a Magistrate or a Parent or stood in any other superiority over his Neighbours he would desire honour and obedience from them that therefore says our Saviour let him give to those who are in Authority If a man be our equal we desire if not his friendship yet his fidelity in word and deed that very thing let us be sure to render him and all others in the same equality with us If we be placed below others we desire the favour the help the relief and counsel of our Betters all these Jesus here teaches us to afford with the same chearfulness that we would expect them in their case to those who are in want of our kind assistance Nay he hath told us in particular what our duty is in these matters by the mouths of his holy Apostles that no man may think to excuse himself by his ignorance and inability to apply a general Rule to every action of his life I shall not name all the places where you may find such words as these that follow but only tell you He would have us so far from doing evil to any man that he requires us owe him nothing but only love And this debt we must be always paying and think our selves debtors to all men not only to treat them civilly and give them good words but to love them in deed and in truth Which Love must teach us as to be meek and gentle towards all men to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking not to circumvent or go beyond our Brother in any matter not to lye to our neighbour nor defame him much less do him any hurt in his body or goods So to relieve his poverty to help forward his joy to comfort him in his sorrow to cover his defects to make a fair interpretation of his actions to let our judgment of him incline to the more favourable side to mind what is lovely or grateful to others and what things are of good report to study things that make for peace to compose and reconcile differences to beg pardon of those whom we have offended and make them satisfaction and if any have offended us readily to forgive their fault to forbear revenge when it is in our power to requite an injury to do good for evil to bless those that curse us to overcome mens hatred with benefits to pray to God for those who use us despitefully and to be long-suffering when it is fit to punish any man for his crime And as for those who are truly pious we are taught to do them good above all other men to
live with them in unity and godly love to sympathize with them in their several conditions rejoycing with those that do rejoyce and weeping with those that weep Nor hath he failed to tell us by his holy Apostles with what kindness and indulgent affection Husbands should treat their Wives and how they again should so affectionately observe their Husbands that they may together make up a lively Image of that Dearest Love which is between Christ and his Church And he hath instructed us all how to behave our selves towards Magistrates Bishops Presbyters Masters and Parents whom he hath also taught how to bring up their children to use their servants to feed and govern their flocks and to rule their people committed to their charge so that no man can say he goes without that Lesson which is proper for his condition And then if we proceed to those things which we call SOBRIETY his Doctrine is so holy and pure that it requires the greatest Moderation in all things It favours nothing that relishes of Covetousness or Ambition or Voluptuousness or any other violent and inordinate passion whatsoever But quite contrary commands us not to labour with too much eagerness and solicitude for the meat that perishes to lay up our treasures in Heaven to be humble and lowly like little children to be temperate in all things to be watchful and vigilant lest we be overtaken with surfeiting and drunkenness or the cares of this life to be chaste and pure in heart to mortifie our members that are on the Earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection and evil concupiscence to abstain from lasciviousness foolish talking wanton and unseemly jesting to cut off our right hand and pluck out our right eye if it prove an offence to us to take just measures of our selves as well as others to be content with our portion to do those things which are venerable grave and beseeming our condition and employment which if it be not according to our desires not to repine or be dejected at it if it be not to be transported with vain joy much less with pride and contempt of our neighbours And after all these and such like incomparable Lessons He teaches us to suffer any thing for well doing to bear all worldly troubles valiantly and with a magnanimous heart to despise reproaches nay to rejoyce when our names are cast out as evil for his name sake in patience to possess our Souls and not to be weary in well doing nor faint in our minds but to endure chastening to persevere and suffer with long patience to stand fast in the faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might To all which duties he urges us likewise by the purest the most spiritual the noblest and most Divine Arguments He does not press us with such low and poor motives as the hope of Riches though he promise us things convenient or of Greatness or of Fame and Glory either while we live or when we are dead but propounds his own example to us and the example of all the Saints that are gone before us and quickens us with the hope of Immortality when we depart this life and assures us at present of the friendly protection of Angels and of the joys of the Holy Ghost which none of those shall fail to receive who are not inticed nor affrighted from their duty but resolutely hold out in their Christian warfare and overcome And if any man say that several Philosophers taught excellent things and gave Rules of a vertuous life and yet it does not prove the best of them to be so great as these Witnesses are brought to demonstrate our Saviour was The Answer is that none of them delivered such a complete Rule of holy living as our Lord hath done none of them touched the heart with such powerful reasons and Divine motives nor did any of them write without some mixture of folly or themselves exactly perform that which they taught others Besides that none of them ever had the confidence to pretend to that quality wherein our Saviour came which you shall see presently is of great force to prove such an Holy Person as he was to be indeed what he pretended the Son of God II. But first let us a little consider the second sort of PURITY that of the Life in which our Lord Jesus far out-stript all others He did not only preach after that manner I have now related but so he lived and became a complete pattern of that which he taught He was a LIVING LAW as Lactantius calls him * Lib. 4. Instit C. 25 to all his Disciples whom he taught by Himself and not merely by his Lectures of Piety Other Teachers had conceived in their minds and painted in their Orations a vertue that was no where to be seen for they were not able as the same Author else-where speaks to confirm by present Examples that which they asserted in their Doctrine Their Auditors might still say that no body could live according to their prescriptions because no body ever did Behold therefore our Saviour comes to do and not only to preach the will of God And so holy pure and free from all blame were all the Actions of his life that his greatest Enemies could lay nothing to his charge but only certain words and those such as contained most perfect truth as he proved by his actions and many other ways He was the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish as S. Peter speaks 1 Pet. i. 19. He offered himself by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God ix Hebr. 14. His whole life was such a fair example of that Piety Humility Charity Gentleness Forgiveness Peaceableness Patience and all other vertues which he taught that God restored him to life again after they had crucified him and put him to death because there was no fault in him He was frequent in Prayer to God and sometimes continued therein a whole night together Upon all occasions he gave him thanks He loved his Glory and the Good of mankind more than his life He went about doing good And he taught his Family to be as kind and tender-hearted as himself He was meek and lowly in heart When he was abused He was dumb as a Lamb before the shearers so opened he not his mouth He was full of respect towards Magistrates and Governours very sweet and affable towards the poorest people exceeding kind and compassionate towards his envenomed enemies and perfectly contented in the lowest condition When Foxes had holes and Birds had nests but He not where to lay his head none could be found more chearful thankful and well pleased than he was And as for his Fortitude Courage Constancy Resignation and all other suffering vertues there never was any thing comparable to them For he endured the Cross and despised the shame and contentedly took the contradiction of sinners saying Father not my will
unto them So S. Paul writes to the Thessalonians 1 ii 8. every one of whom he exhorted and comforted and charged as a Father doth his children ver 11. But he never used any flattering words towards them nor spake as pleasing men but God who trieth the hearts nor carried on any design of covetousness or winning of glory to himself nor would be in the least burdensom to them but was gentle among them even as a nurse cherisheth her own children ver 4 5 6 7. Show me the man that ever spoke with such wisdom and judgment as they did and with so much tenderness of heart None but their Master ever preached or wrote with so Divine a Spirit which John the Baptist describes in such words with which I shall content my self as prove the excellence of his Person from the excellence of his Doctrine which he delivered unto men They are in the iii. John 31. where he says He that COMETH from above is above all He that is of the Earth is Earthly and speaketh of the Earth He that COMETH from Heaven is above all That is He who appears from Heaven with such a Divine Authority who delivers the mind of God in so rare a manner that one may see he hath been with God must needs excel all other persons in dignity Moses and the Prophets and me also who am of an Earthly extraction born like other men and can speak only like a man poor and low things in comparison with those which that Heavenly teacher delivers who I must needs again confess is far superiour to me because he is not a mere man but comes from Heaven and so is above all Prophets whatsoever who had more of the Earth than of Heaven in them that is knew none of those secret counsels of God concerning mans everlasting bliss nor could direct us in so short but plain and sure a way to it as he hath done And then it follows ver 32 33. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth c. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God That is he speaks such things that a man may easily see he is the only begotten of the Father who is in his bosom and knows his very mind having as certain an understanding of Heavenly things as we have of what we see and hear And therefore whosoever believes him does no more but assent to God whose words he speaks by a particular commission he received from him to act in his Name It is very observable that just after the mention of these Witnesses 1 John v. 10. S. John adds that He who believes not this record which God gives of his Son hath made him a liar as on the other side John the Baptist here says That he who doth receive his testimony i. e. believes solemnly acknowledges God to be true From whence I conclude that what is said in this Epistle hath a relation to that which is writ in the Gospel which I take to be no more than this That the Divineness of Jesus his Doctrine the purity and Heavenly strain of his discourses his preaching as if he had heard and seen the Father and knew the state of things above his speaking the Words of God not as anothers like the Prophets before him but as his own was a great testimony to him that he was sent of God in that quality that he pretended So that they who received him did but rely upon the Truth of God and give up their faith to him who hereby as well as other ways perswaded them that this was his Son 2. But then that which I mainly insist upon is this second consideration That his pure most holy Doctrine and Life was a great argument of his Divinity because this was part of his Doctrine that he was the Son of God For who can think that a person of his vertue who taught men both by word and deed such reverence to God and such justice and charity to men could be guilty of putting such an open affront upon the one and such an abuse upon the other as to challenge this title and propound himself to be received in this quality if he had not a just and undoubted right to it He that came with so much sanctity and holiness in all his other words and all his other actions one cannot but conclude was as holy and free from sin in this as much as in any thing else that he said he was the Christ and perswaded the people to believe he was the Son of the blessed This is certain He affirmed himself to be the Christ the Son of God first to his Disciples And that both before his sufferings xvi Matth. 16 17. ix Mark 41. and also after his resurrection xxiv Luke 46. And then to others also who were as yet none of them as 1. to the woman of Samaria iv John 26. Then 2. to the blind man whose eyes he opened ix John 35 36 37. And lastly he asserted it when he was brought before his Judges as you have heard already and this very matter was brought in question yea when they adjured him by the true God and as he bare any respect to him to tell them the very truth in this thing Now who is there that would not infer from hence that all the rest of his Doctrine being so opposite to all lying and every other vice and his whole life giving such a proof of his perfect vertue that they had nothing to ground a charge upon against him but merely this profession of his own wherein if he had pleased he might have been silent it is not in the least credible that a person of his integrity should after so long speaking truth now at the last be guilty of speaking a lye And 2. a lye of such a dangerous consequence as this by which if it were one he and a world of Souls must be undone Yea 3. that he should tell it so often to so many persons And that 4. before the Magistrates who are Gods in this world And that 5. when they were desirous and very importunate to know the truth Yea 6. before God himself by whose name he was solemnly adjured to speak nothing but the truth How is it possible that such a man as he should be so void of all fear of God as to offend him in so high a manner There are none sure whose unstandings are sound or whose consciences are not crackt who can so much as fancy much less perswade themselves to believe that a person whose innocence was so great that all the false witnesses they could find men who cared not for their own lives could not be masters of his should now in such a serious manner when he was going out of the world put such an horrid cheat upon it and with the loss of his life too upon a shameful gibbet as
remember that your Baptism engages you to learn of him and to become like him Express that Honour towards God that Fear and that Love of him which he requires Imploy your selves carefully in all actions of Justice Charity and Sobriety Yea be prepared chearfully to follow him in suffering as well as in doing his blessed will This will be an infallible testimony that you are the children of God as on the contrary if you want this Witness all other evidence of it will fail you There is no reason to distrust this but the stronger your confidence is without it the more grosly you deceive your selves if you conclude your selves to be dear to him You find both these strongly asserted in this Epistle For the Affirmative read ii 29. If ye know that he is righteous know ye that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And iii. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous For the Negative read the following words ver 8 9 10. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And for your encouragement to purifie your Souls remember that the purity and holiness of Christ's Life and Doctrine secures you of the truth of all his gracious promises We may say with a greater assurance than the Psalmist did in his days xii Psal 6. The words of the Lord i. e. his promises are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of Earth purified seven times Which should make us value them more than thousands of Gold and Silver though never so perfectly refined and to say as he does in another place cxix 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it Those Metals are not freer from Dross after they have passed never so oft through the Fining-pot than his promises are from all mixture of deceit We may rely upon them with the greatest confidence and be secure they will never fail us It is as certainly true that God will take us to be his Sons and Daughters that he will dwell in us and give us everlasting life as it is that Jesus is the Son of God He that says the one says the other too and he may be alike believed in both But then having these promises we must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. vii 1. For the Son of God was manifested you heard for this purpose And this was the end for which he gave himself i. e. to die for us that he might sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of Water by the Word v. Ephes 26. and redeeming us from all iniquity purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works i. Tit. 14. Which if we study sincerely then this WATER here spoken of is part of the Waters of Life and this Testimony gives us assurance that we shall have our share in those Eternal good things which he hath promised in his holy Gospel For he is the Truth and in him there is no Lye But of this more hereafter when we have heard the following Witnesses and given glory to Jesus and made our acknowledgments to him in some such words as these A PRAYER I Believe O Lord not only that thou art a Teacher come from God and speakest the words of God but that thou art above all the very WORD of God it self into whose hands the Father hath given all things I admire the holiness of all thy Precepts and rejoyce in the purity of thy exceeding great and precious promises Thou art the Truth the Holy one of God without spot or blemish in whose mouth was found no guile There is all reason that we should receive thy testimony which thou hast given of thy self and all that thou hast testified to us to be the will of God and believe that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Good Lord increase my Faith that as I see still further demonstrations of thy power and glory and cannot but acknowledge the perfect sanctity equity and goodness of all thy Laws and be in love with the beauty of thy most holy life so I may feel my heart inclined more and more to submit it self to be governed by thee to obey thy will and to imitate thy example Happy are those holy Souls who have learnt of thee to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and whose hearts by that means are full of the blessed hope of immortality hereafter and of thy tender care of them while they are here There is nothing so desirable as to be holy even as thou who hast called us art holy in all manner of conversation It is the perfection of our Nature the end of our Being and the true satisfaction of our hearts to have thy image formed in us in righteousness and sincere holiness Imprint this sense deeper O blessed God in mine and every Christian heart That it may be our perpetual delight as well as our study to give thee the honour that is due unto thy Name to love thee with all our heart and soul and strength to preserve an holy fear of thee in our mind to trust in thee and cast our care upon thee to hope in thy never-failing mercies and to rejoyce evermore in thy love and that good hope which are better than life it self O that we may never cease to testifie our true love and honour and fear of thee with all other religious affections by praying without ceasing and offering the sacrifice of praise continually and in every thing giving thanks especially for the oblation which our Lord made of himself to thee which love may it be published with perpetual praise and thanks every where to the end of the world And give us the grace to add unto our love of thee a sincere and unfeigned love of all men That we may do to them whatsoever we desire that they should do to us Let this be the constant Rule of all our designs desires words and actions Let it ever be before our eyes to make us duly honour and observe our superiours pity succour relieve and comfort all those who are below us and be just faithful and friendly to all others O that every man would speak the truth with his neighbour and be charitable in their judgments one of another meek and gentle in all their words and behaviour ready to distribute and to do good studious of the things that make for peace forward to be reconciled to those
had been the mark of folly added to that of insincerity that he was a shameless deceiver And therefore I conclude that he would have witnessed a good confession by denying all that he had said concerning his being the Son of God if he had not known assuredly that he had said nothing but that great Truth which must not be denied whatsoever miseries and disgraces it cost him to make it good V. And this truly is much to be considered that if he had been wont to cheat and speak falsely there could not have been a more seasonable time to make use of some lye than now that it would cost him his life to assert this which no doubt he took for a truth If he would but have denied this one thing and said that he was not the Son of God all their malice as I said could not have found a crime great enough to warrant the taking away of his life according to their Law And therefore supposing him an Impostor and deceiver as the Jews called him he must be a very silly one who would not now make use of his art to save himself when that one little word NO would have done it in answer to the question that the High Priest put to him For what reason can be imagined why he should now scruple to tell an untruth if he were a man of that stamp which would bring such a great advantage to him as the preservation of his life VI. He might at least especially if he had dealt with Beelzebub as the Pharisees calumniated him have put some trick or other upon them and shifted himself out of the hands of his enemies for that would have got him more credit and fame than dying for a lye Why did he not escape from them if he had not both believed this that he was the Son of God and thought it necessary also to attest it even with his BLOUD Had he not opportunity to run away or rather might he not have kept himself among his friends far enough out of their reach Was it not a question whether he would come to the feast or not xi John 56. Nay after the assembly of the wicked had inclosed him as the Psalmist speaks had he not power to break through them and make his escape Yes sure for what else is the meaning of that which you read xviii John 6. that the band of men which came to apprehend him went backward and fell to the ground when he did but tell them that He was the man whom they sought for Was not this a fit time to flye and get away when they had no strength to lay hold on him Had not he power as well to depart as to weaken their hands that they could not approach him Nay was it not far easier to go away himself than to make them lie prostrate there No doubt of it only he would stand to it as I said and make it good by his Bloud that he was the Son of God He showed that he had not lost his power to baffle them but his will was not to use it His death was a voluntary Sacrifice He laid down his life of his own accord and no man took it from him as it is x. John 18. All their Armies had they compassed him about to speak in the Psalmists phrase as strong Bulls of Bashan had they gaped upon him with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring Lion i. e. with the most greedy desire to devour him could not have touched him unless he had been pleased to deliver himself up to their fury and chosen to become their prey that they might do execution upon him And therefore it is most absurd and contrary to nature to imagine that He would have thus freely exposed himself to such cruelties and vile usage as he saw was intended for him unless he had certainly thought it a most eligible and honourable thing to endure them in defence of a great Truth which it concerned all the world to have well asserted and vindicated from all suspicion of falshood Would it not have angred any man but Him to be betrayed by a domestick servant by a Friend one whom he had freely chosen to be a great Minister in his Kingdom and had made at present the keeper of his purse besides many other favours conferred on him Was it not a vile dishonour first to be brought before the Magistrate as a Criminal and then to be abused there by base souldiers and the dregs of the people as if there had not been a more contemptible wretch in the whole Country What was it then to be beaten and cudgelled to be spit upon and mocked to be loaden with lyes and forgeries to be condemned to suffer among thieves to be counted less worthy to live than a murderer to be scourged to be crowned with thorns to be crucified that is to endure a tedious a disgraceful a painful and accursed death and after all this to be unpitied to be laught at even upon the Cross and called a senseless deceiver who had not the wit to keep some of his kindness for himself but having saved the lives of others could not now at last save his own Can you think of any one that would have the heart to offer himself freely to suffer such things but only He who took all this so patiently that he did not utter one discontented or angry word And who can think that he would have endured them when he might have easily avoided it unless he had thought it necessary and worthy to submit himself to such torments and reproaches that he might confirm this Truth and make it live by his bloudy death VII Which had the greater efficacy in it to show the importance of this Truth and the certainty which he had of it because he affirmed it not only before the High Priest when it was apparent they intended mischief against him but before Pontius Pilate also as I observed above from xviii John 37. when they were importunately desiring him to condemn him If we could imagine it was his rashness and heat that made him say as he did before the Council of Jerusalem yet he had time enough sure to have cooled himself before he came to be tried at this other tribunal of the Gentiles Why did he not think of some other answer now that he saw the Jews were not in a sudden passion and transported with a fit of rage to condemn him but by a concocted hatred were resolved to pursue him till they had his bloud There can no account be given of it but this That his Death was an advised thing and his BLOUD deliberately shed to obtain the greater belief to him because he professed again and again though he knew he must die for it that He was CHRIST their KING VIII And observe likewise that even when he was in the midst of his sufferings and when he was ready to give up the ghost He again
sets his seal to this Truth calling God his FATHER twice as he hung upon the Cross First when he prayed for his Enemies FATHER forgive them xxiii Luke 36. and then when he prayed for himself FATHER into thy hands I commend my Spirit ver 46. With these words he resigned up his Soul to God And had it not been a seasonable time now to retract what he had said if it had not been a Truth which must be justified to the last gasp How can any one think that a man who preached the Life and Judgment to come and lived as if he believed it would venture to die with a lye in his mouth and that of so high a guilt and which he knew also could not be long undetected here as it would be severely punisht in another place nay which He himself he knew very well would presently confute For he frequently had said as his very enemies understood that he would rise again the third day after he was killed which he must needs think would prove a lye if the other had been so when he told them he was the Son of God God who only can raise the dead but cannot lye would never have justified so blasphemous a lye as this and given it an undeniable authority by fulfilling his word For as his bloudy death plainly proved that he believed himself to be the Son of God and took it for an undoubted truth so his Resurrection was an infallible proof that he was not mistaken but had witnessed that by his death which was as true as he thought it His Death show'd that he was certain of it and his Resurrection makes us certain that he was not deceived These two therefore must be joyned together to make up a complete evidence and so they are as you shall see for the Witness of the SPIRIT contains the Resurrection in it Yet I must add that his BLOUD considered alone did not barely prove that he believed he was Gods Son and thought it the greatest sin to deny it but it proved also that he had great reason for such a belief Reasons so weighty that they over-balanced the natural love of life And therefore this alone may be called one of his Witnesses which not only justified his integrity but declared that he had the greatest assurance and the clearest evidence of that which he asserted being so certain of it that the fear of death could not make him doubt it nor all the torments in the world tempt him to deny it IX And if you consider what manner of person Jesus was you will soon be satisfied also that he was not liable to mistake strong fancies for weighty reasons but was as far from being deceived himself as he was from any intention to deceive others The principal thing indeed which his Bloud testified was that he did not on set purpose go about to put a cheat upon the World or invented his Doctrine himself Yet all things considered it proves likewise that his Doctrine was true and ought to be believed by us For such was the quality of his person and of the rest of his Doctrine that they plainly manifest He was neither led by fancy nor possessed with any Demoniacal illusion when he said he was the Son of God So great was his wisdom and the sharpness of his understanding that any man who hath not lost his own understanding may easily see he could not be apt to be gull'd with the impostures of imagination And so great and discreet was his Piety that it is as visible he was not obnoxious to be deluded any other way When He was but a child He amazed the principal men of the Nation with his questions and answers And afterward in the whole course of his preaching there appeared nothing but what declared a most prudent sober and excellently composed mind Nothing of inequality and unevenness in his temper No rapturous discourses or ecstatical expressions Nothing that savoured of Melancholy which imposes upon some or of Pride and Vanity which abuses others But the greatest gravity and seriousness mixt with admirable sweetness and humility is the plain character of our Saviour Then look over all his Doctrine and where shall we find any that ever spoke so clearly and with so much Majesty of Righteousness Temperance Charity and Piety of all our duty towards God and Man as he did Who had the gift of comprehending much in a few but perspicuous words of illustrating his Doctrine with apt and familiar resemblances of confirming it with powerful arguments and of confuting all the cavils of his adversaries with the strongest reasons None of which things are to be found in any of those who have been abused by their own fancies and passions or by the juglings of evil Spirits as will appear more plainly by considering a little more particularly those two cavils Let it be taken then for granted that there have been some men who meant not to deceive that were notwithstanding so overborn by a strong fancy or haughty imagination as not only to take their own dreams for Divine Revelations but also most vehemently to assert them even with the loss of their liberties estate nay and life it self And suppose withall that there have been some who were so fully possessed with a conceit of nearer communion of God that they took themselves to be Christ himself or Apostles sent by him and that no torments could perswade them to think otherways Yet see what a vast difference there is between such vain pretenders and our blessed Saviour even in the very words that they spake And first I think it is very consirable that you never read of any man so presumptuous as to fancy he was the very Son of God who sits at his right hand and rules over all and hath power to judge the quick and the dead No these vain Enthusiasts have only conceited that they were after I know not what spiritual manner made one with Christ and so united to God that as they phrase it in swoln words of vanity they were Godded with God and Christed with Christ But who discerns not the disparity between this foolish language and the words of soberness which our Saviour spake Which indeed is the most remarkable thing If you consider all the Doctrine of these empty Pretenders there is nothing more ridiculous They have ever affected big words lofty and high-flown phrases and mystical expressions wherewith they love to stuff their Books and their discourses which either have no meaning or if they have it is very poor and despicable when it comes to be stript of the fantastical language wherewith it is cloathed And therefore such men have been so far from amazing any considerate persons that they have rather moved their laughter and scorn while they heard them babble nothing but mystical nonsence with abundance of confident boldness And if they have found any followers they were such as had no depth no solidity of
person whom all their inspired men pointed at and foretold should come to be their King For the descriptions they have left of the cruel usage and horrible sufferings of the Messiah or Christ were answered to the life and exactly fulfilled in our Saviour Jesus whose torments rather exceeded than fell short of the tragicalness of all their expressions Thence it is that when He had ended all his sufferings he said xix John 30. IT IS FINISHED and so bowed his head i.e. did reverence to God and gave up the ghost i.e. resigned his Spirit to God in that prayer which S. Luke mentions By which words It is finished He bad them mark that now all things that were written of him in the xxii Psalm liii Isaiah and other places of their holy Books were perfectly fulfilled and received such a punctual completion in him that there remained nothing more to be done but only to die He had done all his Fathers will and finished his whole work in every point and so having no further business here He worshipped God that sent him and departed the world to go to him XII It will also much advantage this discourse to observe the accidents that hapned at our Saviour's death and accompanied his bloud-shedding which have no small force to verifie what he said concerning himself And to omit the death of Judas which prevented our Lord's and declared that he thought Jesus innocent and himself guilty together with several other things which may be better mentioned afterward let us only observe how the Sun contrary to its usual course when the Moon could not interpose it self between its light and them was eclipsed three whole hours as he was in his passion xxiii Luke 44 45. And that in the conclusion of it the veil of the Temple of that Temple wherein the Jews so much confided was rent in twain from the top to the bottom xxvii Matth. 51. The Earth quaked the Rocks rent and the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose and went out of the Graves after his Resurrection and appeared unto many in the holy City ver 52 53. What judgment can any sober man make of so many strange things concurring at this moment When was it ever heard that the Sun blusht as one may say to show its face and look upon him when any malefactor or innocent man either was hang'd upon a gibbet or that the holy place was torn together with that man's body or that the Earth groaned when he expired and the hearts of Rocks trembled when he cried out and the monuments of the dead opened at his death which three days after gave them life All these things were peculiar to the death of Jesus and never met together but only to honour his bloud And so notorious they were that the Centurion and those who under him had the charge at that time to see the execution done were convinced by them and by the words that he spake that he was no Deceiver but in truth the Son of God So S. Matthew there relates ver 54. that when the Centurion and they that were with him watching Jesus saw the Earthquake and those things that were done they feared greatly saying Truly this man was the Son of God Whatsoever the Jews had decreed they saw by the displeasure of the Heavens by the trembling of the Earth by the hand of God upon the Temple which was soon known by the Priests that Jesus had exceeding great wrong done him having spoken nothing but the truth when he confessed to Pilate that he was the Son of God They dreaded to think what would be the consequences of this horrid murder and were sorely afraid that they themselves who had attended upon it should feel some of those tokens of Gods wrath which elsewhere was very visible But S. Mark tells us that the Centurion also observed the words of our Saviour as well as was struck with these miraculous accidents and that they helped to convince him xv 39. And when the Centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost he said Truly this man was the Son of God That is when he heard him call God FATHER for those were the words as you heard out of S. Luke xxiii 46. which he cried with a loud voice at the giving up of the ghost Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and when he saw that he stood in this to the very last breath that God was his Father and also beheld such strange testimonies of it both in the Heaven and in the Earth he said without all doubt he ought to have been acknowledged to be no less than he said and not crucified as a malefactor And S. Luke relates it thus that Jesus crying with a loud voice and saying those words before mentioned The Centurion saw what was done that is all spoken of in the precedent verses xxiii Luke 44 45 46. and GLORIFIED God saying Certainly this was a righteous man Which was as if he had said God be praised for showing us the truth or let us do God honour in acknowledging the truth whatever come of it I make no question but this man was innocent and said true when he affirmed he was God's Son though the Jews have got him crucified for this saying and brought us to wait upon his execution That as I have often noted was their quarrel with him That he being a man made himself equal with God x. John 33. v. 18. This was the blasphemy they accused him of that he said They should see the SON OF MAN that is Himself sitting at the right hand of power But the Centurion an honest Gentile acquitted him of this crime and seeing the things that were done and hearing the words he uttered concluded him to be Righteous free from all blame and not at all guilty of that blasphemy for which he was arraigned and suffered but ought to have been believed and acknowledged as the CHRIST the Son of the blessed Thus was that fulfilled which our Saviour had foretold viii John 28. When ye have lift up the Son of Man upon the Cross then shall ye know that I am He that is the CHRIST and that I do nothing of my self assume not this authority of preaching thus without Gods leave but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things that is even this that I am his CHRIST is that which he bid me affirm And he that sent me is with me to justifie what I say and do the Father hath not left me alone no not upon the Cross nor after death as appears even by this Testimony which he forced the Centurion to give him For I do always those things that please him Keep to my office that is both now and when I suffer you to lift me up to the Cross for God declared that he was never better pleased with him than when he laid down his life in this
all things they should be concerned one would think to work this wonder for then we should be forced to confess that there is nothing so eminent and singular in this thing as to move us to give credit unto Jesus But since it never has been done but only in this instance and it was also a fulfilling of his word when he gave it as a token of this truth we have reason to conclude as S. Paul did after he had seen him alive that this is very CHRIST Upon this ground it was that the Apostles so much rejoyced when they saw him again for now as S. John tells us ii 22. when he was risen from the dead they remembred that he had said this unto them concerning the raising up the Temple of his Body and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said Now they were assured they had not been deluded and yielded their assent all this while to a fancy They saw clearly that he was their KING though he had been vilely disgraced and crucified And therefore when they parted with him again after his Resurrection they did not lament and mourn as they had done before but worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God xxiv Luk. 52 53. II. But it is time to add that as it was a sign which he gave them before-hand of this Truth so he told them it was the greatest sign which he had to give He had done many things in his life time to perswade the Jews that he was the CHRIST But still they were so perverse as to ask for more signs of it Though he had done more miracles than ever Moses or all the Prophets had done from the beginning yet the Pharisees continue to say Master we would see a sign from thee xii Matth. 38. One would think they had a mind to learn of him since they call him Master but it was only a complement as S. Luke informs us xi 16. And therefore our Saviour calls them an evil and adulterous generation who were degenerated from the manners of their pious ancestors for they were contented with less proofs of that which God required them to believe and would have been ashamed to seek after a sign as these men did after such evident tokens of a Divine presence in him as they beheld Why should he gratifie men of so naughty a humour whom nothing would satisfie but a sign from Heaven which S. Luke says they demanded nor would be convinced then neither he clearly discerned by their frivolous cavils at all that he had already done Therefore he tells them no sign shall be given them but the sign of the Prophet Jonas which was not a sign from Heaven but from the bowels of the Earth For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth vers 39 40. Which was as much as to say It is in vain to attempt the conviction of such corrupt and depraved minds as yours are by such means as these And therefore I must tell you all that is remaining for the opening your eyes and conquering your perversness is my Resurrection As Jonas was miraculously restored again to live upon the earth after he had been swallowed up by a Whale in the Sea and layn there three days which was a notable sign that he was a Prophet and could not but obtain him credit with the Ninevites when they came to the knowledge of this wonder So will I be restored again to life after you have killed me and I have layn three days in the bowels of the earth and if this will not satiffie you there is no other sign to follow this for your conviction But let me tell you as he adds vers 41. if you still persist in unbelief when this is fulfilled the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with you and condemn you for they repented at Jonas his preaching and behold a greater than Jonas is here That is though Jonas was not really dead but only had his life wonderfully preserved yet the report of it wrought faith and the fruits of faith repentance and amendment in the hearts of the Ninevites and what a condemnation will it prove to you if after you have seen me actually dead and it be demonstrated to you that I am raised to life again you will not believe on me The very same thing is repeated again xvi Matth. 4. where they having once more demanded a sign from Heaven ver 1. He answers them that they should have none but this of Jonas and he left them and departed As if he had said I have nothing more to say to you now all that remains is that I dye and rise again which is the last and greatest token that I am the CHRIST And indeed this was a sign so great that it gave force and strength to the other signs which had been given of this Truth For in the next Chapter Matth. xvii 9. we read that Three Apostles having been confirmed in this belief by a voice from Heaven which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Jesus charges them saying Tell the Vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead Till He had taken possession of his Kingdom and was set upon his Throne and thence sent the Holy Ghost He saw it would be to no purpose for the Apostles to publish this testimony of God the Father to him For they had already slighted the testimony of John Baptist who heard the like Voice from Heaven at his Baptism and thereupon bare witness that Jesus was the Christ And therefore it was not likely that they would listen to the Apostles when they came and testified that the same words were spoken in their hearing until their testimony should be justified by the authority of such a proof as this that he was risen from the dead This would mightily back all that they said and make it undeniable by any but those who would still deny his Resurrection which was wilfully and without any reason not only to call them lyars but to affront the Holy Ghost who witnessed together with them that he was risen from the dead Which being a proof of such strength that our Saviour relyed upon it above all other it is manifest to common reason that if there be a God as we are sure there is who loves sincerity and truth he should above all things have taken order that this should not have had such evidence as it hath if indeed Jesus was not his Son Though he had suffered wonders to be done by him and voices from Heaven had been heard yet still he gained not much belief in the most considerable part of the Jewish Nation and therefore appealing in conclusion to this Grand Testimony sure there
xvii Rev. 5 6. that the mother of harlots that one City Babylon was even drunk with the BLOUD of the Saints and with the BLOUD of the MARTYRS of Jesus A Sea of BLOUD flowed from their veins to cover the Earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord for whose cause they suffered themselves to be slain as so many innocent sheep that make no resistance This gave them the name of MARTYRS in English WITNESSES because they were beheaded for the WITNESS of Jesus and for the Word of God xx Rev. 4. that is they constantly affirmed him to be the LORD and chose rather to die and seal it with their BLOUD than not preach this Truth for which S. John also was now an Exile in a desolate place 1 Rev. 9. What was it think you that made them thus hot and eager to be the most miserable of all mankind to despoil themselves of all the comforts of life and to endure perpetually the pains of death From what cause was it that their bloud thus boiled in their veins and they were so zealously forward to have it let out It could be nothing but only this that they loved Jesus ardently and were extremely desirous if he thâ—ught it best to die in his service knowing that he would hear the cry of their bloud and reward them abundantly for all their sufferings S John beheld the Souls of those who were slain for the Word of â—od and the TESTIMONY which they held under the Alâ—ar vi Rev. 9. which signifies that they were sacrifices to God when they witnessed thus unto Jesus For by Souls in the language of the old Scriptures is often meant the Bloud i. e. the life which here was represented at the fooâ— of the Altar where the bloud of the acrifice used to be poured out They died in an holy cause they were very well assured and should be an offering well pleasing and of a sweet savour unto God else they would never have thus willingly offered their throats to the sacrificing knife of their bloudy persecutors No when it came to that they would have confest the truth sure if they had not preached it before A few of their sufferings would have taught them more wit than to lose their heads for the testimony of Jesus if they had not been verily perswaded they were in the right and ought to be his WITNESSES even with their bloud The scoffs of the Heathen would have been very reasonable if they had not dealt sincerely and been certain their Testimony was the Truth Who were wont to say as we read in Minutius Nec resurgitis miseri nec interim vivitis Miserable wretches you do but fancy you shall rise again and in the mean time you do not live You are hungry and pale and enjoy none of the pleasures of life and have no hope of being better you are dead To which he replies after a long demonstration of the evidence they had of what they believed Ita beati resurgimus futuri contemplatione jam vivimus So you see we shall rise again to blessedness and we live now in the blissful contemplation of it Yea they not only lived but they rejoyced and more than that they gloried in tribulations Which they could not have done had not their integrity been as great as this confidence and their sincere intentions upheld and supported their boldness Which was the greater you may be sure because as they bare witness to Jesus so God bare WITNESS to them as you read expresly ii Heb. 4. both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will whereby he testified to them that they were honest men and did not cunningly follow devised fables when they made known to men the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were as the professed eye-witnesses of his Majesty Which is the next thing to be considered III. Hitherto I have only proved that they had all things necessary to make them credible witnesses being void of guile and such as could not be reasonably supposed to be mere inventors of what they preached Men who both knew what they said and did not speak contrary to their knowledge Nay men of eminent knowledge sanctity and zeal which made them more than common witnesses But still they were only humane Witnesses not divine nor could all this put it quite out of doubt and give a full assurance that what they said was true but only that they thought it to be true and were not likely to be deceived And therefore that they and those who heard their testimony might be sure and have infallible proofs as S. Lukes words are that they were not deceived and that the faith which relied upon their testimony might be Divine there followed the Witness of the SPIRIT which accompanied them as it had done our Saviour together with the Witness of the HOLY GHOST which he had promised to send them that they might be his Witnesses in all the world This was an undoubted evidence that they were men sent of God upon this message to preach Jesus and testifie that he was the Lord of all This made the faith of those who heard and believed them to be more than an humane perswasion because it relied not only on the word of men but upon the testimony of the Spirit of God It might have been a very strong faith without this because the men who reported it were persons of great vertue void of all fraud or worldly design but it could not have been Divine had not this Witness come and joyned its testimony with theirs For they would but have received the testimony of very pious and good men it was no more till the testimony of God himself came in such signs wonders miracles and various gifts as you have heard already and as you read of in many other places They went forth saith S. Mark speaking of all the Apostles and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word which they preached with signs following xvi 20. All places were filled with wonder as they were with the HOLY GHOST At Jerusalem for instance S. Steven as well as the Apostles full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people vi Acts 8. In Samaria S. Philip preached Christ and the people with one accord gave heed to the things which he spake hearing and seeing the miracles which he did for unclean Spirits crying with a loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed viii 6 7. And at Thessalonica S. Paul tells them that his Gospel came not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance And at Iconium both he and Barnabas stai'd a long time speaking boldly in the Lord who gave testimony unto the Word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done
questioned For if we do not allow this way of conveying down a testimony to future times we can know nothing of what was done before us And by denying all credit to these writings we shall only teach posterity how little credit is due to any of ours Nay we shall shake all mens titles to their estates and Kings will not be able to keep their Crowns fast upon their heads Nothing will be certain but it may be questioned whether all the Records in the Tower and the publick Acts of former Kings and Parliaments be not mere Forgeries Besides no body in those days ever went about to disprove what these Witnesses of Christ preached and have writ Neither Jew nor Gentile undertook to show that these things were only devised for his credit There were too great Testimonies from Heaven still remaining in the Church for several Ages to confute such a slander And therefore all that the Devil himself could think of to shake mens belief was to set up some wonder-workers of his own to confront Jesus and as it were to vie miracles with him and his Disciples But all were so soon scattered like mists before the Sun that they appeared to be but thin shadows in comparison with the living SPIRIT of God that was in the Church which baffled and overcame them all Insomuch that Origen assures the Heathen and they never went about to confute him that there were not above thirty of Simon Magus his followers then to be found in the world though he had made diligent enquiry after them by travel into all parts They were all vanished though he made a great noise for a time whilest the followers of Jesus multiplied and increased even by their persecutions Nor could Apollonius afterward gain any Proselytes that continued but his fame soon died together with himself Whereas the authority of Jesus bare up it self against all the opposition of the Roman Empire and not only was supported but advanced and prevailed more and more their barbarous cruelties only making it grow the faster For herein as Lactantius observes the faith and constancy of Christians was bravely displayed Men thought they did not without cause abhor the Heathenish superstition when they saw them rather die than do that which others doing lived and enjoyed the greatest worldly prosperity It made them enquire what that good was which they defended even unto death which was dearer than all the pleasures and glory of this world The people heard them in the midst of torments glory in Christ Jesus And whilest they enquired who he was the truth of the Gospel was divulged and spread abroad among them Their sufferings brought many to see their Martyrdom and there they saw that which moved their enquiry and by their enquiry they were satisfied and learnt to believe in Jesus as those Martyrs did But it is time to put an end to this Chapter which I shall conclude with a few remarks upon some places of the holy Books relating to the testimony of the Apostles or those that followed them The first is in the 2 Cor. vi 4 5 6 c. where you read how the Apostles approved themselves as the ministers of God in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings by pureness by knowledge by long-suffering by kindness by the Holy Ghost by love unfeigned by the word of truth c. In which words if they be well considered you will find every one of these three WITNESSES which S. John says gave testimony to our Saviour on Earth so that he might be said to come in the ministry of the Apostles by Water and Bloud and the Spirit They expressed the Holiness of his life by their pureness by their long-suffering by their kindness by love unfeigned by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left that is they were every way appointed and armed with integrity against all calumnies there was none that could touch their reputation and say that these men had any worldly design And as they witnessed to him thus in their holy lives so they did in their holy doctrine by knowledge and by the word of truth preaching the Gospel sincerely as those that studied not to please men but God who trieth the hearts And they were made conformable also to his death and thereby continued the witness of the BLOUD in much patience in afflictions in necessities in distresses in imprisonments and all the rest of the hardships here mentioned which I need not transcribe again And lastly He forgets not to remember them of the Witness of the SPIRIT which they brought along with them For he says they approved themselves as ministers of God by the Holy Ghost and by the power of God That is beside all the other Divine gifts wherewith they appeared they confirmed their doctrine by many miraculous works which could not be done but by the power of God Thus they became not only his witnesses as our Saviour said they should xxiv Luke 48. but they witnessed to him after the very same manner that he had taught in his example by Water by Bloud and by the Spirit And therefore when he exhorts Timothy to preach the Gospel and to be strong in the grace of Jesus Christ and to commit the charge of preaching also to other faithful persons He enforces his perswasion by this argument that the things he was to deliver were only such as he had heard of him among or by MANY WITNESSES 2 Tim. ii 2. He learnt them by so many good evidences which S. Paul had given him that he need not fear to speak them to any man much less doubt to commend them to other faithful preachers upon the same account that he had received them that they might be able to instruct posterity Such one would think from what hath been said were those TWO WITNESSES mentioned in xi Rev. 3. men of an Apostolical spirit whom Jesus raised up after his prime Witnesses had left the world to justifie still by all manner of arguments that great Truth which they had preached and sealed with their Bloud and God had sealed by the testimony of the Spirit The next words indeed seem to import that the whole body of Christians whom they instructed joyned with them in this testimony But still these great ministers of Jesus Christ the guides and leaders of those Christians whosoever they were and in what times soever they lived I meddle not with such difficulties were his most eminent Witnesses Who preached the Gospel with such power that it excited against them the fury of unbelievers who could not endure that such Witnesses should speak for Jesus For they testified to him these three ways here mentioned which is all that I alledge this place for not taking upon me to interpose in the controversies there are about the explanation of this Vision by Water Bloud and the Spirit First by Water if
Verse why they gave themselves as whole burnt offerings to Christ but that by the example of their Faith and Martyrdom they might instruct many more to be Martyrs Nay their BLOUD did not only water many young plants and made them grow to their perfection but He tells us a little after in his exposition of the same Psalm Plures scimus c. We know many who were wholly ignorant of the Divine Sacraments i. e. the Christian Religion that by the example of the Martyrs run to Martyrdom No wonder then that these above all others have been called the WITNESSES of Jesus for that 's the interpretation of the word MARTYR and that Christians were forward even to kiss their wounds and to embrace their dead bodies as the remains of those who had done most eminent service to our Lord. Who himself therefore witnessed to them after they were dead and declared that their bloud was very dear and precious in his sight and that it had sealed nothing but the truth For there can no other reason be given but this why at the Monuments of these MARTYRS or WITNESSES our Saviour was pleased to have so many miracles wrought afterward and before such a number of people that Porphyry himself as we learn both from S. Cyril and S. Hierom though an avowed enemy of our Religion could not but acknowledge them They still spake and bare Witness to Jesus by these wonderful works when they were dead or rather Jesus spake for them as I said and declared from Heaven that these were his faithful Witnesses whose word ought to be believed whereby they had declared him to be the Lord. A PRAYER WHO would not believe on thee O Lord who would not magnifie thy Name For great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints All Nations ought to come and worship before thee whose Majesty and Glory is so many ways made manifest Thou hast raised poor and ignorant men to be mighty Ministers of thy Grace and Witnesses of thy Resurrection and co-workers with thee for the illumination and conversion of the world Blessed be thy name for all the glorious Lights which have been in thy Church in every Age by whom thy holy Faith hath been preserved and propagated to our days Blessed be thy name for all the Martyrs who sealed it with their Bloud and for all the Confessors who freely acknowledged thee with the danger of their lives Great was thy glory which shone in their most exemplary holiness fortitude patience love unseigned both to friends and enemies and in that mighty power whereby they approved themselves as the Ministers of God Thanks be to thee O God the Lord of Heaven and Earth for the comfort of thy holy Scriptures wherein we read the story of our Saviours wondrous love and of that most miraculous power which appeared in him to testifie unto him and at last raised him from the dead and advanced him to the throne of Glory From whence he sent the Holy Ghost to endue his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers with power from on high that they might be his Witnesses and commit that which they had received to faithful men who should be able to teach others also O God I cannot but again adore thy incomprehensible love which can never be sufficiently praised Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace that thou whose naked glory is too bright for our weak minds to fix their eyes upon wouldest be pleased in most admirable condescending love to manifest thy self and visit us in our flesh Thou art infinitely above the greatest of us who are far less worthy to approach thee than the lowest creature in this world is fit for our friendship and society So much the more marvellous is thy unheard of love that thou wouldest admit us to such a near relation unto thee So much the greater is our happiness that in Christ Jesus thou hast made thy self our portion and designed us to be eternally blessed with thee Great was his care and kindness all the days of his flesh towards the most miserable wretches who received the greatest tokens of his love I rejoyce now to think with what tenderness he received the poor fed the hungry visited the sick cured the diseased and when he had left the world communicated the same power unto others that they might exercise the same charity that he had done I see both the power and goodness of our Lord in all those works of wonder which he did I see that his mercy endureth for ever which hath preserved a faithful record of these things that we through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures might have hope Now the God of all grace inspire me and all other Christian Souls with the same faith love and ardent zeal which was in those burning and shining Lights the Witnesses of Christ. That we may be followers of them as they were of him and acknowledging the same Lord being members of the same body partaking of the same Sacraments and living upon the same Heavenly food we may lead the same holy lives in hope to shine one day with them in the same celestial glory Help us to continue in the things which we have learnt and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learnt them that we may not at any time let them slip For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him thou O God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to thine own will May we always carefully lay up and preserve these sacred truths in our heart which were in so glorious a manner delivered to us May they work there perpetually with great power and be reverenced as the holy Oracles of God! May they be the spring of all our motions throughout the whole course of our life That with an even steddy pace whatsoever dangers come in our way we may walk on towards that happy place where those holy ones rejoyce for ever with our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given by us and by those glorified Spirits and by all the Angels in Heaven everlasting Praises Amen CHAP. IX The Vse we are to make of their Testimony IT is time now to bring this Discourse to an issue and having examined all these Divine Witnesses taken their proofs and depositions and found their testimony upon due enquiry to be good and legal to consider with our selves what we have to do and what judgment we will pass now that we have heard their evidence God the Father of all says that Jesus is his Son the Word himself appeared oft to justifie this Truth the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to attest it the Prophet of the Highest proclaimed it the holy life of our
to lurk in the dark and put off their stuff when no body can see what it is who know it is deceitfully wrought and will not abide the light They do wisely and as cunning Merchants who make up in words and great assurances of their honesty what is wanting in the goodness of their wares But why we should have so little wit as to take their words who can tell We must answer for this folly no doubt to Almighty God who hath given us more understanding if we would use it and taught us by himself to call for good witnesses of that which is offered to us for a truth And the more strictly we examine these which S. John here alledges the better we shall be satisfied that they intend not to deceive us Which is a mark we should always have much in our eye when we are enquiring after Truth If the more we search consider and ponder the proofs which are brought the better they appear and the clearer they grow it is a very good sign there is nothing wanting to make it fully entertain'd but only longer thoughts and greater and more serious consideration As on the other hand we have great reason to suspect and turn away from that which the longer we weigh its proofs the lighter they seem and the propounders of them also begin to shift and shuffle till they have put all into a mist in which we can see nothing but that they are at a loss and are fain to puzzle us because they cannot clear that which they were about Thanks be to God there is nothing of this in the evidences we give for the true Christian Religion They are plain and perspicuous and show themselves in a greater brightness the more we look upon them and the better we are acquainted with them Search and try what has been said and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ will shine with greater lustre in your eyes and you will confess with S. Peter 2 i. 3. that he hath called us to the knowledge of him by glory and vertue that is by a most amazing power of God which declared him to be his only Son our Lord. II. Let us therefore in the next place consider seriously how excellent and perfectly rational the Faith of Christians is There is nothing founded upon such Authority as our most holy Religion It is no childish silly thing to be a believer A man doth not betray his weakness and easie credulity when upon examination and search he suffers his Soul to be planted with these new Principles but demonstrates the strength the nobleness and ingenuity of his mind which can discern and judge aright for nothing can pretend to so much reason as they There are a vast heap of things which I could here accumulate beside those which I have treated of to make good this assertion But because the method of the Apostle which I have followed is so clear and easie and the Witnesses so full and pregnant that every one of them affords us many evidences I will content my self with a brief review of what hath been said Which will be sufficient to convince us that our Faith is the highest improvement of our Reason and doth not debase but clevate and raise our understanding upon the surest grounds of Divine demonstration For if you consider what Testimonials they brought along with them who have pretended to speak in God's name you will find there is nothing comparable to the Witness which God hath given of his Son No not in that Religion which was really founded by his Authority much less in that where there was only the Name of God pretended without any Power I. Mahomet I mean to begin first with the latter of these took upon him to be the Apostle and the Prophet of God greater not only than Moses but than Jesus himself And such was his confident brags of Revelations from God that among a company of wild Arabians whom Algazel acknowledges to have approached the nearest to Beasts of all other men He made some proselytes to his belief But what proof did he give that he was divinely sent Was it ever heard that God spake to him so much as once as he did often to our Saviour At what time or in what place and in whose audience did God say to him Thou art my Prophet When did a voice from Heaven come to any three or but one man and say This is the Apostle of God hear him It is a marvellous Providence of God that this Impostor who wanted no confidence should never adventure in all the relations he hath made of himself quite contrary to our Lord who wrote nothing of his own life but left all to his Disciples to tell any such story as this for his greater credit and glory among his followers We read indeed of some idle tales which he reports of an Angel speaking to him and of his ascension into Heaven I know not how many millions of miles But what witness was there of these things what was his name who saw the Angel appear to him or who stood by when he was transported and carried out of sight as he dreamed Or when and to whom did Moses or any one else appear and verifie it that he had been with them in glory If we must take his own word which is all we can hear of to vouch it then we must not refuse to believe every foolish fellow who has impudence enough to pretend to prophesie But what then will become of the faith of Mahomet himself if the sword were out of his hand Let us hear such a man as John the Baptist whose piety and vertue is attested by those who were no Friends of our Religion affirm that he heard and saw such things as he reports and we will be content to abate them the Apostles and such a multitude of people as heard God say he would Glorifie his Name in our Saviour And in what Glory hath that false Prophet appeared since he left the World Whose eyes hath he struck out with the brightness of his countenance Nay by whom hath he been so much as seen since he was buried I need not put the question about his Resurrection for they never pretended it Only the sottish people would not believe when he died that he was really dead but said he was taken up to Heaven as Jesus was And Omar one of his successors threatned death to them that should say he was dead for he was only gone away as Moses did into the Mount and would return again From whence perhaps arose that vulgar error among us that the Mahumedans expect the return of their Prophet * See Poceek in Gregor Abul Phar. p. 180. 264. But Abu Becri proved to them out of the Alcoran that He was to die as other Prophets before him and so appeased Omar and the multitude And was it ever heard that the Holy Ghost sell down upon him in a
see their Departure is at hand In which regards I doubt not this Treatise will be acceptable to your Grace because it contains a Description and full Assurance of that happy Life which you shortly expect For there is nothing so reviving in our declining Age as to think that the passage out of this Life leads us not to Death but to Immortality and that it will not take away our Happiness from us but give us a purer enjoyment of it Pleasure not mixed with a mortall body but sincere and free from Grief and Sorrow For when we shall be set at liberty and delivered from this Prison we shall come thither where there is no Labour no Sighing nor Old age but a Life of perfect ease and tranquillity that breeds no trouble nor any other evill but is serene and clear in an immovable Rest and Peace Where the happy Inhabitants sweetly contemplate the nature of things and philosophize not for Popularity and the Theatre but for the finding out solid and everlasting Truth I have but translated the words of Plato * in Axiocho p. 370. or of some other Philosopher that hath borrowed his name who was much pleased in such thoughts as these though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed and so strongly demonstrated that we have reason with never-ceasing joy both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a Grace For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish so nothing of such importance to our present Happiness in this World For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites who do not believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the dead and to resolve that they shall have no part in the World to come though they otherwise live orderly and observe the Precepts of the Law For such men they saw opened a door to all licentiousness and could never doe so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this Belief Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such Arguments as they were ignorant of till our Blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the World Maimonides himself saith in his last Chapter of his Book concerning Kings that at the coming of Christ things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all Which is true of nothing more I have shewn then of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind immortall Life Of which though I have not treated according to the dignity of the Subject yet I am confident I have laid a good Foundation to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing though never so small for the honour of our ever-Blessed Lord and Master whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth For He will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompence being a Prince so great that nothing is beyond his Power and so gracious that his Servants have reason to expect the best effects of his Good will Which may very well content us whatsoever usage we meet withall at present And should mightily excite us as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts * Homil. 87. in Matth. p. 539. neglecting the suspicions and the reproaches and the praises too of men to study this one thing alone how to be conscious to our selves of no evill which will bring us in the end both here and hereafter the greater glory The God of all Grace bless this Work to the settling and increasing this holy Faith and Resolution in all our hearts whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretasts of the Joys of the future State And may your Grace be blest with many of them to support the infirmities of Old age and having finished your days have an easie passage to that better Life and there receive from the Chief Pastour when he shall appear the Crown of glory which fadeth not away Which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your GRACE's in all dutifull Observance SY PATRICK TO THE READER I Have no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of Books which men complain is already grown too great but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord by making a farther search as I promised in the conclusion of the former Part of this Work into the Testimony of these Divine Witnesses concerning ETERNALL LIFE The Hope of which is the most precious Legacy the Son of God hath left us the Hindge upon which all Religion turns without which it would be the greatest Vanity as Lactantius * Lib. vi c. 9. vii 1. often speaks to obey the commands of Vertue for whose sake we must endure not onely many Labours but ofttimes sore Calamities We were born as he discourses elsewhere * Lib. vii 6. to acknowledge God the Maker of us and of the World whom we therefore acknowledge that we may worship him and therefore worship him that we may receive Immortality for a reward of our labours because his service ingages us in the greatest and therefore Immortality is bestowed on us for a recompenc◠that being made like to the Angels we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever and be the Eternall Kingdom of God This is the Chief of all things this is the Secret of God this is the Mystery of the World to which they are strangers who following their present pleasures have addicted themselves to terrestriall and frail goods and sunk their Souls born to celestiall enjoyments into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty And it is the singular Priviledge of Christians as I have demonstrated to be assured of a Good so great by so many most credible Witnesses whose Testimony none can refuse but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all The Father the Word the Holy Ghost the Water the Bloud and the Spirit declare so unanimously and so plainly that the Lord Jesus will give Eternall Life to his followers that what the Oratours said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian War may in truth be said to us if we alter but one word that other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the World Athenzus in Deipnosoph L. vi p. 250. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone Who have a manifold grace bestowed on them enjoying not onely a Promise of Eternall Life which the World never had before but that Promise attested by so many Witnesses who tell us also it is in the power of him that died for us to conferr it on us as well
him Whosoever he be therefore that is insensible of all other charms let him hearken to this and see what pleasure can doe to make him in love with this Life of our Lord. Pleasure I say which all mankind most passionately desires be it never so weak and imperfect the Light of all good things which should we suppose separated from humane life it would be nothing but darkness and horrour And if thou knowest not yet what spirituall delight means let thy fleshly pleasures tell thee something of this happiness If thou art not so sottish as never to have a thought of any thing beyond the satisfaction of thy fleshly lusts think how much more noble a Spirit and the pleasures of it are then a Body and all its delights And then raise up thy mind a little higher to consider that if pleasure have now such power over thee here are the greatest to invite thee Pleasures that as much exceed those of the spirit as they do those of the flesh Pleasures at God's right hand the very joy of the most High the Father of spirits the pleasures of God himself O come come if thoâ— lovest thy self and thy own perfect satisfaction come I say whosoever thou art that eagerly followest after pleasure to the contemplation of these joys which are so sublimely sweet And be content to part with all other if that be the onely means to be possessed of these What if thou shouldst suffer by devoting thy self to pursue these in many outward accommodations nay if thou shouldst lose this Life to attain that which is Eternall It will be no dear purchace but bring thee in an increase of more then an hundred-thousand-fold Whatsoever thou expendest here for the Lord Jesus He hath given thee his Bond for it that it shall be repayed with good measure heaped up pressed down thrust together and running over into thy bosome vi Luk. 38. An overflowing joy it will be but it runs over into our own breasts None of it will be spilt beside our selves but it will trickle down with a delicious sweetness into our own hearts Which should stir up our most thirsty desires methinks to be made partakers of it If we fore-taste the least drop of it in such Meditations as these it should fill our hearts with sharp longings after more and dispose us to say with the devout Father I named at the conclusion of the foregoing particular Far be it from me O Lord August Lib. x. Confes cap. xxii for be it from the heart of thy servant to think my self happy whatsoever joy I have in this world There is a Joy which is not the portion of the wicked but of those who serve thee freely whose joy thou thy self art And that is the truly-happy life to rejoyce to thee because of thee for thee This is it and there is no other O how far distant is this present life from that Here is Falshood Orat. contra Judaeos Pagan Arrian cap. xxi there is Truth Here is Disturbance there is sure Possession Here is the worst Bitterness there eternall Love Here dangerous Pride there secure Joy and triumph Here we fear lest he that is a Friend should on a sudden turn an Enemy there a Friend is always constant because no Enemy can be admitted thither Here whatsoever Good we have we are afraid to lose it there whatsoever we receive shall be preserved by him who takes care that neither we pass away from it nor it from us Here is Death there is Life Here all things that God hath created there God himself in stead of all and in all things But what humane tongue can extoll that which no sense of mortalls can comprehend We will go thither that we may comprehend it We will go and see there that which eye hath not seen and hear there that which ear hath not heard and understand there what the heart of man cannot now conceive and seeing hearing and understanding we shall exult with unspeakable joy And what Joy is that where no Fear will be Whaâ— kind of Joy will it be when thou shalt see thy self a companion of Angels a partaker of the Kingdom of Heaven in Royall state with the King of all desiring nothing in passession of all things rich without covetousness administring without money judging without Successour reigning without fear of Barbarians living an eternall Life without Death CHAP. III. A farther Explication of the Happiness of this LIFE IV. WE must stay as I have said before for the resolution of such Questions till we enter into that Joy And for the present be glad to know that our Souls being thus happily disposed shining with the Divine Light satisfied with the Divine Love and rejoycing in both must needs issue forth in the most chearfull and delightsome Praises of God who hath preferred us to such a blissfull state For this we all find is one of the naturall effects of Joy here in this Life As it transports and raises the Soul above it self as it makes us eager to possess if it were possible more of that Good which gives such delight and as it makes us for the present forget all other things all the cares and troubles of this life and indeed so much betters and improves our Soul that of all other things we are not willing to forgo it So it never fails likewise to employ the tongue in praising and commending that Good to which it owes it self How barren soever the Mind be or what slowness soever there be in our Tongues joy and pleasure make us fruitfull in Thoughts and quicken our Speech to declare the content we take in the company of that which is the cause of it Nay the Voice becomes bigger and louder by its means and it never utters it self but with earnest notes of its high satisfaction And therefore it is impossible for the ravisht Soul when it is come to the delightfull Vision of God to refrain from joyning with the Heavenly Quire to give Glory to God in the highest that is after the most excellent manner and with the most exalted affections As the Understanding by reflecting upon the blessedness of the whole Man will excite an extraordinary Joy in the heart as I have just now discoursed so by reflecting upon the fountain from whence that happiness flows and earnestly observing the Originall of its enjoyments it cannot but excite in it self admiration and wondering thoughts and presently employ them to invent the noblest hymns and songs of praise whereby to magnifie and laud this glorious Goodness of God And this will make still greater additions to the Joy before spoken of which must necessarily be intermixed with these most affectionate Thanksgivings as every one can witness who hath tried this heavenly employment which the Psalmist in his experience found so good so pleasant and so comely cxlvii 1. Were all the mercies of but one day placed now in a clear view before your eyes or
wicked Whatsoever it was God told him he could not comprehend it but must be content with the sight onely of his back parts not of his face xxxiii Exod. ult That is saith Maimonides with the knowledge of something of his Essence or as he elsewhere expounds it * More Nev. p. i. c. 21. of his Works and Attributes of which he had such an obscure knowledge as we have of a man whose back parts we have seen but never beheld his face To be so intimately acquainted with God and his mind as he wish'd was the priviledge of the Messiah alone who had the clearest and fullest sight of the Glory of the Father both of his Essence and his Will and his gracious intentions towards us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bosome of the Father and therefore sees his face as the Scripture speaks and hath not merely some obscure representations of him like that of a man when he turns his back to us but a full view of him in all his perfections of which he himself is the very Image And what he saw he hath by God's express will revealed to us and discovered those things which eye never beheld but were kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the glorious rewards which his love will give to all pious persons For since I have proved that he is his Son we cannot imagine that he presumed to say more then he knew or told us things out of his own mind onely when he spake of ETERNALL LIFE as he frequently did but what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth as it is iii. John 32. We cannot believe otherwise 3. when we look upon him as the Son of God but that he must needs speak the very truth to us As he could not but know the Mind of God if he was so one with him so he could not but speak to us according to what he knew of his Mind For as the Father is Truth so is the Son because he is perfectly the same with the Father We worship the Father of Truth and the Son the Truth who are two in person but one in consent and agreement and identity of will as Origen * L. viii contra Celsum speaks explaining those words of our Saviour I and the Father are one x. Joh. 30. and I am the Truth xiv 6. We may be confident that the words of both are equally faithfull and true So God the Father bad St. John write of his own sayings as I observed before xxi Rev. 5. And in the same style our Saviour commands him to write of himself These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witness iii. Rev. 14. John Baptist had said as much before iii. Joh. 34. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God To which the words of our Saviour in another place of that Gospell perfectly accord xii 49 50. I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his commandment is EVERLASTING LIFE whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 4. he hath no less Power then he hath Truth but being the Son of God the heir of all things can make good his gracious promises and put us into the possession of the Eternall Inheritance which we expect as coheirs with him He was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead i. Rom. 4. according to his own prayer just before he offered up himself to God Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him xvii Joh. 1 2. And can we think 5. that he will not faithfully execute this trust and imploy his power for the end to which it was given him He would not then be like his Father who keepeth Truth for ever As he also most certainly will being the same Jesus yesterday and to day and for ever xiii Heb. 8. For if Moses was faithfull in the house of another wherein he was but a Servant no doubt our Lord who is a Son over his own house or family iii. Heb. 6. will not fail to discharge his royall office with all exactness but manifest himself to be like his Name The Word of God xix Rev. 13. Faithfull and true ver 11. This RECORD concerning him St. John thought so weighty and secure an evidence that he concludes all good Christians as sure of Eternall Life as if it were already in their hands For after he had said here in the words I am explaining that God hath given us i.e. made us a promise of Eternall Life which is in his Son he adds immediately which is the Second thing I intended to note that we have eternall life Which cannot signify less then that we have such a good right to it that we may account it ours The reason is because he that effectually believes in Jesus hath him in whose power it is to give it and who hath passed his word many a time that he will bestow it So you reade ver 12. He that hath the Son hath life He may be as sure of it as if it were in his present possession for by faith in Christ he is united to him who is the fountain and well-spring of life and bliss and stands ingaged divers ways to make all the Members of his Body happy with himself For to as many as received him he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or authority to become the Sons of God i. Joh. 12. who may legally claim the consummation of their adoption in the Eternall Inheritance They are by his grant unquestionable heirs of it and have such a strong title to it that they can never be defeated of it This heavenly Estate is in them as Lawyers speak though they be not in it They have an indisputable right I mean to it and may call it theirs though they be not yet seised of it and have not taken possession which in due time none can hinder or debar them of So the Apostle would have the Faithfull stedfastly believe for this was the very end for which he recorded the Evidences forementioned that they might know they have eternall life ver 13. which he repeats often in his Gospell as you may reade iii. Joh. 36. v. 24. vi 47. where he asserts this in the most earnest manner and assures them that he spake of this matter out of certain knowledge Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life He is a most happy man and may look upon himself as owner of more then all this world is worth Which he can never lose though he be not yet entred upon his inheritance because it is in the custody of him who hath
all power in heaven and earth and hath said as it there follows ver 54. I will raise him up at the last day Well then seeing that these are the things we expect to have our sins blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come to be made children of the resurrection to be delivered from the wrath to come to have glorious bodies to reign with Christ and to be made heirs of all things and seeing we are said to have this bliss i.e. to have a certain right to it if we believe on him and seeing also that our right is apparent from the same Records or Witnesses whereby it was proved that Jesus is the Son of God All that I can apprehend remaining to be done to give us a fuller certainty of these promises is to make particular inquiry what every one of those Witnesses which testify to Jesus say to this point that God hath given us eternall life and that this life is in his Son This is the RECORD St. John saith i.e. this is the matter of it Let us examine if you please all these Six Witnesses one after another upon this matter and see if they do not give the same evidence of it that they have done of the other and make as infallible proofs that God hath given us this blessing and that it is in him as they do that Jesus is the Son of God and came from him There is no way like to this that I know of to attain a strong faith and hope of Eternall Life which it infinitely concerns us all to make sure and to have a well grounded perswasion of both that we may live comfortably in the midst of all troubles and that we may be able to overcome all temptations and that we may be willing to die and when nothing else will give us the least comfort we may lift up our heads with unspeakable joy For what can deject their hearts Macarius Hom xxxiv whose hope is firmly fixt in Heaven What should make them complain who have for their Inheritance everlasting Life Vnspeakable unconceivable are the glories innumerable are the good things which God hath prepared for those that love him As in things visible the plants the seeds the flowers are so numerous that none can count them nor is it possible to cast up the summe of all the other treasures of the Earth or as in the Sea the wit of man cannot comprehend the creatures in it either their number or their kinds or their differences or take the measure of its waters or of its place or as in the Air none can number the Birds or in the Heavens tell all the Stars So it is impossible to tell or conceive the riches of Christians in the invisible world their unmeasurable their infinite their incomprehensible Riches For if these Creatures are so infinite and incomprehensible by man how much more He that made and form'd them all And therefore it ought to fill every Christian heart with the greater joy and exultation of spirit because the Riches and Inheritance prepared for them so much surpasses all that can be uttered And with all diligence and humility should we buckle our selves to the Christian Combate that we may be partakers of their Riches For the Inheritance and the portion of Christians is God himself They may say with David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance My lines are faln unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage Glory be to him who gives us himself Glory be to him for ever who mixes his own Nature with Christian Souls 〈…〉 effable kindness of God who free 〈…〉 less then himself upon us O the ineffable happiness of such Souls who are wholly in joy and mirth and peace as so many Kings and Lords and Gods Behold here thy Nobility Christianity is no vulgar or contemptible thing Thou art called to the dignity of a Kingdome not like that of earthly Princes whose glory and riches are corruptible and pass away but to the Kingdom of God to Riches divine and celestiall which never decay For there blessed Souls reign together with the heavenly King and in the heavenly company Since such good things therefore are set before us such glorious promises are made us such great good will of our Lord is manifested towards us let us not despise his kindness nor be slack in our motion towards Eternall Life but give up our selves intirely to the good pleasure of the Lord. And let us call upon him that by the power of his Divinity he would redeem us from the dark prison of dishonourable affections and vindicating his own Image and Workmanship cause it to shine most brightly till our Souls be so sound and pure that we be made worthy of the communion of the Spirit giving glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost for ever Amen CHAP. VI. Concerning the Testimony of the FATHER WE must begin as we did before with the Witnesses in Heaven the first of which you know is the FATHER who spake three times from Heaven by an audible voice to testify to our Lord Jesus And if you examine again all that he hath said you will find both these things recorded in his words that he hath given us ETERNALL LIFE and that this LIFE is in his Son I. The first time that God the FATHER spake from Heaven was at our Saviour's Baptism when the Heavens were opened and a Voice came from thence which said Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased iii. Luk. 22. In which words there are two things very remarkable which plainly testifie to the Truth of those two now mentioned that LIFE is in his Son and that we shall partake of it I. That He calls Jesus his SON and his beloved Son Which being spoken from heaven in such a glorious manner as the Gospell describes it must needs signifie him to be his SON in the most eminent sense for it was never said to any Angel in this sort Thou art my Son my beloved Son This declared him to have the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily to be invested with his own authority and power and to be that Seed promised who should bless all the World which is a thing too great for any one to doe but for GOD himself It was by an audible voice from heaven that the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham to tell him the LORD had sworn by himself that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed xxii Gen. ver 15 16 18. And so now to shew us the Seed was come who should be such a great Benefactour to mankind the LORD himself speaks by a voice from Heaven declaring Jesus to be his SON the Authour of that Universall Bliss which he had promised Which tells us plainly enough that LIFE is in him which is one of the things that St. John affirms upon this Record for else he
shone as the Sun though this may reasonably be thought as I shewed in the former Treatise to be a representation of his Ascension into heaven where he shines at the right hand of the Father and is the Lord of glory And therefore I shall onely observe two things first the words now added to the voice formerly delivered secondly the manner wherein they were spoken in the audience of those Apostles I. As for the words now added in this second voice to those of the first wherein he had declared him as he doth here again his beloved Son in whom he delighted they are these HEAR YE HIM Which are the very words that Moses spake to the Children of Israel when he prophesied of the Messiah and said xviii Deut. 15. unto him ye shall hearken And it may be one reason why Moses was now present when God spake these words in the Mount that he might consent to this truth which was now so solemnly pronounced in his hearing that Jesus was the Great person of whom he had prophesied Now God bidding the Apostles HEAR HIM and Moses himself to whom they had hearkened all this while being content that he should take his room it is an argument of something to be declared by him that Moses had not spoken And what should that be but onely the words of Eternall Life which was but obscurely intimated and shadowed in the ancient Law but by him was preached so clearly and distinctly that the voice of the Heavens is not more audible There is nothing I shall shew in due place that our Saviour preached so frequently nothing upon which he insisted so long and earnestly and took such pains to settle in mens minds as this belief that Eternall Life shall be the portion of all that doe well And therefore when God the Father bad them hear him who made it his principall business to publish this glad tidings to the World it was the very same as if this Voice had said in express words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased believe it He shall give you eternall life This is the Commandment his Father gave him as you heard before xii Joh. 50. This is the will of him that sent him vi Joh. 40. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternall life 1 Joh. ii 25. And therefore he stands engaged to bestow it and we agree with him for it when we enter into his service For you may observe farther that as to hear Moses was to embrace the Covenant that God made with them by him so we can understand no less by hearing the Son of God then our entring into the New Covenant of which he is the Mediatour which is founded upon better promises then the former whereby we have a title to a celestiall not an earthly inheritance whereof he is the Lord and to which he hath engaged himself to be our Conductour And indeed Moses and Elias who were never called the Sons of God much less by a voice from heaven so termed appearing now with our Saviour in glory it was a notable sign that He should be taken up to a far greater glory then theirs and have power of changing men into such a condition as that wherein he was now transfigured and in the mean time should preach that life and immortality which they saw conferred upon those two persons to honour him Whom the Disciples you may observe again saw in a glory so much greater then the Law-giver himself now had that if the voice from heaven had been silent it would have been an argument our Saviour should be the Lord of glory For when they desired to make their abode there and for that purpose to build three Tabernacles they say one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias putting him in the first place before the other two which they would not sure have done had not Moses and Elias done reverence to him as a greater person then themselves I shall end this with a Tradition among the Hebrews which if it signifie any thing may serve to shew that Jesus is their long-expected Christ For R. Bechai saith * in xlix Gen. 10. that when Jacob speaks of the coming of Schilo he comprehends not onely the last Redeemer the Messiah but the first Redeemer also i. e. Moses who shall have the honour then to attend upon the Messiah and enter into the holy land according to what the Masters say upon xv Exod. 1. where the words are then Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sing And in the great Commentary upon Deuteronomy they write as the same Authour goes on that God said to Moses Because thou didst give thy life for them in this world desiring that God would blot his name out of the book of life to preserve theirs in the world to come i.e. the days of the Messiah when I shall bring Elias to them you two shall enter in together Which may possibly be the meaning of those words i. Joh. 21. Art thou Elias and he said I am not Art thou that Prophet i. e. Moses who alone was worthy of the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prophet above all others Now if there were any ground of such expectation that these two should come in their own persons you see it here fulfilled on this holy Mount where Moses who was so much in mount Horeb and Elias who used mount Carmel now appeared and had communication with him about his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure out of this world unto his heavenly Kingdome ix Luk. 31. The Mount where they met and where Jesus was transfigured is generally believed to be Tabor as Hermon a little hill near Jordan there is a tradition was the place from whence Elias was taken up to heaven In these two Mountains saies Proclus * Orat. viii our Lord Jesus was proclaimed the Beloved Son of God from whom we may expect immortall bliss At Hermon when he was baptized in Jordan on Tabor when he was transfigured and appeared in a glory as much greater then Elias's as the high mountain Tabor was above the little hill of Hermon And so was fulfilled says he that prophecie of the Psalmist lxxxix 12. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name In both places was published this joyfull news that God had sent his Son to be the Saviour of the World First in the mount from whence Elias was transported into heaven and then in the mount where he came to attend on our Lord when he was transfigured God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirming his Sonship proclaimed again with a loud voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him For he that heareth him heareth me as Proclus there glosses and he that is ashamed of him and his words of him will I be ashamed in my glory Let us listen to him therefore and since we hear him say as I noted before Verily
was attested by chosen persons to whom he shewed himself openly And then he was lifted up from the earth in another more noble and sublime sense then he had been before upon the Cross Then Angels came in bright array to testify to him what he had said of himself xiii Joh. 31 32. that God having been glorified in him had glorified him in himself This was a very glorious testimony that indeed he hath Life in himself and shall be the Authour of eternal Life to us And therefore he is called the Prince or Authour of life iii. Act. 15. because by that which overcame death his resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c * S. Cyril ib. in xii Joh. 28. we know him to be LIFE and the Son of the living God But of this more hereafter 3. Another Act whereby this saying I will glorifie thee again was verified I take to be his Exaltation by God's own right hand to the throne of glory in the heavens This he prayed for with the greatest ardency and the most assured expectation xvii Joh. 1 2. because God the Father he saith had given him power i. e. the promise of it over all flesh that he might give eternall life to as many as God had given him This promise I understand it was made to him when God uttered this voice from heaven I have both glorified thee and will glorifie thee again Then God gave him a power to raise up all as he had lately done Lazarus and to give them immortall happiness of which as he had then the grant so he now desires in this prayer to be put in possession And therefore when he says vers 1. Father the hour is come glorifie thy Son c. I take the meaning to be as if he had thus spoke Now is the time to doe that which thy voice from heaven assured me should be done viz. to glorifie me in so compleat a manner that I may glorifie thee and give eternall life to all the faithfull This he spake with eyes lifted up to heaven from whence that voice came which bare witness of him that he should be glorified more then ever and gave him authority to lay claim to the highest power of bestowing immortality Which power when God the Father had actually put into his hands according to this prayer and his own promise of which he could not fail having ingaged himself before a multitude to glorifie him then being made perfect he became the Authour of eternall Salvation to them that obey him v. Heb. 9. Then he was made a Priest for ever vii 16 17. not after the Law which was but a weak institution but after the power of an endless Life whereby he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him He can raise up us and all that succeed us as well as he did Lazarus and others in whom he gave onely a little taste of his power to give us Life that shall never die This now is the Third Testimony of the Father who in the audience both of Friends and Strangers said He had both glorified him and would glorifie him again That he had was then very well known and it was as certain because he said it that he would doe the same again By the testimony also of sufficient persons it appears that he made good this promise even at his Death after which he raised him out of his grave and lift him up far above all heavens that he may be glorified once more 2 Thess i. 10. by raising us up from the dead and promoting us to eternall glory with himself O wonderfull News Athanasius in Assumption Christi He that was lifted up to hang on a Cross is preferred now from his grave to a glorious throne And to come at it he takes a journey through the air the clouds running under his feet become his chariot the sky opens to him and the heavens with open arms receive him the troups of Angels joyn together in triumphall Songs and persuade his amazed Disciples to keep that day a festivall on earth as they did in heaven Do not stand gazing here say they any longer but go and preach this wonder to the world By his departure represent his coming again for so shall he come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven O how wonderfull are thy works O Lord which give us hope as the blessed St. Paul said when he thought of these things that we shall then be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we be ever with the Lord. We can doe no less then to those voices which came so oft from heaven to testifie this adde our poor voice of praise and thanksgiving saying with the Angels when He came into the world GLORY BE TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST and with the multitude when they met him at mount Olivet Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord PEACE IN HEAVEN AND GLORY IN THE HIGHEST Cyrill Hieros in occurs Domini Glory be to him who is the Fountain of Life coming from the Fountain of Life the Father Glory be to him who is the River of God proceeding from the Divine Abyss and inseparably one with it the Treasure of the Father's Goodness and of ever-springing Blessedness the Water of life who gives Life to the World the increated beam of the Father of Lights from whom he is undivided who being in the form of God took on him the form of a Servant not lessening the dignity of his Divinity but sanctifying the mass of our Humanity Him the Angels praise the Archangels worship the Authorities reverence the Powers glorifie the Cherubims doe him service the Seraphims acknowledge his Divinity the Sun and Moon minister to him who hath broken in pieces the gates of Hell and opened the gates of Heaven and abolished Death and confounded the Devill and dissolved the Curse and made Sorrow cease and trodden Sin under foot and restored the Creation and inlightened the World And therefore let us sing hymns to him with the Angels and rejoyce in the light of the glory of God with the Shepherds and adore him with the Wise men and joyfully magnifie him with the blessed Virgin and confess him with Simeon and Anna who were glad to see his Salvation that so we at last may also be possessed of eternall good things through the grace and the bowels of mercy and the loving-kindness of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Testimony of the WORD the Second Witness in Heaven IF we had no farther Witness of this Truth but that which hath been already produced we might well rejoyce in the comfort which God the Father hath given us and rely upon Jesus as the Authour of Eternall Life to all those that obey him
doctrine of happiness to us which his own people so abhorred we should partake of if God the WORD had not made him infallibly assured of it Nay how could he have preached it so long unless as he there speaks he had obtained help of God who countenanced his preaching and approved this testimony of his concerning his Son Jesus by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost He himself also testified the strong belief he had of the Resurrection and of the Glory that shall be revealed by his labouring so abundantly as he did in the work of the Lord to whom he was desirous to express an extraordinary affection because his grace and love had so abounded towards him He thought he could never in the least requite his kindness and therefore would not gain one farthing not so much as a bit of bread by this preaching But though he might have lived by the Gospel chose rather to work with his own hands to support himself and those that were with him that he might win the more Souls to his Master by making Religion without charge to them A great argument of his zeal to serve his Lord and promote his honour and of his firm belief of immortall life where he desired onely to have his services rewarded Which is excellently expressed by the forenamed Asterius when he says that he refused so small a recompence of his infinite labours as a daily provision for his body which was so often beaten and bruised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that receiving nothing upon Earth he might lay up all in Heaven VI. And therefore you may observe that his service was so acceptable to our Saviour that he gratified him here in this world above our mortall condition and to give him an earnest or pledge of the good things to come and the honour should be done him there he did him the favour to transport him into the Third heaven and another time into Paradise where he saw Visions and heard words too glorious for him to utter or us to understand in this present state 2 Cor. xii 3 4. This was a farther confirmation which the Eternall WORD gave of his power to give Eternall Life and of his intentions to take us up unto himself For he was carried thus above the clouds by the power and favour of Jesus who hereby bare witness to himself how glorious he is and how able to advance his faithfull Disciples to the same height of heavenly felicity For he says it was a man in Christ one who by the happiness of belonging to him had this noble priviledge bestowed on him And he gives this as an instance of the Visions and Revelations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the LORD ver 1. which is the title of Jesus most frequently in the New Testament who is LORD of all x. Act. 36. He snatcht him up into the Heavens He transported him no body knows how to the celestiall habitations And either by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Greg. Naz * Orat. ii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 550. distinguishes them a rapture of mind in the body or the ascension of his mind quite out of the body or the assumption of both for a time into those regions above he let him see strange sights and hear such words as are not to be spoken with our tongues Which was a very full demonstration of the Majesty of our Blessed Saviour and of his ability to translate us to those heavenly places and of his purposes likewise to make us at last so happy Behold here the glory of the Christian Religion whose Authour is so highly exalted that he exalts this Minister of his far above the greatest persons in former times The translation of Elias as the often named Asterius speaks * Ib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. out of this world wherein we are is every-where celebrated as a wonder But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how far he went no Revelation hath explained Perhaps he was not carried very high above the Earth by that power which lifted him up to the place which was destined for his habitation But the translation of St. Paul was far more illustrious and famous the very place being noted to which he was carried and that no inferiour one but almost half way to the highest heavens of all Let the Hebrews hereafter cease to pride themselves in the honour that was done to Moses who alone went up to the top of mount Sinai and was in the midst of the clouds and darkness which appeared there My Paul in stead of a mountain ascended into heaven and in stead of a cloud was carried beyond the air that is above the clouds And very fitly for it became a Man of Christ to outstrip Moses as much as the Old Law was excelled by the Gospell that St. Paul preached which he calls the Mystery hid from ages and generations but now made manifest to the Saints or Christians to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in us the hope of glory i. Col. 26 27. III. And here now let us leave the history of this great Man and pass to the Third Testimony which the WORD gave of this truth to St. John Who as he is the onely person that after the other Evangelists had set down the genealogy of our Lord according to the flesh expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Proclus * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks the Eternall subsistence without any beginning of God the WORD and his generation of the Father before all worlds so he hath gathered here together more clearly then any of the rest all the Evidences and grounds of the Christian Faith and also received the most full and pregnant demonstrations of what he hath particularly recorded concerning Eternall life in the Son of God For when our Blessed Lord the WORD made flesh whom he beheld ascending into heaven appeared to him from thence in a most glorious manner you may observe I. That he sufficiently declares his power to doe what he pleases by taking to himself that very Name and Title whereby God the Father Almighty sometimes revealed himself to the Prophets You reade in the xli Isa 4. xliv 6. the Lord the King of Israel and his Redeemer saith I am the first and the last which is the very same with those words i. Rev. 8. I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord c. those two being the names of the first and the last letters in the Greek Alphabet as A and Z are the first and last in our Christ-cross-row Now if you look farther into this book of the Revelation you will find that in this very style our Blessed Lord speaks of himself In the very beginning of the Visions there recorded St. John heard one call to him with a loud voice as of a trumpet saying I am Alpha and Omega the first
risen from the dead and after all my sufferings such as you must endure for my sake am alive as thou seest and in a far better condition then I was before when thou wast not thus afraid of me Though in my first attempt to raise a Church I suffered death and laid the foundation of it in my bloud yet it is apparent I have overcome death and now live in greater splendour then ever If our Lord had stopt here and said no more this had been sufficient to convince him of his power to present to himself a glorious Church and from the lowest and most afflicted condition to raise it to the greatest honour here and to eternall glory in the other world But he proceeds for the stronger confirmation of his faith and says Behold more then this I am alive for evermore I have Eternall Life and can never lose this power and therefore thou mayst believe me when I say that I am the Omega whom thou knowest to be the Alpha for I can perfect what I have undertaken and bring to an happy issue all the good I have begun to work for you The latest posterity shall find that I am alive and able to promote them to everlasting bliss Fear not these words are all true and therefore I conclude them with an AMEN wherewith I was wont thou mayst remember to confirm my sayings that thou mayst rest assured I now say nothing but the certain indubitable truth when I tell thee I am he that was dead and now am alive and that I live for evermore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Andreas Caesariensis conceives his meaning How canst thou imagine then that thou art in danger to suffer any harm by my appearing to thee since the power which thou seest me have is to give life not death unto my servants I never used thou mayst remember to kill men but to save them and therefore thus thou mayst be confident I will still imploy my omnipotent power for I am Alpha and Omega the same at last that I was at first I am come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly And indeed as he still goes on I have the keys of hell and of death or as we render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated hell in 1 Cor. xv 55. the keys of the grave and of death I can open the graves as I did at my death and can loose the bands of death as I did at my resurrection I can bring you out of that dark estate where no body sees you and restore you to life again nay raise you to that Light wherein thou beholdest me shine And here again it is observable that our Saviour takes to himself that very power which is ascribed to Almighty God by Hannah who says in her Song 1 Sam. ii 6. The Lord killeth and maketh alive he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up Whereby he would suggest to St. John that all things are committed to his trust and are in his power for that is frequently denoted in the holy language by Keys the badge of a Steward's authority and power in a family and therefore it is not too hard for him to overcome the great Conquerour of all men to open the prison-doors that have been so long shut and fast locked to loose the chains of death and overthrow him quite who hath the power of it that is the Devill But this he would have us stedfastly believe and therefore immediately bids him not lie as a man dead but get up and write the things that thou hast seen ver 19. That is Let my Church know that I am alive and that I bear the same affection to them that I ever had Send them this comfort from me that I not onely live but always live and have all power committed to me even over the grave and death so that if any man lose his life for me I can give it him again with such an increase of dignity and glory as thou seest me enjoy And we must needs confess that there is an exceeding great comfort in this assurance which he gave thus in his own person and with his own mouth to this holy Apostle who knows as he speaks in another case xix Joh. 35. that he saith true For hereby we rest satisfied of one part of the Record which is to be proved that Life is in Jesus and see moreover much reason to believe the other part that he intends to bestow it on us VI. But for a fuller evidence of that you may consider in the last place that this WORD of God gave frequent testimonies of it to St. John in the following Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia Where they are so obvious that I may leave it to the most careless hand to gather them To one he saith I will give to him that overcometh to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God ii Rev. 7. To another I will give him a crown of life and He shall not be hurt of the second death ver 10 11. To a third I will give him the white Stone c. a certain knowledge and assurance i.e. as I hope to shew in another place of the promised reward ver 17. To another He shall be cloathed in white raiment and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels iii. 5. And to name no more he promises to grant to him that overcometh to sit down with him in his throne ver 21. Which though it may have some respect to the high place and dignity he should injoy in the Church in this world yet had not its full completion but in the other life where he will crown the fidelity of all victorious Souls with the greatest glory and honour How can we doubt of it when we hear such express promises of immortall bliss so oft repeated from the mouth of the WORD of God himself after he went to heaven Great is our assurance great is the confidence we may take from such a Record as this if we be in the number of those that overcome remain constant that is and fixed in our Christian resolution notwithstanding any assaults that are made upon us either by the good or bad things of this world to tempt us to revolt from our duty For St. John saw and heard these things from the Lord Jesus himself upon his own Day the day of his resurrection from the dead and in a glory so bright that it was an emblem of the happiness he will bestow upon us and with such earnest asseverations of their truth and certainty as are sufficient to awake the dullest and most lethargick Souls to attend to what he says For thus he begins his Letter to the Church of Laodicea who were grown strangely chill and indevout These things saith the Amen the faithfull
longer upon such considerations as these when his Doctrine which is the Second thing I mentioned is so holy and pure so heavenly and divine that the constant preacher of such things could not be guilty of so great an impiety as to call the God of heaven at last to bear witness to a known untruth No it condemns lesser lies to so severe a punishment that to say he was sent of God with the words of Eternall life nay was the Way the Truth and the Life when he knew he was not deserved according to his own sentence the heaviest condemnation To which if you add the manner of his Life which was the last thing it will compleat the Demonstration For it was so perfectly conformable to his Doctrine that we cannot but think he believed it and so could not die with a lie in his mouth Particularly it was so free from all covetous designs and from hunting after the applause and praise of men that it is incredible he should seek that by death which he had despised through the whole course of his life If he was so thirsty of vain-glory as to lose his life for it why did he not make it his business to win all he could of it while he lived Why did he not lay the foundation of his after-fame by insinuating himself in the most diligent and men-pleasing manner into the favour of all the Jewish nation and conform himself so perfectly to their humour that they might have presently made him their King Nay why did he not accept the offer when the people intended to advance him to the throne This had been a more likely way to honour and renown if that was all his aim then the lifting him up upon a Cross He might have hoped to build a lasting glory on the love of the Scribes and Elders of the people whereas this infamous death he could not but see would make him so odious that it would rob him of all mens good word and quite frustrate the design of winning a reputation among men This is a truth of which I presume by this time the most suspicious and unbelieving are convinced who cannot but confess that the voluntary death of such a person as this and a death so horrid and ignominious is a plain testimony of his sincerity and proves beyond any reasonable contradiction that he did not invent his Doctrine himself but believed it to be of God and did not seek to gain any thing by it but immortall life and glory in the world to come VI. Now that we must needs be great gainers hereby as well as himself will appear if you consider that he came into the world on purpose to doe mankind good as the business of his whole life testifies He went about doing good and sought all occasions of obliging even the most ungratefull He had compassion on every body he met withall and never denied a cure to those that begg'd it though they were never so poor and contemptible He imployed his Disciples also who attended on him in the same charitable works of healing all manner of diseases and easting out unclean spirits He bad them go and speak peace unto every house into which they entred And as for themselves he professed the greatest love imaginable to them as they themselves have recorded He called them his Friends and did not use them as Servants nay his Children and at last his Brethren which are all terms of much kindness and tenderness which he ever expressed towards them From whence I conclude that unless he could have served them better by his death then by his longer life he would not have so soon and so willingly gone to the Cross and there left these dear Friends for whose sake he had hitherto lived more then his own If he had not died for their sake too and been certain he should thereby shew more love to them and doe them better service then any other way he would have been as much inclined to stay still with them as they were to desire it He saw how loth they were to part with him and with what sad countenances and troubled spirits they received the news He was incompassed with sighs and groans when he did but mention it for sorrow as he speaks xvi Joh. 6. had filled their hearts Would not this have moved a heart less tender then his to alter this resolution when it was in his power to stay longer with them How could he endure to see their tears flow so fast when he was able to dry them up with the speaking but one word that he would not leave them If he had not been sure that he was going as he told them to his Father and that it was on purpose to prepare a place for them which ought to have made them rejoyce rather then weep because he would come again and receive them to himself that where he was there they might be also xiv Joh. 1 2 3 28. without all doubt his great love would have yielded to their prayers and commanded his power to prolong their happiness in his company He should be able he verily believed to doe greater wonders for them and bestow greater blessings upon them if he did not hearken to their importunities or else we cannot but think if we measure him by our selves he would have still continued with these his dear Companions especially since none as he professed could snatch him from their society but it was his own free choice to leave them V. And he earnestly desired them to believe as much and to look upon his BLOUD as the Seal of a New Covenant which contained better promises then the former between God and men So he said just before his death when he spoke of the Representation of it This is my BLOVD of the New Testament or Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins xxvi Matt. 28. And so the Apostles believed and spake of his BLOUD in the same terms when by his resurrection from the dead they saw that it was the BLOVD of the Covenant x. Heb. 29. and that he was most eminent for this above all other things as the expression is xiii Heb. 20. where the Apostle calls him the Shepherd of the sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was great in the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Now this is one Article every body knows one of the promises contained in it that we shall as certainly have Eternall Life as Israel in due time was brought to the possession of the good Land God promised to their Fathers Abraham you reade xv Gen. 7. had the word of God for it that he would give his posterity the Land of Canaan into which he had brought him out of Chaldaea And when he made so bold as to ask how he should know that this was true you find ver 9 10 11. that God passed this promise into a Covenant which was made by the bloud of sundry beasts
his preaching or presently followed it is a very strong argument to induce you to believe that he taught the way of God in truth having revealed all things pertaining to life and godliness as God himself attests For by the Glory wherewith he called us i. e. preached the Gospell and perswaded us to believe we are to understand his Transfiguration on the holy Mount where they saw his glory ix Luk. 32. and to which the Apostle afterward appeals ver 16 17. of this Chapter as a justification of the truth of their Ministry The coming down also of the Holy Ghost at his Baptism the voices from heaven in one of which God said he would glorifie him again as he had done already and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles are here also to be understood by Glory for by these we are called and moved to receive the knowledge of him And then by Vertue is undoubtedly meant that very thing which I last treated of his mighty power in miraculous works and the mighty power of the SPIRIT in raising him from the dead For it is well observed by Drusius and others that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue in these holy Writings never signifies as it doth in heathen Authours Piety and morall goodness in opposition to Vice but power and might in opposition to weakness And therefore by this word the Greek Interpreters of the Old Testament render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes the Greatness Majesty and height of God's excellency and sometimes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies strength and stoutness According to which in the New Testament it denotes either the mighty power of God as here in this place or else our courage and valour as in the fifth verse of this Chapter But it is no-where found in the sacred style used for piety and therefore we must not render the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to but by vertue that is the power and mightiness of God's arm or strength as the Scripture speaks by which our Saviour convinced the World that God the Father had sent him to give Life unto it Thus the Apostle St. Paul saith which will very much explain this that He was raised up from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the glory of the Father vi Rom. 4. That is by his glorious power as Camero well renders it for his power appeared most gloriously in that wonderfull Work whereby as St. Peter here speaks he called us to believe on him So we are to understand him it appears by another Argument For if we should say we are called to glory understanding thereby heaven we could not be said to have precious promises as it follows hereby given to us For this would be to say that by calling us to heaven he hath called us to heaven But if we take these words the other way then the sense runs currently and delivers to us this excellent Truth That by such means as I have treated of the Descent of the Holy Ghost the Transfiguration of our Saviour the Voices from heaven the Miracles he wrought the might of his power which wrought in him when God raised him from the dead he perswaded men to receive him as the onely-begotten of the Father who was come by his authority to shew them the true way to everlasting life By these we know that we are not cheated but that he who hath called us is the Son of God by whom we are sure to attain everlasting life if we follow those directions he hath given us which will infallibly bring us to it And then the next words ver 4. are still more pertinent to my purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by which GLORY and VERTUE are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises We are so sure to attain eternall life that we have many promises of it which are so strongly confirmed that we cannot doubt of them being delivered in such a divine manner For when he gave them it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by glory and vertue with such demonstrations of his Authority to promise them and of his power to make them good that we cannot but depend upon his word None I suppose question but by these great these precious yea exceeding great and precious promises he means those of raising us from the dead and carrying us to heaven to live with God and that eternally These are the chiefest things of which our Lord hath given us such assurance when he called us to believe on his Name Things which as much exceed all that was promised Israel as the heavens are wider then the smallest spot of this earth More precious are they then all lands if they flowed with milk and honey more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold then all the gold of Ophir more to be valued then the Crowns of Kings which are not so much as an Emmet's Egge in comparison with this Happiness Now as there is nothing that can be compared with these promises so we have no testimony on Earth comparable to this of the SPIRIT that exceeding greatness of his power whereby these promises were brought to us and assured to be infallible For by this we know that He hath all power in heaven and earth and is able to doe whatsoever the Father Almighty doeth that is give life to the dead which is the property of the Almighty alone So the Enemies of our Religion are forced to confess who say there are three keys which God keeps to himself and commits to none of his Embassadours the keys of the womb the keys of heaven and the keys of the grave Thy power saith Joseph Albo speaking of God is not the power of flesh and bloud for the power of flesh and bloud is to put those to death who are alive but thy power is to raise those to life who are dead The very same we may justly say of our Lord Jesus Christ who challenges this power to himself as I have noted before out of the first of the Revelation where he tells St. John I have the keys of hell and of death ver 18. He was no ordinary Embassadour but can doe more then any whom God sent into the world ever did or could He can raise even the dead bodies of his subjects to life again And when he hath lifted them out of the dust if I may apply the Psalmist's words to this purpose can set them with Princes even with the Princes of his heavenly Court to praise and bless his love among those great Ministers the Angelicall powers for ever and ever Which is a power he doth not assume to himself vainly but was conferred on him by God the Father who raised him from the dead and gave him glory wherein St. John beheld him when he said I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keys of hell and of death Great is
constant Auditours of Which made them the more confident to declare these things to others because they had them not at the second hand but immediately from himself And because it is the least of testimonies to say we have heard a thing therefore he adds in the second place that they had SEEN it beheld that is all the marvellous works he did to confirm this Doctrine which he delivered as the word Seen seems to be understood xv Joh. 24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin but now they have SEEN and yet hated both me and my Father They saw the vast numbers that he fed with a little food the sick that he cured with speaking a word the dead that he raised when all their friends gave them for lost and despaired of seeing them again in this world In short so many instances of his Divine power and authority that if they should have been written every one this Apostle supposes the World would not have been able to contain the Books that should have been written xxi ult But these are recorded which we find in the Gospell as he concludes the foregoing Chapter that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name And lest any should imagine it was but a transient sight they had of these things and their eyes might be deluded as we sometimes are when a thing suddenly flies away from us or that they were but seldom spectatours of these things and so could not gather much from thence he adds in the third place that they had LOOKED on it that is had this evidence continually before their eyes They scarce saw any thing else but miracles They had not leisure ofttimes so much as to eat their meat by reason of the great multitude of people that came to be healed by him They conversed a long time with Lazarus after he was risen and our Lord himself was seen of them forty days after his resurrection speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God And when the Holy Ghost came they themselves to whom the Apostle here writes could testifie the wonderfull variety of spirituall gifts that were poured on believers But because we imagine that to feel a thing is far more considerable for our satisfaction then to see it or look upon it as St. Thomas would not believe those who had seen our Lord and heard him speak but he would put his hands into his wounds before he would be satisfied therefore the Apostle tells us farther that they declared nothing but what they had HANDLED of the word of life That is there was most palpable evidence and demonstration given of the truth of their report They were so near as to touch and feel that their eyes were not deceived when they thought they saw such miracles wrought For their own hands distributed the bread and the fish to the hungry multitude And some of them untied the grave-cloaths of Lazarus when he was raised from the dead And to give one instance for all when he himself rose again from his grave they not onely discoursed with him and saw him eat and drink and beheld him severall times and in severall places but he called them to him and said Behold my hands and my feet handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have xxiv Luk. 39. This very handling of him was a great argument of the Eternall Life which was with the Father but was hereby made manifest unto us for it proves his resurrection and that is a proof of ours Now they having thus heard and seen and beheld and handled these things how could they chuse but publish that Jesus is the Authour of Eternall Life And we receiving such testimony from them how can we refuse to believe their word that we may have fellowship with them in God and his Son i. e. be partakers as they were in that most blessed Life of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ If we do but believe there were such men as St. John and St. Paul and all the rest and if they had eyes and ears and hands like other men if they were men of sound brains and understandings as it appears by their writings they were if any credit may be given to sober persons who protest they heard those voices from heaven saw those miracles which they have recorded conversed with our Saviour after he rose from the dead as there are no Writers in the world deserve credit if they do not nay if they deserve more credit then any considering what they did and suffered as you shall hear for the testimony of that which they saw and heard and wrote to the world there is no doubt this Life was manifested most apparently to them and they had reason to bear witness of it and shew it to us And we cannot but rest satisfied that it is the will of God to give Eternall Life by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. No question to be made of it unless we will question all Histories in the world and believe nothing that is reported and delivered to us by others Which if it were once resolved there would be an end of most of the trade commerce and business that is managed in the world And deeds and evidences which men have from their ancestours would become void and present possession would be the onely title they could have to their estates But for our farther satisfaction let me briefly shew that the APOSTLES gave a continued Testimony to this truth all the three ways whereby St. John saith He came by WATER by BLOVD and by the SPIRIT I. As for the purity of their Doctrine which is one part of the Testimony of Water I have given an account of it in the first part of this Discourse Which demonstrates it was of that nature that it had been an idle attempt to preach it and endeavour to plant it in the World had they not believed and been able to prove that their Master who employed them would give them and all those who obeyed their word the reward of Eternall Life To which if you adde the holiness of their Life which is another part of this Testimony you cannot think that men of such sincerity in all other things would have affirmed so confidently as they did that which they did not take to be true nor have protested they saw and heard and felt such things as they never had any notice of But if you will needs suppose they might be so vile which is very unreasonable yet who can think they would have denied themselves so much as they did for their Master's sake in which a great part of their piety consisted if they had not been sure that he would lead them by such means to everlasting life This extraordinary contempt of all present things even of life it self as you shall
other end but to shew how stupidly blind men are when they are left to walk in the ways of their own hearts and how deeply we are indebted to the exceeding great love of God who when he saw the minds of men too weak to comprehend such things and that they stood in need of a Divine Teacher as Clemens Alexandrinus * L. v. Stromat p. 548. speaks was pleased in his infinite condescension to send one from the very place his own dear Son from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Teacher and the Giver of that possession of Good the secret holy token of that great Providence which took care when men had lost themselves in vain imaginations to lead them right by Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life Who hath made that certain which was dubious and that plain to every body which was the hardest thing in the world to know before and bids us lift up our Minds to God himself with whom he dwells and to whom he will bring us that we may rejoyce in his Love for ever in the happy company of Angels and good men and in that place of which the Divine Majesty is the glory And it was but needfull we shall see he should send us such a Conductour when we consider how little even they who were instructed by God himself understood of this Eternall Life before our Saviour appeared It cannot be denied that the greatest part of the Jews before our Saviour's coming did expect the Resurrection of the dead and Eternall Life v. Joh. 39. xxvi Act. 6 7. And their pious Ancestors before the giving of the Law xi Heb. 9 10 16 26. as well as after ver 35. sought an heavenly country and had respect to the recompence of reward and refused deliverance from their tortures that they might obtain a better resurrection And their Writers in all Ages have spoken much of the World to come whereby they understand sometimes the days of the Messiah and sometimes the future State which we expect after death All this is true but it is as certain I. That they had no such express promises of these things either in the Law or in the Prophets as we have in the holy Gospell Where do you reade one such saying as this which we frequently meet withall in the whole Law of Moses Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world vi Joh. 47 51. Promises indeed of the good things of this world are very rife to those that diligently keep God's commandments to whom he says I will give you the rain of your land in due season that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattel that thou mayest eat and be full xi Deut. 14 15. Which is repeated again more largely xxviii Deut. 2 3 c. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field Blessed shalt thou be in the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground c. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out But in what place do you find any such promises as these BLESSED are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE GOD Blessed are they that doe his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life with such like of which the New Testament is so full that a little time will not serve to number them all v. Matt. 3 4 8. xxii Rev. 14. Alas when their Writers undertake to prove the life of the World to come out of their Law it is out of places so far from the purpose that this endeavour is a plain confession they have no express promises of it but are fain to squeez the words to speak that which is not in them Shall I give a few instances of this truth Joseph Albo a famous man of that Nation and of good reason from that place xiv Deut. 1 2. Ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead For thou art an holy people c. thus fetches about his discourse Behold one would think the quite contrary should be concluded They should the rather mourn and grieve because they are the children of God as the Son of a King is more to be lamented when he is dead then the child of an ordinary man But the true interpretation is as if he had said Seeing the most Blessed God is holy and his Ministers are holy thou also art an holy people All things are joyned to that which is like themselves and therefore without doubt your Soul is joyned to the Angels because it is holy as they are holy for which cause you must not cut your selves for the dead nor mourn more then is fit And this teaches us that there is a blessed immortality for the Soul after death Such is his conclusion from those words which rather teach us how hard it is to find anything in the Law to that purpose and how much we are bound to magnify the love of God for the revelation of his blessed will in the Gospell He argues something better when he gathers it from those words xxxii Deut. 47. where he saith there is a twofold happiness or reward spoken of one spirituall it is your life the other corporall because it is said through this ye shall prolong your days And yet so weak and infirm are their reasonings that at another turn they shall prove Eternall Life from this promise of prolonging their days though it be expresly added in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee For there being the letter Jod wanting in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fifth Commandment where God promises to prolong their days they conclude that there is no prolongation of days in this world but it belongs to the next Nor can he find any clearer place to prove the Resurrection of the body then that in the same book xxxii Deut. 39. I kill and I make alive Nay our Lord himself alledges a place for it which was but dark till he illustrated it and proved by consequence not an express promise that Abraham Isaac and Jacob should be rewarded by him who called himself their God But we cannot I think learn this truth better from any then from Philo a
defrauded themselves and took the meat as we speak out of their own mouths for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety This shews the wonderfull innocency and goodness of these men who got nothing by the Gospell no not what they might have lawfully and justly taken but onely studied how to win Souls to Christ In short he calls them and God also to witness how holily how justly how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed ver 10. The first of which words refers to God the second to those actions which belong to humane society and the third to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could He Silvanus and Timotheus be charged with any misdemeanour On which argument he once more insists 2 Tim. iii. 10 11. being so confident of his unreprovable vertue that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him and to walk so as they had him for an example 1 Cor. iv 16. iii. Phil. 17. All which I have the more particularly noted because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus Who they assure us chose to die the most shamefull death when he could have avoided it and with the greatest confidence when he was expiring commended his Spirit into the hands of God Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence and be able to doe for his followers all that he promised Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead and carried him in their sight up into heaven and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them to testify that he was still alive and possessed of an unseen glory In which they also tell us he appeared to severall persons as I have already related One of which was caught up into heaven and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more then to leave this earth and to be with Christ To whom the Angels they also assure us witnessed upon severall occasions For they attended him at his birth and in his life and when he died and after his resurrection and when he ascended into heaven From whence he sent them many times as ministring Spirits to his Apostles of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation From all which we may safely conclude that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the Gospell but onely his own desperate wickedness For the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other It reveals such a wonderfull love of God to mankind that all men would rejoyce to hear the news of it were they not averse to those pious and vertuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality which is testified to us so credibly in the Gospell that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity but onely the incurable wickedness of their Nature which will not let them part with those vices which the Gospell says they must quit for so great a Good In one word there is nothing in this Book but what is sutable to all mens desires save onely the holy rule of life and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the Gospell promises if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake For if our Gospell be hid saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. iv 3 4. That which the Gospell reports is as clear as the noon-day Nothing can be more visible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light or the splendour of the Gospell of the glory of Christ By which saith Theophylact the Apostle means the belief of these great Truths that Jesus was crucified that he was received up into heaven and that he will give future rewards This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendour the Apostle speaks of which if any man do not see after such evident demonstrations of these things it is his wickedness hinders him And such men after they have long resisted the light fall under the power of the Devil so inevitably that he blinds their eyes Mark as St. Chrysostom observes that the Scripture calls severall things by the name of a God not from their own worth and excellence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the weakness of those who are subject to them Thus Mammon is the God of some and the belly the God of others and the Devill the God of all such persons because they are basely inslaved to the love of mony and of their fleshly appetite and He rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their God Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes as he farther observes before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such Divine arguments for as the very words of St. Paul are he blinds the minds of them that believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became infidels of themselves and having given themselves over to unbelief against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith God gives them over to him to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves that they cannot be recovered but as they deserve must unavoidably perish From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves by timely considering those Divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us who beheld our Saviour's glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent Bishop writes who thus summs up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief The Angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel S. Chrysostom Hom. xii in Johan David and Moses but they appeared as servants as those that had a Master It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour that he appeared as a Lord as having power over all and though in a poor and vile fashion yet even in that the Creation knew its Lord and Master A Star from heaven called the Wise men to worship him A great company of Angels often attended him and sang his praises To whom others succeeded who published his glory and delivered this secret Mystery one to another the Angels to the Shepherds and the Shepherds to those
1.18 would never alter for forty years before the destruction of the Temple but still continued red on the great day of Expiation Which if it be true as we have their own faith for it was a shrewd token that their most excellent Sacrifices were now able to doe them no service and that their Sins were of so deep a dye having crucified the Prince of life that nothing in the old Religion could purifie them In vain did they expect to hear that tongue speaking peace to them which was wont to publish good tidings for it still lookt as red as bloud and told them there was no hope for them but in Jesus who alone could make their crimson sins as white as wool By his bloudy Death they might sue out a pardon of those very crimes which they had committed against himself For it being a Sacrifice was for the remission of Sins or else the World had been in a worse case then it was before now that all other Bloud to cleanse them was quite taken away And there was no reason to doubt but God was perfectly well pleased and satisfied with this one Sacrifice of his else he would not have raised him from the dead nor admitted him into the heavens where as He himself hath since declared he appears in the presence of God and by virtue of his Sacrifice makes perpetuall intercession for us Now this plainly infers as hath been said before the hope of Eternall Life For if there be remission of sins then we are restored to the state of innocence again We are put into the state and condition of the sons of God and there is nothing to hinder our being re-possessed of Paradise and the Tree of Life To which we not being restored in this World it remains that we be admitted to it and re-instated in it in another IX Unto all which let the consideration of the time be added when our Saviour suffered for that is not without its instruction in this business but contributes something to the confirmation of our faith It was at the Feast of unleavened Bread as they themselves cannot deny a solemn time appointed by God to be observed at their departure out of Egypt when they were ransomed by a mighty hand and purchased to be God's peculiar people and began their journey towards the Land of Canaan which he had promised to their forefathers At this Feast it is well known a Lamb immaculate and pure was ordered to be slain whose bloud was that which saved them from the strokes of the Angel of Death who destroyed the Egyptians Now our Lord the Lamb of God without spot and blemish the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world as St. John Baptist testified being slain at this very time and hanging on the Cross after the same fashion wherein the Paschall Lamb was wont to be killed it was a Testimony clear enough to those that observed and laid things together that his BLOUD was their ransome from a greater slavery and was shed to deliver them from eternall death and destruction and after they had travelled a while through the wilderness as I may call it of this world and overcome there all difficulties and temptations would procure their entrance into a better and more glorious Rest then that wherein they were The Holy man who writes the Epistle to the Hebrews proves unanswerably chap. iv that the Rest into which Joshua brought the Children of Israel was not all that good men expected and which God intended to bestow upon them For if that great Captain had brought them to their finall Rest there would not have been mention made by the inspired Psalmist many years after their settlement in Canaan of another Rest which as the words there are remaineth for the people of God Now who can pretend to be the Captain of their Salvation to conduct them thither but onely our Blessed Saviour whose Name is the same with that of the ancient Joshua or Jesus who was baptized at that very place where they entred into their Rest in the promised Land to whom the heavens there opened and God the Father spake by an audible voice and the Holy Ghost fell down in a visible shape who at last after many promises and assurances that he would bring them to the heavenly Country was offered at that very time when their forefathers began their travells to their resting-place and hereby sealed what he had promised by his bloud as God the Father sealed to it by divers acts of his that He was a Lamb without spot an offering and a sacrifice to him of a sweet-smelling savour Well might St. Paul call him our Passeover that is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. v. 7. For it is as visible that he was slain for the salvation of mankind as that the Paschall Lamb was slain for the preservation of Israel and that as the destroying Angel passed over those houses where he found the bloud of that Lamb upon the door-posts and spared the lives of the inhabitants so all those Souls that are sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus i. e. believe on him shall be delivered by him from perishing and preserved to eternall Life Which Salvation he procured by offering himself freely as our Passeover that is for the like end but as much excelling as Eternall life doth temporary for which the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed And he made his sacrifice the more remarkable by offering it at that very time when the other was offered and when they themselves expected it For some of the Jews say expresly which adds much weight to this observation that on the same day of the month Nisan Israel shall be redeemed in the days of the Messiah Vid P. Fagium in xii Exod. 13. on which they were redeemed when God wonderfully brought them out of the land of Egypt Now our Saviour made good his word which he had often passed that he would give them his very flesh to eat whereby they might feast with him as they had done that day on the Paschal Lamb. He gave them also his very bloud to drink which was the price of their redemption that which saved them from the destroyer and overcame those enemies which opposed their entrance into the Eternall Rest For his flesh as he speaks vi Joh. 55. being offered on the Cross was meat indeed and his bloud drink indeed That is the most perfect food and excellent nutriment which hath a power to give not a temporary as the Paschal Lamb did but an Eternall life to those that partake of it by a lively faith in him Some of the Jews themselves thought there was some greater Mystery in the Passeover then the commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and say expresly that then God communicated his Divinity to men They are the words of R. Judah * apud Masâ—um in v. Jesh 1â— By the Sacrifice of the Passeover God joyns men so closely to himself that
they are one with him as light is with a candle Which had little truth in it till Christ our PASSEOVER was sacrificed for us when the mystery was explained and he invited all men to come and eat of his flesh and drink of his bloud and thereby have such a fellowship with him in his death that he might communicate to them his life For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alex. speaks * L 11. Paedag. cap. 2. This is to drink the bloud of Jesus to partake of the Lord's immortality And so our Lord explains himself when he adds in the next words ver 57. As the living Father who being the authour of life can give it again to the dead hath sent me and I live by the Father shall rise again though I give my flesh to be slain so he that eateth me believeth on me though crucified shall live by me that is be raised again to life by me as I by the Father For he gave his flesh as he says at the beginning of this discourse ver 51. that is delivered it to be made a bloudy sacrifice for the life of the world i. e. that all mankind might have remission of sins and eternall life Which he will as certainly give to those who do not refuse to participate of this Sacrifice by believing in him as the Father of life raised him from the dead to live for evermore These words seemed hard to some of his Disciples ver 60. who could not understand that there should be such virtue in his flesh as to give life unto the world But our Lord tells them there was no cause of being offended at this discourse for if they would but stay a while they should be convinced that he did not ascribe too much to it ver 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That is What will you say if you behold me raised up from the dead and ascend into heaven where I was before I took this flesh Will you not then confess that my Death which is meant by his giving his flesh to them had an exceeding great virtue in it being so acceptable to God as to be thus highly rewarded Will it then seem incredible to you that I should obtain thereby a power to raise the dead and to give eternall Life This sure will be a convincing argument that I have not said too much of my BLOUD nor promised greater things then it can doe for you You will then if you consider it joyn your selves heartily to me though now you are ready to fly off and not think my Cross such a scandall that it should hinder you from being Christians X. And that will be one of our next works in the following Chapter to shew the power of Christ's Resurrection to perswade us that by his Death He will give life to the world Let us first onely briefly consider that there are some other Circumstances besides this now mentioned which declare there was something exceeding remarkable in the Sufferings of Christ on the Cross to procure him great glory For we find that Nicodemus one of their Senatours who durst not publickly own our Saviour while he was in great savour with the people came now that he was crucified and exposed to scorn and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pound weight xix Joh. 39. to honour his Corps withall Which would be a stronger argument of the thorough conviction already wrought in his mind if there be any truth in the conjecture of a learned Man * Jac. Alâ—ing Schiâ—â— l. w. p 26. that these spices were intended not to embalm him but as the manner was upon great occasions to burn at his funerall Thus far he is certainly in the right that the honour of having sweet spices burnt at their funerals appertained to no other persons but onely their Kings 2 Chron. xvi ult and the Head of all the Doctours the Nasi as they called him of their Academies And he notes likewise truly out of Joseph ben Gorion that when the funerall pomp of Herod the Great was carried forth fifty of his servants are said to have scattered all the way they went those very things which Nicodemus brought viz. Myrrh and Aloes and all other sweet spices But whether we can hence conclude that Nicodemus now honoured him by these as the King of Israel and the Prince of all the prophets I cannot tell because the Evangelist ver 40. seems to tell us that the use they made of these spices was to imbalm his body which they wound in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Jews was to bury Yet this we may safely conclude that he would never have put himself to so great a charge and laid out so much upon his dead body if he had not seen something which convinced him that this was that King of Israel who would give him a reward for his love and open confession of him in his heavenly Kingdome There was nothing to move him to such an expence upon such an hated person but onely a perswasion that Jesus was what he pretended and an assured hope that by this flesh which now lay dead the World should be restored to life Yea such power there was in his Death to affect mens hearts that not onely the Centurion confessed him to be a righteous man but all the people who were come together to that sight beholding the things that accompanied his sufferings were prickt in their consciences and smote their breasts xxiii Luk. 47 48. They could not that is but express their sorrow for this horrid fact of shedding his BLOUD and dread the dismall consequences of it Insomuch that Gem. Sanh c. vi though it was forbidden by the Constitutions of the Sanhedrin to make any lamentations for a malefactour yet they were not able on this occasion to forbear it Their own Writers tell us that it was a part of the honour they did to a deserving person when his funerall was carried out to accompany him with sighs and groans and tears and beating themselves and such like tokens of their inward grief for his loss With which the Holy Scripture agrees when it names this as part of the Curse of God upon Jehojakim that none should so much as sigh at his buriall nor make the usuall lamentation saying Ah my Brother Ah Lord or Ah his glory xxii Jer. 18. From whence it is likely they passed a Decree that when any person suffered by a publick sentence for a crime none should presume to grace him with any ceremony nor use the least outward sign of heaviness though in their hearts they might mourn for him But this Decree and Custome settled by the Authority of their supreme Court the esteem which our Saviour wone to himself even when he hung upon his Cross forced the people to break Their affection to him was stronger then all Laws and they