supplant him not by any unworthy or unfriendly action but it was from God and he gave him his hand to set him upon his own Throne We find his parallels in the Gentile stories young Athenodorus having divided the estate with his Brother Xenon divided it again when Xenon had spent his own share and Lucullus would not take the Consulship till his younger brother had first enjoyed it for a year but Pollux divided with Castor his immortality and you know who offer'd himself to death being pledg for his friend and his friend by performing his word rescued him as bravely and when we find in Scripture that for a good man some will even dare to die and that Aquila and Priscilla laid their necks down for S. Paul and the Galatians would have given him their very eyes that is every thing that was most dear to them and some others were near unto death for his sake and that it is a precept of Christian charity to lay down our lives for our brethren that is those who were combined in a cause of Religion who were united with the same hopes and imparted to each other ready assistances and grew dear by common sufferings we need enquire no further for the expressions of friendships Greater love than this hath no man than that he lay down his life for his friends and this we are oblig'd to do in some Cases for all Christians and therefore we may do it for those who are to us in this present and imperfect state of things that which all the good Men and Women in the World shall be in Heaven that is in the state of perfect friendships This is the biggest but then it includes and can suppose all the rest and if this may be done for all and in some cases must for any one of the multitude we need not scruple whether we may do it for those who are better than a multitude But as for the thing it self it is not easily and lightly to be done and a Man must not die for humour nor expend so great a Jewel for a trifle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Philo we will hardly die when it is for nothing when no good no worthy end is served and become a Sacrifice to redeem a foot boy But we may not give our life to redeem another unless 1. The party for whom we die be a worthy and an useful person better for the publick or better for Religion and more useful to others than my self Thus Ribischius the German died bravely when he became a Sacrifice for his Master Maurice Duke of Saxony Covering his Masters body with his own that he might escape the fury of the Turkish Souldiers Succurram perituro sed ut ipse non peream nisi si futurus ero magni hominis aut magnae rei merces said Seneca I will help a dying person if I can but I will not die my self for him unless by my death I save a brave man or become the price of a great thing that is I will die for a Prince for the republick or to save an Army as David expos'd himself to combat with the Philistin for the redemption of the host of Israel and in this sense that is true Praestat ut pereat unus quam Vnitas better that one perish than a multitude 2. A man dies bravely when he gives his temporal life to save the soul of any single person in the Christian world It is a worthy exchange and the glorification of that love by which Christ gave his life for every soul. Thus he that reproves an erring Prince wisely and necessarily he that affirms a fundamental truth or stands up for the glory of the Divine attributes though he die for it becomes a worthy sacrifice 3. These are duty but it may be heroick and full of Christian bravery to give my life to rescue a noble and a brave friend though I my self be as worthy a man as he because the preference of him is an act of humility in me and of friendship towards him Humility and Charity making a pious difference where art and nature have made all equal Some have fancied other measures of treating our friends One sort of men say that we are to expect that our friends should value us as we value our selves which if it were to be admitted will require that we make no friendship with a proud man and so far indeed were well but then this proportion does exclude some humble men who are most to be valued and the rather because they undervalue themselves Others say that a friend is to value his friend as much as his friend values him but neither is this well or safe wise or sufficient for it makes friendship a meer bargain and is something like the Country weddings in some places where I have been where the bridegroom and the bride must meet in the half way and if they fail a step they retire and break the match It is not good to make a reckoning in friendship that 's merchandise or it may be gratitude but not noble friendship in which each part strives to out do the other in significations of an excellent love And amongst true friends there is no fear of losing any thing But that which amongst the old Philosophers comes nearest to the right is that we love our friends as we love our selves If they had meant it as our Blessed Saviour did of that general friendship by which we are to love all Mankind it had been perfect and well or if they had meant it of the inward affection or of outward justice but because they meant it of the most excellent friendships and of the outward significations of it it cannot be sufficient for a friend may and must sometimes do more for his friend than he would do for himself Some men will perish before they will beg or petition for themselves to some certain persons but they account it noble to do it for their friend and they will want rather than their friend shall want and they will be more earnest in praise or dispraise respectively for their friend than for themselves And indeed I account that one of the greatest demonstrations of real friendship that a friend can really endeavour to have his friend advanced in honour in reputation in the opinion of wit or learning before himself Aurum opes rura frequens donabit amicus Qui velit ingenio cedere rarus erit Sed tibi tantus inest veteris respectus amici Carior ut me sit quam tua fama tibi Lands gold and trifles many give or lend But he that stoops in fame is a rare friend In friendships orb thou art the brightest star Before thy fame mine thou preferrest far But then he pleased to think that therefore I so highly value this signification of friendship because I so highly value humility Humility and Charity are the two greatest graces in the World and these are the
his and their imployment so profitable his meekness so incomparable his passions without difference save only where zeal or pity carried him on to worthy and apt expressions a person that never laughed but often wept in a sense of the calamities of others he loved every man and hated no man he gave counsel to the doubtful and instructed the ignorant he bound up the broken hearts and strengthened the feeble knees he relieved the poor and converted the sinners he despised none that came to him for relief and as for those that did not he went to them he took all occasions of mercy that were offered him and went abroad for more he spent his days in Preaching and healing and his nights in Prayers and conversation with God he was obedient to Laws and subject to Princes though he was the Prince of Judaea in right of his Mother and of all the World in right of his Father the People followed him but he made no conventions and when they were made he suffered no tumults when they would have made him a King he withdrew himself when he knew they would put him to death he offered himself he knew mens hearts and conversed secretly and gave answer to their thoughts and prevented their questions he would work a miracle rather than give offence and yet suffer every offence rather than see God his Father dishonored he exactly kept the Law of Moses to which he came to put a period and yet chose to signify his purpose onely by doing acts of mercy upon their Sabbath doing nothing which they should call a breach of a Commandment but healing sick people a charity which themselves would do to beasts and yet they were angry at him for doing it to their brethren In all his life and in all his conversation with his Nation he was innocent as an Angel of light and when by the greatness of his worth and the severity of his doctrine and the charity of his miracles and the noises of the people and his immense fame in all that part of the World and the multitude of his disciples and the authority of his Sermons and his free reproof of their hypocrisie and his discovery of their false doctrines and weak traditions he had branded the reputation of the vicious Rulers of the People and they resolved to put him to death they who had the biggest malice in the World and the weakest accusations were forced to supply their want of articles against him by making truth to be his fault and his office to be his crime and his open confession of what was asked him to be his article of condemnation and yet after all this they could not perswade the competent Judge to condemn him or to find him guilty of any fault and therefore they were forced to threaten him with Caesar's name against whom then they would pretend him to be an enemy though in their charge they neither proved nor indeed laid it against him and yet to whatsoever they objected he made no return but his silence and his innocence were remarkable and evident without labour and reply and needed no more argument than the Sun needs an advocate to prove that he is the brightest star in the firmament Well so it was they crucified him and when they did they did as much put out the eye of heaven as destroy the Son of God for when with an incomparable sweetness and a patience exemplar to all ages of sufferers he endured affronts examinations scorns insolencies of rude ungentle Tradesmen cruel whippings injurious unjust and unreasonable usages from those whom he obliged by all the arts of endearment and offers of the biggest kindness at last he went to death as to the work which God appointed him that he might become the Worlds sacrifice and the great example of holiness and the instance of representing by what way the World was to be made happy even by sufferings and so entring into heaven that he might I say become the Saviour of his Enemies and the Elder Brother to his friends and the Lord of Glory and the fountain of its emanation Then it was that God gave new testimonies from Heaven The Sun was eclipsed all the while he was upon the Cross and yet the Moon was in the full that is he lost his light not because any thing in nature did invest him but because the God of nature as a Heathen at that very time confessed who yet saw nothing of this sad iniquity did suffer The rocks did rend the veil of the Temple divided of it self and opened the inclosures and disparked the Sanctuary and made it pervious to the Gentiles eye the dead arose and appeared in Jerusalem to their friends the Centurion and divers of the People smote their hearts and were by these strange indications convinced that he was the Son of God His garments were parted and lots cast upon his inward coat they gave him vinegar and gall to drink they brake not a bone of him but they pierced his side with a Spear looking upon him whom they had pierced according to the Prophecies of him which were so clear and descended to minutes and circumstances of his passion that there was nothing left by which they could doubt whether this were he or no who was to come into the World But after all this that all might be finally verified and no scruple left after three days burial a great stone being rolled to the face of the grave and the stone sealed and a Guard of Souldiers placed about it he arose from the grave and for forty days together conversed with his followers and Disciples and beyond all suspicion was seen of 500. Brethren at once which is a number too great to give their consent and testimony to a lye and it being so publickly and confidently affirmed at the very time it was done and for ever after urged by all Christians used as the most mighty demonstration proclaimed preached talked of even upbraided to the gain-sayers affirmed by eye-witnesses perswaded to the kindred and friends and the relatives and companions of all those 500. persons who were eye-witnesses it is infinitely removed from a reasonable suspicion and at the end of those days was taken up into Heaven in the sight of many of them as Elias was in the presence of Elisha Now he of whom all these things are true must needs be more than a meer man and that they were true was affirmed by very many eye-witnesses Men who were innocent plain men men that had no bad ends to serve men that looked for no preferment by the thing in this life Men to whom their Master told they were to expect not Crowns and Scepters not praise of men or wealthy possessions not power and ease but a voluntary casting away care and attendance upon secular affairs that they might attend their Ministery poverty and prisons trouble and vexation persecution and labour whippings and banishment bonds and death and for a
which they could make must needs be violently opposed a change that introduced new Laws and caused them to reverse the old to change that Religion under which their Fathers long did prosper and under which the Roman Empire obtained so great a grandeur for a Religion which in appearance was silly and humble meek and peaceable not apt indeed to do harm but exposing men to all the harm in the world abateing their courage blunting their swords teaching peace and unactiveness and making the Souldiers arms in a manner useless and untying their military girdle a Religion which contradicted their reasons of State and erected new Judicatories and made the Roman Courts to be silent and without causes a Religion that gave countenance to the poor and pitiful but in a time when riches were adored and ambition esteemed the greatest nobleness and pleasure thought to be the chiefest good it brought no peculiar blessing to the rich or mighty unless they would become poor and humble in some real sense or other a Religion that would change the face of things and would also pierce into the secrets of the soul and unravel all the intrigues of hearts and reform all evil manners and break vile habits into gentleness and counsel that such a Religion in such a time preached by such mean persons should triumph over the Philosophy of the World and the arguments of the subtle and the Sermons of the eloquent and the power of Princes and the interest of States and the inclinations of nature and the blindness of zeal and the force of custom and the pleasures of sin and the busie Arts of the Devil that is against wit and power and money and Religion and wilfulness and fame and Empire which are all the things in the World that can make a thing impossible this I say could not be by the proper force of such instruments for no Man can span Heaven with an Infants palm nor govern wise Empires with Diagrams It were impudence to send a footman to command Caesar to lay down his arms to disband his legions and throw himself into Tyber or keep a Tavern next to Pompeys Theatre but if a sober man shall stand alone unarm'd undefended or unprovided and shall tell that he will make the Sun stand still or remove a Mountain or reduce Xerxes his Army to the scantling of a single Troop he that believes he will and can do this must believe he does it by a higher power than he can yet perceive and so it was in the present transaction For that the holy Jesus made invisible powers to do him visible honors that his Apostles hunted the Daemons from their Tripods their Navels their Dens their hollow Pipes their Temples and their Altars that he made the Oracles silent as Lucian Porphyrie Celsus and other Heathens confess that against the order of new things which let them be never so profitable or good do yet suffer reproach and cannot prevail unless they commence in a time of advantage and favour yet that this should flourish like the Palm by pressure grow glorious by opposition thrive by persecution and was demonstrated by objections argues a higher cause than the immediate instrument now how this higher cause did intervene is visible and notorious The Apostles were not learned but the holy Jesus promised that he would send down wisdom from above from the Father of spirits they had no power but they should be invested with power from on high they were ignorant and timorous but he would make them learned and confident and so he did he promised that in a few days he would send the holy Ghost upon them and he did so after ten days they felt and saw a glorious immission from heaven lights of movable fire sitting upon their heads and that light did illuminate their hearts and the mighty rushing wind inspired them with a power of speaking divers languages and brought to their remembrances all that Jesus did and taught and made them wise to conduct souls and bold to venture and prudent to advise and powerful to do miracles and witty to convince gain-sayers and hugely instructed in the Scriptures and gave them the spirit of Government and the spirit of Prophecy This thing was so publick that at the first notice of it three thousand souls were converted on that very day at the very time when it was done for it was certainly a visible demonstration of an invisible power that ignorant persons who were never taught should in an instant speak all the Languages of the Roman Empire and indeed this thing was so necessary to be so and so certain that it was so so publick and so evident and so reasonable and so useful that it is not easie to say whether it was the indication of a greater power or a greater wisdom and now the means was proportionable enough to the biggest end without learning they could not confute the learned World but therefore God became their Teacher without power they could not break the Devils violence but therefore God gave them power without courage they could not contest against all the violence of the Jews and Gentiles but therefore God was their strength and gave them fortitude without great caution and providence they could not avoid the traps of crafty Persecutors but therefore God gave them caution and made them provident and as Besaleel 〈◊〉 Aâ—oliâ—h received the spirit of God the spirit of understanding to enable them to work excellently in the Tabernacle so had the Apostles to make them wise for the work of God and the Ministeries of his Diviner Tabernacle which God pitched not man Immediately upon this the Apostles to make a fulness of demonstration and an undeniable conviction gave the spirit to others also to Jews and Gentiles and to the Men of Samaria and they spake with Tongues and prophesied then they preached to all Nations and endured all persecutions and cured all diseases and raised the dead to life and were brought before Tribunals and confessed the Name of Jesus and convinced the blasphemous Jews out of their own Prophets and not only prevailed upon Women and weak Men but even upon the bravest and wisest All the disciples of John the Baptist the Nazarens and Ebionites Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea Sergius the President Dionysius an Athenian Judge and Polycarpus Justinus and Irenaeus Athenagoras and Origen Tertullian and Clemens of Alexandria who could not be such fools as upon a matter not certainly true but probably false to unravel their former principles and to change their liberty for a Prison wealth for poverty honor for disreputation life for death if by such exchange they had not been secured of truth and holiness and the will of God But above all these was Saul a bold and a witty a zealous and learned young man who going with Letters to persecute the Christians of Damascus was by a light from Heaven called from his furious march reproved by God's Angel for persecuting