another Saviour of the World and of my posterity That Shilo should come to whom the gathering of the people shall be Agreeable to what hath been said are these words of Zacharias who said of the Lord God of Israel that he had raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David Luk. 1.69 By Horn of Salvation for us is denoted the Kingdom and Power of our blessed Saviour And for the better understanding of this expression it is to be remembred that Dominion and Power is expressed by Horn among the Hebrew Writers Thus in the Prophet Daniel the ten Horns are said to be ten Kings c. 7. v. 24. Again I will make the Horn of David to bud Ps 132. v. 17. Instead of Horn the Chaldee Paraphrast hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious King Kimchi in Psal 132. v. 17. And one of the learned Jews and a bitter enemy to Christianity confesses that that verse speaks of the Messias that was to come So that the Horn of Salvation does intimate to us the greatness of that deliverance which our Lord hath wrought Besides 't is said of Simeon that when he took Jesus into his Arms and blessed God he said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2.29 30. Which agrees well with the words of Jacob I have waited for Thy Salvation O Lord. Indeed Aben Ezra tells us from R. Isaac Aben Ezra in Gen. 49.18 that Jacob having likened Dan to an adder by the path did thereupon fall into a fear and then as fearfull men are apt to call for help and deliverance he added I have waited for thy salvation O Lord And another of the Jewish Commentators would have those words to contain the prediction that Sampson's eyes should be put out by the Philistines R. Solom in loc and then that they imply that prayer of Sampson at the last O Lord God remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray thee onely this once O God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.28 It is enough that I have named these opinions I shall not need refute them for besides that their authority is not great who are the Authours of them they are not backed with any reasons at all But to return As those deliverances of Joshuah and the other Worthies were but temporal whereas our Lord 's was eternal So They were but Carnal but our Lord's is Spiritual They delivered their people from thraldom and bondage the yoke of a Tyrant the tribute of an Oppressour the chains and fetters of some potent Prince But our Jesus saves his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 He was manifested to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3.5 And to destroy the works of the Devil v. 8. Or as Zacharias expresses it we are delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve God without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 74 75. This is the deliverance that our Lord hath wrought He sets us free from our sins and hath redeemed us from the wrath to come This Jesus does for all them that will obey him He destroyed the Devil's Kingdom stopt his mouth in his Oracles overturned his Temples dispossessed him of his Idols destroyed his Worship and baffled him in all his Designs He cast him out not of the bodies onely but of the souls and hearts of men and wrested from him that Kingdom which he had so long and so unjustly got the possession of The World was over-run with Idolatry and Superstition with violence and oppression with ignorance and prophaneness Men were proud and covetous unchast and intemperate full of envy and malice But Our Lord came and by his life and doctrine by his death and divine grace he sent away that darkness that overspread the World he knocked off those Chains in which men were shackled and restored Mankind to the Worship of the true God and to his image and likeness Let 's hear the excellent words by which the Apostle expresseth all this For we our selves says he also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward mankind appeared Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Tit. 3.3 Such was the deliverance which our Jesus wrought For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.11 Moses delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians he brought them from the bondage of those Infidels but he did not save them from their infidelity For we see they could not enter into the promised land because of their unbelief Heb. 3.19 Joshua brought them into Canaan but left them on this side heaven Others delivered them from the men of Midian and the Philistines but none of them delivered them from the evil men themselves They were saved from their enemies frequently but not from their sins They fell into their folly and their misery again But our blessed Redeemer saves us from our sin He gives repentance and forgivenss of sins Acts 5.31 And turns us from our iniquities Acts 3.26 This exalts him above Moses and Joshua this speaks him the great Redeemer and Shepherd of our Souls The Jews expected a Temporal Messiah one that would restore them their Kingdom and advance them to worldly splendour and greatness But our Lord came to erect a spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and minds of men He came to vanquish our lusts and destroy the power of sin in the hearts of men This was a design worthy of God and becoming our Lord Jesus And that which the greatest Kings and Princes were never able to doe Our Lord hath wrought the greatest deliverance Others have conquered their Enemies Our Lord hath done more He hath reconciled them and made them friends Others have killed the bodies of men our Lord hath done more he has saved their souls Others have gotten wealth and worldly greatness our Lord does more when he enables his followers to despise these things Others have saved their followers from dying our Lord delivers us from the fear of death He kills our pride destroys our covetousness purges away our lust plants in us the love of God and the contempt of the World
the Ancient writers of the Church upon this occasion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Histor Eccles. lib. 10. c. 4. c. i.e. What King says he was ever of so great power as to fill the ears and the tongues of all the inhabitants of the earth What King ever made laws so pious and sober as could prevail upon the inhabitants of the whole earth from one end of the earth to the other Who ever was able to void the barbarous and cruel customs of the Heathen by mercifull and gentle laws Who ever met with so long and great an opposition and had force enough not onely not to be extinct but to thrive and flourish under this oppression Who ever sent about the world a people obscure and scarcely heard of before Who ever bestowed on his Souldiers such a spiritualarmour that they gave proof to their enemies of minds hardy and strong as the Adamant What ever King shewed such puissance and force after his death Who ever erected such Trophies over his enemies Who ever filled all places Countries and Cities of the Greeks and Barbarians with stately palaces and consecrated Temples And for his disciples the first preachers of the Gospel what were they No Princes of an Ancient bloud but obscure fisher-men No select Orators from Rome or Athens but poor illiterate Galileans No great Captains or Commanders but men of great simplicity and peaceableness They were men very unlikely to doe any great things having no reputation for depth of wisedom or any thing of power or worldly greatness Such were the first planters of the Gospel And who would look for any great success from so small a beginning Who would have believed that such men as these had been big enough to have grapled with the wisedom of the Greeks the power of the Romans the malice of their Countrey men the Jews with the rudeness and hardiness of all the Heathen world A man might as well have believed that a few Shepherds might have driven Hannibal from the gates of Rome Or that a few peasants had been able to drive Xerxes with his great multitude out of Greece or that a single and an unarmed man could be able to put to flight the stoutest Regiment or Legion of Souldiers a man might as easily have believed that a few Children had been able to take the strongest Garrison as that these men should have been able to have stood up and prevailed against the Devil and all his complices against all the policies and powers all the wit and malice of a wicked world and so far to prevail too with the preaching of a Christ Crucified as to perswade the world to forsake their worship of false Gods whom their fathers had worshipped and to own a Crucified Saviour Certainly they that could doe this as we know they did had an almighty power to their assistance None but God could have done this whoever does but rightly consider and weigh it It must be an infinite power that by such weak means could bring such great things to pass 2. For the Doctrine it self if we duly consider it we shall find it very unlikely to prevail upon the world whether we consider 1. The credenda or matters of saith that it did contain which must needs seem very uncouth and strange if not very unreasonable to the world As that the world was made and made of nothing when ex nihilo nil fit was a maxim in the Heathen Philosophy That there is but one God when in the Heathen world there were thought to be many Gods and many Lords That though there were but one God yet there were three persons and these three were one This must needs be a strange Doctrine at Rome or Athens That they must believe Jesus and the Resurrection was so strange a thing to the Athenian Philosophers that they encountred St. Paul and some called him babler and others were so ignorant of what was meant by the Resurrection that they took it for a God He seemeth say they to be a setter forth of strange Gods because he preathed unto them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus and the Resurrection And they affirmed that he brought certain strange things to their ears Act. 17.18 20. He preached Christ Crucified who was unto the Jews a Stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 They are taught to place their hopes in a Crucified Lord and to own him as their onely Saviour and Redeemer whom they had never seen or heard of before whom none of their Philosophers had spoken of They must beleive the Resurrection of the dead which they had not heard of before And that there is no name under Heaven by which they can be saved but by the name of Jesus And this they did which they could never have been perswaded to have done had not these things been from God to whose miraculous providence this success must be ascribed But then if we consider 2. The agenda or precepts of the Gospel they were such as were very unlikely to have obtained in the world had not these things been from God For what is it that the Gospel teaches them To deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts to walk righteously and soberly and Godly in this present world It forbids not onely the doing injuries but the revenging of them It forbids not onely evil actions but an evil thought and intention of the heart It does not onely forbid adultery but also a wanton glance and is so far from allowing murther that it most severely forbids hatred and rash anger It not onely forbids perjuries but requires of us that we should not swear at all It ties our hands locks up our eyes chains our thoughts and restrains all the irregular desires and warmer propositions of flesh and bloud It will not allow the wisest Philosopher to make any ostentation of his parts or learning Nor the greatest Captain or General to boast of his valour but teaches them both to be very humble and very peaceable It teaches us to undervalue all the grandeur of the world all its riches and honours and pleasures and commands us rather to foregoe them all with life it self than to deny the saith of Jesus It requires men to love God with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves To forgive their enemies to pray for their persecutors to do good to those that do evil unto us It forbids us to give blow for blow or railing for railing It commands us to give Alms to the Poor and to give to every one that asketh be he friend or enemy good or bad thankfull or ungratefull and when we have it commands us to make no boasts or brags but to expect a recompence onely from him that sees in secret It lays a great restraint upon our tongues which it obliges us most severely to keep in order It will not allow us to speak evil of our Brother to call him fool or Raka It forbids us to
was weak and had not this promise of the Spirit annexed unto it Rom. 7.5 Gal 4.9 Phil. 3.3 with Rom. 8.3 Gal. 3.3 Heb. 7.16 And upon the account of its weakness it is very frequently called flesh in the new Testament as the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit upon the account of that power enabling us to obey with which it is attended And the legal ordiances are called weak and beggarly elements or rudiments And indeed the law of Moses might be justly called weak as compared with the Doctrine of the Gospel for the law was not able to effect what the Gospel hath done it gave not life Gal. 3.21 Rom. 7.5 8. Act. 15.10 it did not furnish men with power to yield an inward and spiritual obedience Sin was forbid indeed by the law but not kept under and restrained It directed mens obedience but did not powerfully assist them It was a yoke but not an easie one as that which Jesus puts upon us but such as the Jews knew neither how to bear or to break Gal. 4.3.24 And hence it is that they who were under the law are represented as in a State of Slavery and Servility Whereas the law of Moses was weak and they to whom it was given did transgress it and were obnoxious to a curse God does promise to the Jews to enter into a new and better convenant with them Jer. 31.33 after those days saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people I shall in the next place take into consideration The assurance of pardon of sin which the Gospel gives and consequently the foundation it layes for the quieting our consciences far beyond what was done by the law of Moses I have before shewed the defectiveness of that provision by Sacrifices which was made in the law of Moses I shall shew that this is supplied in the covenant of grace made by Christ And this was foretold very particularly as a special and peculiar grace belonging to this new covenant as it is distinguished from that between God and Israel by the mediation of Moses which God had promised to make God promises not onely to write the law upon their hearts and consequently to work in them the saving knowledge of himself but more especially assures them of their pardon and remission Jer. 31.34 For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more There is nothing bears so hard upon a man as his guilt does And in many things we offend all We are all guilty more or less and consequently obnoxious to the horrors of our conscience and the wrath of God This is the great torment of life and there is no trouble like it A guilty mind bears harder upon us than any outward trouble And then he that hath sinned is anxious and suspicious he is not easily assured of his pardon he that broke the Law of Moses was liable to the Curse of it And though Sacrifices were allowed I have shewed the defects of that provision But the Gospel gives us the utmost assurance of our pardon upon terms that are gentle and reasonable and by no means to be refused What-ever our sins have been yet upon our repentance and sincere obedience for the future we are sure of God's favour and of his being reconciled to us He beseecheth us now to be reconciled to him upon these gentle and easie terms This is the Tenor of this new covenant or covenant of grace of which Jesus is the Mediator He hath procured this for us he hath purchased this by his merits sealed it by his own precious bloud assured it to us by his Resurrection and powerfull intercession he confirmed it by stupendious Miracles proclaimed it to all the world by his messengers and given us the signs and evidences of it by his holy Sacraments and solemn institutions There is nothing wanting to ensure this our pardon unto us Here 's no shadow left for our doubt or anxious fears we have all the possible assurance which we can desire Rom. 5.8 9 10. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life These last words contain an argument invincible and altogether unanswerable and such as affords the strongest consolation If God looked after us when we were his avowed enemies if even then he gave up his most dear Son to death and at so great an expence restored us to favour surely he will now not abandon us to destruction He that was so kind to his enemies will not now forsake his friends So great and dear a love will not be extinguished It was a great price and an instance of the greatest love by which we were reconciled when we were enemies 't was by the death of the Son of God We had little reason to expect this favour and this expence But now we may be saved without his giving up his Son again to death and need not therefore doubt that we shall be saved by his life The Jew under the law of Moses had great cause to fear for when he transgressed and that he did when-ever he continued not obedient to all the words of that law he put himself under the rigour and curse of the law But God hath now made a better covenant with us and given us the greatest hopes of pardon upon our repentance and sincere though it be not sin-less obedience to the laws of Christ Here is pardon to be had for all manner of sin There were many sins under the law of Moses as hath been observed for which no remission was to be had from any Sacrifice allowed by that law He that was guilty was liable either to death or to excision Mat. 12.31 We are better provided for by this covenant of grace All manner of sin and blasphemy says Christ shall be forgiven unto men Blasphemy as hath been observed before was one of those sins for which there was no expiation allowed under the law of Moses But even for this sin there is pardon in this covenant of grace For our Soviours words do not speak of the event of things but of the provision which is now made Blasphemy shall be forgiven 1 Tim. 1.13 16. i. e. there is pardon to be had for it And he who was himself a Blasphemer tells us that he obtained mercy nor does he onely tell us that but also that he therefore obtained mercy for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe Our Saviour goes on whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him Matt. 12.32 There were those who spake against Christ The Person