of Jesus was contemned and reproached for the meanness of his birth the poverty of his condition or freedom of his conversation and afterwards for the ignominy of his death But this sin did not exclude the possibility of repentance and the hope of pardon Here 's pardon for every sin the Gospell invites and receives the vilest sinners but shelters them not if they continue to wallow in their mire We may learn what sins have been forgiven from the words of the Apostle Such were some of you but ye are washed 1 Cor. 6.9 11. c. They had been Fornicatours Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Abusers of themselves with Mankind Thieves Covetous Drunkards Revilers Extortioners Such the Christian Doctrine found them but it did not leave them such They were cleansed of these impurities They were washed sanctified and justifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus Tit. 3.3 5. and by the Spirit of our God It was a wretched plight in which the Gospel found men when it first advanced in the world They were foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another Good God what a wretched condition was this How was thy Creature made in thine own Image deformed What a darkness and disorder hath spread it self upon the intellectual world Men retained the same shape and figure that they had from the beginning They were of an erect or upright stature They were not overgrown indeed with horns and hoofs and claws but otherwise they were at best but brutes in humane shape Their manners were crooked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. their minds were bowed down to the ground they were salvage and ravenous as wolves and bears But were these Creatures out of the reach of this mercy tendered in the Covenant of Grace By no means These men were saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Our Lord came to call sinners to repentance And the greatest sinners were pardoned Those who had worshipped Idols who had been possessed by Devils and who had persecuted the Church of Christ In a word by our Jesus Act. 13.39 all that believe are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses It is true indeed that our Saviour hath said Matt. 12.32 that whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven him And it is the onely sin which is excepted Those words of our Saviour if rightly understood are no objection of weight against what hath been said before viz. that the Gospel affords a pardon for all manner of sin For this supposes that men assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine and embrace it Now that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks is of such a nature as supposeth the person guilty of it to be one who not onely does not assent to the truth of the Christian Doctrine but resists the Evidence and Confirmation of it which was effected by the Holy Ghost and does calumniate and blaspheme the Divine Authour of that Evidence Those Pharisees who imputed what our Saviour did to the Prince of the Devils did not believe the Doctrine of Christ Nor can any man who assents to the truth of the Christian Doctrine be guilty of that sin against the Holy Ghost of which our Saviour speaks The Holy Ghost in that place is not considered as the Third person of the Trinity and the authour of holiness in us in which respect every act of profaneness might in some sense be called a sin against the Holy Ghost but is considered there as a Witness to the truth of the Christian Doctrine And upon that account that blasphemy is said to be unpardonable He that was guilty of that sin was one who rejected the Christian Doctrine It is no disparagement to the most effectual Medicine in the World that it does not cure that diseased person who refuseth to apply it The Gospel affords a pardon for every sin but there is no hope for him who rejects it It was a charge of old against Christian Religion that it invited and gave hope of pardon to the most profligate sinners Origen contra Celsum l. 3. Celsus long agoe objected it against our most Holy Religion He says that in other mysteries the profane were dismissed and none was called in but he who had pure hands who was wise in speech free from vice c. But says he among the Christians are called in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whoever is a sinner a fool or childish or miserable such says he does the Kingdom of God receive But as Origen answers well these vile men are not presently admitted to the participation of the mysteries of this Religion but to the Cure which it works upon them It gives them pardon upon their amendment The Jews from their Sacrifices had hopes of pardon but they were but faint hopes if compared with what we have under the Gospel of Christ God hath given us the utmost assurance For 1. He hath given up his beloved Son to death 2 Cor. 5.7 Joh. 1.29 1 Pet. 1.19 Eph. 5.2 Rev. 1.5 Heb. 12.24 Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us He was that Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World Here 's a Sacrifice without spot of an infinite price and value a Sacrifice of a sweet-smelling Savour A Sacrifice which God provided and accepts Our Saviour hath washed us from our sins in his own bloud We are by the Gospel brought to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel The bloud which Jesus shed does not onely speak better things than the bloud of the Legal Sacrifices ordained by the hands of Moses but also better than the Sacrifice which Abel offered up Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 For though Abel were a righteous person though he offered a more excellent Sacrifice than his brother and God did declare his acceptance of his sacrifice by a visible token from Heaven Though Abel offered his Sacrifice by faith and be justly celebrated among the worthies and the faithfull Though God bore witness to his righteousness and though he being so long since dead yet he speaketh yet for all this the bloud which he offered is not to be compared with the bloud of Jesus And could any thing have been said more to the advancing the value of the bloud of Christ And its efficacy to procure our pardon than that it speaks better things than that of Abel Heb. 9.12.25 Heb. 10.2 ch 9.13 14. 2 Cor. 5.15 Heb. 2.9 Joh. 3.17 This Sacrifice need not be repeated as the Legal Sacrifices were This Sacrifice ' purges the Conscience the legal ones did but sanctify to the purifying of the flesh This Sacrifice is of value sufficient to procure pardon for the whole race of mankind and is not confined in its virtue
will rise again Ibid. Chap. Ver. St. Mark VIII 11. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question c. Page 144 Chap. Ver. St. Luke I. 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his Servant David Page 16 Chap. Ver. II. 49. Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business Page 101 Chap. Ver. IX 12. with Mat. XIV 15. And when the day began to wear away c. Page 218 Chap. Ver. Ib. 28. with Mat. XVII 1. About an eight days after c. Page 303 Chap. Ver. XXII 69 Hereafter shall the Son of man c. Page 337 Chap. Ver. XXIV 13. And behold two of them went that same day to a village c. Page 267 Chap. Ver. Ib. 33. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem c. Ibid. Chap. Ver. St. John I. 17. For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth c. Page 477 Chap. Ver. II. 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee c. Page 125 Chap. Ver. III. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even c. Page 209. Chap. Ver. X. 41. And many resorted unto him and said John did no miracle c. Page 133. Chap. Ver. XI 9. Jesus answered are there not twelve hours in the day Page 216 Chap. Ver. Ib. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days Page 299. Chap. Ver. XV. 24. If I had not done among them the works c. Page 166 Chap. Ver. XVI 8. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin c. Page 140 Chap. Ver. XVII 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie c. Page 236 Chap. Ver. XIX 36. For these things were done that the Scriptures should be fulfilled A bone of him shall not c. Page 232 Chap. Ver. XX. 19. Then the same day at evening being the first day of the Week c. Page 267 Ib. 26. And after eight days again his Desciples were within c. Page 303 Ib. 31. But these are written that ye might believe c. Page 114 Chap. Ver. XXI 14. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his Disciples after that he was risen from the dead Page 273 The Acts of the Apostles Chap. Ver. I. 3. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs c. Page 317 Chap. Ver. II. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly c. Page 2 3. Chap. Ver. III. 1. Now Peter and John went up together into the Temple at the hour of Prayer c. Page 220 Romans Chap. Ver. IV. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification Page 467 Chap. Ver. V. 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled c. Page 459 Chap. Ver. VI. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under Grace Page 455 Chap. Ver. X. 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus c. Page 295 Galatians Chap. Ver. III. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God God forbid for if there had been a law c. Page 478 Ib. 2â— 23 But before faith came we were kept under the law c. Page 478 Ib. 24. Wherefore the law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith Page 478 Ephesians Ib. 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance c. Page 470 Chap. Ver. I. 19 20. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power c. Page 297 Chap. Ver. II. 14 15. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us Having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments c. Page 448 Chap. Ver. IV. 8. with Psal LXVIII 18. Wherefore he saith when he ascended c. Page 308 Ib. 9. Now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended c. Page 287 Ib. 30. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed c. Page 471 1 Timothy Chap. Ver. II. 12. But I suffer not a Woman to teach c. Page 72 73. Ib. 15. She shall be saved in Child-bearing Ib. Chap. Ver. III 16. And without all controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. Page 139 Hebrews Chap. Ver. III. 5. a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after Page 478 Chap. Ver. VI. 20. Whither the four-runner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest c. Page 332 Chap. Ver. VII 19. For the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did c. Page 450 Chap. Ver. VIII 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless c. Page 409 Hebrews Chap. Ver. IX 6 7 8. Now when these things were thus ordained the Priests went always into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the Service of God But into the second c. Page 451 Ib. 13. For if the bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling c. Page 437 Ib. 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands c. Page 320 Chap. Ver. X. 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the bloud c. Page 248 Chap. Ver. XI 39 40. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they c. Page 400 Chap. Ver. XII 24. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Page 466 Chap. Ver. XIII 12. Wherefore Jesus also that he might Sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Page â—37 c. 1 John Chap. Ver. II. 20. But ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things Page 40 Chap. Ver. III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy c. Page 141. THE END
express promise of eternal life in the law of Moses Temporal blessings were promised to the obedient but they had no assurances given them of a glorious immortality The way to this our Lord hath revealed plainly 2. He procured this for us also he bought it with no less price than his pretious bloud And now we stand reconciled to God by the death of his Son and then we may justly expect to be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 3. He confers this Salvation upon us He is set down at God's right hand and hath received all power in Heaven and Earth God hath exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance unto Israel and forgiveness of Sins Act. 5.31 We receive from him the power of his grace here and justly expect from him the glorifying of our souls and bodies hereafter And it will well be worth our while to enter into a meditation of this Salvation and deliverance which our Lord hath wrought for us And to that purpose let us compare it with those deliverances which were wrought of old for the people of the Jews For those deliverances may well be called Salvations and those men that were the instruments of them may be called Saviours for so they are called in the Holy Scripture 2 King 13.5 Nehem. 9.27 with the LXXII Judg. 3.9.15 Among those Saviours there was one who was not onely an eminent type of our blessed Saviour but who had the same name that was given our Saviour at his Circumcision And that was Joshua the Son of Nun For Joshua and Jesus are the same name and Joshua is called Jesus Heb. 4.8 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neh. 8.17 'T is true indeed his name was Hoshea and so he is called but upon his being chosen to spy out or search the Land of Canaan Moses changed his name from Hoshea to Joshua Num. 23.16 i. e. he made an honourable alteration of his name as Philo observes when he added to the name he had the first letter of the Tetragrammation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judae de mutat Nominum And he made this addition to his name by putting to it the first letter of the name of God when he sent him to search the Land of Canaan so that for the future he is a Saviour and by God's appointment was set apart to introduce the Israelites into the Land of Promise Moses the Lawgiver did not bring the Israelites into the promised Land This was left for Joshua to doe Now that Land was a type of heaven And Joshua of our Jesus And what the Law did not that the Gospel does It hath brought life and immortality to light And though Moses who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and Joshua who introduced them into the good Land and others who afterward fought their battels were great deliverers of their people yet all these deliverances put together come greatly short of that which our Lord hath wrought For these deliverances were but temporal our Saviour's is eternal Those Worthies fell asleep and then the Israelites fell under the malice and power of their enemies and ill neighbours then were they liable to the impressions of their enemies who did inslave their people and sack their City and burn their Temple and carry them away to a strange Land Their enemies were not dismayed with the great names of Moses and Joshua Gideon and Sampson These great men were dead and could yield no succours to the oppressed Israelites And what ever terrours these men impressed upon their enemies while they lived their names will strike none now The Chaldeans are not over-awed by the rod of Moses or the strength of Sampson these deliverers can afford no relief or help 't is otherwise with us Our Lord is the Authour of Eternal Salvation Heb. 5.9 And hath obtained an Eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9.12 Those Saviours died and left their enemies behind them But Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 Our Lord arose from the dead and is gone before us into Heaven and is there concerned on our behalf And this is unspeakably to our comfort and advantage Old Jacob in his last words to his Sons tells them what shall befall them in the last days Of Dan he foretells that he shall be a Serpent in the way an Adder in the path that biteth the Horse heels so that his Rider shall fall backward Gen. 49.17 These words seem to refer to Sampson who delivered his people from the Philistines But then 't is worth our observing what follows where the good man's Soul sallies out into another and greater contemplation I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord V. Targum Hierosol Jonath in locum v. 18. That is as the Jews expound it as if he had said I do not expect the deliverance of Gideon and Sampson which will be but a temporal deliverance but thy Salvation O Lord is that which I expect for thine is an eternal Salvation These words seem to refer to the salvation of the Messias and do very well deserve to be considered farther V. Hieronym adversus Jovinianum l. 1. 'T is agreed that in the foregoing words Jacob speaks of Sampson He was a Nazarite and a great deliverer of his people And besides what he did for his people in their life-time he destroyed their enemies at his death In several respects we may suppose him a type of our blessed Saviour And we may very well suppose him so to be even as he is considered here as a Serpent by the way Phil. Jud. de Agricultura For Philo the Jew hath directed us to understand that expression of a Serpent not with reference to the Serpent which beguiled Eve or Voluptuousness but with respect to the Brazen Serpent of Moses a symbol of Temperance and Fortitude and as I shall shew afterwards a very remarkable type of the Messias And Jacob looks farther than Sampson he looks off from that Nazarite to our Nazaren from that temporal deliverer to our Jesus who is the Author of eternal Salvation I shall give you the sense of these words in the words of one of the Ancients who brings in Jacob speaking thus Hieronym Quaest Hebr. in Genes Nunc videns in Spiritu comam c. i. e. I foreseeing in the Spirit Sampson the Nazarite nourishing his hair and triumphing over his slaughtered enemies that like a Serpent and Adder in the way he suffered none to pass through the land of Israel and if any were so hardy confiding in the swiftness of an Horse as to adventure like a Robber to spoil it he should not be able to escape I foreseeing this Nazarite so valiant and that he dyed for the sake of an Harlot and dying destroyed our enemies I thought O God that he was the Christ thy son But because he dyed and rose not again and Israel was afterward carried away captive I must expect
foretold of the Messias If we now proceed to the consideration of the Resurrection of Jesus we must be forced to acknowledge the overruling hand of God That he who dyed rose from the dead was an argument beyond exception of a Divine power man could contribute nothing toward so stupendious a work Nay there was all done that could be done by men both to hinder his Resurrection which Jesus had foretold and to hinder the spreading of it and the belief thereof in the world His enemies were prepared to do all they could and they did it by making his Sepulchre sure by sealing the stone and by setting a watch Mat. 27.66 This they did to prevent the Resurrection of Jesus But all this would not do They who had power to put Jesus to death have no power to hinder his Resurrection When this succeeded not the next course they had to take was to hinder the belief of the Resurrection of Jesus Though they could not hinder him from rising again yet they apply themselves vigorously to stifle the truth This was their next care To this purpose they give large money to the Souldiers that they might give out that his Disciples came and stole him away by night Mat. 28.13 But they labour in vain Jesus was risen there were so many witnesses of this truth that there is no stifling of it And after all this Jesus having sufficiently convinced that Generation of the truth of his Resurrection ascends up into Heaven and his Holy Religion is preached in the world It prevailed in spight of all the opposition it met withall It was embraced by men who were curious and inquisitive It approved it self to the consciences of all the lovers of truth And though it were opposed by power and craft and the combined force and malice of Jew and Gentile it prevailed against all by patience and meekness and the Divine blessing which did attend it These things duly considered do abundantly prove that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God Who would not says an excellent Person acknowledge the Divinity of this Person and the excellency of this institution that should see infants to weary the hands of hangmen for the Testimony of Jesus And wise men preach this Doctrine for no other visible reward but shame and death poverty and banishment And Hangmen converted by the bloud of Martyrs springing upon their faces which their impious hands and cords have strained through their flesh Who would not have confessed the honour of Jesus when he should see miracles done at the Tombs of Martyrs and Devils tremble at the mention of the name of Jesus And the World running to the honour of the Poor Nazaren and Kings and Queens kissing the feet of the Poor servants of Jesus could a Jew Fisher-man and a Publican effect all this for the Son of a poor Maiden of Judaea Can we suppose all the world or so great a part of mankind can consent by chance or suffer such changes for nothing Or for any thing less than this The Son of the poor Maiden was the Son of God and the Fishermen spake by a Divine spirit and they catched the World with holiness and miracles with wisedom and power bigger than the strength of all the Roman Legions In a word the things foretold of the Messias and fulfilled in Jesus were so many and so strangely fulfilled so much without any humane assistance and so centrary to all expectation and all the endeavours used to hinder the foretold event that he who considers these things with care must believe that Jesus is the Christ and that his Religion is true CHAP. XI The CONTENTS The Christian Religion more Excellent than that given by Moses and consequently the best in the World The Pagan Religion not worthy of regard The wiser Heathens guilty of great inconsistencies and evil Principles The Stoicks upon sundry accounts very blameable The Law given by Moses came from God in what sense it was a perfect Law It was not unalterable A general distribution of the Precepts of that Law The defects of it I As a rule of life Many of its Precepts not good in their own Nature They obliged the Jews onely and were annexed to their Land or some part of it Many of them Political II The reward annexed to the Obedience of that Law was but Temporal III It was not attended with the promise of Divine assistance IV Nor was there that hope of pardon which was afterward given in the Gospel The Sacrifices allowed to that purpose very defective This shewed at large For some sins no Sacrifice was allowed Sacrifices were not pleasing to God of their own Nature The Expiation did not depend upon the value of the oblation He that brought an Expiatory sacrifice was not allowed to eat any part of it The repetition of the Sacrifices another Argument of their weakness In some cases the Sacrifice was but one of those things required in order to pardon The Legal Sacrifices were not designed to continue for ever That the defects of the Law of Moses are supplied in the Christian Religion Of the excellent Precepts of the Christian Religion Of the promise of Eternal life therein clearly revealed and of the great moment of it Of the Divine assistance attending this Religion Of the assurance of pardon from the Christian Religion and the sure foundation which it lays for the quieting the Consciences of Men. The usefulness of the foregoing discourse A more particular inquiry into the great Ends or Causes for which the Law of Moses was given The Conclusion of this Discourse THAT Jesus is the Christ and consequently that the Religion which Jesus and his followers taught came from Heaven hath been in great measure demonstrated already For the farther proof of this truth I shall consider the Religion it self which Jesus and his followers taught and prove that it is a more excellent and perfect Religion than that which was delivered to the Jews by the hands of Moses and consequently imcomparably the best Religion in the World I say the best in the World for so it must be if it once appear that it is more perfect than that which was taught the Jews by Moses For though the Religion of Moses were defective when compared with that of Jesus yet it was true however and came from God But for the Pagan Religion how ancient soever it were it was false and impious not revealed by God nor worthy of him inconstant and various trifling and silly It carried men away from God to the Creature It taught men to worship not onely the Host of Heaven but stocks and stones and dumb Idols the very Creatures which they did eat the Evils which they feared the very Devils themselves whom they did not love It prescribed impure Rites and Ceremonies put men upon cruelties to their own flesh and to their Children It was so gross and so silly that the wiser sort of Heathens though they complied