and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God iii. 14. By the name of AMEN which he gives himself he would have them understand that by him all the promises made to the Church shall undoubtedly be fulfilled according to that of St. Paul 2 Cor. i. 20. In him all the promises of God are Yea and in him Amen He may be believed for he is a Witness who affirms and testifies nothing but the very truth which can never fail because he is the Efficient cause of all things by whom they were at first created and by whom mankind is now repaired and therefore is the Head of all creatures especially of all Christians who shall rise again from the dead to immortall life So I expound the last words the beginning of the Creation of God as Andreas Caesariensis doth who takes in both senses of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have of the word Creation which signifies not onely Principium the beginning or originall but Principatum the principality or dominion which the Son of God hath over all creatures of which he is the Authour What may we not expect from so great a Prince who hath such an absolute command over all things And why should we doubt of his Sovereignty who appeared in such an amazing splendour to St. John and proclaimed in these and other such like Titles the supereminent glory of his Majesty Or why shoul◠we question his truth who had approved himself so many ways the true and faithfull Witness especially by sending the Holy Ghost as you shall hear presently to bear witness to him according to his promise We ought to rely upon his word and to fear nothing but lest we should reject or distrust the testimony of a Person so great and so just whose power appeared from his very first entrance into the world to be so far transcending all creatures that the Apostles might see before his ascension to the glory wherein St. John beheld him that as he had the Words of eternall Life so he had that Life in himself which in due time he would bestow upon them For though He had all the passions of a man Greg. Nazianz orat xxxv p. 575. yet he had all the perfections likewise of God that none might be so profanely contumelious as to contemn his Deity because he took upon him the grossness of our Humanity He was born of a woman but she a Virgin that was humane this Divine He was wrapt in swaddling-cloaths when he was an infant but shaked off the cloaths that wrapt him in the sepulchre when he was dead He was laid in a manger but then glorified by Angels pointed to by a Star and worshipped by the Wise men He was driven into Egypt but there drove away the errours of the Egyptians The Jews saw no beauty in him but he shone upon the mountain brighter then the Sun prefiguring the glory to which he should ascend He was baptized and tempted as Man but he took away the Sins of the World and got the victory as God He was hungry but fed many thousands and is himself the heavenly Bread which giveth life He was thirsty but gave the waters of life and made rivers of living waters flow from those that believed on him He was called a Samaritan and they said he had a Devill but he put Devills to flight and tumbled whole legions of them into the deep and made the Prince of Devills fall like lightning from heaven He was sold for thirty pieces of silver but purchased the whole World with the great price of his own bloud He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but was the Shepherd of Israel and now is of all the World He was dumb as a lamb before the shearers but is the WORD preached by the voice of one crying in the wilderness He was wounded and bruised but healed every sickness and all manner of disease He was lifted up on the tree and there fixed but restored us to the tree of life and saved the thief who was crucified with him He laid down his life but had power to take it again and the veil rent the rocks were cleft and the dead were raised He died but he gives life and by death extinguished death He was buried but rose again out of the grave He went down into hell but he brought up Souls with him and ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to examine all such discourses as detract from his glory O my Soul for ever praise him and let thy heart rejoyce in his holy Name Love him as thy Life confide in his word depend on his power and expect from him the blessing of Eternall Life For he is the AMEN the faithfull and true witness who cannot lie the beginning of the Creation of God whom all Creatures without a voice confess to be their Lord. The Heavens cry Proclus Orat. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was God who bowed them and came down to be a man for our sakes The Sun cries It was my Lord who was crucified in the flesh at the light of whose Divinity I was afraid and withdrew my beams The Earth cries It was He that formed me who suffered which made me quake and tremble at the horrid fact The Sea cries He was not my fellow-servant who walkt with one of his Disciples upon my back The Temple cries He that was worshipped here is now blasphemed and therefore I rend my garments Nay Hell cries He was not a mere man who descended hither for whom I received as a Captive I found to be the Omnipotent God And if we ask the heavenly powers and desire the Angels and Archangels and the whole host of heaven to tell us Who was he that appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh they will all answer aloud in the words of the Prophet David The Lord the God of hosts he is the King of Glory To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST the Third Witness in Heaven NOW I proceed to examine the Testimony which the Third Witness in Heaven gave concerning this future state which is the HOLY GHOST the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity Who openly assures us by as many ways and by the same means that we have eternall Life in Christ Jesus as he did that Jesus is the Son of God And that I may not be tedious in a business wherein we have already received such satisfaction let us take but a small taste of those three Testimonies of the Holy Ghost which I alledged in the former Treatise I. And first you know that there was a visible appearance of the HOLY GHOST at our Saviour's Baptism when the Divine Glory came down from heaven and rested on him in the sight of John the Baptist whereby he was persuaded that this was the Messiah the King of
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
devoutly obey For He alone hath purged mens hearts by his truth and set due bounds to their desires and fears shewing them the chiefest Good to which they should tend and the way whereby it may be attained Nor hath He onely shewn it but he hath gone before us in it lest any should shun the course of Vertue because of the difficulty that attends it Let the way of perdition and deceit therefore be forsaken in which death lies concealed under the inticements of pleasure And the nearer any man by reason of his years sees that day approaching in which he must depart this life let him cast in his mind the more seriously how he may go away as pure as may be how he may come innocent to his Judge and not as those whose minds are blinded how he may satisfie his lusts more greedily before he go Let every man deliver himself out of that gulph while he may while he hath some power and convert to God with his whole Soul that he may securely expect that day in which God the Lord and Governour of the World will judge every man's works and thoughts Let him not onely neglect but fly from those things of which men are now so greedy Let him look upon his Soul as better then these fallacious goods whose possession is uncertain and fading For they go away continually more swiftly then they come and if we could enjoy them to the last they must be left to others We can carry nothing away but a life piously and innocently led He shall come rich and wealthy to God whom Continence Mercy Patience Charity and Faith shall wait upon This is our Inheritance which can neither be taken from any man nor transferred to another And whosoever is desirous of it may have it if he please But let no man trust in Riches nor in Dignity nor in Kingly Power these do not make us immortall Let us give our mind to Righteousness which alone will be our inseparable Companion till it bring us to God As long as we live let us continue our warfare unweariedly let us keep our watch let us valiantly encounter with the enemy that being conquerours and triumphing over the vanquisht adversary we may receive from our Lord the reward of Vertue which he hath promised There is the greatest reason I have demonstrated to expect it with such a lively Faith as was in the first Christians in whose words I have chosen to deliver these things rather then mine own who confidently looked Death in the face in whatsoever shape it appeared and were not in the least daunted at the sight of it There were innumerable experiments made of it not onely in Men but in Women and Children as the great Athanasius * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 80 c. justly glories Who takes this to be no small token of the abolishing death so that it had no power but was indeed dead it self that it was contemned by all the Disciples of Christ Before whose Divine appearing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was dreadfull to the Saints themselves who bewailed and lamented those that died as if they were lost But since our Saviour rose from the dead it is no longer terrible but all that believe on him tread it under foot as if it were nothing and chuse rather to die then deny the Faith of Christ For they know certainly that the dead do not perish but that they both live and shall also be made incorruptible by the Resurrection That Evill one the Devill who heretofore by death insulted over us is himself alone now left truly dead Of which this is a sign that whereas before men believed on Christ they lookt on Death as very formidable since they embraced his Faith and Doctrine they do so much slight it that they run chearfully to it and become Witnesses against him of our Saviour's Resurrection Mere Children make nothing of it The weaker Sex so weak is he that had the power of Death now grown who were formerly deceived by him laugh him to scorn as one that is dead and hath lost his power Just as a Tyrant when a lawfull Prince hath vanquisht him and bound him hand and foot is despised and made a mocking-stock by all that pass by him who no longer fear his rage and cruelty even so is Death being overcome by our Saviour trampled upon by all his Disciples who bearing witness to their Master deride it in those words of the Apostle O Death where is thy Victory O grave where is thy sting What conquests hast thou to brag of now Behold we are all made alive through Jesus Christ our Lord. Mankind it is certain naturally abhors Death and the dissolution of their Body and therefore it is no small demonstration of our Saviour's victory over it that he hath so changed the nature of man as to perswade even children in Christ and tender girls to make no account of this Life and with joy to think of Death It may seem to some an incredible thing that Death should thus have lost its power but so it doth that there should be a cloath made of an Indian stone which fire cannot burn or that a mighty Tyrant notwithstanding all his forces should on a sudden be subdued and held in chains by no visible power Let him that doubts of either of these put on that cloath or go into the Dominions of the Conquerour and he shall be satisfied of the weakness of the fire and of the Tyrant In like manner if we meet with an Unbeliever who after so many Wonders and so many Martyrs of Jesus Christ makes a doubt whether Death be destroyed and a period put to his Kingdome we cannot blame his admiration at so great a thing provided he do not harden himself in infidelity nor impudently oppose those things which are most evident Let him for his satisfaction doe as he that would know whether such a Tyrant as I now spoke of be vanquished go into the Conquerour's Country submit himself I mean to Christian instruction and receive the Faith of Christ and then he shall soon see the weakness of Death and the victory that is got over it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For many who were once not onely Vnbelievers but Mockers have afterwards believed and so contemned Death that they have become Martyrs for Christ 's sake I pray God these Treatises may have the like happy effect upon some doubting or unbelieving Soul who shall vouchsafe to examine the Evidence I have produced for the Christian Faith Against which I beseech such persons not to shut their eyes nor harden their hearts in infidelity If they will condescend so far as to consider what we say they may of Scoffers become such zealous Assertours of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus as to be willing and ready though there will be no occasion I hope to try their resolution to testify their love to him and
called The LORD is there was exceeding great no less then eighteen thousand measures round xlviii Ezek. 35. this Answer is returned that the difficulty is small For some behold the very light of God others onely see it obliquely and have no more but a certain obscure duskish image of it There are but few of the former saith the Glosse there who have the Light in its power but of the other who have a weaker ray obliquely and at a distance there are very great numbers Which agrees with those words of our Saviour In my Father's house are many Mansions as they are expounded by the two St. Gregories Nazianzen and Nyssen and others who by a Mansion understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Nazianz. Orat. 33. c. the rest and the glory which is laid up there for the blessed but suppose some to be in a higher others in a lower condition proportionable to the vertuous dispositions they carried out of the world with them Which being very different they believed some to see less and others to be like Gorgonia the Sister of St. Greg. Nazianzen whom in the conclusion of his Eleventh Oration he supposes to be in the clear light of the glorious Trinity 4. But it would take up too much room in this Treatise if I should enter into that discourse and therefore I proceed to consider that though they made this difference according as we see in a City to follow the former comparison some are accounted the chief others the more inferiour streets and houses and some are nearer unto others more remote from the royal palace yet they did not imagine those mansions to be dark nor those that were in them to have their eyes shut up with sleep but all to enjoy the light of life They lead as another Jewish Writer * Vid. Jo. de Voysin de Jubilaeo L. i. cap. 16. speaks a most sweet life in that light which is the figure and resemblance of the supreme light to which they shall be admitted at the last Thus Moses and Elias appeared in great splendour at our Saviour's transfiguration on the Holy Mount where they talkt and discoursed with him about his departure that he was to accomplish at Jerusalem Which shews they not onely continued in being but had sense and motion and lived in much happiness and bliss Which we are not to take for a singular privilege indulged to them for the Apostles you may observe again lookt upon our Saviour as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exemplar or pattern to which God had determined they should all be conformed viii Rom. 29. And their conformity to him here in this world being so exact that they passed the very same way to bliss that he did through most cruell sufferings they could not doubt but upon their departure the conformity would still hold as exactly That as He when he died immediately went to Paradise where he promised the good Thief should be before his Resurrection so they should enter into the same blessed place immediately upon their death and live there in a joyfull expectation of him to come and change even this vile body that it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conformed to his glorious body iii. Phil. 21. And this is the sense also you may observe once more of the Voice from heaven which commanded St. John to write Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. xiv Rev. 13. With which the Spirit immediately joyned its testimony saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea i. e. it is certainly true believe what the voice says from henceforth or now at this present I promise them a blessed rest from their labours and their works shall follow with them that is they shall be refreshed with a sweet remembrance of what they have done and suffered for Christ Jesus It is uncertain indeed whether the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be to be referred to the former words Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord or to those that follow Yea saith the Spirit But either way our Church understands it in the same sense as appears by the Funerall office Where referring it to the former sentence the words are thus recited I heard a voice from heaven saying Write From henceforth or Now at this present time blessed are the dead c. They are not onely in expectance of future blessedness but in possession of an happy state already and find inconceivable satisfaction in venturing their very lives for Christ's sake who for this very end as St. Paul observes laid down his life for us that whether we wake or whether we sleep we should live together with him 1 Thess v. 10. There are those who from this word Sleep by which the state of the dead is frequently called in these books there being nothing liker Death then Sleep would inferr the perpetuall motion and operation of the Soul before the Resurrection For it is very busy and active even when all the Senses are lockt up by sleep and hath at that time received very high illuminations from God which is a sign that if the body were quite dead it would not be without them Aristotle I find in Sextus Empiricus * L. viii adv Mathemat p. 312. observes thus much that in Sleep when the Soul is by her self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 resuming her own nature she prophesies and foretells things to come and declares saith he hereby what she shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when by death she shall be separated from all bodily things By which consideration St. Austin tells us that Gennadius a famous Physician in his time and very religious and charitable was wonderfully inlightned when he was in doubt whether there was any life after death God saith he * Epist 100. ad Euodium would by no means desert a mind so well disposed but there appeared one night to him in his sleep a very handsome young man who bid him follow whether he should lead him Which he thought he did till he came to a Citie where on the right side he was saluted with the sweetest voices that ever he heard which the young man upon his inquiry what this meant told him were the hymns of the Blessed and of the Saints What he saw on the left side he did not well remember but awaking he lookt upon this as a dream and thought no farther of it Till some time after the same young man appeared again to him another night and askt if he knew him To which he answering Yes very well he askt him where he had seen him And Gennadius presently related how by his conduct he was once led to hear the hymns and see the sight before mentioned Here the young man askt him whether he saw and heard what he related in his sleep or waking In my sleep said Gennadius True said the other and now thou seest me in thy sleep dost thou not To which he consenting his instructer proceeded to ask
hast divulged the mysteries of the Prophets but thou wilt prostitute also the secrets of the Holy Ghost So the good man desisted and durst not do the Angels any further service who came to listen to him as he was expounding the Prophets Which is as true I make no doubt as all the rest and we may as well believe the Earth quaked for forty mile together when he began his Paraphrase and that if a fly did but sit upon his Book in which he wrote fire came down from Heaven and destroyed it leaving the Book untoucht as believe a syllable of these voices speaking from Heaven to him for they have all the very same Authors Who having got this by the end know not when to have done with it but tell us for the honour of R. Chanina who saw the destruction of the last temple by Titus that a voice came from Heaven which said as David Ganz reports it in his Chronology * Ad An. 4768. The whole world is sustained for the sake of R. Chanina my son A very likely matter that he should lay an obligation on so many and no body know it but this obscure writer Why did not all the world follow him as they did Jesus if he were God's Son and they so much indebted to him This is but a wretchedly dull counterfeit of what they had read of our Saviour who was Gods Son Upholding all things by the word of his power i. Hebr. 2 3. And so are the other tales they tell in the Talmudical Title so often named Chapter the first of a Bath col which came from Heaven as the wise men sat in Council at Jericho saying There is one here who is worthy that the Divine majesty or glory by which they mean sometime the Holy Ghost should rest upon him as it did on Moses but the age wherein he lives is not worthy of that favour Whereupon they all cast their eyes on Hillel a famous man among them And of another voice as they were sitting together at Jafne which said the very same words again and turned all their eyes towards R. Samuel the less And to name but one more R. Juda the Holy Doctor they would have it believed was assured by this voice from Heaven that his Prayer was heard just as our Saviours was in the place I have before open'd For when he was dying and it was not many days before our Saviour's death that he prayed in those words Father glorifie thy name he lift up his ten fingers and said Lord of the world it is known to thee that I have laboured in the Law with my ten fingers and have not received the least advantage thereby no not in my little finger May it please thee that I may have peace in my rest And then out came the Bath col saying those words of Isaiah lvii 2. He shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Which together with all other of the same kind deserve to be put under no other Title than that of the Jewish Fables mentioned by S. Paul i. Tit. 14. or old-Wives tales 1 Tim. iv 7. wherewith little children are wont to be entertained being invented it is likely in imitation of the Gospel story to adorn and support the ruinous doctrine of their Rabbins and to bring it into some esteem with their sottish posterity But we may as well believe the idle tale which the factious Donatists told concerning the Father of their Sect August Tract 13. in Johan to whom God gave an answer from Heaven they said as he was praying to him as give ear to this Fable of R. Judah who must be magnified by them because he was the compiler of their traditional Law And as for R. Samuel the less whom I mentioned before he was the man who composed the famous Prayer against Hereticks for their publick Devotions wherein they desire God that he would destroy all Hereticks whereby they mean Christians who began in those days to grow apace And therefore it is no wonder that he is cried up to the skies and must be honoured with praises from Heaven But the best of it is these petty stories want vouchers or those who offer themselves had need to bring some better men to be bound for their honesty They have no John Baptists to attest any thing much less such men as the Apostles who with the power of Miracles and Prophecy were ready on all occasions to pawn their lives that they did not follow cunningly devised Fables when they made known the power and coming of our Lord Jesus but were eye-witnesses as you have heard of his Majesty and heard the voice when they were with him in the holy Mount which said This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Those Masters in Israel also are not so cunning in their contrivances nor such masters of their craft but they forget the old Rule which admonishes a Lyar to have a good memory For they contradict themselves while they tell us this Bath col was but the fag end of a voice a kind of Eccho leaping out of another voice and yet make it deliver such long sentences And what likelihood is there that God should grace such men as they who had turned their Religion into vain janglings and idle disputes witness the quarrel between the School of that Hillel now mentioned and the Schoolof Schammai with such Elogiums from Heaven as were fit to be given only to the best of men yea to the Son of God himself One of these four things is far more probable Either that their latter writers have strained the words of their forefathers too far who meant perhaps no more by their hearing a Bath col but that the thing whereof they write was as evident to them as if they had had a Divine testimony for it For in Pirke Avoth I observe R. Joshuah says that jotzeth Bath col the daughter of a voice goeth forth day by day from mount Horeb and proclaims saying Wo to men because of their contempt of the Law Which can signifie no more but that if men would listen to the Law which God gave there they would hear how dangerous it is to disobey it Or secondly there was something of a conjuration in it For in Pirke Elieser I find * Chap. 8. that when there was a dispute only about the Leap-year the Governour of the School pronounced the Name with four Letters and presently they heard a voice saying The Lord spake to Moses and Aaron c. As if they could have this voice whensoever they did but pronounce that single word Or thirdly they were men of a strong imagination which made them fancy they heard a voice from Heaven when it was only a blast of melancholy fumes and vapours whistling in their brain For this may be a fair account of those who thought as some among us have done that they heard such or such a place of
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
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
Which of you says he himself viii John 46. convinceth me of sin No when they must either prove him a sinner or themselves for apprehending him without a cause they were not able no not by the help of a great sin in bringing false witnesses into open Court to fasten any crime upon him which would touch his life All that they could find to warrant a sentence so heavy was nothing but what they got out of his own mouth by adjuring him in the name of God to tell them whether he were the CHRIST His affirming this was the thing for which he was adjudged by the great Council of Jerusalem to suffer death This was the only truth they told Pilate when they brought him into his Court that he made himself CHRIST a KING xxiii Luke 2. xix John 7. This was the inscription over his head the Title upon the Cross THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS xxiii Luke 38. This was the thing they scoffed at after they had condemned him themselves xxvi Matth. 68. and which they taught the souldiers to mock him withall after he was condemned by Pilate xv Mark 18. and which the Chief Priest with the Scribes and Elders made the subject of their taunts and jeers as he hung upon the Cross xxvii Matth. 40 41 42 43. Read all these places and you will see that the asserting of this being the cause of his sufferings and shame S. John had reason to alledge his BLOUD as a great evidence or Witness to this Truth Now that the strength of its testimony may the better appear let these things following be distinctly considered I. First that Bloud is the life of every living Creature and therefore the pouring out of this is the losing of ones life It is not only a frequent Precept in the Law of Moses that they should not eat the bloud because it was the life of the Beast but common observation teaches us that it is the Vehicle or Chariot wherein the Spirits ride their Circuit round the Body and that if it lose its way and run out of the Body all motion ceases the Spirits flying away together with it II. Consider then further that nothing is so sweet as Life and that of all other things we naturally most abhor death All that we eat and drink is to prevent it and men are too much inclined to do unworthy things to escape it because it robs us of all our enjoyments here though never so near to us Skin upon skin says he who hath the power of death ii Job 4. one skin after another though it be never so tender and delicate and never so painful to part with it Yea all that a man hath will he give for his life III. Life therefore being a thing so pleasant and desirable and Death so dismal and affrightful no man sure in his perfect health and perfect wits will be perswaded to part with the one and run headlong into the other for a mere fancy by which he received no benefit at all while he lived and can hope for none when he is dead What rational man is there as our Saviour appears to be by all his discourses and actions who knows the value of Life who that is not in a frenzy the least spice of which is not discernible in him will chuse to part with his life and so part with all his Friends who are infinitely desirous of his company when he may innocently save it and comfortably enjoy those lovers friends and acquaintance and all other things which he must leave by dying Ask your selves that 's the best way is Life such a trifle that any of you are inclined to throw it away in a mere humour Is it so contemptible that a serious man and one that need not be miserable will studiously lose it only to be talkt of Nay would any of you take the most cruel pains and torments in your way to Death and pass out of the world with all the disgrace imaginable merely because you will when it is as much in your power to free your selves from them all and to live in pleasure honour and good repute among your neighbours VI. Much less would any man that is not beside himself die for a lye Death being uncomfortable in it self would become still more dismal if it should be for that which we saw proved an untruth but most of all black and dreadful if it must be endured for a lye that is for such an untruth as we had devised our selves and knew to be a falsity and whereby we intended to deceive and might have chosen whether we would have told it or no. If any man should be tempted to tell a lye yet what should tempt him to endure the rack yea to suffer death for it when neither He nor any man else shall get any thing by it and he might live far more honourably by telling the truth Make your selves Judges and enquire of your own minds whether you can think of any thing that hath such a power of perswasion in it No no we all love life better than so When a man will give all that he hath for it as the Tempter himself said it were very strange if he should not part with a vain lye that he might enjoy it And therefore the Apostle here bids us consider this that Jesus CAME not by WATER only but by Water and BLOUD That is He did not only preach this and by his holy Life justifie his integrity in what he said but He died to attest this and make it good If the WATER be not enough to perswade us that he did not falsifie yet the Water and BLOUD together are sufficient to confirm us in a strong belief of his sincerity For should the tongue of an honest man chance to slip and to speak on a sudden what he knew to be false yet he would never be such a fool and a villain too as to die to make it good whereas Jesus both said and took it upon his death that he was Gods Son in neither of which such a person as he could possibly design to deceive us He was not so shallow but he could easily see that a lye would sometime or other be disproved for all men naturally hate it and when they have any suspicion can never be at rest till they have discovered it And therefore if he proposed to himself glory and honour fame and a great reputation after a shameful death he could never be secure that he should win it but rather had just cause to fear the forgery would be detected And then it would have proved a greater blot upon him and more reproached his name that he was a wilful obstinate Lyar than the Cross or Gibbet the buffetings spittings cruel mockings and all the other indignities that he endured This would have branded him with eternal infamy and have made his name stink throughout the world Nothing could have stigmatized him like this unless it
judgment but were carried away merely with the sound of seemingly mystical words which they could never make any sober person understand the sence of Whereas on the contrary the words of our Saviour are not only intelligible but penetrate into the very heart and soul of him that reads them Every man bears witness to most of them in his own Conscience And the rest are such as plainly aim at the same end to oblige and encourage us to be more strictly pious And therefore He astonished all his Auditors who acknowledged an Authority in his words greater than was in the discourses of the wisest men among them They said never man spake like him Whole Synagogues as I have shown wondred at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth They enquired one of another how a man should come by all that wisdom who had no learned education His adversaries were often silenced by his answers They found themselves so non-plust that they durst not ask him any more questions merely for fear of being more confounded All which and much more that might be said is a sufficient evidence that he knew very well what He said and understood his doctrine and was a person of a clear reason who could not be abused by the impostures of fancy and imagination X. And as for the other cavil that possibly a man may suffer the illusion of evil Spirits which may make him confident without reason Let it be also granted because the Devil hath sometimes transformed himself into an Angel of light as the Apostle S. Paul speaks and so might perswade men that God or an Angel had spoken to them or that they had visions and revelations from above with which conceit He might so possess them that they might be ready to take it upon their death that they said nothing but the Truth But withall it is notoriously evident that such a person as our Saviour could not be liable to such diabolical impressions For first the holiness of his doctrine which overthrows the Devils kingdom and authority plainly shows how much he was in the favour of God And secondly his conquests over the Devil when he assaulted him with his temptations his turning him out of his possession every where and making him acknowledge his authority is an evident token how much superiour he was to him and so not obnoxious to his abuses And thirdly they who had been the followers of Jesus but a little while were too strong for the Devil and much above his power to hurt them and therefore how could he himself be touched by him They are S. John's words in this Epistle ii 14. I have written unto you young men because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one And again the further his doctrine was propagated the more was the kingdom of the Devil overthrown and all his cheats detected and discovered As all impiety was plucked up by the roots and godliness planted in the room of it so all superstitious devices all Magick all Divination wherewith he had long gull'd and couzened the World and kept them in Idolatry were laid so naked and bare that they were ashamed and presently vanished There is an excellent discourse concerning this in Athanasius his Book concerning the Incarnation of the Word which must not here be entirely transcribed but only these few words of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who then let it be considered and how great is this CHRIST who by his name and presence obscures and abolishes all things every where and alone prevails over all and fills the whole world with his Discipline Let the Gentiles that blush not to deride and laugh at us tell me whether He be a mere man who does these things If he be why do they not blush to see one man stronger than all their Gods How comes he to demonstrate by his power that they are nothing But if they will call him a Magician let them tell me again how it comes to pass that he destroys all Magick and doth not rather establish it He that can fancy all that I have now mentioned to have been done by the Devil which was so much to his prejudice must one would think be possessed with some evil Spirit himself There is nothing can declare a man not to be deceived by the Devil if this will not that He is the very person who lays open all the Devils frauds and discovers his wiles and delivers men from all his subtil impostures So did our Saviour and therefore we may conclude that as he believed his doctrine even concerning himself to be true so that was true which he believed and that he was not deluded either by his own private Spirit or by any else And the truth is his Adversaries never took him for a vain Enthusiast or for a man that was ignorantly deceived but still they accuse him as a subtil Impostor and would fain have had it thought that he craftily invented what he preached to destroy their credit and establish his own But this I have shown is incredible For who could imagine that he should gain any credit and reputation by being put to death upon a shameful cross into which he was not ensnared by their cunning but foresaw and frequently foretold and voluntarily offered himself to suffer it Allow him but to be a man of common sense and you must think he would not have contrived this way to procure fame and to propagate his doctrine in the world unless he had verily thought it to be so true that his Cross which proved the laughter of the Gentiles and the stumbling-block of the Jews could not hinder him from being honoured in the World as the Son of God Nothing else could make him chuse to die on this manner but his sincere belief of what he preached and there being no cause in the world to suspect any thing of a melancholy proud imagination or a diabolical illusion that should impose upon him such a belief it remains that our Saviour by his very death proved and confirmed the truth of what he preached He first came by WATER and then he came by BLOUD And as his BLOUD proves he did not abuse us with that which he knew to be false so the WATER his holy Doctrine and Life proves that he had no flaw in his understanding nor was abused himself with any fancies or illusions when he took himself to be so certainly the Son of God that he sealed it with his precious BLOUD XI And it ought to be considered also that it was prophesied before by the holy men of God that their CHRIST should suffer and be despised of men and be in nothing more remarkable than in his sorrows And therefore his BLOUD was a sign to those who believed those prophecies that Jesus was the CHRIST especially his bloud so disgracefully shed because He appeared hereby as well as by other marks to be the
by this sickness ver 4. Therefore he stayed so long before he would move towards him that Lazarus might be dead before he got to Bethany and He might get more glory by his resurrection than he had done by healing so many sicknesses and casting out such a number of Devils For this proved that he had power not only to break but utterly to destroy the works of the Devil and to tread him quite under foot who had the power of death For which reason he tells his Disciples that he was glad for their sakes that he was not there when Lazarus died to the intent they might believe ver 15. Have their faith that is more confirmed in him by seeing such an illustrious miracle wrought upon Lazarus after he was dead than it could have been by healing his sickness and preserving him from death They had seen many desperate diseases cured but never any man raised to life after he had been so long dead Some of the Jews indeed objected this to him that he ought to have been so kind as to have saved his friends life if he had had the power which he pretended Could not this man say they which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died ver 37. They do not by these words express their Faith but their unbelief and upbraid him with weakness or want of love The latter could not be imputed to him for by his tears just before mentioned ver 35 36. they all observed how much he loved him But from thence some of the company took occasion to disparage his power and to ask the rest of their neighbours how they could believe that he had opened a blind mans eyes as was commonly reported Chap. ix when he suffered one whom he loved so much to want his help and perish If he had done the former how easie had it been for him to do the latter In which he failing though his affection could not but move him to do his utmost for his Friend they took it to be a demonstration that he was not such a mighty Man as the People imagined This perverse reasoning moved our Saviour very much so that he groaned again in himself v. 38. to see their deplorable obstinacy and malice as much as he had done before v. 33. to hear their pitious lamentations which they made for the dead These mens condition was far more pitious because he foresaw there was but little hope that they would be moved when they saw their frivolous cavil answered by the Resurrection of Lazarus Which would show there was good reason why he let him dye that he might express never the less love to him but more to them and to all Mankind by restoring his life which was a more Divine work by much than to have saved him from Death To this therefore he immediately applies himself and bids the Sister of the deceased whose faith it seems began to stagger not doubt but she should see the glory of God vers 40. such a stupendious instance that is of the power of God in him as would move many to give glory to God that sent him For wherein could the Majesty of God appear more to their astonishment than in such a marvailous work as this which when he entred upon he first lift up his eyes to him and called him Father on purpose that the People might believe he came from God and was his Son when they saw him answer his Prayers in this manner vers 41 42. Where if you read the place you will see he gives this reason why he made a publick acknowledgment to God for hearing him so often not because he doubted of his presence with him now but meerly that the by-standers might know by whom he did such miracles and ascribing them to no other power but his might believe that he had sent him What should they believe else when they heard him after this address to God commanding Lazarus with a loud voice expressing his assurance and authority to come forth and when they beheld him who could not lately move himself in his Bed rise up out of his Tomb and walk about not only restored to life but in perfect health This struck the hearts of many of the Jewes who were there present so powerfully that they believed on him vers 45. that is concluded he was more than a Prophet no less than the Messiah himself And those Cavillers before mentioned who still persisted to maintain their infidelity by the absurdest imaginations were so startled at it that they went presently and told some of the Great Sanhedrim what Jesus had done wishing them I suppose to look to themselves and not suffer these proceedings vers 46. For they were so alarmed with this news that a Council forthwith is called and they enter into a solemn Debate what course to take with him seeing plainly how powerful this Miracle was to win him Proselytes and draw the People to him vers 47. It had had that effect upon many already as you have heard and they were afraid it would increase the number of his Disciples so much that it would prove their utter ruine For they say vers 48. If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation That is the People will proclaim him their King and thereby we shall incur the indignation of Caesar who will send an Army and cut us off till he leave neither root nor branch as it is iv Mal. 1. but destroy both us and our Temple That place they were resolved to preserve though it were with his destruction whose death they now determine as soon as ever they could catch him For so their consultation ended first they decreed v. 53. that for the publick good as they called it He should be put to death and then that if any knew where he was v. 57. they should give notice of it that he might be apprehended in order to his trial Thus their blind malice turned the most powerful means of their conversion into the ground and reason of his destruction For because he did so many miracles v. 47. they did not think it fit to let him live when-as for that very cause they ought to have believed on him and thought him worthy to live eternally For I think these Three things are very considerable wherewith I shall conclude this part of the SPIRITS testimony I. First this Miracle wrought upon Lazarus was so evident a token that he was the Son of God that it had in it all the conditions which the Gentile King whom the Jews speak of in the Book COSRI * Part. 1. Sect. 8. requires in a prodigy sufficient to perswade men to believe that God speaks by him that works it Our mind says he cannot be brought to think that God enters into society with flesh and blood unless it be by such a miracle
whom we must worship when he was not sought to overthrow and take out of his hands We are secure that God would not have abetted an Usurper in so high a manner against himself And as for any unclean Spirits if they could have done such things as Jesus wrought they would not have employed their power we are sure to establish a Doctrine so pure and holy as the Christian Religion teaches which utterly destroys all that wickedness in which they delight There was all the reason in the World to believe one who came thus by the SPIRIT when he came by WATER too and by his mighty power promoted nothing but the most excellent Piety Vertue and Goodness among mankind But concerning the miracles of our Saviour there will be an occasion to say so much in pursuance of what I design hereafter that I shall add no more of them here Let us now proceed having heard what the SPIRIT did by him to consider what wonderful things it did for him whereby it proved him to be the Christ the Son of God II. And the SPIRIT sure very eminently bare witness of him when it raised him from the dead and not long after advanced him into Heaven to live for ever with God For both these are ascribed to the power of the SPIRIT in express texts of Holy Scripture Of the former you read in the 1 Pet. iii. 18. where the Apostle says He was put to death in the flesh being mortal as we are but quickned by the SPIRIT that is raised up again from the dead by that Divine power in him whereby he had raised up others before he died It was impossible that he should be held by the chains of death who had such a SPIRIT in him By this he shook them off more easily than Samson brake the Wit hs or the Cords wherewith he was bound when the SPIRIT of the Lord came mightily upon him And being thus quickned again the same SPIRIT also presented him to God in the Heavens as his dearly beloved Son in whom he was well pleased who had given him full satisfaction and done his whole will for which he sent him into the world So you read in the ix Hebr. 14. where the offering which the Apostle says he made of himself to God through the eternal SPIRIT was that bloudy sacrifice on the Cross which after his Resurrection he offered to God and continues still to offer in the Heavenly Sanctuary as the High Priest under the Law offered the bloud of beasts after they were slain at the Altar in the most holy place of the Earthly Sanctuary And this oblation is said to be made by the SPIRIT because that raised him to life after he was slain translated him out of his mortal condition carried him on high made his body glorious and immortal and having thus made him fit to be for ever with God presented him unto his Majesty where he remains through the power of an endless life a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek And this working of the mighty power of God which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principalities and powers might and dominion and every name that is named was such a testimony of the SPIRIT to him that it confounded his adversaries more than all the miracles which he had wrought by the power of the same SPIRIT in his life-time And therefore the Apostles I observe alledge this immediately after the other as that which compleated the testimony of the SPIRIT to him Till this was clear and evident they relied wholly upon the other as you may perceive by the discourse of those two Disciples that went with our Saviour to Emaus Who doubted of his Resurrection after news had been brought them of it but acknowledged him to have been a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and upon that account were much troubled that their Rulers had crucified him because they trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel xxiv Luke 19 20. When they were fully perswaded therefore that he was indeed made alive again as these very men presently saw then they add this as an argument of the greatest force to convince the world that he was the Son of God the Redeemer of mankind This is the substance I observe of both S. Peter's first Sermons to the Jews and to the Gentiles He begins with a relation how great Jesus was in his Life and then proceeds to show how much greater God had made him by raising him from the dead Read but what he says to his Crucifiers on the day of Pentecost ii Acts 22 23 24. where he first tells them that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves very well knew And then that he being delivered to them and by wicked hands crucified and slain God had raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it In like manner he discourses to the first Gentile converts x. Acts 38 39 40. where he tells Cornelius and his friends how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil of which they were witnesses who had seen all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem and then adds that God raised him up the third day after he was slain and hanged on a Tree and shewed him openly though not to all the people yet to witnesses chosen before God even to him and others who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostle had nothing to add beyond this which was the greatest testimony of the SPIRIT to him Now it spake with a loud voice in his behalf for if he had not been God's Son as he said he was He would never have taken him out of his grave much less have advanced him into the Heavens Where it was manifested he now lived by the coming of the HOLY GHOST which fell upon Cornelius and his friends while S. Peter was speaking those words This was all that could be added to what the Apostle had said and God sent this to prove his Resurrection and Exaltation at his right hand Which was such an undeniable proof of his authority that having thus raised him the SPIRIT as I said finished its testimony to him For how should it speak plainer or more convincingly or who can think that it would have continued to speak for him in this manner after his death if he had died with a lye in his mouth The SPIRIT which S. John here says is the TRUTH openly declared by restoring him to life that his Bloud was most acceptable to God It showed that
simple words more than all that could be found here and there scattered in the vast Volumes of the Philosophers Nay they advanced the sence of the Law of Moses They called Men to the noblest degree of purity For they cleansed and scowred them from all filthiness not only of the flesh but also of the spirit They advanced the business of holy living to such a pitch that some said it was impossible to be so good And what did they do now How did they overcome this objection This is the greatest marvel of all and gave their testimony a mighty force they show'd by their own example that it was possible This says Lactantius made the Philosophers miscarry in their design that though they spake well yet they did not live as they taught For men had rather have examples than words Because it is easie to talk and hard to do Our Saviour therefore and his Apostles convinced men by their actions that if they would not follow one that taught them they might follow one that went before them They guided them by their feet and not only by their tongues they led their hearers the way in all manner of vertuous and godly living Nay they refused sometimes to do those things which they might lawfully that all men might see their upright meaning and that they had no worldly design in their head So S. Paul tells the Corinthians that whereas he might have lived upon the Gospel and expected maintenance from them yet he chose to preach freely and make the Gospel without charge that it might have an easier passage into their hearts 1 Cor. ix 12.18 And thus he did at Thessalonica also where he wrought with labour and travel Night and Day that he might not be chargeable to any of them Not because he had not power to do otherwise but to make himself an example unto them to follow him 2 Thess iii. 8 9. And such was his practice you heard before at Ephesus xx Act. 34. So that one would think he had taken up this generous resolution at the very first which he continued every where not to make the smallest advantage by the Gospel of which he was a Minister It might have been sufficient one would think that he laboured in the Gospel and took pains to convert souls He needed not have laboured also for his living but expected food from those whom he fed with the bread of life But to make his Ministry unexceptionable and to show he intended nothing in the World but to bring men to this belief in Jesus he would not so much as support himself by their contributions but by the labour of his own hands provided both for himself and for others too as he tells the Ephesian Elders who were instruments with him of their Salvation Can there be any suspicion of the sincerity of such a Man as this What could he have in his mind but this one thing to win Disciples to his Master And could he doubt think you of his power to reward him for all his labour He was no fool it is plain but understood himself as well as the wisest of us all What should make him then neglect all other interests and bend his mind wholly to serve Jesus Such noble spirits as his were the unlikeliest of all other to cheat and deceive whose only business it was to take pains that they might give to others And men of such wisdom would not have taken all that pains for no other end but merely to perswade others to believe in Jesus if they had not been as sure that he was the Son of God as it was that they should get nothing by preaching it but stripes imprisonments infamy reproaches and perhaps lose their lives to the bargain And what should make men so prodigal of their bloud think you II. That 's now fit to be considered in the next place their sharp sufferings the BLOUD whereby our Saviour CAME that is was proved to be the Christ when he was preached by their Ministery No sooner did they appear but all the world with its whole power armed it self against them As the Jews under pretence of Religion opposed and persecuted them so when they fled into other Countries the Philosophers upon the same score set their wits against them and summoned all their Learning and their Arts of reasoning to dispute this new Doctrine out of doors To whose assistance came the Sophisters and Rhetoricians who imployed all their quirks and their eloquence to make it seem ridiculous Nor did the Magicians and Juglers with all the Daemons the then Lords of the world forget to oppose it with all their might But excited Kings and Presidents and Magistrates to exercise all kind of cruelties not only against the preachers of this Religion but against their followers The Edicts of Princes thundred out nothing but confiscations proscriptions banishments imprisonments rods axes strapadoes crosses fire wild-Beasts so that we may say of them all as it was said of S. Paul and Barnabas who were men that hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus xv Acts. 26. Men set forth appointed unto death as those that fought with wild-Beasts and made a spectacle unto the World and to Angels and Men 1 Cor. iv 9. Even unto this present hour says S. Paul in the following verses we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffetted and have no certain dwelling place and labour working with our own hands being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat God for them we are made as the filth of the World and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day And as they were long thus vilely used and destined to death so at last every one of them together with other great servants of Jesus Christ actually suffered death in justification of this truth that he was the Son of God S. Steven led the way who is called the Martyr of Jesus having shed his Bloud for him xxii Acts 20. And he that calls him so protests that he was ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for his name xxi 13. Nay when he speaks of the Martyrdom of S. Steven he was in the hands of his enraged enemies who were ready to stone him too and began to prepare themselves for it as you may read there xxii 23. And both before and after this he was persecuted with such violent and bitter zeal that his whole life was a kind of death which he suffered over and over again for his Masters cause Which makes him say when he gives a large catalogue of his sufferings that he was in deaths often 2 Cor. xi 23 25. and protest in another place that he died daily 1 Cor. xv 31. and in another that he was alway delivered unto death for Jesus's sake and that death wrought in him that he might make others live 2 Cor. iv 11 12. More than this you find in
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
we understand thereby their holy preaching and living For it is said ver 3. that they had power to prophesie which signifies that they were endowed with extraordinary gifts for Prophets were next to Apostles in the Church to interpret and expound the holy writings and prove out of Moses and the Prophets as our Saviour did xxiv Luke 27. all things that concerned him both his sufferings and his glory And this they did cloathed in sackcloth that is in the habit of mourners for the abominations I suppose which they saw committed and the provoking infidelity of those to whom they preached Which was a notable mark of their great piety and charity as you may learn from ix Ezek. 4. and v. Matth. 4. They are said also to be the two Olive-trees ver 4. that is like Zerubbabel and Joshua two famous persons among the Jews after the captivity who were represented by this Emblem iv Zach. 3. King and Priests unto God men endowed with great authority and illumination from above and with as great purity For they had so much of the oil of gladness that they imparted it to others to the Candlesticks that is the Churches wherein they shined For so S. John teaches us in the beginning of this Book to interpret Candlesticks which is a great argument of the excellency of these men who by the witness of their life and doctrine made all those who were under their care to testifie some way or other to the same truth that they did At least by their lives for they are said to stand before the God of the Earth Which is an Hebrew phrase signifying to minister unto God to be imployed in his worship and service as the Priests and People were at the Temple and therefore sets forth the piety and devotion of these persons whose business it was to serve God even then when it was most dangerous so to do And as by Water so by Bloud also they bare witness of him For they had war made against them and in the fight since they would not yield they were killed ver 7. Nay it was notorious to all that their persecutors had not only drawn the sword against them but that they had resisted unto bloud for their dead bodies lay in the street of the great City ver 8. and they would not suffer them to be put in graves ver 9. which shows the enraged malice which they bare to these zealous WITNESSES who had tormented them ver 10. by the sharpness of their arguments and by their constant reproofs of their infidelity and wickedness Nor was the Witness of the SPIRIT wanting for they approved themselves as Ministers of God to speak in S. Paul's language and Witnesses of Christ by wonders and miracles so great that they might be compared to the two great Prophets Moses and Elias who appeared with our Saviour on the holy Mount For they sent fire out of their mouths ver 5. and had power to shut up Heaven that it should not rain ver 6. both which were the known works of Elias They had power likewise over the Waters to turn them to bloud and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they pleased ver 6. which is the plain description of men like to Moses who brought such plagues on the Egyptians as these had power to do upon those who were like them both in hardness of heart and in oppression of the faithful servants of God And therefore I suppose they are described with a power to hurt and destroy rather than with that healing and saving vertue wherewith the first Witnesses of Christ principally came to signifie that their rebellious enemies should be punished for their rejecting Jesus and doing despight to the SPIRIT of grace which once came to them in a more healthful and salutary manner casting out Devils turning Water into Wine healing all manner of Plagues and Diseases and that as often as they themselves pleased to desire And more than this you read ver 11. that after the time appointed by God for it he restored these Prophets to life again and thereby made their testimony something like that of his Son 's That is men animated with the very same spirit stood up in their place to the amazement of all their opposers Who were so far from being able to hurt them that they were as safe as if they had been in Heaven The presence of God was with them as in the cloud which preserved the Israelites from all danger And he advanced them to great honour by the Heavenly gifts wherewith they were adorned As Elias is said to come though he did not appear in person but another in his spirit and power and David is said to be raised up to reign over the Jews xxx Jer. 9. because his Son that is Christ was set upon his Throne so did the Spirit of life from God enter into these witnesses and they stood upon their feet when he raised up other Apostolical persons in their stead who were not less eminent than those who were dead but full of the same spirit of wisdom holiness burning zeal and might and power also from God This frighted all their enemies as well it might when they saw the Christian Cause would not die do what they could But if they killed some others started up in their room to witness unto Jesus and assert the same truth by wonders by their admirable preaching by their holy life and by death it self if nothing else would satisfie them For thus all the MARTYRS testified to him Whose BLOUD witnessed not only that they believed his Religion and that they valued the favour of Jesus more than their lives but that they had very good reason so to do or else men of such wisdom would not have endured such torments as they freely exposed themselves unto with so much chearfulness as we find they did For as S. Hilary tells us Some gloried in the chains which they wore in prison others being beaten till they died did nothing but give thanks others readily laid down their necks to be cut off and more ran to those piles which they saw built to burn them and with a devout haste leapt into those fires at which the ministers of their torments trembled and there were those who were thrown into the Sea not as if they were to be drown'd but went to partake of the refreshment of eternal bliss So he writes upon those words of the Psalmist lxv 10 12. Thou hast tried us as silver is tried we went through fire and water c. The fruit of which was that thereby many were converted unto Christ Their death gave life to others who seeing their zeal their constancy their meekness their patience and their charity became Proselytes to that faith for which they suffered A new race of illustrious Martyrs rose up in their stead in whom they yet lived For there was no other cause as that Father adds upon the following
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
when the Israelites bade him prove it But our Lord needed not to call for any Witness John the Baptist a great Prophet as they themselves allowed was ready of himself for it was his office to declare openly that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and abiding on him He saw and bare record that this is the Son of God as the Voice from Heaven in his audience also pronounced him Which a great many People if need were could afterward certifie who concluded that an Angel spake to him as you have heard from S. John's testimony .xii. 29. 2. Now if you proceed further and ask for some Witness of Moses his authority like to that of the WORD the second Witness to our Saviour who can hear any thing of it Do we ever read a word of Moses his appearing in such a Glory as our Lord Jesus did to his first Martyr S. Steven and to S. Paul and to his beloved Disciple Nay where are the Witnesses that say he was so much as transfigured when he was upon the Mount or doth he himself ever affirm it When was his Rayment made as white as Snow or where as I shall examine more hereafter was the bright cloud covering the Mount which was all cloathed with darkness we read indeed that when he came down his face shone but not in so bright and glorious a manner as our Saviour's did when he went up into the Holy Mount and especially after he ascended into Heaven Then S. Steven as I have said saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand an honour never given to any Angel in Heaven And the Apostle of the Gentiles saw him again in a light greater than that of the Sun at Noon-day And to S. John he appeared as the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS in such a Majesty as he was not able to bear but made him fall at his feet as dead He that weighs such things as these will see that all the glory of Moses to use S. Paul's words 2 Cor. iii. 10. was no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 3. Then if you look for the Testimony of the HOLY-GHOST I have already noted that it never came down upon him as it did upon the Founder of our Religion Much less did he send it upon some select Men after he was dead who should do as great wonders as himself And still much less did he bestow it upon all the People as our Lord did for a while upon all Believers There is not the smallest foot-step of any such Honour or Power that he had For He did not communicate a portion of his Spirit to the LXX Elders who were chosen to be his Assistants but the Lord said to him I will come down and take of the Spirit which is upon thee and put it upon them xi Num. 17. which words do not signifie it is true that he had less but only that they had more of the Spirit than before yet He did not so much as lay his hands upon them that they might receive it but God took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the LXX Elders even to those two who were not there present at the Tabernacle but remained still in the camp ver 25 26. 4. If you go therefore next to the Testimony of WATER how transparent is the Purity of our Saviours Doctrine above that of Moses Whose Laws though they contained nothing dishonest yet burdened the people to prevent a greater mischief of their running into Idolatry with a number of precepts which in themselves had no goodness at all to commend them Nay the Letter of the very moral Law laid restraints only upon the outward man so that they who were subject to it little regarded the purifying of their spirits from those irregular passions and naughty affections which our Lord expresly prohibits There were many things also indulged in those days which our Lord doth not allow Whose design was not only to purge the heart and make the spirit of men much better by all his precepts but to advance them to the noblest degree of purity and goodness Where do you read in the Books of Moses such precepts of meekness of mortifying fleshly lusts of kindness to all and tender compassion of trust in God of contentedness with the present and hope of his mercy in another world as are frequent and obvious in the Gospel of Christ Nay in what place of the Law do you find so much as one command or exhortation to Pray much less to Pray without ceasing and to Pray not for riches and victory over enemies and long life but for the Divine Grace and favour for the Holy Spirit for remission of sins and for Eternal Life And now I mention that word I cannot but desire you to consider how low and poor the Promises of Moses were compared with those of our Saviour who hath brought in a better Hope Of which they could see so little so dim was the light in the Law of Moses that a whole Sect of men who believed in him and received his Law cast away all hope of obtaining good things in another life and denied the Resurrection of the Dead And we must add to all this that Moses was but the Light of that one Nation whereas our Lord says more than once I am the Light of the WORLD viii John 12. ix 5. Moses washed the Bodies of the Jews but now the hearts of the unclean Gentiles are purified by Faith xv Acts 9. And if you enquire further into the purity of Moses his life you will find it was not without flaws and blemishes for he spake unadvisedly with his lips and could not bring the people to their rest But our Lord was perfectly free from all spot the Lamb of God without blemish who never spake the least word amiss no not in the midst of such torments as Moses never endured 5. For if you pass on to consider what sufferings and BLOUD testifie Alas what is the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats to the precious Bloud of Jesus Did Moses seal that Covenant of which he was the Minister or did he sprinkle the Book of the Covenant with his own bloud Did he purge away the sins of the people by himself as our Saviour we read did 1. Hebr. 3. or sanctifie them by the offering of his own body once for all as it is x. Hebr. 10 Did he die to bear Witness to the Truth or witness such a good confession before Pharaoh as Jesus before Pontius Pilate Was it ever heard that by the enduring of a shameful and cruel death he declared to all the certainty of his Prophecy Upon what Altar was he offered And for what cause did he become a sacrifice This was peculiar to Jesus to suffer such things as no man ever did and for this very cause because he said He was the Son of God 6.
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
we may be in danger of for Piety's sake Now looking a little farther into this Holy Writer who hath preserved the unquestionable Records concerning these matters I find there is as great a certainty of this Eternal Life by Jesus Christ as there is of his being the Son of God and that the very same Witnesses who so fully declare the one give no less strong Evidence for the proof of the other For THIS says He 1 John v. 11. IS THE RECORD or WITNESSE THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO VS ETERNAL LIFE AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON Which words being a continuation of the foregoing Discourse carry this sense in them There is great reason you should receive the Witness of God viz. of the Father Word and Holy Ghost and of the Water Bloud and Spirit not onely because it is greater then the Witness of men which you cannot justly reject v. 9. and because if you do reject it you make God a Liar which who can have the heart to do v. 10. but also because the thing which is testified to us by these Witnesses when they say that Jesus is the Son of God is of all other the most desirable viz. that God designs for us no less blessing then Eternal Life which the Lord Jesus hath in his hands to keep for us and to bestow upon us The ensuing Discourse then will necessarily fall into these two Parts First to shew what this Eternal Life is and secondly to prove the Certainty of it from the mouth of all those Witnesses Of the first of which I must treat with the greater brevity because it is not the Design of the Apostle in this place to give us an account what the Eternal Life is which God hath promised but to shew that he hath given us an undoubted right to it and that it is in the power of that Great Lord whose Servants we are by Faith in him to dispose of it THE WITNESSES TO Christianity PART II. CHAP. I. Of ETERNAL LIFE in generall AND now I launch out when I go about to speak of Eternal Life into a wide Sea of which it is but little that our eye can descry or our thoughts fathom and less that I must confine my self unto in this present Discourse There is more contained in these two words ETERNALL LIFE then all the world can discover though we have so good a Compass as the Book of God whereby to steer our course and to guide and assist us in our Inquiry We may venture as far as ever our thoughts will carry us into this depth but we shall still see something beyond all that we can conceive and be enabled by our search to discern more fully that it hath no bottom no bounds nor limits as will appear if you do but attend to this general Description of it out of the Holy Writings In whose style it is most certain it signifieth a full and constant enjoyment of all the happiness that our Being is capable to receive I say Happiness because as DEATH in the Sacred language denotes all manner of Misery affliction and trouble so by LIFE it expresses all kind of Felicity pleasure and contentment And I say full and constant happiness because the word ETERNALL must needs adde something to the other and that is compleatness firmness and solidity As Death if it be not eternall leaves some room for thoughts of happiness so Life if it want that addition doth not exclude all vexation and sadness But then on the contrary both the one and the other if this be annexed are made perfect without any hope of happiness in that Death or any fear of misery in this Life To clear our passage I judge it necessary to spend a few words in making good this Notion of Life and Death by producing some places of Holy Writ where they are so used And first for DEATH the very first time we meet with it in God's Book it is used to express all the Misery that man drew upon himself by his Sin ii Gen. 17. In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die i. e. fall into a most calamitous estate as it is explained iii. Gen. 16 17 18 19. till worn out with labour sorrow and pain he returned to the dust out of which he was taken Thus when the Locusts came upon the land of Egypt and destroyed every green thing Pharaoh intreats Moses x. Exod. 17. to pray to the Lord that he would take away this Death onely Which shews that all the plagues and disasters which fell upon that land went under this general name of DEATH though now it be restrained to the last and greatest of all punishments The like you reade in the second Book of the Kings iv 40. where the sons of the Prophets as they were eating of their pottage cry out Oman of God there is DEATH in the pot something that is very distastfull to the palate and perhaps hurtfull and poisonous to the body which made them they could not eat it In the New Testament also penned by men of the same country we find the very same language St. Paul saying that he was in Deaths often 2 Cor. xi 23. and that he died daily 1 Cor. xv 31. and wishing to be delivered from the body of this Death vii Rom. 24. i. e. of such misery that it made him sigh and groan sorely under the burthen of it And to name no more the Shadow of Death in these Books signifies nothing else but an horrible dangerous place or a dismall forlorn condition into which any miserable person is faln This being the notion then of the word DEATH in the speech of the Hebrews such must be the signification of the word LIFE which is opposite to it whereby they express all Felicity and comfortable enjoyments Thus when David says his enemies were lively or living as it is in the Hebrew text xxxviii Psal 19. he means they were in a flourishing prosperous condition abounding with all worldly goods while he was abandoned to contempt poverty and continual danger And when he says their heart shall live that seek God lxix Psal 32. his meaning is they shall enjoy true peace and contentment So when the people say 2 King xi 12. Let the King live which we render God save the King they wish him a prosperous and happy reign And when David acknowledges God to be the fountain of life xxxvi Psal 9. it is as much as to say an ever-running spring of all felicity from whom flows as the foregoing words are a river of pleasures Hence they are bid to keep to God's Commandments as their life xxxii Deut. 47. And this is said to be the excellency of knowledge that wisedom giveth LIFE to them that have it vii Eccles. 12. because by observing those wise precepts they were put into a most happy condition which could not be had by any other means but would certainly be lost by turning from those holy paths This is a
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
us in a great many thoughts and be paid for with much care and solicitude afterward to preserve our contentments which else will be in danger to be lost and leave us the more miserable There will be many also that envy to us our happiness and others perhaps that will endeavour to oppress us and deprive us of it And if we can escape all these troubles yet we must have a sore conflict with our selves and our spirituall enemies which will put us to great pains to keep our selves from being corrupted with the delights of this world or poisoned and infected with the evill examples that are round about us Therefore this present time may well be called the time of our labours after all which there is nothing we have got but must also have an end and we shall be forced quickly to take our leave of it But now in that joyfull Sabbath that is to succeed we shall rest from all these labours and be at no more pains to attain or keep our happiness There will be no danger as I have said of our being despoiled of it No Serpent can creep into that Paradise to tempt and allure us from that great felicity nor shall we be in any danger from our own Flesh nor find our selves in a World where there will be any thing to excite our desires but what we may freely take the fullest satisfaction in By which and all the rest that hath been discoursed you may clearly see there can be nothing wanting to compleat the happiness of that state but onely the never-ceasing duration or continuance of it Now in this as was said at first the Rest we expect in the other world differs from that which God promised the Hebrews in the land of Canaan For by virtue of Moses his Law they had a title onely to a long life in that fruitfull Country in opposition to which as well as to our short life here the Christian Rest is called an everlasting Life an inheritance immortall because incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 4. So our Lord himself calls it a great number of times in one discourse he had with the stupid Jews Joh. vi where he exhorts them to labour not so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man came to give them ver 27. For this is the will he tells them of him that sent him that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life ver 40. And because they were still sottishly regardless of what he said he affirms it again with the most vehement asseverations ver 47. Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life And 58. He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever which is repeated again in sundry other places of the same Chapter And I must tell you for your more ample satisfaction that our Saviour hath taken care to deliver this Doctrine to us in such words as can have no other sense or meaning The word for ever or everlasting in the Old Law sometime signifies onely the duration of severall years or a long compass of time which at last might have an end As the Hebrew servant who had sold himself for six years if when they were at an end he chose not to go free he was to serve his master for ever xxi Exod. 6. that is till the Jubilee if his master lived so long and he were not redeemed nor released And there are many Ordinances of Moses not now to be enumerated which are said to be everlasting because they were to continue till the coming of Christ Now lest any one should imagine that the Life our Saviour speaks of shall be everlasting onely in the same sense a very long continued happiness severall Ages suppose which in conclusion might determine and come to an end he hath prevented such thoughts by using other words besides this of everlasting life that we may be assured it signifies more in the Gospel then it did under the Law that is an Endless Bliss For 1. he not onely tells the Jews in the forenamed Chapter vi Joh. 50. that he was the bread of which if a man did eat he should not die but that whosoever liveth that is every living man and believeth in him shall never die xi Joh. 26. Which is as much as to say He will give us a Life without any death And farther 2. he says that whosoever keeps his saying shall never see death viii 51. Which if it signifie any thing distinct from the former must denote that he shall never be in any danger of death or come near it which in the next words vers 52. is called tasting death How can this be say the Jews since Abraham and the Prophets are dead and thou sayest if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death That 's the phrase wherein our Saviour's Passion is expressed who tasted death i. e. lay in the grave a while for every man ii Heb. 9. And therefore may signifie here that our Saviour's faithfull Disciples after he hath given them everlasting life shall not die at all no not for the space of three days though afterward they might rise again But I have taken notice of one expression fuller then this for he doth not onely say that they shall not die nor taste of death but 3. that they cannot die any more xx Luk. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no possibility after they have attained that life that they should die again for they are equall to the Angels and are the children of God being by the Resurrection begotten to an immortall life Hence it is that the Apostle calls this happy state by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortality 2 Tim. i. 10. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruption ii Rom. 7. and saith that our bodies shall be raised in incorruption 1 Cor. xv 42. and put on immortality ver 53. and bear the image of the heavenly Adam i. e. of our Lord now he is in glory who we know dies no more ver 49. Which all signifie the Body as well as the Soul shall enjoy such a solid state of happiness as cannot moulder or be dissolved but will remain firm and durable like the Authour of it by whom death shall be swallowed up in victory ver 54. i. e. be so perfectly conquered that it shall never recover the least power any more Innumerable Ages shall never put a period to this ETERNALL LIFE but after they are all past the whole Man shall be as fresh and beautifull without any declension or sign of decay as if it were but newly risen and had just then put on its purest robes of glorious Light There will be as full a Good I mean and as great a strength to enjoy it and as perfect a liking also of it
after millions of ages are spent in the heavenly mansions as there was at the very first entrance into them Death being destroyed by him who is the Resurrection and the Life and who dieth no more an immortall Soul shall inhabit an immortall Body and they shall be for ever with the Lord. Where they shall be for ever employed in those happy exercises before mentioned which will for ever be to be done again In the doing of them there will be infinite pleasure and in the repetition of them there will be no disrelish but an infinite increase of pleasure As they always know so they shall always be knowing more For new beauties we may well think will discover themselves in an infinite object and this will excite a fresh love and that a more vigorous joy And so for ever round again there will be knowing loving and rejoycing more and more without any end It is but a little that can be said of ETERNITY though we should speak of it to the end of Time Nay in Eternity it self we shall not be able to come to the End of it in our thoughts no more then in our being because it hath none We can never know it all because it is still to come And therefore how little of it will this leaf of paper contain or should we write never so much how shall we be able now to reach the description of a thing so sublime Thankfull acclamations to the goodness of our Saviour for bringing life and immortality to light and serious admirations at the amazing greatness of what we know of it will be far more acceptable as well as more easie then a long discourse about it And therefore I shall end this Chapter with my wishes that this Blessedness I am speaking of may not seem small in our eyes because we can relate so little of it but rather appear the greater and the more desirable because we see it is beyond our present understanding Though this vast Circle of Eternity cannot be measured by our thoughs that makes it but so much the more excellent then our Span of time And though this LIFE comprehend such pleasures as we cannot now enjoy that doth but exalt it above the poor pleasures of this present life which we can first enjoy and then contemn We are not able it is true to conceive nor can it enter into our hearts what God hath in store for those that love him but this should onely excite our longings to conceive it and make us sigh and say when we think of enjoying God himself and of an eternall enjoyment of him O the fulness of God! O the infiniteness of him that is the Life of this LIFE Who can tell what thou art O most Blessed for ever by whom all things were made and who art All that can possibly be What comforts shine from the brightness of thy face How joyfull wilt thou make us with the light of thy countenance when we shall see thee as thou art It will put greater gladness into our hearts then if all the glory of the world should smile upon us But what eye can be strong enough to behold so great a Splendour what excellent creatures must they be made who shall be capable to SEE GOD It casts us into a trance when we do but think of being eternally beloved of thee O what will it doe to feel our selves ever ever the objects of thy infinite love The beauteous frame of the Heavens is exceeding admirable in our eyes O what a goodly World is this in which thou sufferest thine Enemies to live What a glorious torch is the Sun which thou hast lighted to shine on the unjust as well as on the just Who then can hope to know till he sees what the pleasures are which thou hast prepared for thy Friends what a glorious Light shall shine from thy presence upon the face of those that love thee Their hearts now cannot hold the smallest glimpse of that which shall for ever bless and ravish them with its joys But how can we hope to see it unless thou wilt raise us above our selves and make us no longer men of this world but children of the Resurrection and equall to the holy Angels We believe and rejoyce to think that thou wilt account us worthy to obtain that World and the resurrection of the dead It is the greatest pleasure we have here to hope we shall enjoy all the happiness of which we now discourse nay far more infinitely more then can be conceived For how great will that happiness be August de Civ Dei cap. ult where we shall neither feel any evill nor want any good where all our work will be the praises of God who shall be all in all where no sloth shall make us cease to praise him nor any necessity call us to other employment There will be true glory indeed where no man shall be praised either by the errour or the flattery of him that praiseth True honour that will be which shall be denied to no worthy person nor given to any unworthy Nay the unworthy shall not so much as seek it there where none are permitted to come but such as are worthy True peace is there where nothing shall fall cross to our desires either from our selves or any other There He who gave Vertue will be its Reward having promised that he himself then which nothing can be greater nothing better will be the portion of it What else shall we understand by those words I will be their God and they my people but that I will be their Satisfaction I will be all that every one can honestly desire both life and health and sustenance and riches and glory and honour and all good For so we reade that God will be all in all He will be the End of our desires who will be seen without end and loved without lothing and praised without weariness This will be the office this will be the inclination this will be the work of all in that Eternall Life which is common to all There we shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever There we shall keep that truly greatest Sabbath which hath no Evening There we shall rest from labour and see we shall see and love we shall love and praise Behold what will be in the End without end For what else is our End but to come to the Kingdom which hath no End Amen CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this ETERNALL LIFE whose Excellency is a little farther illustrated out of the Holy Scriptures WHen I reflect upon the foregoing Meditations concerning the LIFE to come and the ETERNITY of it I begin to think I have wrong'd it much by so poor and dull a description of so great a Good and by endeavouring to draw that into a few particular considerations which hath in it innumerable perfections It had been more becoming our ignorance perhaps to have admired its fulness then to undertake
that Holy men doubted not to call this Baptism a S. Cyprian epist ad Donatum ad Magnum the Water of Salvation the Water of Life and the immortall Nativity b Optatus L. v. Nay St. Augustine informs us that the Punick Christians called Baptism by no other name then SALVATION which he thought so proper that he ascribes it to an ancient and Apostolicall tradition c L. i. de Peccatorum merituis c. c. 24. And Paschasius calls it LIFE in his Book of the Body and bloud of our Lord where he says of those who died shortly after Baptism that post perceptam vitam after they were made partakers of life they in nothing declined from the way And for this they had the Authority of our Saviour who said after he was risen from the dead xvi Mark 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and shewed St. John xxii Rev. 1 2. a pure river of WATER OF LIFE clear as crystall running through the midst of the street * So Andraeas Caesar joyns the beginning of ver 2. to ver 1. of the new Jerusalem from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Which is a plain description of the place of Baptism appointed by God and our Saviour in the midst of Christian assemblies called Streets because they are the place of concourse for the purifying of the world and restoring us to Paradise again And he calls his Baptism WATER OF LIFE because it runs thither and there we begin to live * S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. de Spiritu S. c. x. and are admitted to the friendship of God and put in assured hope that the Life which then begins shall be continued to Eternall life It is usuall with the ancient Writers of Christianity to speak of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instauration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transfiguration of mens Souls in Baptism by which says St. Basil the Soul so glisters that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * in Psal xxix God forms it to himself to be as it were his Throne And so St. Cyprian testifies of himself in his Epistle to Donatus that though he was perplexed in so many errours as made him think he could never be rid of them and so led away by those vices which stuck close to him that despairing to doe better he began to favour them as things proper to him yet when he had received Baptism a light from above came streaming into him a celestiall breath repaired him into a new man and after a wonderfull manner he was confirmed in those things which seemed dubious and saw those things clearly which before were obscure and found a power to doe that which he judged not onely difficult but impossible Now this change which they felt in their thoughts desires and passions as soon as they were baptized was a powerfull argument to perswade them that they should as really rise from the dead and live eternally as they were now quickned when they lay dead in trespasses and sins to the life of God and true piety Which was the reason that they chose Easter rather then any other time as the most proper season for the receiving the grace of Baptism So the same St. Basil tells us that every day every hour every moment is a time for Baptism but there is none so fit as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortat ad Baptismum the more proper and peculiar season for it which is Easter-day For the day is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a memoriall of the Resurrection and Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power granted us to rise again So that on the day of the Resurrection we should receive the grace of the Resurrection And therefore the Church calls on those whom she hath conceived and travelled withall a good while that now she may bring them forth This belief they were desirous by all means to impress upon mens minds and would have them look upon Baptism as the seal of a second life * Greg. Naz. Carm. iamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which they could not be deceived finding such a beginning of it already as testified the mighty power of God working in them And therefore St. Paul with great reason alledges Baptism as a publick witness to the faith of the Church about the Resurrection of the dead and the Life of the world to come 1. Cor. xv 29. Else what shall they doe which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead The Resurrection of the dead was so much the hope of Christians and Baptism gave such strength to their hope that when any person newly instructed in the Christian faith died before he could receive Baptism some of his Friends it is reported from Irenaeus received it after his departure in his Name To what purpose doe they this says the Apostle if he have respect to this custom why do they thus trouble themselves if they look for nothing after death This shews that even those who were mistaken in other things as in this about baptizing for their deceased Friends thought the dead were not lost but that there was hope of their future happiness else they would not still have continued to assist them and taken all the care they could that they might not be prejudiced for want of Baptism which in their stead they received They would not have been so senseless as to concern themselves to doe any thing for those who were gone from this world if they had not believed another and lookt upon them as capable there of Eternall Life Into the belief and expectation of which all Christians whatsoever were baptized which perhaps is all that the Apostle means by this Question Why are they baptized for the dead Which Rigaltius * In Tertul de Resurrect carnis c. 48. thus interprets Why are they baptized ut mortui resurgant that after death they may rise again why are they askt at the Font whether they believe the resurrection of the dead So that for the dead is for themselves in hope of what shall follow after death viz. a blessed Resurrection Which is the interpretation of St. Chrysostome as I have observed elsewhere * Aqua Genitalis who also bids us take notice how that which they expressed in words when they professed to believe this great Article of the Christian Faith was also represented as in an Image by the very act of Baptism In which the going into the water and the coming out was a sign of their descending to the state of the dead and of their ascending from thence to life again There is no man that is baptized but by the very rite and manner of it professes to die at least to sin and to rise again to newness of life This Death and Resurrection as the Apostle teaches vi Rom. 3 4
no Impostour For though you may fansy a man tickled with so much vain-glory that he will not stick to embrace death when he cannot evade it rather then unsay what he hath published though he know it to be false yet this is all that can with any colour be supposed No such person can be conceived willing to seek death to offer himself to it to go to the very place where he knows it waits for him when he may as well avoid it and designedly put himself into those hands which it is apparent are resolved to kill him No though fame be his design yet the preservation of his life without all doubt is his greater concernment and if he can he will enjoy both his fame together with his life But if any body will be so extravagant as to fansy that He might intend to get fame even by running himself into this danger let him observe farther 2. what our Saviour met withall in his passage to his death which would have stopt such vain forwardness For there was something so dreadfull appeared to him in the way to his Passion that when it approached he fell into an Agony A great horrour seized on him which declared how much Nature was against his proceeding Whose strong and violent inclinations would have prevailed against a fancy and vain humour if he had not known that he was ingaged in a good Cause and did not deceive the World Such terrible apprehensions as then presented themselves would have made him take the opportunity of the night and consult for his safety if he had been a Deceiver and not very well assured that this was the way to everlasting Life And then if you consider again 3. that he was not hastily hurried to the gibbet but had a long time to weigh what he was about to suffer it will seem incredible that he should not repent of his obstinacy if he had been conscious to himself of any falshood For though in a sudden heat of mad zeal a man may be supposed so foolish as to maintain an untruth with the hazzard of his life yet the sight of long-continued torments set a great while before his eyes would make him in all likelihood confess the truth But 4. that which quite overthrows this idle supposition is that the kind of his death was such as could procure him nothing less then glory and fame there being nothing more infamous and reproachful then to die like a vile slave upon a Cross This he could not but foresee would expose him to the scorn of all the World did not something else gain him more credit then this could do disgrace And so it proved afterward notwithstanding all the Miracles he had wrought his Crucifixion was the laughter of the Gentiles and a stumbling-block to the Jews From whence we may conclude that if we will but allow him to be a man of common sense he would not have taken this way of all other to procure fame No course he could have thought of to propagate his Doctrine would have been more mad then this if it were not taken as in all reason it ought to be for a token of his sincerity and truth in what he preached which would be published he knew to his immortall honour and glory in all the world But dying such a death as he did there could be no hope it must be farther considered 5. that his Doctrine should be so much as published by his followers much less received by others unless he were both sure himself that it was the truth and that he could make the truth of it appear to them And then what would have become of all the glory for which it is supposed he might be tempted to part with his life All that he could doe to secure his Disciples that he preached nothing but the truth and to incourage them also to preach Christ crucified which was a most odious and dangerous undertaking was to tell them that He would rise again the third day and appear alive to them Now it is as manifest as the Sun that if he knew himself to be an Impostour he could have no hope that God would raise him up again and it is as manifest on the other side that if he did not rise again there was no hope that his Apostles would preach him because he had proved himself a liar and if he was not preached by them there could be no hope of glory and fame and consequently he would never have died in expectation of that which if he did but abuse the World he knew could not possibly attend upon his Name For it is visible it must either have been buried in silence or else remembred with reproach He himself having blasted it by failing in the performance of his word But I have said enough of this and therefore shall consider onely one thing more 6. what it was that comforted our Saviour and supported his spirit upon the Cross Was it the hopes he had to be cried up by his followers and magnified every-where when he was dead and gone for a man of an invincible spirit No He comforted himself with the thoughts of his own integrity He humbly addressed himself in prayer to God He relieved himself with the thoughts that he was his Father to whom therefore he commends his spirit and breathed out his Soul in a pious confidence that He would receive it and glorify him in the heavens For a little before he suffered he lift up his eyes thither as St. John testifies and said Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee c. I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to doe And now O Father glorify thou me with thy own self with the glory I had with thee before the World was xvii Joh. 1 4 5. And when the moment of his departure was come and he was just expiring on the Cross He cried out with a loud voice that all might hear him Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And having thus said he gave up the ghost He that shall impute all this also to vain-glory we may rather conclude takes a pride in cavilling and contradicting and hath lost all sense of the Nature of man which finds no inclinations in it to be thus audacious For how can he repose any hope in God who at that very instant when he expresses it is committing the greatest open affront unto him imaginable Our Blessed Saviour was ever a devout worshipper of him and in all his ways acknowledged him and therefore since he did thus seriously betake himself to him in his sorest distress it is apparent he was perswaded of his own sincerity and truth which God the searcher of all hearts knew to whom therefore he appeals and was confident he should live with him for ever and be able to give Eternall Life to others III. But what need is there to insist any
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
whose bodies being divided and the halves laid one against another a smoaking furnace appeared and a lamp of fire representing a Divine Presence which passed between those pieces ver 17. according to the custom in those days of making Covenants by the parties going between a beast so out asunder In like manner our Blessed Lord and Saviour promised more then once or twice the Kingdom of Heaven to all his followers most earnestly intreating them to believe it And lest they should doubt of it he proceeds at last of his own accord to ingage himself to bestow it by entring into a solemn Covenant with them Which was ratified not by the bloud of beasts and the cutting their bodies in pieces but by his own most precious bloud and by suffering nails to be thrust through his own flesh that he might confirm us in the belief of his promise of an eternall inheritance ix Heb. 15. VI. And great reason there is we should be confirmed by it in this belief For what could he doe more to assure us he meant as he spake then to seal it with his bloud The Apostles justly took this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eminent testimony or WITNESSE to the truth of that which he preached So you reade 1 Tim. ii 6. He gave himself a ransome for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a testimony in due time That is He became the price of our Redemption and like the Paschal Lamb his bloud saves us from the destroyer and assures us God will bring us to our Eternall Rest of which we cannot reasonably doubt since his giving himself thus to die for us is an evident testimony of God's great love to men and of his will which he spake of before ver 4. to save all men by pardoning their offences and bringing them to Eternall life for Jesus his sake His bloudy death was an unquestionable Witness as St. John here calls it of the truth of his promise which he confirmed and sealed in this solemn manner by dying on the Cross to verify it And this he did at that very time or season which was most fit and proper for such a business just when the Prophets said he should doe it for in those days as we reade ii Luk. 38. they looked for redemption in Jerusalem And he could not satisfie their expectation by any better means then this which was illud Testimonium as Erasmus renders it that Testimony that remarkable Witness which none can justly question For it is taken by all for certain that He doth not intend to deceive qui morte suâ fidem facit who seals what he saith with his bloud This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testimony I may adde or WITNESS to the truth of what he preached was most properly his own Testimony There were sundry others but none while he was on earth so peculiarly his as this which was all he could doe to justify himself and his Doctrine The Voice from heaven was a Witness as you have heard but that was the testimony of the Father His Doctrine was a Witness but he saith of that it is not mine but his that sent me vii Joh. 16. His Works or Miracles were a Witness as he says v. Joh. 36. but in the same place he adds that they were the works which his Father gave him to finish and xiv 10. My Father doeth the Works But as for his most precious BLOUD it was that and that alone whereby He himself witnessed the truth to us For this cause he came into the world as he tells Pilate xviii 37. and it was a free act of his own for which reason he is said to give himself for us and to lay down his life there being none as I said before that had power without his consent to take it away from him And therefore it may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That testimony whereby He more peculiarly witnessed that this was the will of him that sent him that every one who saw the Son and believed on him should have everlasting life This he preached all his life and he justified it to be true by his Death When they would have had him revoke what he had said and deny that he was sent upon this message by God he maintained it to the last drop of his bloud Which was as much as could be done for the verifying of his Doctrine and assuring the World that he sincerely published the will of Heaven For who can doe more then die for the truth which he asserts But he having thus attested by dying that which God the Father had witnessed before in his life-time by voices from heaven by signs and wonders and such like things it pleased the same Father Almighty to give a more illustrious testimony to Him and to the truth of his Doctrine then ever had been given either in his life or at his death and that was by his Resurrection from the dead Which is commonly in the Holy Scriptures ascribed to him and made his work ii Act. 24 32. i. Ephes 17 20. c. and evidently proved all that I have said and more too For it shewed that as he was not a deceiver of others so he was not deceived himself God hereby bad all the World believe what he had preached and no longer make any doubt of that which he had testified even by his own BLOUD to be his heavenly Truth But of this more in its proper place VII Let us now consider that those persons whom our Saviour bad all men hear because they were sent by him as he was by the Father have told us and the event proved it true that this BLOUD was shed to make peace as you reade ii Eph. 14 15. That is to reconcile Jews and Gentiles together between whom there had been very long differences so that of twain they might become one new Man and both serve him in the same Religion and partake of the same privileges What force there is in this to prove the right we have to Eternall Life you will soon see when I have noted that the intention of God to bring all the World to share alike in his divine favour and love which had been so much inclosed in the Jewish Nation was notably proclaimed by the rending of the veil of the Temple in twain just when the veil of our Saviour's flesh was torn and he yielded up the ghost xxvii Matt. 50 51. This was a plain indication as Photius * Epist cxxv the famous Patriarch of Constantinople hath truly observed a Symbol and Presignification to use his words of the overthrow and desolation that was coming upon that Temple and the Worship therein celebrated How could it be otherwise construed when that place wherein their most holy rites were performed and their most venerable mysteries kept from the eyes of the vulgar was now laid open and exposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words are to common view and
could not contain themselves when they saw what testimonies heaven gave of his innocence and vertue but did him publick honour even at the very place of execution Though he suffered as the highest and vilest offender in the world yet the honest-hearted spectatours were not onely inwardly troubled in their breasts at the sight but beat or knockt them also and shewed thereby that they were not afraid to own him as a most Excellent person whose death they ought to accompany with the bitterest lamentations And so much may suffice concerning the Testimony of his BLOUD which no man can hear speak a word but he must needs think that which got him such honour among the people in the midst of his shame and the reproach of the Cross obtained a far greater glory for him with God in the heavens who best knew how to value his obedience O wonderfull Passion Proclus Homil. xi the Expiation of the World O Death the cause of Immortality and the origin of Life O descent into Hell the bridge by which those who were dead passed into Heaven O Noon which hath revoked the Afternoon-sentence against us in Paradise O Cross the cure of the fatall Tree O Nails which wounded Death and joyn'd the world to the knowledge of God! Great was the victory which He that was incarnate for us obtained on the day of his passion He grappled with death when he was dead Hell and the grave this day ignorantly swallowed a deadly morsell To day death received him dead who always lives To day the chains were loosed which the Serpent made in Paradise The Thief this day made a breach on Paradise which had been guarded by the flaming sword some thousands of years This day our Lord broke the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Which of the great Men that ancient times boast of are comparable to him All the just fell under the power of death and none could conquer it Abraham Isaac and Jacob are all turn'd to dust and ashes The memory of Joseph in whom the Jews glory lay in his dry bones which they carried out of Egypt with them Moses is extolled by them to the skies but there is not so much as his tomb to be found Such as these and so many death devoured and swallowed them all down But at last it swallowed one and against its will vomited up the whole World Who now triumph over it and cry with a loud voice O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. His Passion is our impassibility S. Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 598. His Death is our immortality His tears our joy His buriall our resurrection His Baptism our purification His stripes our healing His chastisement our peace His reproach our glory How much are we indebted to him who from first to last consulted our happiness For he descended Id. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 1002. that he might make way for our ascent He was born that he might make us friends with the Vnbegotten He took on him our infirmities that we might be raised in power and say with St. Paul I can doe all things through Christ which strengthneth me He took on him a corruptible body that this corruption might put on incorruption He put on mortality that it might be changed into immortall In fine He was made Man and died that we who die as men might be deified and death might no longer reign over us O blessed and life-giving Cross of our Saviour which triumphed over death and destroyed him that had the power of it which is the Devil O divine Word and true Wisedom of the Father thou hast overcome the Devill when he thought he had been a conquerour * August de Trinitate L. 13. c. 15. Caet ex Athanasio p. 1022. O Lover of men and gracious Lord thou hast both redeemed us that were captives and freed us by thy own death who were servants of sin O Son of God the true Peace-maker thou hast both given us the adoption of Sons and reconciled us to thy Father having destroyed the enmity by thy flesh O rich Saviour and true King who becamest poor that we by thy poverty might be made rich and hast given to us the Kingdom of heaven O Creatour and former of all things the Word of the Father for thou hast created us again we are thy workmanship created unto good works O Light indeed the brightness of the Father for thou hast inlightned us that were in darkness and hast brought us that were blind to see the light O Likeness and reall Image of the Father for thou hast formed us who were lost and again restored the image of God in us O God the Word and Life indeed for thou hast quickned us who were dead and renewed us that were corrupted and cloathed us with immortality O thou Power indeed the arm the right hand of the Father for thou hast both loosed the bands of death and broken the prison-doors in pieces God forbid that we should glory Ib. pag. 1028. save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ To this let us adhere let us walk worthy of this And thus living and believing we shall know also his assumption into the heavens and his session on the right hand of the Majesty on high We shall behold the subjection of Angels to him and his coming again with glory Which Angels have foretold which Saints sing of in their hymns and which when we all see we shall rejoyce and be exceeding glad in Christ Jesus By whom be glory and dominion to the Father world without end Amen CHAP. XI Concerning the Testimony of the SPIRIT the Third Witness on Earth THough the Children of Israel were so strangely delivered out of their bondage being saved by the Bloud of the Paschal Lamb from the destroying Angel and then freed from Pharaoh who thought it 's like that his bloud must next of all pay for the keeping them in Egypt yet still they questioned whether they should come into the good Land or no and were at a sad plunge when they came to the Red Sea imagining that they themselves should be there destroyed and become the next Sacrifice to Pharaoh's cruelty To confirm them therefore in their belief of God's kind intentions towards them and perswade them thoroughly that Moses had not brought them out of Egypt to kill them but to save them He gave him power to doe great wonders at that place and in the rest of their journey which added to the Miracles in Egypt were a strong conviction that God was among them and was conducting them by the hands of his Servant to their long-desired Rest This was the last Argument and the most constant whereby he demonstrated the truth and reality of his promises of bringing them to the land of Canaan They saw his signs
motions of the body which lay then as if it was dead while the Soul enjoyed converse and familiar discourse with God In which condition it is manifest St. Paul's mind was so intent to what was communicated unto him that he did not at all observe whether he had a body about him or no. But there is more then this if you mark it in St. Paul's transport into Paradise where God spoke to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mysteries which he could not declare by any words because no phantasms or images of things he had seen or heard here in this world could express them Which is a sign he conceived them without any motion of his brain merely by his Spirit Of such transports the Hebrews themselves talk who say four men entred into Paradise * Sepher Câ—sri part 3. § lxv Tzemach David ad An. 498â— that is by the spirit of prophecy one of them was too curious and died presently another proved distracted after it a third pluckt up the roots or denied the foundation of Religion saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have already touched the mark I am come to perfection and therefore need not mind the work of the Law any longer a fourth entred in peace and came out again in peace Which I recite not as a truth for all these stories are told of men who lived since the spirit of prophecy left them but to shew that they think it not impossible for men to be transported as St. Paul was to whom I imagine they were ambitious to equall some of their Doctours but by the power of the Spirit they might enter while they were inhabitants of this world into Paradise Of the sweet enjoyments of which place therefore they cannot sure be uncapable when they have quite left this body since the Apostle supposes his spirit might go out of it in this rapture when it perceived and understood things without the use of phantasms after the manner of Intelligences 2. Wherewith he was so ravished and so fully assured of future bliss as soon as he died that he desired above all things to be dissolved and to be with Christ which he lookt upon as far better then to stay here any longer i. Phil. 23. This eager longing clearly shews what he expected as soon as he was got loose from this body and that he did not think death would stupefie his Soul and bereave it of all sensation but rather open to it a freer passage into that delightfull place whither he had some time been caught up For it would not have been better for him to depart and to be with Christ if he should not have had the favour to enjoy that sweet conversation with him there which was not denied him whilst he was here He tells us indeed that when our Lord shall appear then is the time when we shall appear with him in glory but before this he expected upon his departure to be with Christ though not in so full an injoyment of him as hereafter This made him so confident and well assured in his perpetuall conflicts with so great troubles and calamities because he lookt upon himself in this present bodily state but as a stranger who was absent from his own country and friends to whom he desired to return even in this way through the midst of many afflictions 2 Cor. v. 6. Which he repeats ver 8. We are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. So we render this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 6. when he speaks of his being in the body From which I conclude that he thought his Soul which while it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inhabit the body had such a sense of future happiness as made him resolutely endure all manner of troubles to come at it would much more enjoy a blissfull sense of it when it did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwell in its own country with the Lord. 3. Hence you reade that those who were dissolved or rather whose souls were torn out of their bodies by the hand of cruell persecutours cried unto God for vengeance on their murtherers vi Rev. 9. Which argues Souls departed do not sleep and think of nothing that passed here but are so awake as to remember the gracious promises of God which they live in expectation to see fulfilled It may be said indeed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Souls we are to understand onely their Bloud as the word is sometimes used in the Holy Scriptures and as I thought when I writ the former Treatise * Vid. Chap. viii p. 501. it might be taken here But upon farther consideration I find reason to correct that mistake For St. John I observe speaks of them as persons ver 11. who had fellow-servants and brethren here upon earth who were to finish their testimony to Christ by laying down their lives for him as they had done Till which time those Martyrs were to rest and acquiesce in what they enjoyed already having obtained very great honour For there was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every one of them white robes Mark the place and you will be satisfied fully that he speaks not of their bloud For St. John saw these Souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under or beneath the Altar of incense that is as a Great man hath proved * Mr. Thorndike Rights of the Church p. 95. 310. whereas the bloud of the Sacrifices was poured out at the bottom of the Altar in the outward court They were not without but in the Sanctuary though in the lower part of it beneath the Altar of incense not yet advanced to the higher part of it much less to the Holiest of all They were admitted that is unto a greater nearness to God then others as the Church always believed the Martyrs were though not yet consummated as the Apostle St. Paul supposes himself should not be till the day of Christ's appearing But St. John adds 2. that they had white Robes given them in that place where they were which signifies they were a kind of heavenly Ministers attending on the Divine Majesty or that they had exceeding great honour conferred on them xli Gen. 42. which would have done them no good at all if they had not been sensible of the favour of God therein and lived in great joy and festival pleasures which white raiment also in the holy languages uses to denote ix Eccles. 8. And thus the Jews themselves I observe are apt to speak of this matter making the description of the City and Temple in the latter end of Ezekiel to be a representation of the other World For when it is affirmed by one Doctour in the Talmud * Vid. Coch. exc Gem. Sanhedrin c. xi n. 30. that there were not above six and thirty just men in every Age that behold the face of God and another objects that the Court about the City
But that we may understand how much we are indebted to him and thereby become more sensible of his wonderfull Love give me leave to shew as briefly as I can how little the world knew before our Saviour came of this Happiness which he hath revealed to us and how much his loving-kindness hath abounded towards us more then to his more peculiar people in former days whose love notwithstanding he expected should be intirely devoted to him and his service It would be very easy to shew were there not danger of making this Treatise too big how weak all the reasonings of the Philosophers were about this matter and in what uncertainty they left men after they had written whole Books on this Subject Among all those who endeavoured by humane argumentations to find it there were but few as St. Augustine truly observes * L. xiii De Trinitate c. 8. 9. that could and they but scarcely arrive at the knowledge of the immortality of the Soul though men of great wit and abounding with leisure and instructed in the most subtill pieces of learning And when they had resolved says he that it was immortall they could not find a settled blessed life for it But many of them thought it returned again to the miseries of this life And they who blusht at this and placed the Soul in immortall blessedness without the body destroyed their own opinion by the revolution which they fansied of all things back again after a certain period of time to that condition wherein they were before As he shews more fully in his Book of the City of God * Lib. xii cap. 20. There is nothing truer then that of St. Paul ii Eph. 12. that they had no hope viz. of the Resurrection and eternall Life For to say nothing of the Resurrection to which they were perfect strangers some of the greatest Philosophers denied the immortality of the Soul Socrates himself the very best of them was not confident of it but left it in doubt as a thing uncertain Nor was Aristotle more assured no nor Tully and Seneca who could not by all their reasonings attain a sure and well-grounded hope of it but were forced to confess after all their disquisitions about the Soul that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Aristoteles L. i. de Aâ—ma c. 1. it is one of the most difficult things in the world to receive any belief or certain knowledge about it All that they said was conjecture and very weak very uncertain and sometimes very extravagant Which shews in what a mist they were without the light of Divine revelation which we by God's great grace injoy They themselves seem to be sensible sometimes of the want of an heavenly Guide to conduct them with more certainty to the knowledge of that happiness which they desired as any one may see in Plato's Dialogue * in Phaedone on this Subject Where Socrates his arguments for immortality just before he was going to die have so little force to conclude any thing certainly that Simias had reason to say it is either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impossible or a thing extream difficult to know any thing clearly of it in this life But a man must chuse the best reasons he can find which are least liable to exception and he must venture to embark himself in these and sail by them through this life unless he can be so happy as to be carried safer and with less hazzard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * p. 85. in a surer stedfast chariot of some divine word that is or revelation Which is a plain acknowledgement that this onely can give us perfect security and satisfy us so as to take away all doubt And this God hath granted to us Christians to whom he hath spoken in these last days by his Son and given this Record of him that Eternall Life is in him And therefore Lactantius might truly say * L. vii Divin Instit c. 7. Immortales esse animas Pherecydes Plato disputaverunt haec verò propria est in nostra Religione doctrina Pherecydes and Plato disputed that Souls were immortall but it is our Religion onely that teaches this as its proper lesson For to know what is true is in no man's power but his that is taught of God And their arguments he shews in the next Chapter were so weak and so much there was to be said with equall probability on the other side that Tully after all things weighed on both parts concluded he knew not what to say but this Harum igitur sententiarum quae vera sit Deus aliquis viderit Which of these opinions therefore are true God onely knows And in another place Both these opinions have learned Authours but which is certain cannot be divined In the next Chapter also but one he brings another such uncertain resolution of the same great man who says We should go confidently to death in which we know there is either the greatest good or no evill But what this Summum bonum greatest good was they were still to seek When they had supposed their Souls to survive their bodies they had no certain knowledge what the happiness of their future state should be but miserably wandred in the darkness of their imaginations as their severall fancies led them We need onely take the fairest descriptions they have left us of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 country of the pious to satisfy us how little men could know when they had onely their own thoughts to direct them of the state of the other World Gobryas in a Dialogue ascribed to Plato * in Axiocho p. 371. edit Serran says that it is a region where the seasons of the year abound with all manner of fruit the fountains gush out with the purest water the fields are cloathed with all kind of flowers and where there are Schools of Philosophers Theatres of Poets Musick and Dancing-schools in perfection together with the neatest Banquets all sorts of Dainties springing up of themselves a sweet easy life without any mixture of sorrow or grief for neither the winter nor summer are there in excess but a well-tempered air illustrated by the softest beams of the Sun and there they that are initiated in the Mysteries have the preeminence and rightly perform the holy offices Which is not much different from the Paradise which the disciples of Mahomet expect who cannot raise their minds higher then the things they best fansy in this World Which makes them being forbidden by their Law the drinking of wine here to reckon this among the pleasures of the other world that they shall have liberty there to drink as much as ever they will and be in no danger of intoxication For the wine of Paradise the Alcoran * Miscell D. Poâ—ock c. vii p. 300. says doth not make men drunk as ours doth but passes away all by sweat which smells as sweet as any Musk. Which I mention for no
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
we put our sins into the number of those things we must forsake it is apparent already it would be a trouble to keep them We are required indeed to crucifie the flesh which seems an hard saying But when we have enquired the meaning of it there is no severity to be found in it For it doth not oblige us to destroy or so much as to impair any faculty belonging to us neither to weaken the Understanding nor dull the Apprehension nor overload the Memory no nor consume our spirits nor deform our bodies nor prejudice our healths nor spoil our beauty or any thing else that God hath made There is no true pleasure of which he deprives us unless it be sometimes for a better and more excellent end He onely abridges our unjust liberty and limits the hurtfull excesses of our desires and passions which we are not to gratifie against our reason to the injury of our selves or our neighbours and to the indangering the loss of some better good In brief He allows us to please our selves so that every part of us be pleased our Judgment and Conscience as well as the lower Appetites And what now doth all this amount unto but the doing our selves a reall and intire kindness But in some state of things God will have us forsake all our worldly goods and possessions for the kingdom of heaven's sake as he required the Apostles and the first Disciples to Christianity True But do we not set too high a price upon these things if we value our obedience at a great rate upon this account I will let alone the comparison we ought to make between our loss and our gain Weigh things impartially by themselves and consider what it is we part withall should we suffer all our worldly goods to be taken from us rather then part with our Religion Do we lose any more then a Philosopher hath left of his own accord for the convenience of his study and that he might not be incumbred in his contemplations And while we had them were all those things necessary for us Doth Nature require so much Did not a great many of them lie by us unused What a small matter now does the account come to when we have made this abatement And how little reason is there that the parting with these things should make such a noise as if we had made some exceeding rich present to God's almighty love from whom we received them But let us look upon them again together with the loss of life and consider Are they things which we could have kept very long Do we any more then part with them a little before the time And what difference is there between their leaving us and our leaving them but the advantage we have by living a while after them to give a proof of a little very short patience and of intire trust in God and absolute resignation to his will Let the things we leave for God's sake be rated as high as we please all that can be made of them comes at last to this that in obedience to God we let them go a little before we could not enjoy them And suppose we be required to die it is but to go another way out of the world then we must shortly perhaps presently have done There is no difference at all but onely as much as there is between a sword and an acute disease between the flames of fire and those of a burning fever But we may endure many torments perhaps in the world before we die which are worse then death it self It may be so and there is a possibility it may not be so Now supposing we do not suffer any torments what a small matter is it that God asks that we may go to Heaven where we shall have an Happiness so great that we may well if need be as St. Peter speaks consent to endure something that looks more like self-deniall then any thing I have mentioned to obtain it And yet when that necessity comes this will arise to no great expense It is no more then we may naturally suffer by the stone or the gout or by some such disease which may seize upon us and not carry us to heaven neither And it is likewise considerable that wicked men many times take more pains and endure a great deal more then this comes to to go to hell Do we not see what attendance their lusts require from them and that they make provision for their satisfaction with much solicitude and trouble Nay do not their expences frequently run very high to gratifie some worldly or fleshly desire One man breaks his sleep another pines his body a third consumes his estate a fourth nourishes loathsome and foul diseases a fifth breeds cruell and tormenting pains which set him upon the rack a sixth ventures his life and runs the hazzard of the gallows or of a severer death And all sinners contrive and plot and trouble their brains to find opportunities and are often vexed with disappointments and as often put to shame and always troubled with their desires till they meet with some satisfaction and being never satisfied are always troubled with their restless desires Let all these things be considered soberly and then tell me whether God demands great things of us to obtain Eternall Life and doth not rather wonderfully oblige us in accepting so graciously our poor services nay carries us from the happiness of doing his will here to the happiness of having it rewarded with a most glorious recompence in another world And cast in this consideration also which Clemens Alexandrinus * Admon ad Gentes p. 55. propounds to the Gentiles how much many men would be willing to give if it were set at a price to purchase everlasting Salvation And therefore what account can they give of their unwillingness to accept of that on such easie terms which cannot be bought with all the gold if we had it of the fabulous Pactolus We may purchase this most precious Salvation if we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our own Treasure which we have within our selves viz. Charity and a lively Faith This is its just price saith he which God will gladly accept For we hope in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of the Faithfull But it cannot be obtained by any other means For they that stick to this World as weeds do to the rocks in the sea slight immortality and judge themselves unworthy of the other World which at so low a rate offered it self to their Faith and Charity But we have just reason to proceed a great deal farther then all this and supposing a man could alway live here without the least trouble and in the fullest contentment that either his Soul or body can now enjoy I ask again whether a man that believes the Gospell would be willing to have his Eternall life in this World and not rather chuse to go thither
think of removing to a strange country but confidently rely on his knowledge more then our own Let us remember the words of these Witnesses which say He is the Son of God in whom is Eternall Life Let us trust his judgment who thought it more desirable to go away though upon a Cross then to stay here in the greatest pleasure And since all these Witnesses say He is in heaven let us resolve that we will die looking up to him and saying Lord remember it is the will of the Father that we should have Everlasting Life Thou thy self appearedst to St. Stephen and madest him confident thou wilt receive our Spirit The Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of Truth saith thou art glorified and wilt glorifie us with thy self This thou hast preached to us This thy Bloud hath purchased for us This thou didst rise again to prepare against our coming to thee This thy holy Apostles say thou sentest them to publish to the World This thou hast made us believe and wait for and suffer for and long to enjoy O Dearest Lord and most mercifull Saviour who art the true and faithfull Witness though we miserable sinners deserve to be denied yet deny not thy self let not the price of thy precious Bloud be lost let not the Word of the Father of the Holy Ghost thine own Word fail If thou art not alive I am content to perish But if thou art as thou hast perswaded me then I will not cease to call upon thee I will die with these words in my mouth and be confident thou wilt hear me LORD JESUS RECEIVE MY SPIRIT Thus the blessed Martyr St. Stephen expired looking up stedfastly unto Jesus the Authour and Finisher of our Faith who then appeared in glory to him Whose example all the rest of that Noble Army followed triumphing over death in an assured hope of immortall life Which they had not the least doubt of it is manifest from hence that as Clemens Alexandrinus observes * L. vii Stromat p. 756. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the very extremity of their torments they gave thanks to God who they knew would reward their fidelity having in this very way consecrated Jesus to the highest Office of being the Finisher or Crowner of our Faith Therefore their heart was glad and their glory rejoyced And they sang chearfully with the holy Psalmist but with a far greater confidence God shall redeem my Soul from the power of the grave for he shall receive me xlix Psal 15. And O thou Lord Greg. Naz. Orat. x. in Caesarium fratrem p. 176. and Creatour of all things especially of this thy Workmanship O thou God and Father of thy Men O thou Lord of life and death O thou benefactour of Souls and dispenser of all good things O thou who didst form all things and in due time thou best knowest how in the depth of thy wisedom and administration wilt transform us by that Divine Artificer the WORD Receive me also hereafter when thou seest most convenient in the mean time governing me in this flesh as long as it will be profitable And receive me in thy fear prepared not disturbed nor hanging back at the last day and dragg'd by force from hence like the lovers of the World and the Flesh but chearfully and willingly unto that everlasting and blessed Life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And Id. Orat. xlii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 696. O thou WORD of God! thou Light thou Life and Wisedom and Power for I delight in all thy Names O thou Off-spring and Image of that great Mind O intellectuall WORD and visible Man who upholdest all things by the word of thy power May it now please thee to accept of this Book though not the first-fruits yet the last perhaps that I may be able to offer thee both as a gratefull acknowledgment for all thy benefits and an humble supplication that I may have no other troubles beside the necessary sacred ones of my Charge Stop the fury of any disease which may seize on me or thy sentence if I be removed by thee And if thou art pleased to grant me a dissolution according to my desire and I be received into the Heavenly Tabernacles there I hope to offer acceptable Sacrifices to thee at thy holy Altar O FATHER and WORD and HOLY GHOST for to thee belongs all Glory Honour and Dominion for ever and ever Amen THE END Books written by the Reverend Dr. Patrick and Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Amen-corner THE Christian Sacrifice a Treatise shewing the Necessity End and Manner of receiving the holy Communion together with suitable Prayers and Meditations for every Month in the Year and the Principal Festivals in memory of our Blessed Saviour In Four Parts The Third Edition Corrected The Devout Christian instructed how to Pray and give Thanks to God Or a Book of Devotions for Families and particular persons in most of the concerns of Humane life The 2. Edition in Twelves An Advice to a Friend The 2. Edition in Twelves A Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Non-conformist in Octavo In two Parts The Witnesses to Christianity or The Certainty of our Faith and Hope In a Discourse upon 1 S. John v. 7 8. In two Parts in Octavo new A Sermon Preached before the King on St. Stephen's day Printed by His Majesty's special command
committed to him towards the poor and the broken in heart and the miserable captives to whom he preached the acceptable year of the Lord. Or else as St. Chrysostome's words are He remembers us hereby of the old history For the whole World being once shipwreck'd and humane kind being in great danger to be totally lost this Creature appeared with an Olive-branch in her mouth and brought them glad tidings that the tempest was over and that there was now an universal calm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All which things were a type and figure of what was to come For now when the affairs of mankind were in a worse condition and they were all in danger of a soarer punishment the unspeakable grace of God in our Saviour steps in for our rescue And therefore a Dove appeared again not bringing an Olive-branch but shewing us our Deliverer from all evill and administring unto us good hopes For it doth not bring merely one man and his family out of danger but appeared to lead all the world to heaven and in stead of an Olive-branch brought the adoption of Sons to all mankind And where the dignity of this adoption is there is the destruction of all evill things and the gift of all things that are good To the same purpose speaks Theophylact who contracts his sense in fewer words As the Dove brought to Noah the news that the waters of the floud were gone so now the HOLY GHOST brought the joyfull news of the doing away of Sin There was an Olive-branch and here was the mercy of God And thus John Baptist understood it who having seen this sight cried out Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world that is Death the punishment of Sin and consequently restores us to immortall life i. Joh. 29 30 c. This he thought declared God to be reconciled and lookt upon it as a token that the heavens had laid aside their displeasure and would be at peace with the sinfull sons of men The windows you know of heaven were opened in the old World but dark and pitchy clouds were all that appeared which poured down nothing but a floud of rain upon mankind Whereas now quite contrary when the heavens were opened again there was no dismall sight presented it self but onely a pure light and glorious brightness shone from the face of God And the HOLY GHOST in the form of a Dove appeared not like that of Noah after the deluge had swept all mankind very few excepted from the face of the earth but to give notice to the World that God would not take such vengeance upon men for their wickedness but be graciously reconciled to them by saving them from death and giving them the blessing of Eternall Life One might well gather as much from this sight especially when there was such an Olive-branch of peace if I may so call it in the mouth of this Dove as that voice from heaven which came along with it saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased One of these illustrates and explains the other and both of them tell us that the heavens now look upon us with a serene countenance and that we are no longer shut out of them but God is so well satisfied that he will admit us into those celestiall habitations II. This was farther declared afterward when the Apostles according to his promise were on the day of Pentecost baptized with the Holy Ghost whereby they were sent by him as he was by the Father Then the Heavens poured down such a large showr of the Divine grace as presently overflowed the World with a comfortable sense of ETERNALL LIFE This was one great end of the coming of the HOLY GHOST which then witnessed to our Saviour and openly shew'd him to the World as the Prince of life iii. Act. 15. For 1. it was a plain demonstration that He whom the Jews had murthered was alive from the dead and had not lost his power which was so eminent in him all the while he was on earth to doe good and bestow benefits upon mankind And 2. the greatness of the benefit shews that he was greater in power then ever having ennobled all his Servants and raised men of the lowest condition to the highest dignities by bestowing on them the gift of the HOLY GHOST It was his gift as he fore-told in his life-time when he said I will send the Comforter from the Father xv Joh. 26. and He shall receive of mine and shew it unto you xvi Joh. 14 15. And therefore the Holy Ghost declared his greatness and power over all as St. Peter discourses in the very first Sermon he preached after our Saviour's resurrection on the day of Pentecost ii Act. 33. Where he tells the Jews that what they saw and heard and were amazed at was shed forth and poured on them by Jesus who had now received the promise of the Holy Ghost And therefore says he ver 36. let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ Which is as much as to say You ought to look upon this as an undoubted argument that he is Lord of all things the Christ or King whom God the Father hath appointed because he hath sent such royall gifts to his servants as none but the Lord of the world could possibly bestow And by the way we may take notice that the better sort of the Jews themselves expect the Messiah should bring such grace to men For Abarbinel in the place fore-mentioned acknowledging Miraculous works to be a note whereby the Messiah shall be known reckons this for one of them the effusion of the Spirit of God spoken of by the Prophet Joel Our Lord therefore sending this down in a plentifull manner on the day of Pentecost thereby manifested if they would have seen it that he had the mark of their King upon him and indeed could doe that which they all confess is the Work of God alone who onely can pour out the gifts which the Prophet there promises There is no reason to question the power of such a King as this to doe what he pleases even to prefer his subjects to his heavenly Kingdom They may be raised when he thinks good to reign with him above as now they began to doe upon the earth It depends upon his will alone to exalt them to that very place from whence this mighty power of the Holy Ghost came down upon them But that we may be satisfied the HOLY GHOST was an express Witness of his being the Prince of life a King that hath Life in himself a Prince and a Saviour as it is v. Act. 31. who can deliver men from the oppression of all their Enemies the greatest of which is Death you may consider 3. that the miraculous change which was wrought on a sudden in the minds of very ignorant men is an evident argument what he
can doe for our Souls in the other World He inspired them with such Understanding by the power of the Holy Ghost that the greatest Doctours in Israel were not able to resist the Wisedom whereby they spake They understood clearly all the ancient Prophecies There was no veil or cloud any longer upon them but the Holy Ghost made them see the whole Mystery which was wrapt up in them It revealed all Types explained all Figures led them into the Sanctuary and Most holy place shew'd them the true meaning of the Mercy-seat and laid all those things which did but obscurely point at ETERNALL LIFE so open and naked that none could chuse but see if he did not shut his eyes they were not the same men that they had been but just before and were made thus learned without any humane helps of instruction A convincing argument of his power to raise our Minds when we depart this World and have not the clouds of this Body before our eyes to as great a pitch of knowledge as I discoursed of in the beginning of this Treatise And the suddenness of this change was as clear an argument that he can doe it without difficulty and that there is not so great a distance between this present state and that which we expect but he can presently translate us to it And 4. this Knowledge you may consider farther being accompanied with a mighty Power whereby the Holy Ghost inabled them not onely to give eyes to the blind feet to the lame health to the sick but life also to the dead as was very well known in those days was an undoubted testimony that He from whom it came is able also to change these vile bodies and make them like to his own most glorious body For it is visible he hath a power whereby he can subdue all things to himself To take away life you may think is no such great matter that we should take any notice of it yet to doe even this with a word for lying to the HOLY GHOST was an argument of a mighty power residing in the Apostles And when Abarbinell speaks of the power of the Messiah to work Miracles from that Prophecy of Isaiah xi he alledges these words to prove it vers 4. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked Which was never literally fulfilled during our Saviour's stay on Earth where he did nothing but good to men but was made good after he went to Heaven by his power in his Ministers who smote that wicked couple mentioned Act. v. without any hands merely with the breath of their mouth What shall we think then of their restoring men to life after they were dead for which they were more notorious We cannot but look on this as a great witness of the wonderfull power of Jesus in them and consequently of the life and glory he intended to bestow on sinfull dust and ashes He would not have filled them thus full of his Spirit if he had not meant thereby to raise their expectations above all that even by its power they at present felt Had it not been his design to make them hereafter like to God he would not have preferred them to such a resemblance of his Wisedom and Power here in this World They that could raise others from the dead had no reason to doubt of being raised up themselves When they saw themselves made the conveyers of such great blessings to all mankind they must needs stand fair they could not but conclude for a very large portion of his favour to their own persons For the truth is 5. these gifts which were then given to men proclaimed aloud the marvellous bounty of our Saviour as well as his power and would not let them doubt of a far more glorious exercise of it in the other World then they saw and were the instruments of in this And if any imagine that though this might be a testimony to them of Eternall Life yet it is none to us the contrary will soon be evident if you do but consider 6. that our Lord having made a promise of Eternall Life not onely to his Apostles but to all that believe on his Name the HOLY GHOST puts us in strong hope of it by demonstrating his faithfulness to his word For the Effusion of it was the performance of a promise which he had frequently made when he was with them both before his death xiv Joh. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter and after his Resurrection xxiv Luk. 49. Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you c. i. Act. 4 5. Being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which said he you have heard of me For you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence And therefore we have great reason to look for the promise of Eternall Life with much confidence because He who made it was so faithfull and just in fulfilling his former promise at the time appointed Especially since he thereby demonstrated that he hath sufficient power to doe for us according to his word For he who made such an extraordinary change in them on the day of Pentecost that they were able in an instant to speak all languages to prophesy and understand the secret counsels of God can change us we need not question from glory to glory and at last transform us so perfectly as to make us like to himself And I may adde to strengthen this consideration 7. that our Lord declared he would send the HOLY GHOST for this very purpose that they might believe the rest of his holy promises particularly this great one of Eternall Life Which is the meaning of that which you reade in xiv Joh. 12. where after he had told them ver 9 10 11. that God appeared to them and shew'd himself in the Works that He did which demonstrated that the Father dwelt in him and consequently that he would go and prepare a place for them and take them up to himself he adds these remarkable words Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth in me the works that I doe shall he doe also and greater works then these shall he doe because I go unto my Father As if he had said Mark now what I farther declare to you and rely upon it as a certain truth The works that I have done are sufficient to convince you but for a greater confirmation of your faith that I am going to the Father and am the Way the Truth and the Life I tell you that after I am departed these wonderfull things shall be repeated before the eyes of the world by those that believe on me Nay some things shall be done which your eyes have not yet seen because I go to my Father i. e. have power in the Heavens