Righteousness a State of pure and undefiled Light whose happy and glorious Inhabitants are perfectly delivered from the Bondage and Servility of Corruption and Goodness and Justice and all the Moral Excellencies of Divinity enthron'd within their sacred Breasts And every good Man does not only presage but really possesses in this Life a part of his future Happiness when the Divine Nature throughly informs possesses and actuates the Powers and Faculties of his Mind and he faithfully attends to and is guided and governed by its Laws and Suggestions And he whose Soul and Spirit thus becomes an Habitation of Righteousness is in a sense Deified and God dwells in him and he is united to that Omnipresent Spirit of Love and Purity For that Divine Nature the Participation of which is the End and Design of the whole Gospel is not Power and Wisdom but something more precious and soveraign for if a man had all Power that he could remove Mountains and with his breath stop the constant Gyres and Circulations of the Earth and if he had all Wisdom and Knowledge to understand the abstrusest Theory in Nature and Providence and could perswade with the Rhetorick and Oratory of an Angel yet if he had not Charity the Bond of Perfection which not only consolidates and holds together the great Body Politick of Heaven and Earth but is the Root and Center in which all the lines of Beauty and Excellence in Human Souls unite and meet he would have no more of the true Life and Spirit of Christianity in him than a tinkling and sounding Piece of Brass Love is the Joy of Men and Angels the Glory of Heaven and the first pregnant Spring and Source from whence issued all the numerous Productions of the Spiritual and Corporeal Life For God is Love and Love is that to speak with Reverence makes the Divinity a Uniform Being all other Modes and Attributes being too fluctuating arbitrary and unsetled to be the Basis and Foundation of that ever-to-be-adored Author of all things And as Goodness is the most pretious thing in the Deity and for that reason alone obtains the first place in acting so is it that which consummates and completes all moral Agents that derive from him Power and Wisdom and all other Modes being nothing but the several Explications and Diffusions of absolute Goodness But that we may not mistake ourselves the Philosopher tells us of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Harlotry as well as a Heavenly Venus whereby the Soul is enamour'd with these fading Beauties and ensnared by the powerful Inescations of Sense and Corporeity and this weakens and destroys the Soul but 't is the celestial Venus that is the beautiful and perfective Object of Human Minds and by its Union with it changes and transforms the Soul into its glorious Image And what we have hitherto said is no more than what the natural Sentiments of our own Souls bear witness to and all the moral part of Ethnick Philosophy attests which was wholly employed in laying down Rules and Precepts for the regulating mens Lives and putting a stop to the bold Intrusion of Vice and this was universally acknowledged the only way to acquire a Cognation and Affinity with God And what was judged laudable and decorous then and approved as most excellent is made much more so by the Christian Oeconomy which sets the Attainments of a rational Soul at a higher pitch than the secular Wisdom and Philosophy of the Gentiles could arrive to For what more ennobles and inspirits the Mind of Man with true Glory and Magnanimity than the captivating his irrational Desires and suppressing all inordinate Lusts and Appetites and the introducing a Spirit of Love Meekness Temperance and Sobriety What more Divine and Godlike than Charity to bind up an aking head and dry up watry eyes and relieve him who was fighting with the Pressures of Want and Poverty What greater Pleasure can we reasonably imagine than that which results from an Act of Goodness and Bounty whether it respect the Souls or Bodies of our fellow-Creatures in extricating him who was involved in a Labyrinth of Misery and bringing the cheerful Day to him who sate in a Night of Ignorance and Error Which things if duly considered as they are very agreeable and proportionate to our higher and rational Soul so they depretiate the grosser Satisfactions of our viler parts and make good this first Proposition That the true Felicity of Human Souls results from their Participation of the Divine Nature 2. The Gospel shews us the true way to obtain this complete Perfection of our Spirits that it is by an universal Purification of our Minds from all Pollution whatever and an entire Resignation of ourselves to the Conduct of the Divine Life and Light But it will be said that Philosophy teaches as much as this and the Pythagoreans Platonists and Stoicks asserted the highest Perfection of the Soul to consist in her Union with God which is obtained by a perfect Extirpation of all irregular Motions and an abstraction of the Soul from her Love and Sympathy with the Body and transforming her wholly into Intellect For the Passions and sensual Affections being once subdued and the Rational Life excited the Soul becomes presently like unto God as Porphyry speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Hierocles shews us the Scope and End of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Purgation of the Mind namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore although the Heathens by the Light of Nature proceeded to the eradication of Vice out of their Minds yet they retained still an arrogative Life ascribing the Attainments and Perfections of their Souls and their whole Progress in Virtue to their own solitary Endeavours and this their Spiritual and subtle Pride tainted and infected the best of their other Performances So that though they were glorious Lights in their Generations yet they fell short of the Character of a true Christian which is an entire Subjection of a Mans self to the Government and Command of the Life of God being perfectly dead to all Self-seeking and Interest and no otherwise affected to ourselves than if we were not And this heavenly Temper the Divine Providence reserved for the meek and humble Soul of the Messias to bring into the World who hath resumed that as the most compendious way to Blessedness which was rejected by the wise men of the World 3. He that shall impartially and without Prejudice peruse the Evangelical Histories shall find that there is not any thing recorded in them vain and trivial but such as is of the highest moment and importance and some way or other useful and advantageous for the Propagation of Christianity in the World and for those things which seem most liable to the Exceptions and Cavils of vile and prophane Persons I shall endeavour to shew their Reasonableness and how becoming and decorous it was to insert them in the Histories of the Gospel It is too well known that there
them a true and faithful discrimination of Objects Wherefore Divine Wisdom hath treated the Sons of men after a sensible manner and engaged them by Arguments that more forcibly strike their Fancies and Imaginations and have a greater Influence for the promoting the indispensable Duties of Sanctity and Truth than any terrestrial Pleasure can possibly be allective to the contrary 'T is true if Religion could consist with Avarice Vain-Glory and Ambition the covetous Miser who rips up the Bowels of the Earth for Treasure and spins out his Life in a golden Thread would become a Proselyte and he who seeks to ride upon the shoulders of the Multitude and lives upon the Air and Breath of Popular Applause would need no Inducements to turn Christian But when things go directly contrary and he that will be a sincere Disciple of the Son of God must crucifie his rebellious Lusts and descend into the Grave of Mortification and cashier every inordinate Motion and Desire that hinders or any way obstructs his approach to so inestimable a good as the Possession of the blessed Life of God and this not to be done without indefatigable Industry and Care and as it were a Dilaceration of himself from himself that is a forcible Subjection of that grand Principle of our Apostasie and Deviation from God which is so mischievously powerful to the Commands and Laws of our superior Life there is no man can doubt but that the Promises of the Gospel are infinitely necessary in order to that weighty Design eternal Wisdom seeks to carry on by the Promulgation of them to the World Which Promises we may refer to these three general Heads 1. Pardon of all our Sins upon a true Repentance and sincere Conformity of our Minds and Spirits to the Will of God And this was the great End of Christs coming into the World that he might reconcile it unto God and assure guilty Sinners who had made themselves obnoxious to Divine Wrath and Displeasure that if they will return to their Loyalty and Obedience and express an unfeigned Repentance by sincere Purposes and Resolutions of a new Life God will forgive their past Trespasses and remember their Iniquities no more The whole Gospel what else is it but a free and gracious Declaration of Pardon and Forgiveness to the World which as it takes away all direful and jealous Thoughts which criminal Persons through a Conscience of their own Guiltiness and Sin and frequent Presages of Divine Vengeance are apt to retain of God so it gives them a true and faithful Representation of his Nature that he is no dreadful and hurtful Being encircled with Tempests and devouring Flames no Tyrant whose arbitrary Love or Hate are the Rules and Laws of his Government but an Almighty Goodness whose pregnant Fecundity gave Life and Being to the whole Creation and studiously endeavours the Conservation of all things in all that Happiness their Natures are capable of This was it to which the holy Jesus bare witness and published to the Sons of men by going about doing good and diffusing a Spirit of real Righteousness throughout the World He took it upon his Death that this was true that God did infinitely desire the Reconciliation of the World to himself and that not for any Self-Ends or Designs for what can accrue to him who is infinite Life and eternally possessed of whatever speaks Perfection but for the sole Good and Welfare of things themselves that every Being might obtain that Place and Order in the Universe and enjoy all that Felicity to which it was at first intended and from which nothing but its own wilful Wretchedness could degrade it For Gods Justice is nothing but his Goodness Power and Wisdom imployed for the Maintenance and Conservation of what is eternally just and right and if this may be done without Extremity and Rigour his Goodness doth as much oblige him to take the gentlest and mildest Course as any man can pretend his Justice for exact Punishment and Severity But that all the Attributes of the Deity might be at once secured and fallen Man restored to a Capacity of being made happy again Christ appearing in human Nature hath undertaken the Cause of Man and given himself a Ransom for all the Punishment due to us being transferred on him and through the Sacrifice and Death of Jesus God is upon terms of Peace and Friendship with the World and proclaims a free Indulgence to all who will lay down their Hostility and Rebellion and become obedient Subjects to his Kingdom God takes no advantage against any man to destroy him and 't is a horrid Impiety in us to suspect him of Treachery and Deceit and to represent God to our minds in such a fearful Garb and Image as eternally wishing the Destruction of the greatest part of his Creatures is no less Idolatry than to fall down and worship the Works of our own hands 2. The powerful Assistance of Gods Spirit to enable us to perform his Commands When the great Love the holy Apostles bare to the Lord Christ made them sorrowful for his Departure they supposing he would then leave them to the Mercies of a faithless and perverse Generation he takes Compassion on his Charge and assures them that when the time comes that his bodily Presence should be withdrawn from them he would not leave them destitute and forsaken but send the Comforter the Spirit of Truth unto them who should not only perform the Office of an Advocate in pleading and maintaining the Justice of his Cause against the unrighteous World but be a Principle of Love and Purity in their hearts and conduct them through the various Windings and Obliquities of Error and Falshood into the plain and easie Paths of Truth and Righteousness And for a Confirmation of this Promise he appeals to common Sense and the Evidence of all Mankind If ye who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father from whom all Creatures proceed and upon whom they depend more intimately than Faculties and Actions upon the Principles from whence they flow bestow his Holy Spirit upon them that ask it of him Wherefore that no man might despair and count it an impossible thing to atchieve a perfect Victory and Conquest over his Lusts and Corruptions God has promised that the Business shall not be transacted by our own single Effort and solitary Endeavours but that we shall have the powerful Aid of his blessed Spirit than which nothing can be a more vigorous Encouragement For what can resist his Almighty Energy and Virtue or what can be so stubborn and refractory that he cannot render sequacious and obedient who at first brought all things out of nothing Be our Lusts never so mighty and gigantick and the Powers of Darkness never so resolutely armed against us yet the Strength and Assistance derived to us from Heaven is able to put to flight all our Enemies and make us perfectly
the Salvation and future Happiness of a Christian we may take a brief Abstract or Sum of our Duty which is this To love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to have a firm and radicated Faith in his Goodness declared to the World by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ an universal Abstinence from all Wrong and Injustice a hearty Love and Good-will to all men whatever to hold fast that which is Good and to abstain from all appearance of Evil to be of a compassionate and forgiving Spirit and if we have received an Injury not to recompense it again in any kind to abstract and withdraw our hearts and minds from earthly Goods and make Treasures for ourselves in Heaven and to be no more solicitous for worldly concernments than the Lilies of the field or the Fowls of the air but that having food and raiment therewith to be content to keep ourselves pure and undefiled not only from outward and grosser but inward and more refined Pollutions to be ready to do good and distribute to the Necessities of our Brethren to live peaceably if it be possible with all men In a word whatever things are true whatever things are honest just lovely and of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise to think on such things What can be plainer and easier than this Nor is the Simplicity of the Gospel any derogation from it though that impious Epicurean Celsus deride it upon that account extolling the Writings of Plato above the Scriptures For as Origen acutely enough replies the Design of God in the Gospel being to make men good and virtuous it was necessary the Precepts tending to that end should be delivered plainly and perspicuously suitable to the Capacities of the illiterate Vulgar who are better allured and won by a common and usual form of Speech than by the artificial Deckings and gay Schemes of Rhetorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Christ and his Apostles did much more advance that which was their chief aim the Life and Nature of God in the World by that as Celsus calls it rude and rustical manner of speaking than all the elegant Writings of Plato which if they ever were advantageous for the rectifying and amending the Lives of men it was only to such whose Intellectual Faculties were raised and elevated above the Plebeian Strain Therefore did the Holy Jesus on purpose make choice of ignorant and illiterate Persons that it might appear that the things which they spake were not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise and by the weak destroy the things that are mighty Object But you will say To what purpose is that Intricacy and Perplexity which is found in many Places of Holy Scripture and wherefore are many of the chiefest of its Doctrines involved in such Darkness and Obscurity Answ 1. It was in some measure requisite that the Scripture should be obscure to conciliate Reverence and to beget a greater Esteem of its Worth and Dignity For the Gospel is often called a Mystery which supposes somthing venerable and secret and hidden from the eyes of vulgar Persons And God as in Nature he hath hid many pretious things in the Bowels of the Earth which cannot be obtained without great Labour and Diligence in like manner hath he veiled many inestimable Treasures in the Christian Mystery which are only attainable by the diligent Search and sincere Endeavours of pious men For should the Divine Wisdom have displayed at once all the Glories and Beauty of this sacred and recondite Method of recovering Souls it would appear contemptible and worthless as being the easie purchase of every profane and impious Person 2. The Reason of the Obscurity of Christianity lies not so much in the Nature of the thing itself as in the incongruity of mens Minds and Understandings with so high and raised an Object The Eye cannot behold the Sun unless it have some Resemblance and Similitude of it within itself for like is known by its like and if mens Minds be not purified and brought into some Cognation and Likeness with the Truths offered to them it is impossible they should ever have any true and genuine Apprehension of them There is a Learning and Knowing the Truth as it is in Jesus in that God-like meek and resigned Spirit and till mens Tempers be plain'd and smooth'd from the ruggedness of their Passions and the stubborn Asperities of their Lusts and won to the embracing of the Truth in the love of it in that Christ-like Nature of Humility and Self-Denial they may fill their heads with sapless and lean Notions windy and turgent Fancies but never nourish up their Souls with solid and substantial Knowledge The true sense of Religion and Christianity arises out of a mind devoid of Passion and in which the Life of God has taken deep root and flourishes and spreads itself throughout all the powers of the Soul giving a tincture relish and savour of itself to every Thought Word and Deed in the whole course of a mans Life And without this purified sense we feed upon nothing but the Husks and Shells of Religion and fall in love with Shadows instead of lasting and durable Substances And this is no more than what the Scripture speaks of itself 1 Cor. ii 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There is required a spiritual Sense a Life of Holiness and Justice of Benignity and Righteousness to the true discrimination of Good and Evil. And further to the Knowledge and Understanding of Divine Mysteries there is necessarily required the Aid and Assistance of that Almighty and Omnipresent Spirit who by his fostering Incubation brought into Being the goodly frame of Heaven and Earth and that this Holy Spirit of Truth may begin the Efformation of the new and heavenly Nature a considerable part of which is Divine and Spiritual Wisdom there must be some previous Preparations and men must be morally good and virtuous or else they will be perfectly incapable of the illapse of his Celestial Influence And therefore it is no marvel if to brutish and immoral Persons the Mystery of Godliness be hid and obscure 3. That there might be somthing still reserved for the gratification of all degrees of Christians in all Ages of the World There are both weak and strong Christians some that are Babes in Christ and are fed with Milk others that are of full Age and have a discriminating sense of Good and Evil. For the one there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rudimental way of instruction whereby men were led as it were by the hand through the Principles of Religion as the Author to the Hebrews intimates Heb. vi where the first thing required
wholly Intellectual he will not only esteem the Effluxes and Emanations of the Rational Life to be the Foundations of his Felicity but seek the Amplification and Diffusion of it and reduce all exorbitant Motions to its Rules and Determinations And if we will not impose upon ourselves nor degrade our Minds below the Folly and Triflingness of Children but act like Men who prefer Things before empty Sounds and Names the eternal Rules of Justice Righteousness and Goodness will appear infinitely more eligible than any thing else in the World beside for let a man be possest of the most glorious and splendid Advantages and Satisfactions that possibly can grow out of the Earth and let him extract the Flower and Quintessence of Sublunary Delights and he will find them at the best very dilute and flashy and too base and disproportionate Objects of a pure active and indefatigable Mind And were it not that men are cheated into an Esteem and Approbation of them partly from the Example of others who daily run the greatest Hazards and Labours in their Acquisition and Purchase and partly from the innate Pravity and Iniquity of their own Spirits which being preingag'd in an early Contention after the things of Sense are more forcibly struck and moved by the Emissions and Radiations of the Corporeal World it were exceeding improbable they should forego such valuable and excellent Pleasures as those of Virtue and Holiness for the small and inconsiderable though the most refined Joys of this Region of Mutability especially when they are perpetually attended with such instant Satieties and afflictive Circumstances That blessed Author of our Felicity the Lord Christ who both knew the Soveraign Good of our Spirits and designed the Cementing and Restauration of the broken and distracted World by entring into it makes it his first care and business to purge and refine our Minds from the Dross and Pollution of material Concretions by bringing down the Price of terrestrial Love and setting a low Estimate upon what the World calls Happiness Riches and Honours and all the choicest Gratifications of the inferior Life and propounding not only such Precepts as in their own nature tended to the raising and elevating the Powers and Faculties of our Souls to their highest and most enlarg'd Perfection and which by our Conformity to them should fully satisfie all our rational Thirsts and Appetites but likewise revives our languishing Resolutions and reinspirits our Minds with new Strength and Vigour by his own Example as the most attractive and powerful Means that possibly can be offered to an ingenuous Nature All the time that he conversed upon Earth he went about doing good transcribing the fairest and most amiable Perfections and Attributes of the moral Essence of God for our Imitation redressing and healing the Imperfections of Mankind and casting a benign and auspicious Influence upon the distempered World by propagating and diffusing the holy Life of God into all capable Receptacles And that he might shew us what a small and mean Valuation he puts upon mundane and temporal Felicities and how little they contribute to the Advancement of that which is the Flower and Summity of our Souls he commands great Temperance and Moderation both in the Prosecution and Use of them and declares a high Dislike against all Exorbitancy and Excesse condemning all anxious and solicitous Thoughts about these momentany Concernments as criminous and faulty And what he enjoined upon his Disciples and Followers he himself always observ'd and practis'd never disquieting his holy Breast with doubtful and corroding Cares nor charging Heaven with Partiality and Unkindness though he became so poor for our sakes that he was forced by a Miracle to pay his Tribute-penny to the Roman Governour His blameless and immaculate Soul no impure touch of Pleasure ever defiled nor unjust and unhallowed Action ever stained and sullied its native Brightness but remained to his dying upon the Cross a spotless Temple eternally consecrated to the Divinity residing in it But that which did most of all allure and attract the Hearts and Spirits of men was his exceeding and superlative Charity which not only burnt bright within its own Orb but by a sacred Influence and Communication melted and thaw'd the benum'd and frozen World into a soft pliable and sequacious temper and set abroad a Godlike Spirit of universal Tenderness Pity and Compassion upon the Earth And that so illustrious a Person might want nothing to recommend his Life to Mankind as the most complete Pattern of the Divine Nature his Patience exhibited in a noble sufferance of all those Ignominies and Disgraces put upon him made him no less conspicuous than those other radiant Virtues rendred him acceptable to God and Man And if there be any thing more that is worthy and decorous and perfective of the Nature of Man it was eminently contained in the Lord Christ whose glorious Mind was too large and great to bring forth any poor and abject Design but took the whole World into his Care and folded the Creation within the Arms of dear Compassion By all this and much more we are taught wherein consists the greatest Excellency Beauty and Dignity of our Souls namely in the Acts of Goodness Righteousness and Mercy in profound Humility and Self-Denial in Patience Longanimity and uncorrupted Purity of Body and Spirit For these and such like Heroical Exertions of our Minds bring not only a present Delight and Gratefulness with them but pervade by a secret and insensible Influence all our Animal Powers and diffuse a certain Savour and Relish of themselves throughout our inferior Faculties As it is with Vice and Sin every pitiful and degenerate Production of which spreads its contagious Nature and leavens our whole Man with its poysonous and infectious Inspirations so much more will Truth and Righteousness disseminate a healthful Efflux and hallow our vital Capacities as being the most congenerous and agreeable Objects of our intellectual Parts The Life of God which alone ought to have the Soveraign Command over the whole rational Creation and which will in due time conquer and triumph over the dark and apostate Principality that Life I say of universal Sanctity and Righteousness is an immortal thing like its great Source and Parent and is always passing through the World and will not rest any where but in such a fit and congruous Subject as bears some Analogy and Similitude with itself And being once seated there unless it be forcibly driven out by rebellious Lusts to which it proclaims an irreconcileable War it will continually dispread its lovely Nature and enlarge its Kingdom by the total Consumption or Conversion into its own Likeness and Quality whatever resists and hinders its Progress and at last when freed from the sluggish weight of Mortality like a quick and active Flame carry up the Soul with Joy and Triumph into Heaven to which it always breaths and aspires Heaven itself is nothing but the blessed Mansion of
are a sort of Men in the World whose Minds are so deeply tinctured with Sadducean and Atheistical Principles that being otherwise furnished with a quaint Volubility of Speech and some Smatterings of Philosophy in this knowing Age deem it the highest Improvement of their Wit to laugh and jeer at that profound Wisdom which is found in Christianity now accusing its Dogmata of Impossibilities and Contradictions and then scoffing at the Historical Part as Fabulous and Romantick clearly discovering that their grand Drift is to leaven the Minds of men with that pernicious and venomous Doctrin That there is nothing but Matter in the World To begin therefore with the Birth of the blessed Jesus and the Circumstances attending of it as of the Star which led the Wise Men to him and of their Adoration of him that these things are not indecorous and ridiculous nor impertinently recorded but sutable and agreeable to the Nativity of so great a Person That a Virgin should conceive and bring forth a Child ought to be no such strange thing to the Jew since their Prophets have foretold that it should so come to pass particularly in Isa vii 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call his name Immanuel And if this were not to be understood of a pure and immaculate Virgin where were that Sign which God by his Prophet ushers in with such Solemnity Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God ask it either in the depth or in the height above for nothing is more ordinary in the World than that a young Woman should bring forth a Child Add to this that the Jewish Rabbins teach that the Generation and Nativity of the Messias shall not be after the manner of other Creatures by carnal Copulation but after an extraordinary manner and his Father shall be unknown till he himself reveal him Nor ought it to be thought a thing impossible by the Gentiles since they affirm many of their Heroes to be the Sons of the Gods and Plato is said to be begotten on Perictione by Apollo who forbad Aristo to have any familiarity with his Wife till Plato was born But to them that believe a just and righteous Providence governing all the Affairs of the Universe it is obvious to conceive that all Souls are sent into the World according to their Demerits in a former Life and therefore as a deeply lapsed Soul descends into an inequal and monstrous Body from which Adunation can result no other than a brutish cruel and intemperate Life and a Pronity to all other Vices arising from such an Asymmetral and inhospitable Society so the pure and immaculate Soul of Jesus must assume a terrestrial Body after an unusual manner more pure than the rest that it might be free from Sin and Pollution as well as fitted to converse with Men and that he might in it teach an extraordinary Temperance Justice and Goodness and all other Virtues by his Life as by his Doctrin For neither would the Justice of God precipitate so great a Soul into an unfit and incongruous Habitation nor its eximious Purity admit of an Union with an inquinated and filthy Body Nor is it any whit incongruous that an unusual Star should attend the Rising of the glorious Sun of Righteousness for though it be commonly said of Comets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no one appears to the World but portends some Mischief which Historians plentifully observe and hence is that of Claudian Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus Aether Et nunquam coelo spectatum impune Cometen Yet Origen in his first Book against Celsus affirms that Chaeremon the Stoick in his Treatise of Comets proves by several Instances out of Histories that Comets sometimes presage the Approach of good things If then those great and wandring Globes be looked upon as the Presignificators of great Changes and Alterations in the World what wonder is it that the Birth of Jesus who should work so mighty a Mutation upon Earth and introduce a Religion universal and common to all Mankind should be declared by a new and stranger Star And if it be said that it is impossible for a Star in the Heavenly Regions to design punctually so small a place as a particular House upon Earth I answer that the Magi found the House wherein Jesus was not only by the disappearing and vanishing of the Star over it but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a diligent Search and Inquisition after the Child perhaps of the Shepherds who were not far distant keeping watch over their Flocks It remains now that we Apologize for the other part of the History viz. The coming of the Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem to which purpose it will be requisite to consider the Quality of these Magi who probably were none of these grosser sort of Sorcerers that make an express Compact with the Devil but such as receiving from others certain forms and mysterious Conjurations use them as they were delivered to them without enquiring further into their Nature And perhaps the black Society may oblige themselves to attend such dark and hidden Mysteries whether the Transactors of them know them to be theirs or not But whether these Magi were such or had a more open and visible Commerce with evil Spirits it matters not since this is certain that the airy Principality can act no further where a more divine and excellent Power intervenes Wherefore through the mighty Virtue of the Divinity residing in the Soul of Jesus and the unexpected descent of a glorious Host of Angels to these terrestrial Regions singing an Anthem of Praise at the Birth of Jesus it came to pass that the Power of the airy Principality was on a sudden restrained and an universal Chilness and Horror ran through the dark Kingdom so that they were unable to attend their own Hellish Mysteries which the Magi perceiving their usual Incantations not succeeding nor the accustomed Effects following their secret Rites and Ceremonies they began to think the Cause of this unexpected Accident to be extraordinary and knowing the Prophecy of Balaam that a star should come out of Jacob and a scepter rise out of Israel conjectured that the Man foretold to come with the Apparition of a Star was now born into the World and believing him to have a transcendent Power over the aereal Agents resolved to come and worship him presenting him with the choicest Gifts of Arabia Gold and Myrrh and Frankincense as to a King a Man and a God And if any man desire a further Mystery he may take the learned Grotius his Observation that by these three are denoted those three Evangelical Sacrifices which through Christ we offer unto God viz. Works of Charity and Mercy Phil. iv 18. Incorrupted Purity of Body Rom. xii 1. and Prayers Psal cxli. 2. We that are Christians are taught in the Gospel that Jesus Christ the Saviour of Mankind is God as well as Man
become Brothel-houses 2. The holy Jesus wanted not Disciples even among the wise men of the Jews such was Simeon the Just the Scholar of Hillel who was filled with the Holy Ghost and after whose Death that Divine Spirit which inspired the great Synagogue departed from them John the Baptist who not only acknowledged Christ himself but sent his Disciples to him as to that Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world and Gamaliel is said to have followed the Apostles and to have been Simeon's Scholar And St. Paul who was a man of great Repute and Esteem with the Jews and sate at the feet of Gamaliel yet was afterward an Apostle of the holy Jesus and Josephus further informs us that the more sober and serious Jews who were Lovers of the Truth were such as followed Jesus and those that were studious and zealous for the Law sharply rebuked Ananus the High Priest for commanding the Disciples of Jesus to be stoned Object 2. Acts i. 6. Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel It was a current Opinion among the Jews in our Saviours time that the Messias should be a Temporal Monarch and redeem them from the yoke of the Romans as appears from this Question of the Disciples who doubtless spake the general sense of the Jews but they finding nothing in the Attempts and Actions of Jesus tending that way hence they could not believe him to be the promised Messias Answ Christ came into the World such as he was foretold to be that is humble and meek not with the Splendor and Glory of an earthly Prince but poor and despicable a man of sorrows and without form and comliness as it is predicted by Zechariah the Prophet Zech. ix 9. and Isa liii The End and Design of his coming was to appease the Anger of God by devoting himself for the Sins of men to destroy the Kingdom of the Devil and to make one body of Jews and Gentiles of which he himself should be the Head And 't is no way fit and agreeable for such an Undertaking to appear in earthly Splendor and Glory filling the World with Blood and Slaughter like another Alexander or Caesar by the Puissance of mighty Armies Wherefore the holy Jesus being to disseminate and promote the blessed Life of God upon Earth shewed his Divinity more refulgent by Vileness and Contempt his Power by Weakness and Infirmity his Glory by the Scorns of men and his Almighty Life and Virtue by Death and the Grave And if he had otherwise descended from the celestial Mansions than the Scriptures relate Man had entituled himself to part of the Glory of his Undertaking and the more splendid the Divine Life had appeared to outward view with the fainter Lustre had it shone in itself Besides that that Doctrin which Christ was to bring into the World and render acceptable to men by his own Example was quite contrary to the Gratifications of the Animal Life and too vile and base to be essential to the Perfection of Human Nature Object 3. Mat. xxvii 40. If thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross Answ He that came into the World clothed with human Flesh and in the several Actions of his Life manifested himself to be a true Man would now in this last Act keep a Decorum that as he was born into the world like other men partaking really of Flesh and Blood and all the Frailties and Infirmities of Mankind Sin only excepted so he would die like other men and suffer a real Separation of his Soul from his Body that we might be conformable to him in his Death and die unto Sin crucifying all our inordinate Lusts and Affections and descending into the Grave with him by a profound Humility and Mortification which is a sufficient Answer to this insulting Cavil of the Jews that if Jesus were the Son of God he must needs demonstrate it by a miraculous Descent from the Cross CHAP. IV. That-Christianity is every way fitted and accommodated for an effectual Recovery of lapsed and degenerated Mankind TO this purpose we must consider Man as a rational Being endued with Liberty of Will and a Lord of his own Actions and consequently must be treated according to those Faculties and Qualifications bestowed upon him by the gracious Bounty of his Creator And this being the Nature of Man he is not to be dealt withal like a Stock or Stone that is wholly inert and sluggish nor like a Beast that is acted and led only by the impulse of Sense but as indued with Reason and Intellect and capable of discriminating between real Good and Evil and this Principle in Man cannot be forced without the Destruction of his Nature but is allured and drawn by moral Arguments Wherefore the Design of God in the Gospel being to wind men off from Sin to a serious pursuit of Virtue and Goodness he makes use of such Arguments as are most powerful and efficacious for that end and most sutable to the Nature of Man As 1. What can more deter men from Wickedness and Vice than the sober pressing upon them the Consideration of a future day of Judgment wherein the just Judge of Heaven and Earth will impartially look into their Lives and dispose of them according to the moral Frame and Disposition of their Spirits To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality eternal Life But to them who do not obey the Gospel he will recompense Tribulation and Wrath. He that is convinc'd that the Scriptures are the Word of God must likewise believe that though God be patient and long-suffering not willing that any should perish yet he is likewise just and hates all Sin whatever and to convince all unbelieving and Atheistical Persons of his Displeasure against Wickedness and Vice he has appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World a Day wherein Jesus Christ the blessed Son of God shall visibly descend from Heaven accompanied with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels before whose Throne all wicked Men and Devils shall stand with Paleness and Horror expecting the Pronuntiation of that dreadful Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire which final Doom and Sentence shall presently be executed upon them for through the stupendious Operation of the Son of God the infernal Treasures of Fire shall be opened and an universal Deluge of Flame shall spread itself over the Face of the aged Earth which shall be cleft and riven by terrible Eruptions of sulphureous Matter breaking forth with horrible Rage and Fury from the lower Regions and this together with Showers of Fire raining down from thick and pitchy Clouds shall wrap Universal Nature in a sheet of Flame and complete an external Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched Tell me then O Man thou that thinkest Righteousness but an idle Name on whose hard and stubborn soul a Discourse of another
Life can make no Impression where will be the Objects of thy Love and Joy when the Heavens shall be dissolved the Elements melt with fervent Heat and the Earth with all the works therein be burnt up What shall support and bear up thy dying Hopes when all sensible things shall perish in this dreadful Conflagration Thinkest thou that the Holes of the Rocks or the secret Caverns of the Mountains can hide thee from his Eye which pierceth through Obscurity who is every where present by his mighty Power and to whom the Night is as bright as Noon-day Or will that just Judge who sits upon the Life and Death of all the Sons of Adam be bribed with thy Gold and Silver when the whole World is his and the Fulness thereof Surely nothing but Righteousness will then deliver from Death nothing but Innocence and Purity white as the Beams of Light can save the Souls of men from eternal Destruction Wickedness and Sin like a Talent of Lead shall sink down those Souls that have delighted in it into that sulphureous Lake where a most acute and searching Pain shall stick close to them and unspeakable Torments weary their restless Ghosts for ever A sad and pitiable Calamity but as just as great for the blessed Author of all things does not make Laws to ensnare the Creation nor does he directly and primarily intend Punishment but has entailed that upon Disobedience that men might consider and beware and in time provide for their Reception into all that Happiness God made them for and which he by threatning Punishment so affectionately desires they should enjoy 2. That there might be nothing wanting to enforce the foregoing Consideration the Scripture manifestly resolves our good or ill Being in the other Life to depend upon our Deportment in this It is in this life that we lay the trains of our future Happiness or Misery and every moral Action has an Influence either good or bad upon Eternity and here it is that we have a vital Union and Conjunction either with Hell or Heaven To be born into this World is not only a Punishment but a state of Probation to us Mortals wherein he that acquits himself generously and nobly fighting manfully against the World the Flesh and the Devil and returns with the Spoils and Trophies of his conquered Enemies to his beloved Lord shall be crowned with an eternal weight of Glory but he that through faint-heartedness and cowardice yields himself a willing Captive to his Lusts and Corruptions sparing those rebellious Sins and Affections with whom the Captain of our Salvation has sworn War for ever he combines and unites himself to a living Hell and no sooner is his Soul dislodg'd from its earthly Fabrick but it descends into those Regions of Bitterness and Sorrow with which it so wilfully sought a Cognation and Affinity in this Life And he that will but patiently lend an ear to this cannot so obstinately forsake his own good nor delay and put off his Repentance by imagining the day of Judgment a great way off and not likely to overtake him For no sooner has Death disseized him of his terrestrial Tenement but that universal Nemesis which pervades the whole World will fatally convey him to such a Place and Society as he had prepared and accommodated himself for here on Earth And he that obstinately rejects the Counsel of God and sets at nought all his Reproofs will find that the Wrath of the Lord can reach him and he will have little or no Possibility left to better himself in the other World 3. For the more ingenuous sort who are rather attracted and won by the Expressions of Kindness and Love than the Fear of external Punishment what can more prevail with them than to behold the ever-blessed Son of God who lived in the boundless Tracts of Truth and Righteousness forsake those celestial Mansions and come down and take a Body of Flesh and Blood and here lead an obscure and evanid Life persecuted and afflicted never seeing good days but always carrying an heart full of Pensiveness and Sorrow and at last die a painful and ignominious Death upon the Cross and all this to recover and free the race of Mankind from the Tyranny and Slavery of Sin What can this but beget a suitable return of Love in every ingenuous Soul What kind heart is there that this Spectacle will not fill with Tears of Love and Joy and with the most endearing Expressions devote itself to a faithful Obedience of so compassionate a Saviour 4. The Promises of the Gospel are most suitable means for the reinstating men in the Possession of Gods own Life that possibly can be offered to the World For he that considers how deeply Vice and Iniquity are radicated in our very Natures and what great Diligence and Care is required to extirpate even a single Habit which of a long time hath gotten an entire and full possession of our minds and withal reflects on the crazy and sickly state of our most generous and manly Faculties how bedwarfed and unable they are to resist through a continued imbibition of a sweet Poyson from Sense cannot but conclude the Evangelical Oeconomy would be very lame and imperfect were it not instructed and furnish'd with Arguments sufficient to countermand and outbalance the importunate Solicitations of the degenerate Principles of Unrighteousness and Sin And indeed were not a Crown of Glory the great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our holy Faith were not Virtue countenanced with an appendent Felicity the Face of the World would now appear as squalid and deformed as in its first and greatest Brutishness and Barbarity For who would seek the Renovation of decayed Righteousness or who would entertain afflicted and oppressed Holiness if its Reward did not fully answer and compensate whatever Troubles Difficulties and Molestations do attend it Who would buy Religion with the Expence of all his temporal Interests nay of his Life itself if he were not assured the Happiness laid up for holy and incorrupt Souls did infinitely transcend and exceed the choicest Pleasures and Gratifications that are to be met withal in this Region of Mutability And that such a Course and Order of things should be taken is not only a merciful Provision of the good and wise Creator of all things towards us Sons of Sense but gives us a full Evidence and Assurance that his Intentions for the Recovery of the World are real and sincere and renders unsuspected the grand Dispensation of Christianity For had the Gospel propounded only intellectual Notions and solicited our choice by things most remote from Sense while we were so fatally entangled and opprest with the Incumbrances of dull Mortality such a Design would rather confound and amaze the Faculties and Capacities of men than prove any whit serviceable for the regaining their antient Liberty and Command like a potent and vigorous Light set before weak and distempered Eyes which rather blinds than affords
victorious The Spirit of God is no dull and sluggish Principle but a quick and active Life and into whatever Soul it enters it is perpetually cleansing and purifying and refining it till it have wholly extirpated and destroyed whatever beats no similitude with itself and rendred the whole Man an immaculate Temple for the Manifestation of its own glorious Presence Let no man then pretend an invincible Infirmity or that he is fatally bound and enslaved to Sin and Vice for if we would but excite those Powers God has given us and by ardent Breathings invocate the gracious Auxiliaries of Heaven there would be Wonders wrought upon our Souls the Strength of our Corruptions would abate and our furious Passions be restrained and reduced into Discipline and Order 3. The last general Head is the Promise of a future and blessed Immortality in Heaven when this present Life is ended The blessed Jesus while he lived upon Earth did not wholly obscure his Glory in the mantle of Flesh and Blood but gave a notable Specimen of that efficacious Life and Power which as he himself was already possessed of so all those that believe in his Name should hereafter be endued withal which should melt their Corruptible into Incorruption and translate them to the quiet and peaceful Regions of Immortality in his Transfiguration upon Mount Tabor which was enough to call off the Thoughts and Cares of men from the trifling Concerns of this World and teach them that there was a better Portion to be expected for all the Sons of God and Virtue in the pure and undefiled Mansions of Heaven where dwells nothing but Truth and Goodness But the most lively and pregnant Evidence of the future Subsistence of our Souls was his glorious Resurrection from the dead whereby as he was declared to be the Son of God with Power so it gives us a full Assurance and convictive Demonstration even to outward Sense that the comfortless Chambers of the Grave shall not for ever detein us but that when he who is our Life shall appear and summon Earth and Sea to deliver up their dead and open the secret Receptacles of Souls then shall all holy and righteous Persons appear with him in Glory and take possession of their long expected Joy and receive the just Recompence of all their Pains and Labours an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved by a gracious Providence in the Heavens for them All Power is committed into the hands of Christ who hath vanquished Death and Hell and captivated all the Powers of Darkness and begotten us to a lively Hope that when we shall put off our Mortality and be released from all terrestrial Pressures and Incumbrances he will cloth us with an heavenly Body like unto his own Body of Light and Glory But lest we should undo ourselves with fruitless Expectations and flie to Heaven in our vain Dreams of Salvation before our sincere Conformity to Gods blessed Will and Commands has rendred us capable of that pure and holy State fancying we can read our Names written among the Stars before we have learnt the Precepts of a holy Life God hath annexed Conditions of Obedience to all his Promises and resolved that no man shall be crowned but he that with Courage and Perseverance maintains the War against Sin and Hell And indeed the Reward that is promised to all virtuous Persons in the Gospel hath so great Affinity and Agreement with Holiness the Condition of it that in the Nature of the thing itself he cannot be capable of the one who is not aforehand invested with the other For what is Heaven but a state of spotless Love and Purity where no Envy nor Malice straitens and contracts the boundless and enlarged no clouds of Passion or disordered Lust obscure the Brightness of that eternal Day where the Sun of Righteousness neither rises nor sets upon the Horizon of Time but remains Vertical for ever And now what Concord can possibly be imagined between such transcendent Beauty and Glory and the Deformity and Ugliness of the Frame and Temper of an unrighteous mans Spirit where every thing lies cross and untoward and his unruly Desires like the boisterous Waves enraged by a sudden Storm sweep the bottom of his polluted Soul and throw up so much Mire and Dirt that it defaces whatever is comely and leaves not the least Emblem of Heaven to be discerned in it This is the grand importance of the Promises of the Gospel which is enough to demonstrate the prudent Care and dear Affection of the Son of God to the Children of Men and a sufficient Manifestation of the great Ingratitude and Unworthiness of those who do not believe in him that it is not the Want of Reasons or convictive Arguments but their own careless and wretchless Neglect of Consideration that makes them deaf to such Charms of Love and stupid and unmindful of so important Interests But men seldom want Objections against that which they have no mind to believe against this therefore 't is said That if the Promises of that eternal Reward Christ has made to us in the Gospel be so framed as to be inevident to men and leave them place of doubting it will be no such great Crime in wicked Persons not to believe those Promises and so not to embrace them To this I say 1. That the Gospel leaves no such place of doubting as to make Infidelity or a Disbelief of it excusable For Unbelief can then only be excusable when there are really wanting such Arguments as may beget Faith in a rational and unprejudic'd Person But the Gospel and the Promises thereof being sufficiently confirmed by such prevalent Reasons as are apt to acquire Belief and Credence from an unbias'd Nature the pretended Inevidence where there is no just Cause or Suspicion of Doubting cannot at all patronize Infidelity nor be a reasonable ground to act contrary to what Belief would otherwise incite them It s true were the Arguments for the Disbelief of the Promises of Life and Salvation equal to and strong as those that perswade us to the Belief of them there would be some Colour and Appearance of Reason for rejecting them but when there can be no such Doubting or Fluctuation of Judgment as proceeds from an Equilibration of Arguments on both sides it is impossible that Infidelity should have any rational Apology For what can be more convictive than to have some holy and divine Person come into the World who should by many infallible Miracles Wonders and Signs give an evident Proof that he came from God and for a full Confirmation of his Doctrin rise from the dead the third day after the suffering a painful and ignominious Death and to shew that he was no Spectrum or illusive Phantasm conversing with his Disciples for the space of forty days and afterwards ascending in their Presence into the highest Heavens there to rule and govern his Church till the End of