it is a plain demonstration that he is dear to God and hath his very Spirit in him Now next to this there is nothing more necessary and desirable to be known than how we may obtain this great and matchless victory over every thing in the world that opposes our Christian resolution and so undoubtedly approve our selves heroical persons as they were anciently called that are born from above And here also the Apostle lends us his assistance telling us in the latter end of that fourth Verse that we must atchieve it by Faith And this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith So couragious so powerful so successful is an hearty lively Faith that you see he calls it by the name of victory it self If we believe stedfastly we shall tread the world under our feet and easily despise all its temptations as those valiant Worthies did whose example another Apostle sets before us in the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews A portion of Scripture which he that means to be a conqueror should think he can never read too oft But there is a farther enquiry remaining which every body will be apt to make and that is what this Faith may be which is so victorious and triumphant And therefore the Apostle takes care to satisfie us in this matter also when he tells us Verse 5. it is nothing else but to believe that Jesus is the Son of God To be heartily perswaded he means that that great person who was born of the Virgin Mary and was known by the name of Jesus and overcame the world so gloriously was indeed sent from God unto us and owned by him as the express image of his person so that we may as infallibly depend upon the truth of what he hath said either of himself or concerning us as we can upon any thing of Sense or Reason by which we think our selves bound to guide and determine our resolutions and actions in this life But still after all this there is one thing more that we cannot but desire to be very sure of without which all the rest will stand us in no stead but we shall flag and despair of success viz. That Jesus is indeed the Son of God This if it be not well proved by substantial arguments we can have no solid faith and so no victory and so no son-ship no hope in another world The Apostle therefore that he may serve us in bringing some evident demonstration of this so important a truth tells us in the next words Verse 6. that Jesus did not only say he was God's Son and confidently affirm himself to be the Divine person so long look'd for to come into the world but that he came with very sufficient and unreproveable witnesses of it viz. the WATER the BLOUD and the SPIRIT which made this truth good to all those who considered their testimony If the first of these WATER should not be thought great enough to merit belief yet the BLOUD joyned with it adds great force to its perswasion Or if both these seem too weak yet this last the SPIRIT the Apostle doubts not is so strong to conquer mens minds and make them believe in Jesus that he says The Spirit is truth That is such an undoubted proof that Jesus was what he pretended to be the Son of God that no man can be deceived who relies upon it and no man can refuse if he give heed to it to rely and depend upon such a witness Now this was a thing notorious in those days and needed no proof at all the whole Country of Judaea could witness it that he came by or rather with Water Bloud and the Spirit And therefore the Apostle doth not go about to make this good that there were such Witnesses it being a matter confessed but rather repeats it over again as the strongest proof of his Divine Authority adding moreover there-withal that there were three other Witnesses who by their concurrent testimony would unanimously justifie this Truth For saith he in the words I have chosen to explain There are three that bear record or witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness in Earth the Spirit and the Water and the Bloud and these three agree in one As if he had said You cannot reasonably doubt of that which we preach concerning Jesus if you go but to those three witnesses to which I have sent you the Water the Bloud and the Spirit for they all affirm with one mouth that he was the Son of God And as they testifie this to you upon the Earth so there are three other Witnesses also who declare it to you from Heaven to whom I first direct you and then to those three that here on Earth as I have told you bear their record to him There are not a few Copies of the New Testament it must be confessed which leave out the Testimony of these three Witnesses that speak from Heaven not reading the seventh Verse as is noted not only by Socinus and his followers but by Erasmus Grotius Curcellaeus and our Learned Selden whose collections to this purpose far exceed all former observations But yet this last named Great Author hath said so much * L. 2. de Syned cap. 4. num 4. to justifie the Antiquity of our present Reading and to keep the seventh Verse in the place wherein it now stands that I make no question these are the words of S. John concerning the three Heavenly Witnesses the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and accordingly I shall in the first place appeal to their testimony for the confirming of this Truth and for the supporting thereby of our Faith that Jesus is the Son of God And if any body shall say What need is there of this in a Christian Country There are no Infidels sure among us nor are we in danger to turn Pagans Turks or Jews who blaspheme the Lord Jesus I shall not labour to stop their mouths by casting reproaches on others nor complain of the apostasie which some think they have reason to lay to the charge of too many in this present untoward generation But desire them to take their Answer from S. John himself in the thirteenth Verse of this very Chapter Where they will find that he thought it not unnecessary to write these things to them that believe on the name of the Son of God that they might know how happy a thing it was to be a Christian and that they might believe i. e. continue to believe on the name of the Son of God And I may modestly suppose that what he thought good to assert here with so much care and exactness it will not be thought an unprofitable diligence if I study to expound and enlarge for the benefit of believers It will be some satisfaction to me however to have had it in my heart to do some honour to my Saviour
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
wicked Whatsoever it was God told him he could not comprehend it but must be content with the sight onely of his back parts not of his face xxxiii Exod. ult That is saith Maimonides with the knowledge of something of his Essence or as he elsewhere expounds it * More Nev. p. i. c. 21. of his Works and Attributes of which he had such an obscure knowledge as we have of a man whose back parts we have seen but never beheld his face To be so intimately acquainted with God and his mind as he wish'd was the priviledge of the Messiah alone who had the clearest and fullest sight of the Glory of the Father both of his Essence and his Will and his gracious intentions towards us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bosome of the Father and therefore sees his face as the Scripture speaks and hath not merely some obscure representations of him like that of a man when he turns his back to us but a full view of him in all his perfections of which he himself is the very Image And what he saw he hath by God's express will revealed to us and discovered those things which eye never beheld but were kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the glorious rewards which his love will give to all pious persons For since I have proved that he is his Son we cannot imagine that he presumed to say more then he knew or told us things out of his own mind onely when he spake of ETERNALL LIFE as he frequently did but what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth as it is iii. John 32. We cannot believe otherwise 3. when we look upon him as the Son of God but that he must needs speak the very truth to us As he could not but know the Mind of God if he was so one with him so he could not but speak to us according to what he knew of his Mind For as the Father is Truth so is the Son because he is perfectly the same with the Father We worship the Father of Truth and the Son the Truth who are two in person but one in consent and agreement and identity of will as Origen * L. viii contra Celsum speaks explaining those words of our Saviour I and the Father are one x. Joh. 30. and I am the Truth xiv 6. We may be confident that the words of both are equally faithfull and true So God the Father bad St. John write of his own sayings as I observed before xxi Rev. 5. And in the same style our Saviour commands him to write of himself These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witness iii. Rev. 14. John Baptist had said as much before iii. Joh. 34. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God To which the words of our Saviour in another place of that Gospell perfectly accord xii 49 50. I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his commandment is EVERLASTING LIFE whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 4. he hath no less Power then he hath Truth but being the Son of God the heir of all things can make good his gracious promises and put us into the possession of the Eternall Inheritance which we expect as coheirs with him He was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead i. Rom. 4. according to his own prayer just before he offered up himself to God Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him xvii Joh. 1 2. And can we think 5. that he will not faithfully execute this trust and imploy his power for the end to which it was given him He would not then be like his Father who keepeth Truth for ever As he also most certainly will being the same Jesus yesterday and to day and for ever xiii Heb. 8. For if Moses was faithfull in the house of another wherein he was but a Servant no doubt our Lord who is a Son over his own house or family iii. Heb. 6. will not fail to discharge his royall office with all exactness but manifest himself to be like his Name The Word of God xix Rev. 13. Faithfull and true ver 11. This RECORD concerning him St. John thought so weighty and secure an evidence that he concludes all good Christians as sure of Eternall Life as if it were already in their hands For after he had said here in the words I am explaining that God hath given us i.e. made us a promise of Eternall Life which is in his Son he adds immediately which is the Second thing I intended to note that we have eternall life Which cannot signify less then that we have such a good right to it that we may account it ours The reason is because he that effectually believes in Jesus hath him in whose power it is to give it and who hath passed his word many a time that he will bestow it So you reade ver 12. He that hath the Son hath life He may be as sure of it as if it were in his present possession for by faith in Christ he is united to him who is the fountain and well-spring of life and bliss and stands ingaged divers ways to make all the Members of his Body happy with himself For to as many as received him he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or authority to become the Sons of God i. Joh. 12. who may legally claim the consummation of their adoption in the Eternall Inheritance They are by his grant unquestionable heirs of it and have such a strong title to it that they can never be defeated of it This heavenly Estate is in them as Lawyers speak though they be not in it They have an indisputable right I mean to it and may call it theirs though they be not yet seised of it and have not taken possession which in due time none can hinder or debar them of So the Apostle would have the Faithfull stedfastly believe for this was the very end for which he recorded the Evidences forementioned that they might know they have eternall life ver 13. which he repeats often in his Gospell as you may reade iii. Joh. 36. v. 24. vi 47. where he asserts this in the most earnest manner and assures them that he spake of this matter out of certain knowledge Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life He is a most happy man and may look upon himself as owner of more then all this world is worth Which he can never lose though he be not yet entred upon his inheritance because it is in the custody of him who hath
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
The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back the stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION Justified by Witnesses IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH In Two Parts The First shewing That Jesus is the SON OF GOD the Second That in him we have ETERNALL LIFE By SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost in Johan Hom. lxvii Printed for R. Royston MDCLXXVII THE Witnesses TO CHRISTIANITY THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN v. 7 8. BY SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1675. TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO permit these Papers to go abroad under your Name which are writ in defence of that most holy Religion of which your Grace is the prime Minister in this Kingdom They contain an explication but of a very few words yet in them lies the whole Evidence for the Christian Cause I hope I have done something to clear their sence and to illustrate divers other passages in the holy Books I have at least done my endeavour and opened the way to the plainest and most Apostolical method of asserting the truth of our Religion They that come after may supply the defects and rectifie the mistakes which they find in this account that I have given of the Witnesses to Christianity Who speak so fully and with such Authority that it is a matter of just wonder there should be any Infidels in Christian Countries We can find no other cause of it but that in stead of considering upon what grounds our Faith relies they scornfully presume that it hath none If they would but lay aside their lightness and become serious and if they would be so humble as to think it is possible they may learn of one of the despised Ministers of Jesus Christ I doubt not they would with a little study soon see him to be so great a Lord that they ought to have a due respect to the meanest of his Servants for his sake Nay they would not envy to them such high Dignities as your Grace worthily holds in the Church of Christ For the Lord himself is honoured in the honour that is done to his Ministers And thereby they are made capable to do him still better service and with the more authority to promote the honour of his Religion Of which how much your Grace hath deserved by your prudent care and vigilance for its preservation and by the countenance and encouragement you give to those that labour in its service posterity perhaps may be better judges than this present Age. Though that cannot be so ungrateful as not to acknowledge your great Munificence and Bounty of which there are such publick and lasting Monuments as declare you to be Primate of all England not only in the dignity of your Office but which is more in the generosity of your Spirit Long may our Soveraign enjoy such a wise Counsellor the Church such a Prudent Governour Learning such a liberal Patron and Benefactor and when through mere Age you must resign and exchange it for a higher and better place your See such a Successor As for my self if your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Address and reckon me in the number of those that reverence your Vertues as well as your Greatness I shall not doubt but my Design in this Work will obtain your Graces approbation and that your known Candor will pass a favourable Judgment upon the weak endeavours of the Churches and Your Graces affectionate Servant SY PATRICK THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE scope of this Discourse which is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God pag. 1 c. The meaning of that phrase in this place p. 8. and in some other places of Scripture p. 10. derived from the Old Testament p. 14 15. many passages in that relating to this matter explained Ib. and p. 16 17 c. A Prayer p. 22 c. CHAP. II. Concerning the Witnesses in general p. 25. and particularly of the testimony of the FATHER p. 29. which was given three times p. 30. first at his Baptism which is explained p. 30. unto 42. Secondly in the Holy Mount which is explained at large in many remarkable circumstances which accompanied it to p. 56. Thirdly in the way between Bethany and Jerusalem to p. 66. There the pretences of the Jews to a Bath Col under the second Temple is considered and confuted to p. 78. The difference between this voice which testified to our Saviour and that in ancient times p. 78. to the end A Prayer CHAP. III. Concerning the Testimony of the WORD p. 85. Who the WORD is p. 86. Why so called p. 87. First testimony he gave to S. Steven p. 90. The second to S. Paul p. 101. Christ's first apparition to him considered and expounded at large p. 104. a second p. 115. others p. 116 c. Third testimony of the WORD to S. John p. 122. Several other visions he had of him p. 128 c. An Answer to an objection about the Authority of the Revelation p. 135. To another which gives an account of the sence of two places in S. John 's Gospel which seem opposite p. 137. A Prayer 142. CHAP. IV. Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 147. First at our Saviour's Baptism p. 148. When the SCHEKINAH or Divine Glory descended Ib. what it was 149 c. of its coming down p. 153. like a Dove 155. and making his abode in him p. 159 c. which was never known before p. 164. Whereby he was anointed p. 165. And now began his reign 168. The Alcoran confesses this descent of the holy Ghost p. 173. Whereby he became the Temple of God 176. As appears by six demonstrations of a Divine Presence in him from p. 177. to 198. The second Testimony of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost 199. explained by three observations 201. to 225. The last Testimony of the HOLY GHOST 225. to 238. A Prayer 239. CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on EARTH 245. First of the WATER 248. As it signifies the purity of Christ's Doctrine and Life 249. The purity of his Doctrine 250. And the purity of his Life 261. Both these proofs of his Divinity 267. to 275. The Testimony of
Spirit into the wilderness the Devil would have had him give some proof of his Divine power as Moses did or rather show himself by a greater evidence than Moses gave to be greater than he that he might be satisfied Jesus was no less than the voice declared him the Son of God So you read iv Matth. 3. that the first thing he said to him was If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread As much as to say Thou art now in a starving condition for he had taken no provision with him into the wilderness resolving to depend on that God who had expressed such love to him as to own him for his Son here is a fit opportunity for thee to exercise thy power if thou hast any by bidding these stones turn into loaves which will be a greater wonder than Moses his bringing Manna out of the clouds and show indeed that thou art God's Son To which our Saviour answers as you read in the next Verse out of Moses himself viii Deut. 3. and tells him he might learn from that story of the Manna there was no need he should imploy his power which God had committed to him on this fashion for as the Israelites were maintained in the wilderness after a miraculous manner so might He who would prove himself to be his Son not this way by turning stones into bread but by trusting in God and leaving him to provide for him as he thought good That 's his meaning when he says Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And so in the following temptations he still held to this that he was sufficiently satisfied he was God's Son and would not demand any farther proof of it but such as he himself would give who at last ver 11. ordered the Angels to go and minister unto him To carry him food it is like and congratulate this his first victory over the enemy of mankind Who was not so dull but he learnt by this and many other things afterward wherein he felt his power that this voice from Heaven was no vain rumour no empty insignificant sound but a true report of the very mind of Almighty God which he himself was forced to proclaim as loudly as any body else For you find him not long after this with a whole Legion of his companions acknowledging Jesus to be the Son of God most high and with humble prostrations worshipping him whom he had the confidence before to perswade to worship himself crying with a loud voice for Gods sake that he would not torment him v. Mark 6 7 8. viii Luke 28. Nay he was sensible one would think of this as soon as ever that temptation was ended For you read that immediately after it Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee iv Luke 14. and there at Capernaum met with a man that had a spirit of an unclean Devil who cried out with a loud voice saying I know thee who thou art the holy one of God ver 34. which is thus interpreted ver 41. The Devils came out of many crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God For they knew that he was Christ But our Saviour would not be beholden to them for their suffrage it was sufficient that God had declared him his Son and that John Baptist attested as much and that the works which he did particularly his dispossessing them of their strongest holds bare witness of him And therefore he imposed silence on them as the Evangelist there tells us both because they might by their loud acclamations to him give the Pharisees occasion to calumniate him who were too forward to say he had confederacy with the Devil and because it was not fit this should be published in so many words no not by his Apostles xvi Matth. 20. till after his Resurrection and his Ascension to the Throne of his glory and the coming of the Holy Ghost which demonstrated he was completely made both Lord and Christ as the Apostles then openly declared ii Acts 36. But till then it seems to have been the work of the Father alone or principally to bear witness of him for John Baptist was his voice crying in the wilderness and the works our Saviour did were those which his Father had given him to finish and the Spirit was the Finger of God which pointed men to him as I may so speak and bid them receive him as his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And shall we not receive this for the greatest Truth when God himself says it shall we not let him dispose of our Faith is not He the Truth is it possible for him to falsifie or deceive or do we imagine He cannot declare his mind and speak to us as we do one to another He that formed the mouth cannot He speak is his power less than ours can we manifest what we would have and make it understood and cannot He in the same manner make us know his will and pleasure If his express testimony then be of any force here you have it by an audible voice from Heaven And John the Baptist whom the Jews the Enemies of our Saviour durst not but reverence bare record to him thereupon that Jesus is the Son of God Now if any one should say that the certainty of this relies upon the testimony of one single person and that it is possible he might hear amiss though there be no colour for such an objection he being a Prophet and acknowledged so to be by those who did not acknowledge our Saviour yet that this great truth might not depend upon the credit of John Baptist alone though a man well acquainted with the manner of Divine Revelations the FATHER was pleased a second time and in the audience of more witnesses than one to declare again what he had said before that he was his Son II. This was in the Holy Mount as you may read in the xvii Matth. 5. and in the two following Evangelists ix Mark 7. ix Luke 35. where the Father of all was pleased to declare in the same terms as he had done at his Baptism and with an audible voice which astonished those that heard it xvii Matth. 6. That he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased to which Declaration he added this command HEAR HIM That is be assured that what he says to you is the Truth and what I speak to the world it shall be by his mouth Now this voice was uttered in the hearing of no less than three persons whom our Saviour had selected from the rest of his company to attend him unto this Mountain where God appeared to bear witness to him Of which three this Disciple S. John was one who therefore might with the greater confidence urge here the Testimony of the Father which he himself heard And unless they to whom he writes this Epistle could
and ever Which was accomplished also with very great speed as he saw represented by an Angel which appeared flying in the midst of Heaven xiv 6. Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth That motion of flying seems to signifie the haste which the great Ministers of Christ made who are compared in this book to Angels to publish his Gospel to the world Which had mighty success because it came with authority from Heaven as is represented by the Angels flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the air between Heaven and Earth to denote something he had in hand which was decreed above and to be done here below The greatest powers on Earth indeed set themselves against it and made war with the Lamb xvii 14. that is persecuted Christianity But he foretells his conquests even over these Kingdoms who were such furious enemies as to seek to destroy his Religion For which he gives only these two reasons because God had made him Lord of Lords and King of Kings and because those who followed him were such choice persons that their patient constant perseverance in his service to which he had called them helpt to overcome his and their Enemies and to bring them in subjection to him I can think of nothing that can be objected against what hath been said but two things which deserve briefly to be considered One of them concerns this last particular now handled and the other seems to cross all that hath been delivered in this Chapter Against what hath now been alledged from the Revelations it may be objected that this Book of Visions was doubted of among some of the ancient Christians To which the Answer is very obvious That there was a particular reason why this Book did not always go along with the rest into every bodies hands and by that means being not so generally known was afterward questioned because the making of it as publick as the Christian doctrine might have too much incensed the power of the Roman Empire whose downfall is here so plainly predicted Yet it was not kept so private but that it is cited very early both as a Divine Book and as the writing of S. John the Apostle by those who deserve to be believed Justin Martyr had that opinion of it and so had Irenaeus as I have already said and Theophilus Antiochenus and Origen especially S. Cyprian who I have observed produces testimonies out of no book of the New Testament so oft as this From whence he encourages Christians to follow their Master and all that worthy company who had hazarded their lives for him It being the peculiar glory saith he * De Exhort Martyr of our time that whereas ancient examples might be numbred now there is such an exuberant abundance of vertue and faith that Christian Martyrs cannot So the Revelation witnesses I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands vii 9. And these he was told are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. I shall not produce the words of any of the rest nor of divers others who without any manner of doubting pronounce this to be the Revelation of the WORD of God to his servant John But pass to the other thing which may be alledged to the prejudice of the whole foregoing discourse For I produce nothing some may say but the testimony which one gives of himself which all confess to be of no validity This WORD of God himself saith so as this very Apostle hath recorded v. John 31. If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true And yet what is all that S. Steven saw or that he spake to S. Paul and S. John but his witness of himself I answer in his own words also which you read in another place of that Gospel viii 14. where the Pharisees objecting to him his own concession ver 13. that a mans testimony to himself is nothing worth he seems to revoke but in truth only explains it by telling them in terms quite contrary though I bear record of my self my record is true The former words are not so to be understood as if what a man says of himself were always false or not to be regarded when he hath a concurrent testimony from others no it may be true though it will perswade no body else to believe it without other evidence That 's all our Saviour means in the Fifth Chapter if he had alone born witness to himself and there had been no other testimony given him it had not been true that is not a valid unexceptionable testimony by which he might demand credit from them So the word true is used viii John 17. in the sence of the Law which required two or three witnesses for the establishing or setling any thing in question They had no reason to believe he was Gods Son but might still have disputed it if he had been the only person that said so and could have brought no other to witness for him And yet notwithstanding He tells them here that even in this case his testimony of himself is true as truth is opposed to falshood though it wanted that truth which was necessary to make it a legal testimony That is though it could not have passed in Law nor stopt the mouth of gainsayers because it was a single testimony and the Law required more than one yet it would have had nothing of a lie in it but his words would have been perfectly true when he affirmed himself to be the Son of God But 〈◊〉 was not his case He alone did not bea◠witness to himself but there were others beside him who bare witness of him and said the same thing that he did as he shows v. John 32 33 36 c. and said it before he assumed this name to himself And therefore his testimony which single would have had no strength being joyned to the other is of great force and ought to be regarded He did not desire to be received merely because he said he was the Son of God though he ought not to be accounted a liar for saying so alone no he referred them to other proof of that truth But when they had heard and considered them then there was reason they should hear what he affirmed concerning himself and not think the worse of him because he spake those words which were no other than the very words of the Father whereby he bare witness to him So he tells them in the viii John 17 18. It is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me That is you have no reason to disparage my
this account because they did not acknowledge him for the Son of God though he did such miracles as Moses and all the Prophets never did xv Joh. 24. If I had not done among them the WORKS which none other man did they had not had sin in not receiving him as their Messiah the Son of God but now they have both seen by those WORKS which he did and yet hated both me and my Father They could not endure such a Messiah as he was though so divinely impowered and consequently had no love to God who had set such plain marks and characters of his approbation upon him Of which his Divine works were the chief for he alledges these as S. John here in his Epistle doth as the last witness and evidence to him upon Earth v. Joh. 36. But I have a greater witness than that of John for the WORKS which the Father hath given me to finish the same WORKS that I do bear WITNESS of me that the Father hath sent me Yea when John himself sent his Disciples to know of him whether he was the CHRIST he plainly shows that he lookt on this as a greater testimony to him than that of their Master which they had received already and therefore gives them no other answer but this Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see the blind receive their sight and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the Gospel preached to them xi Matth. 4 5. Where though he mention his heavenly doctrine yet he chiefly insists upon the Witness of the SPIRIT as most apt to affect them and in that very hour when they came to be resolved as S. Luke tells us vii 21. He cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits and unto many that were blind he gave sight This he thought could not but satisfie them if they would believe their eyes especially if they would believe also what they heard that he raised up the dead He could not now give them a clearer and fuller testimony of his Divinity and he relyed so much upon this evidence that when he had cured a Man sick of the Palsy he told the Scribes that he loosed him from the chain of his sins and restored him to health and bad him arise and walk now that he was pardoned on purpose that they might know the Son of Man hath power on EARTH to forgive sins ix Matth. 6. That is to take away all temporal punishment that is due to sin as after his death and resurrection when he came to HEAVEN he had power to take away the Eternal and to give life Immortal Now who could have such a power but God only as the Scribes say very well upon this occasion ii Mark 7. Who could grapple with the Devil the Prince the God of this World xii Joh. 31. 2 Cor. iv 4. but only He who is God blessed for ever as Jesus appeared by these miraculous works to be And indeed it is very remarkable that He wrought his miracles frequently just as God Almighty brings things to pass God says Moses said Let there be Light and there was light He spake as the Psalmists words are and it was done he commanded and it stood fast In like manner did our Saviour say to the Leper viii Matth. 3. Be thou clean and immediately his Leprosie was cleansed And to the foul spirit ix Mark 25. Come out I charge thee thou dumb and deaf spirit and the spirit cryed and came out And to Lazarus Come forth and he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave-clothes Which was a notable evidence that indeed he was the Son of God since he acted so like to the Father Almighty This was so well known that when the Centurion came and besought him for a sick Servant of his who lay in grievous torments and our Saviour promised to come and heal him He modestly declines the acceptance of that favour in a sense of his unworthiness to have him come under his roof and desires him that he would SPEAK THE WORD ONELY and he believed his Servant should be healed viii Matth. 8. The first Cure that we read particularly related being that of the Leper aforementioned v. 3. and wrought by a Word He hoped it is like that his Servant might be cured as easily without giving our Saviour the trouble of coming to his House and laying his hands on him for his recovery Though by the way we may note that herein appeared also his great power that as he could heal if he pleased without touching so he could heal at a great distance Yea the Woman that did but touch not him but the very hem of his Garment v. Mark 29. had vertue or power that is something from the SPIRIT that was in him communicated to her which restored her to perfect health What doth all this note but that he who wrought such things so easily so readily in any place and on all occasions was indeed the Son of God He ought to have been honoured as the Author because he was the Restorer of humane nature There was great reason to acknowledge so great a Benefactor to Mankind to be more than a man for none but God either could or would bestow such blessings It may be said indeed that Moses and some of the Prophets wrought Miracles and yet cannot thence be concluded to be persons of such quality But it may as easily be answered that their miracles were nothing comparable either in their Multitude or Greatness to those of the Lord Jesus For the Multitude remember how S. John concludes his Gospel in which he hath recorded some of them And there are also many other things says he which Jesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose that even the World it self could not contain the Books that should be written For he went about as hath been often said doing good and filled every place with so many miracles of his mercy that we cannot imagine into how many Volumes it would have swell'd if a record of every one of them had been taken And as for the greatness and the quality of them you find some among those which S. John hath set down which were never heard of before since the World began ix Joh. 32. which might well make our Saviour say as I noted just now that he had done among them the works that no man did xv 24. else they had not had sin that is he could not have charged them with the guilt of refusing to believe him to be the Son of God because it would not have been sufficiently proved But this is not all the reply that may be made to this exception it is far more considerable that Jesus affirmed himself to be the Son of God to which dignity neither Moses nor the Prophets ever pretended The end of miracles was
to prove the truth of that which the person that wrought them delivered And therefore as their miracles demonstrated the truth of that message which Moses and the Prophets brought from God So our Saviour's evinced the truth of his which was that they were only the Servants but He the Son of God This was as strongly attested by what he did as any thing the Men of God taught in former times was by their works Yea his miracles bare as fair a proportion in their bigness and number to this high and great thing which they were to prove that he was Gods Son as the miracles of Moses and the Prophets bare to those lesser truths which they were brought to establish And here for to put a period to this part of my discourse it will be very useful to observe the different way of proceeding for the establishing and promoting a Religion instituted by men and a Religion whose author is God This I find very well noted to my hand in a learned Writer of the Jewish Nation whom I have already mentioned * Sepher COSRI Part 1. sect 80 c When men says he make Laws and setle a Religion whose original is from their own minds and devised by themselves though they may pretend that it comes from God yet they are not able to make it take place without the power of the Sword or the countenance and assistance of some Prince who by his Authority shall cause it to be received But a Religion that is indeed Divine is planted in a Divine manner When Laws are derived from God he establishes them by his power and might and over-aws men by such wonders as without any humane force procure obedience Thus says he our Religion began When the Children of Israel were in grievous servitude and when the Land promised to their Fathers was in the hand of potent Kings God sent Moses and Aaron armed with no power but that of working miracles changing the ordinary and usual course of Nature and inflicting in a moment grievous plagues upon the Water the Earth the Air the Plants the Beasts and the Bodies of Men throughout all the Land of Egypt whereby the Prince that kept them in bondage was forced to let them go And in their Journey they were conducted by the guidance of a bright Cloud and they passed through the Sea and they were fed with Manna in the Wilderness XL. Years and saw one Miracle after another which convinced them they ought to submit to that Word of the Lord which Moses spake unto them To this purpose that Writer very rationally discourses Now just as He shows that Moses proved his Mission from God so I have briefly related how our Saviour likewise demonstrated that he was the Royal Prophet whom Moses foretold God would send into the World In an Age when they not only groaned under the Roman Yoke but were also superstitiously inthral'd to a number of Rites and Ceremonies devised by their Elders superadded to all the burden of the Law of Moses and moreover grievously oppressed by the Devil as all the rest of the World likewise were far more than they God raised up a mighty Salvation to them out of the house of his servant David Our Lord that is on a sudden appeared as a Redeemer and Deliverer from the bondage in which they lay not with any worldly policy or force but meerly with the Spirit and Power of God 1 Cor. ii 5. who sent an Herald but without the power of Miracles to proclaim his coming And as soon as he had done crying his mouth being stopt by Herod's throwing him into Prison our Lord presently came forth shining most gloriously in the illustrious works that he did every where which were such as that time called for as Moses his miracles were proper to the occasions and necessities of his days And some of them were very like those wrought by Moses and others bear as great a resemblance to them as twins are wont to do to each other who lie together in the same womb He healed more than Moses killed He turned their water into wine as Moses did the water of the River into bloud He walkt upon the very surface of the Sea and called one of his Disciples to accompany him there He fed multitudes with a little quantity of bread as Moses had fed the Israelites in the Wilderness This he did more than once and that in a Desart too showing what he was able to do if there had been the like need that there was in former times Then they should not have asked what sign shewest thou equal to Moses they mean what dost thou work vi John 30. For it was plain enough he could have fed them forty years in that manner as well as once which was the thing they seem to desire when they say in the next words ver 31. Our Fathers did eat Manna in the Desart as it is written He gave them bread from Heaven to eat That is He did not feed them for one day or two as thou hast done but a long time and that from Heaven let us see thee do so that we may leave him and follow thee And if he had not done enough already to work faith in them and they had lived now alway in a Desart as their Fathers did then no doubt he would for that he could was evident else how should he have fed them thus miraculously at all Many other miracles also declared that he had the same power in the Air that he had on the Earth and could as easily have brought bread from Heaven as multiplied the Loaves which had now filled so many of them The very Devils were as subject to him as the meanest creature in the World And He raised the Dead by his powerful word which Moses never did All which is recorded by the Apostles to show what cause they had to believe in Jesus and how his Religion was planted and propagated in the world as the other wonders are recorded by Moses to show with what authority he came and how he setled the Israelites in the belief of his Laws And there is no more cause to question whether Jesus be the Son of God the Lord of the World who came with such a SPIRIT than there was then to doubt whether Moses was his servant and the Lawgiver of that people among whom he did such wonders Nor so much neither for the greater his pretences were the greater reason there was that they should have been discountenanced by such a SPIRIT as was in him if they had not been true It is incredible that God should let the world be abused so long by so many miracles and so great that never was the like without any the least confutation and abused by a lye of so dangerous a nature and so reproachful to his Name and so directly opposite to his Government which this Person if he were an Impostor and said he was his Son
as to shew us by what means we may become so exceeding Blessed The serious Reader I doubt not will be sensible of all this when he hath perused the following Work In which I have endeavoured to satisfy those also who wish I had said something of that part of this Record which I undertook to explain THESE THREE ARE ONE Which words I have reason to believe whatsoever the Socinians have pretended to the contrary were always a part of this Holy Scripture For they are alledged by Saint Cyprian in his Book of the Vnity of the Catholick Church to shew how dangerous it is to break that Unity by the clashing of our wills which not onely coheres by celestiall Sacraments but proceeds as he speaks from the Divine firmness For our Lord saith I and the Father are one And again it is written of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Et hi tres unum sunt And these three are one By which that the Apostie would have us to understand not merely the consent of their Testimony though that is not to be excluded but the Unity of their Nature or Essence we have great reason to think Because there can no account be given why he should not use the same form of speech here which follows when he speaks of the other three Witnesses if these three in Heaven were no otherwise three then those three in Earth Which being admitted and if we take in the constant sense of the Church to interpret the words we cannot make any farther doubt of it that these three are one in their Essence then it is certain there are Three Persons whose Essence is one and the same For else there would not be three Witnesses in heaven but onely one which would cross the design of the Apostle whose scope is to shew that our Faith doth not rely upon a single Testimony And indeed the Holy Scriptures in other places ascribe such Actions and Works to each of them as are proper to Persons which is a sufficient warrant to the Church to express the distinction that is between them by this Name Non quia Scriptura dicit as St. Augustine * Lib. vii de Trinitate cap. 4. speaks concerning this very business sed quia Scriptura non contradicit Not because the Scripture saith they are Persons but because the Scripture doth not say the contrary but rather I may adde directs us to say they are for the reason before mentioned When humane scantness as that Holy Doctour of the Church goes on endeavoured to express in words that which it conceived in the secret of the mind concerning our Lord God the Creatour it was afraid to say there were three Essences lest any diversity should be thought to be in that highest Equality and on the other side to say there were not tria quaedam really three was to fall into the heresy of Sabellius For it is certain there is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and that the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Ghost the Father or the Son It sought therefore what three it should call them and it said three Persons as the Latine Church speaks by which Name it would not have any diversity understood but onely singularity That not onely Vnity should be there conceived because we say there is one Essence but a Trinity also because we say there are three Persons This Faith we ought to defend and in this simple belief we ought I have shewn to acquiesce We ought to defend it because it is the Catholick Faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures according as they have been always understood by the Church of Christ For it is sufficient as St. Gregory Nyssen * Lib. iii. contra Eunomium p. 126. excellently discourses against those that demanded more proof of these things to the demonstration of this Doctrine that we have a Tradition descended to us like an inheritance by succession from the Apostles and transmitted through the hands of holy men that followed them They that will innovate need the help of mighty arguments if they will go about to shake the Faith not of men built on the sand and wavering like Euripus but grave settled and constant in their opinion And while we see nothing but mere discourse against it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is there so silly and brutish as to think the Doctrine of the Evangelists and Apostles and of those Lights that succeeded them in the Church to be weaker then their Babble without demonstration But we shall not wholly avoid the imputation of folly unless we also rest satisfied in this plain belief not busying our selves in more curious enquiries For the greatest Lights in the Church I have shewn will lead us no farther but tell us we shall groap in darkness if we will needs pry too much into this Mystery Which we ought to discourse of as becomes Divines not Philosophers Lest as Henricus à Gandava censures Albertus Magnus in his Book of Ecclesiasticall Writers whilst we follow too much the subtilty of secular Philosophy we cloud the splendour of Theologicall purity We must remember that we are men and that our understandings are but shallow which ought not therefore to venture boldly into such depths as that of the Divine Essence There is nothing so much becomes us when we think of God as an holy fear and reverence producing in us low thoughts of our selves Without which we are not like to be illuminated from above nor can we should we know never so much be acceptable to God Quid enim prodest alta de Trinitate disputare si careas humilitate unde displiceas Trinitati as Thomas à Kempis honestly speaks For what will it profit thee to dispute loftily of the Trinity if through want of humility thou displeasest the Trinity The way to ETERNALL LIFE it is certain lies in that rode which we shall be in danger to miss if we give our selves too great a liberty of disputing about things so much above our reach We ought to be aware of this artifice of the grand Deceiver who is wont to draw us secretly from attending to our known duty while we are amusing our selves with sublime speculations Which the holy Fathers of the Church have carefully observed and caution'd us against by their severe reproofs What means saith Saint Gregory Nazianzen * Orat. xxxiii p. 533. this ambitious humour of disputing and itch of the tongue what new disease and unsatiable appetite is this While our hands are bound why do we arm our tongue Hospitality Brotherly love Conjugall affection Virginity are no longer praised Feeding the poor Psalmody Nocturnall stations Tears are not now in request We do not bring under the body by Fastings nor leave it a while to go to God by Prayer We do not bring the worse in subjection to the better the Dust I mean to the Spirit We do not make our life a meditation of death
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
from the Messiah should begin to raise the dead when he went to take possession of his throne A plain sign that he is the Resurrection and the Life from whom we may confidently look for bodies not onely bright as the Moon but that shall shine according to his faithfull promise like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Concerning which things if the Apostles had written false and there had not been many able to bear record of the rising of these holy persons and coming into Jerusalem as well as of the rising of Lazarus there would have been pens enough in those days imployed to confute them and proclaim the forgery And these Jews would have been as carefull preservers of such confutations as of any their most beloved Traditions which can never doe them so much service as those volumes would have done VI. Nor is there the least shadow of reason to question the Testimony of those who saw him ascend into heaven and as a token of his being inthroned there received from him ten days after the gift of the Holy Ghost Which compleated the demonstration of his power and purpose to give Eternall Life to all his followers For 1. His very Ascension into heaven as it breeds in us a belief of a glorious state in the other World so it evidently shews that it is possible such as we may be translated thither And though our Bodies now be but lumps of living clay yet they may one day be snatched as he was from this dull globe to shine among the Stars And the Angels also appearing both at his resurrection and ascension and waiting upon him unto heaven shew that its gates are no longer barred against us but set open again to give us a free admission into it For they who were set to watch the way to Paradise and guard it so that none should enter voluntarily lent their assistence to transport Him thither after they had brought the joyfull news of his being risen from the dead 2. But this is the least comfort we receive from thence for his glorification at God's right hand when he came thither advances our hope to a greater height and shews that it is not onely possible but certain we shall be taken up above to be with him His Kingdom it is apparent now by his sending the Holy Ghost is supereminent over all and nothing can be out of the reach of his power For it is a power over all Creatures in heaven and earth and under the earth who doe obeisance to him and cannot resist him ii Phil. 10. 1 Pet. iii. ult And a power to doe all things for God hath put all things under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. A power of conferring all dignities and honours iii. Phil. 21. and of removing all impediments to our preferment He having the keys of hell and death i. Rev. 18. In short a perfect power to doe all things to make us glorious For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him as the Apostle argues ii Heb. 8. And though he hath not yet exercised his whole unlimited power as it there follows yet we are sure he hath it because we see by manifest arguments Jesus crowned with glory and honour for the suffering of death By which the all-wise God thought fit to consecrate this Captain of Salvation who he designed should bring many Sons unto glory together with himself 3. Which He will not fail to doe we may be sure being thus perfected and compleatly furnished for the very purpose because this Royall power wherewith he is invested is a kind of Trust and he hath received it as St. Paul plainly supposes 1 Cor. xv 24 25 c. where he speaks of his Kingdom not onely for himself but for the good of all those whom he rules and governs For the Apostle concludes that he having a Kingdom which must at last be resigned into the hands of God the Father will first put down all rule all authority and power and leave no enemy unconquered no not Death which will onely be the last that shall be subdued but subdued and destroyed it must be ver 26 27. Nay our Lord himself acknowledges his Kingdome to be a trust when he says xvii Joh. 2. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him Whence it is that he often protests it is his Father's will that of all he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day c. vi Joh. 39 40. For as the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me ver 57. And in express terms he saith as I have shewn before that he went away to prepare a place for us And therefore is bound by his office we may conclude to promote us to that glory and honour in the heavens which it is his Father's will he knows should be bestowed on us 4. And who can doubt at all of his fidelity in this who was so faithfull in all other things most punctually for instance making good his promise of sending the Holy Ghost as an earnest I have often said of this immortall inheritance None can imagine he will now prove negligent in that which by his place he stands ingaged to perform when upon Earth he did the will of him that sent him with such exactness that he rewarded him for it with that high dignity which he now enjoys in the heavens Therefore his greatest care was to assert and prove his power to give Eternall Life Of his will he thought there need not much be said for none could doubt of it after they saw him die for them and then express such love after his resurrection as to send the Holy Ghost upon them 5. This is abundantly sufficient to secure all considering persons of so desirable a Good Which the Apostles began confidently to expect as soon as ever they were satisfied of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead Before he ascended to heaven their thoughts ran thither and they began to see that he was the Lord of life and glory For as soon as St. Thomas was convinced by a palpable demonstration that he was risen he cried out My Lord and my God xx Joh. 28. This is the first time that any of his Apostles gave him the title of their GOD when they were fully satisfied as Grotius observes by his Resurrection that he would give Eternall Life to them And then it was also you may note that he first gave them the title of his Brethren who should share with him in the glory to which he was going xx Joh. 17. xxviii Matth. 10. Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee c. In which words he alludes as Eusebius observes to those xxii Psal 22. I will declare thy name unto my
will reward well-doers with the Crown of Life and be so far from letting their labour be in vain that he will doe for them as his Father hath done for him viz. bring them into his own joy So St. John writes in the very beginning of his Gospel i. 4. that in him was life and the life was the light of men He brought the promise of Eternall Life that is to mankind and can himself bestow it which is the best news the greatest cordiall that can be thought of to revive our spirits like the honey on the top of Jonathan's rod inlightning our eyes and making us live most chearfully and happily if we believe it and prepare our selves for it This they laid as the very ground and foundation of all Christian piety unto which St. Paul saith it was his office to call men in hope of eternall life i. Tit. 1 2 c. which God that cannot lie promised of old but did not manifest till the preaching of the Gospell which was committed to him by the commandment of God our Saviour who authorized him to open this Doctrine more fully then it had been even by our Lord himself while he was on Earth For St. Paul shews that at the last day so often mentioned by our Lord he himself will appear again in person after a visible and glorious manner to consummate all the faithfull whose happiness begins as soon as they depart this life These two weighty Truths are notably asserted by this Apostle I. Who declares by the Word of the Lord that is a speciall revelation from our Saviour the manner of his coming again from heaven with the attendance of his Angels to raise the dead and to lift them up to himself and give them the Crown of righteousness which till that time shall not be bestowed Reade 1 Thess iv 15 16 c. 2 Tim. iv 8. where the splendour of that great day when he will openly appear as the Lord of all is described no less lovely then magnificently as I hope to shew in another place It is the day of rejoycing ii Phil. 16. because he will then most eminently appear as our life iii. Col. 4. as our Salvation 1 Cor. v. 5. ix Heb. 28. to the praise and honour and glory of our fidelity 1 Pet. i. 7. And therefore for this time Christians are said to wait and look 1 Cor. i. 7. ii Tit. 13. as the time that will compleat their felicity which till then the Apostles plainly suppose wants its Crown and perfection And so the Church hath from the beginning understood them Who describe Souls departed as in a state of Expectants waiting for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will come out of his most holy Temple to perfect those who now stand as they speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the porch or entry of it in atriis as the Latin phrase is in the outward Court of the Temple or holy place of God For as the Children of Israel stood in the outward Court which yet was a part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Temple as we render it expecting the Priest every day to come out of the Sanctuary and the High-priest on the day of expiation to come out of the Holy of holies to give them the blessing In such manner do the Ancients describe the now blessed waiting and looking without though in Heaven of which the Sanctuary was a figure for that blessed hope of our Lord 's coming out of his Most holy place where he now is without sin unto their Salvation And thus the best of the Jews express their happiness saying that pious Souls are in the bundle of life as the most learned Dr. Pocock shews out of Judah Zabara * Not. miscell cap vi p. 176. in the high place in the treasury where they enjoy the splendour of the Divine Majesty being hidden under the throne of glory Which phrases signify a state of imperfection in comparison with that which our Lord Christ with whom saith the Apostle our life is hid and kept in safe custody will bring us unto at the day of his appearing II. But all this time they do not imagine that their Souls lie asleep without any sense of joy and pleasure no more then the Israelites did who were at their Prayers all the time that the Priest was in the Sanctuary desiring God to accept his intercession for them For what good doth it doe them to be in the Garden of Eden or pleasure as the Jews also call the place where they live if they have no taste of its fruits and happy enjoyments They would be as well any-where else as in the Bosome of Abraham by which the same Jews * Vid. Vcy 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 bil L. i. c. 16. as well as our Saviour describe this state if they do not feast there as that expression properly signifies and as the Parable of Lazarus supposes he did when it saith that now he was comforted or enjoyed his good things which made a recompence for all the evill he had here suffered The sense of the Christian Church in this matter is admirably expressed by St. Orat. x. p. 173. Greg. Nazianzen Who comforting himself and others for the losse of his Brother Caesarius concludes with these words I am perswaded by the words of the Wise that every Soul that is good and beloved of God when it is loosed from this body to which it is tied straightway 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceives a certain wonderfull pleasure and rejoyces exceedingly in the sense and contemplation of the good it expects Which makes it go most chearfully to its Master because being got out of its prison and having shaken off its fetters which pinion'd the wing of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it already injoys as it were an image of the Blessedness laid up for it And not long after receiving out of the earth from whence it came and where it is deposited its nearly-allied body in such a way as God who tied them together and dissolved them knows it shall together with it inherit the glory there And thus St. Paul also plainly teaches us 1. When he relates how he was transported into the third heaven and into Paradise and for any thing he knew out of his Body 2 Cor. xii 2 3. Which evidently shews he believed that Souls could act without their bodies and that they shall enjoy God and have a sense of heavenly things as soon as they depart this life And so much the Jews themselves well conclude from the Spirit of Prophecy whereby holy men of God were separated for a time from their bodies so as to perceive nothing either by their senses or their minds but onely what God presented to them The phantasms indeed which they had received from this sensible world were commonly used to represent those things which were then offered to them by Divine Revelation but without any assistence of the
hear plainly shewed they were not merely big words which they spake of being with God and our Saviour to see the Glory which the Father had given him but things which they heartily expected For does any man find such inclinations in himself as should make him imagine they would have left their trades their houses their possessions their wives kindred friends all that is desirable in this world and perswade those who were the dearest to them to doe so too if they had not had an assurance upon such grounds as were apt to convince others as well as them of the recompence they should meet withall hereafter in a better life Who can believe that St. Paul would have quitted all his Dignities his hopes of greater preferment his esteem and reputation with the wisest and chiefest persons in the Nation his ease and quiet and every thing else and betaken himself to the troublesome service of a despicable Master if he had not known and seen it as clearly as the Sun in the firmament that Jesus whom he served was raised from the dead and made the King of Glory and would prefer all those that proved faithfull to him unto the greatest honour in the heavens For what reason should those good men live as having nothing and all the time be as chearfull as if they possessed all things Did they not look upon themselves think you as heirs of a Kingdom which could not be taken away from them Reade St. Paul's description of himself to Timothy 2. iii. 10 11. who he says had fully known his doctrine and manner of life not onely what he had been wont to teach but how he had followed his own instructions what his purpose and aim had ever been his fidelity his lenity towards offenders his charity to all Christians his patience under troubles of all sorts for he was persecuted and endured great afflictions by that means at Antioch where they thrust him out of the city at Iconium where an assault was made upon him to stone him at Lystra where they actually stoned him And in how many other places he had been vilely used Timothy he says could not be ignorant having been a companion with him in his travels xvi Act. 3. Now what think you of such a person as this Do you take him for a dolt and an ignorant sot Was this great Apostle a mere lump of clay who was sensible of nothing and imagined others so senseless as that he might without any reason propound this example to Timothy for his imitation How came they to be so stupefied as to chuse rods and whips and stones and all other miseries when they might have lived in ease and peace Nay to glory in these things alone as if there had been nothing that could have done them such honour 2 Cor. xii 5 They did both hunger and thirst as I noted from the same Apostle in my former Book 2 Cor. iv 11. they were naked and buffetted they had no certain dwelling-place they laboured working with their own hands being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffered it they were made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things Which things no body in his wits can think men of their understanding would have endured if they had not been provided of meat which the world knew not of and been nourished and sustained with the hope of glory and assured of eternall mansions in the heavens and known that they should inherit a blessing and be made more honourable and glorious with Jesus for ever then the World for the present could make them vile and contemptible These things are so clear that the bare recitall of them is sufficient to satisfie us they were no deceivers nor men of light belief who took things upon trust without good evidence but had the greatest reason to endeavour to baptize all Nations into this belief as they did by an indefatigable diligence which was no small testimony of the power and glory of the Lord Jesus II. And their BLOUD speaks as much For as none of them saith St. Paul xiv Rom. 7. lived to himself so none of them died to himself but consecrated even his bloud to the Service of Christ if he pleased to command it Whereby they sealed to this Truth and shewed they were so far from doubting of immortall Life by the Lord Jesus that they unfeignedly desired to be dissolved and to be with him Witness St. Stephen who was stoned because he said he saw the Lord Jesus in the highest glory which he was never more assured of then when he died for then he recommended his Spirit to him as our Saviour had done his to God the Father Witness Antipas a faithfull Martyr Witness all those Souls whom St. John saw beneath the Altar who had all learnt from our Saviour what they must expect in his Service when he said The Brother shall deliver up the Brother to death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against their Parents and cause them to be put to death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake Under which afflictions they had nothing to support them but that which he immediately adds He that endureth to the end shall be saved x. Matth. 21 22. These few words were a sufficient incouragement to them and made them not regard their lives for the sake of Christ Jesus who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell For the which cause saith St. Paul I suffer these things and am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day 2 Tim. i. 10 12. And for this cause he would not have Timothy to be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of him his prisoner ver 8. but to imitate him by being partaker of the afflictions of the Gospell which he endured as he adds in the next Chapter ver 10. for the elects sake that they also might obtain the Salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternall glory The Apostles nothing doubted that they themselves should obtain Salvation and immortall glory this way and they hoped likewise by their constant sufferings even to the death to draw others also to the faith or confirm them in it that they might have a share with them in this happiness and be willing to suffer for it For it is a faithfull saying he adds that if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him ver 11 12. I shall conclude this with that Discourse of St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 30 31 32. where he alledges this among other reasons to confirm that Church in the belief of the Resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come that He and the rest of the preachers of Christian Religion would not
also to confirm our Faith and Hope and make us rejoyce in hope of the glory of God And so much may suffice to have been said of the Witness of the HOLY GHOST which perfectly agrees with the other two of the FATHER and of the SON who are all one you see still in their Testimony as well as in their Nature So I express'd my self in the Conclusion of my former Discourse about these Three Witnesses * Chap. iv pag. 235. supposing these words though few would have sufficiently testified my right belief in the Holy Trinity and that none would have imagined I waved the farther explication of that passage THESE THREE ARE ONE because I entertained a sense of it differing from that of the Catholick Church I was not conscious to my self of any such Heresy and therefore had no reason to be solicitous to prevent this accusation by diverting from the subject I had in hand unto another Argument But some I have heard have been so unkind to say no more let them examine their hearts from what grounds as to whisper such suspicions And therefore I judge it necessary to take occasion here to declare that I believe these three to be one in the same sense that all Catholick Writers have done who have treated of the ever-blessed Trinity And St. Augustine assures me * L. 1. de Trin. c. 4. that every one who meddled with this argument before him intended to teach this according to the Scriptures That the Father Son and Holy Ghost enjoy the divine Vnity of one and the same Substance in an inseparable Equality Haec mea fides est quia haec est Catholica fides as he concludes that Chapter This is my Faith because it is the Catholick Faith We have but one God because there is but one Godhead and they that are of him have relation to One though we believe them to be Three For this is not more God and that less nor is this before and that behind nor are they separated in will or divided in power nor are any of those things to be found there which belong to divided Beings but to speak all in a few words there is One undivided Godhead in severall Persons as in three Suns cohering together there is one commixture of Light They are the words of St. Greg. Nazianzen Orat. xxxvii p. 601. whom these Whisperers sure if they have read him take for a Catholick Writer in his Discourse concerning the HOLY GHOST To which I will adde what St. Aug. again writes in his Book of Faith to Petrus Diaconus Chap. i. If there should be one Person of the Father Son and Holy Ghost as there is one Substance there would be nothing that could be truly called a Trinity And again if as the Father Son and Holy Ghost are distinct from each other in the propriety of Person they were also severed by diversity of Nature there would indeed be a true Trinity but this Trinity would not be One God But because it is the Trinity in one true God it is true not onely that there is one God but also that there is a Trinity therefore that true God is in Persons Three but in one Nature One. Thus our Blessed Saviour Cateches xi St. Cyrill of Hierusalem observes doth not say I am the Father but I am in the Father And again he doth not say I and the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 am one but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are one That we may neither exclude the Son from the Godhead nor confound him with the Father One as to the dignity of the Divinity because God begat God One as to their Kingdom for the Father doth not rule over some and the Son over others as Absalom who opposed his Father but over whom the Father reigns over those reigns the Son One because there is no difference nor any distance between them for the Father doth not will one thing and the Son another One because the Son doth not make one thing and the Father another but there is one Workmanship of all the Father making all things by the Son I suppose this excellent Man will pass for orthodox among our Censurers though he mention many other regards wherein the Father and the Son I may adde the Holy Ghost are one besides that of their Divinity And therefore I may justly wonder why any should find fault with me if they be so well skill'd in Christian Writers as no doubt they would be thought for saying these three are one in their Testimony as well as in their Nature I took it for a Catholick Exposition else I would have rejected it And if this was its onely fault that it was too short I hope they will rest satisfied now that I have made it longer Unless they be in the number of those whom a late Pamphlet speaks of who judge their Brethren as if they had a faculty to see into their hearts and resolve not to be satisfied with any words they can speak though in all appearance they have no other design in the world but onely according to the best of their understanding sincerely to serve God and his Church As for those who would have a farther search made into this Mystery I leave it to themselves if they please thus to imploy their time after they have considered what the most Catholick Writers have thought of such inquiries We ought to acknowledge saith St. Gregory Nazianzen * Orat. xxvi p. 445. One God the Father of himself and unbegotten and One Son begotten of the Father and One Spirit having its Substance of God of the same nature the same dignity the same glory and the same honour in all things the same but onely that he is not unbegotten as the Father nor begotten as the Son These things are to be known these things are to be confessed within these things we must fix leaving that long babbling and profane novelty of words to those who have nothing else to doe And the forenamed St. Cyrill passes the same sentence on those who curiously pried into this Secret in his days He that begot says he onely knows him that is begotten and he that was begotten of him knows him that begat him Believe then that God hath a Son but how do not enquire for if thou dost thou shalt not find Tell me first who he is that begat and then I will tell thee who the begotten is But if thou canst not know the nature of him that begat do not curiously ask after the manner of the Son 's being begotten ☜ It is sufficient to piety to know that God hath onely one Son one naturally begotten who did not begin to be when he was born in Bethlehem but was before all worlds The Holy Ghost hath in the Scripture revealed no more he hath not told us any thing of the generation of the Son out of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why then dost thou
pragmatically inquire after those things which the Holy Ghost it self hath not mentioned in the Scripture Thou who knowest not all that is written why dost thou busy thy self curiously about those things which are not written Let it suffice thee to know that God hath but one onely-begotten Son Be not ashamed to be ignorant of the rest for thou art ignorant of it together with the Angels Which is the same with what a more modern Writer hath said Nescire velle quae Magister Maâ—imus Docere non vult erudita est inscitia To be willing not to know what our Supreme Master will not teach is a learned Ignorance With which I shall content my self and not envy to those who have a list to handle these things more nicely their ignorant Learning They may venture as far as they please if they think it safe but ought not to be angry with those who had rather expect farther discoveries in the other world where we shall be more knowing by a purer and more perfect illumination of the most high Trinity Oâ—at xi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as St. Greg. Naz. speaks elsewhere and yet more modest and apt to adore the incomprehensible God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Whose Testimony is so full to satisfy us there will be such an happy State that before I pass to the other Three Witnesses on Earth I cannot but rest a while and consider what a great way we are advanced towards a strong and settled belief of Eternall Life if these things be well digested in our minds If we would but always lay before our eyes these Records and were as well acquainted with them as we are with our Evidences for our Estates if they were as fresh in our minds as the words of a Record which we are to plead in some Court where we have a Cause to be heard or the Title to our whole Estate tried and determined I do not see how we should possibly doubt of this Promise which our Lord hath made to his followers nor how we should lose the joy and comfort of it in this world of sorrows Let all those who have taken the pains to reade thus far in this Treatise be so kind to themselves as on all occasions to recollect what they have read and in their quiet thoughts to put themselves often in mind that the Father hath said this is true by a voice from heaven at severall times when Jesus was baptized when he was upon the holy Mount and before a multitude of people He testified that ETERNALL LIFE is in him The Word also hath shewn us this glorious State when he appeared to St. Stephen to St. Paul to his beloved St. John who have all communicated their knowledge to us and told us that he assured them He lives and that we shall live by him The Holy Ghost likewise hath declared this by coming down upon Him and upon his Apostles and upon his faithfull ones And then they cannot chuse but rely most firmly upon such ample and unquestionable Testimonies and be very much affected with this full assurance of Faith which God works in us There would be no reason I am sure why they should not as strongly believe and expect the glory that Jesus will give us though they do not now see it as we all do the performance of the promise of any person of known honesty and ability though at a great distance from us No doubt the faith of Christians would be immovable did they ponder these things they would never call it into dispute after such demonstrations whether there be another Life or no. Yea they themselves would become immovable and stedfast and abundant in the work of our Lord because the very same Witnesses tell them that this is the onely way to eternall Happiness which cannot be compassed by any means but by patient continuance in well-doing How well then would it be with them could we but prevail with all Christian Souls to spend some time every day in calling to mind what they have heard these Heavenly Witnesses say If they would but cast up their eyes every morning towards heaven and think There Jesus is there he lives in great honour and glory there he sits at the right hand of the Throne of God there St. Stephen saw him in such glory St. Paul and St. John beheld him from thence they heard him speak and make most gracious promises to them he sent the Holy Ghost from thence to be his Witness there he is preparing a place for all them that have the heart to follow him thither he will receive our Spirits to behold his glory and with him shall all good men live for ever in unconceivable joy How would these thoughts inspire and ravish their hearts How would they change and transform them into quite other things How mean and contemptible would our petty injoyments which now so tempt us seem in comparison with that divine condition How impossible would it be to perswade us to yield to the breach of any of his commands and thereby forfeit such happiness Yea how easy sweet and pleasant would it be to doe as he bids us in hope of such an incomparable recompence I leave every one to make triall of it that he may be able to tell if he can what power and force there is in this settled belief It is reported by him that writes the Life of Laurentius Justinianus that when he was a youth about nineteen years old which is an age you know most slippery and subject to danger he thought he saw one day or night I know not well whether a very beautifull virgin approaching towards him and thus addressing her speech to him Why dost thou O young man thus disquiet thine heart and wast thy strength in a vain pursuit of many things whereon thou pourest forth thy affections why dost thou seek for rest in such triviall injoyments That which thou art so desirous of is in my power to bestow upon thee And if thou wilt resolye to take me for thy Spouse I promise to bring with me such a portion of peace and contentment as no other person can inrich thee withall The young man you may well suppose was much taken with so rare a feature and such fair promises which moved him to crave that he might know her name and the family from which she was descended To which she answered I am the Wisedom of God that is my Name thence is my Parentage if thou wilt accept of the offer I will be thine and give all I have to thee The youth says the story instantly consented and after he had drawn a contract between them thought she took her leave of him and went away to provide for the wedding Upon this he awaked and imagined the Vision instructed him to betake himself to a Monasticall life Which he presently vowed concluding that in that retirement he was to compleat his marriage to the