the Congregation of Israel Of the First and Last of these Degrees of Excomunication our Saviour seems here to speak but whether in both Instances in the Text he alludes in the one to the lowest and in the other to the highst Degree of Excommunication among the Jews is not so certain To the First he plainly does when he says they shall put you out of the Synagogues And then he adds that they should proceed much higher against them even to put them to death the time cometh that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God service that is they should not only think it Lawful to kill them but look upon it as a Duty as a high Act of Religion as an acceptable Piece of Worship and a Sacrifice well-pleasing to God For so indeed the word does not only import but most properly signifie whosoever killeth you shall think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he offers a Sacrifice to God for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes used for a Sacrifice but being joyned with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems necessarily to be determined to that Sense From the words thus explained I shall make these following Observations very proper for our Consideration upon the Occasion of this day 1. That the best of Men may be separated and excluded from the Communion of those who may assume to themselves to be the true and the only true Church yea and suffer under the Notion of very Bad and Criminal Persons This our Saviour here foretold of his Apostles some of the best Men that ever lived They shall put you out of their Synagogues 2. That they who are thus Excommunicated by the pretended true Church may nevertheless be real Members of the true Church of Christ Tho' the Apostles were thus dealt withall by the Jewish Church they did not cease for all that to be Members of the true Church of God 3. That from uncharitable Censures Men do easily and almost naturally proceed to Cruel Actions After they had put the Disciples of our Lord out of their Synagoguse and thereby concluded them to be Hereticks and Reprobates they presently proceed to kill them as not worthy to live They shall put you out of their Synagogues and when they have done that they will soon after think it a thing not only fit but Pious and Meritorious to put you to death the time will come that they will think it a good service to God to kill you 4. That Men may do the Vilest things and the most Wicked not only under a grave pretence of Religion but out of a real opinion and perswasion that they do Religiously Murder is certainly one of the greatest and most crying Sins and yet our Saviour foretells that the Jews should put his Disciples to death being verily perswaded that in so doing they offered a most acceptable Sacrifice to God Yea the time shall come that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offers a Sacrisice to God 5. That such Actions are never the less horribly Impious and Wicked notwithstanding the good Mind with which and the Good End for which they are done The Jews were not excused from the guilt of Persecution and Murder for all they thought they did well in killing the Disciples of our Lord. 6. I observe that the Corruption of the best tilings is the worst Religion is the highest Accomplishment and Perfection of Humane Nature and Zeal for God and his Truth an excellent Quality and highly acceptable to God And yet nothing is more Barbarous and spurs Men on to more horrible Impieties than a blind Zeal for God and false and mistaken Principles in the matter of Religion as is plain from the Instances here before us in the Text. I shall speak as briefly as I can to these Observations 1. That the best of Men may be separated and excluded from the Communion of those who may assume to be the true and only true Church and that under the Notion of very Bad and Criminal Persons This our Saviour foretells in the Text should be the Fate of his Apostles some of the best and holiest Persons that ever lived they shall put you out of the Synagogues And what the Jews did in the beginning of Christianity to the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour hath been too frequently practised since by some of the Professors of Christianity toward one another and very Good Men have in several Ages fallen under the Censure of Excommunication and been separated from the External Communion of the Church and branded with the odious Names of Hereticks and Apostates by those who have arrogated to themselves to be the only Orthodox and true Church and have gotten the external Power and Management of Religion into their hands witness the Case of Athanasius and others in the Reign and Prevalency of Arianism and the ill Treatment that not only particular Persons Eminent for their Learning and Piety but whole Churches have met with in this kind from that haughty and uncharitable Church which makes nothing of thundering out this most fearful Sentence of Excommunication against Persons and Churches much better and more Christian than her self and against all that will not submit to her pretended Infallibility and usurped Authority over the Souls and Consciences of Men. But it is our great Comfort that the Apostles and Disciples of our Lord and Master were thus used by a Church that made the same Pretences that they do and upon Grounds every whit as plausible as I could clearly shew if I were minded to persue and make out this Comparison 2. They who are thus Excommunicated by the pretended only true Church may nevertheless be true Members of the Church of Christ Tho' the Apostles were thus dealt withall by the Jewish Church they did not cease for all this to be real Members of the true Church of God For it is not calling Hereticks first that proves them that do so to be no Hereticks or acquits them from the same or greater Crimes than those which they are so forward to charge upon other Men nor will God condemn all those who are Excommunicated by Men and deny Salvation to every one whom they shall please to separate from their Society and to call by some odious name Men may be put out of the Synagogue and yet receiv'd into Heaven for the Judgment of God is not according to the uncharitable Censures of Men but according to Truth and Right The Sentence of Excommunication is certainly very dreadful where it is duly inflicted and next to the Judgment of God Men ought to be afraid of justly incurring the danger of this Censure and it ought to be upon very plain and evident grounds that Men either separate themselves or endanger their being cut off from the Communion of the Church they live in But when it once comes to this that a Church is infected with gross Errors and Corruptions plainly contrary to the Word of God especially if
Temple because it was his Presence that should fill that house with glory and it was in that place that the Messias who is called the Peace is promised to be given and in this place will I give Peace saith the Lord of Hosts And this is likewise most expresly foretold by the Prophet Malachi chap. 3.1 Behold I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye look for shall suddenly come into his temple even the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts And accordingly Jesus our Blessed Saviour came during the second Temple he was presented there by his Parents and owned by Simeon for the Messias he Disputed there and Taught frequently there and by his Presence filled that house with glory For that the Son of God Taught publickly there was a greater Honour to it than all the Silver and Gold of Solomon's Temple And not long after his death according to his express Prediction this second Temple was destroyed to the Ground so that not one stone of it was left upon another And when some Hundred of Years after it was attempted to be Rebuilt Three several times the last whereof was by Julian the Apostate in opposition to Christianity and to our Saviour's Prediction Fire came out of the Foundation and destroyed the Workmen so that they desisted in great Terror and durst never attempt it afterwards And this not only the Christian Writers of that Age in great numbers do testifie but Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Historian who lived in that time does also give us a very particular Account of this memorable matter So that if by the Expectation of the Nations be here meant the Messias as I have plainly shewn then he is long since come and was no other than Jesus our Blessed Saviour who according to this Prophecy was to fill the second Temple with glory which hath now been demolish'd above One thousand six hundred Years ago and the Rebuilding whereof hath been so often and so remarkably hinder'd from Heaven The Consideration of all which were sufficient to convince the Jews of their vain Expectation of a Messias yet to come were they not so obstinately rooted and fixed in their Infidelity There remains now the IV. And Last Circumstance of this Prophecy viz. That the coming of the Messias was to be the last Dispensation of God for the Salvation of Men and consequently was to be perpetual and unchangeable Yet once more and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land And I will shake all nations and the Expectation of all nations shall come Yet once more from which Words the Apostle to the Hebrews argues the Perpetuity of the Gospel and that it was the Dispensation which should never be changed Heb. 12.27 And this word Yet once more signifies the removing of those things which are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remain And then it follows Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved c. It was usual with the Jews to describe the times of the Gospel by the Kingdom of the Messias and accordingly the Apostle here calls the Dispensation of the Gospel a kingdom which cannot he moved In opposition to the Law which was an imperfect and alterable Dispensation For this is plainly the scope of the Apostle's reasoning namely to convince the Jews that they were now under a more gracious and perfect Dispensation than that of the Law ver 18. Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire meaning Mount Sinai which was a sensible literal Mountain a mountain that might be touched in opposition to the mystical and spiritual Mount Sion by which the Dispensation of the Gospel is described Which by the way prevents the Objection of its being called the Mountain that might be touch'd when it was forbidden to be touch'd upon pain of Death Ye are not come to the Mount that might be touched that is I am not now speaking of a literal and sensible Mountain such as was Mount Sinai from whence the Law was given but of that Spiritual and Heavenly Dispensation of the Gospel which was typified by Mount Sion and by Jerusalem but ye are come to mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant And then he cautions them to take heed how they reject him that came from Heaven to make this last Revelation of God to the World which because of the clearness and perfection of it should never need to receive any change ver 25. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth viz. Moses who delivered the Law from Mount Sinai much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven whose voice then shook the earth alluding to the Earthquake at the giving of the Law but now he hath promised saying Yet once more I shake not the earth only but also heaven that is the whole World in order to the coming of the Messias and the planting of the Gospel in the World and then he argues from the Words once more that the former Dispensation should be removed to make way for that which should perpetually remain And indeed there is no need of any farther Revelation after this nor of any change of that Religion which was brought from Heaven by the Son of God because of the Perfection of it and its fitness to Reform the World and to recover Mankind out of their lapsed and degenerate Condition and to bring them to Happiness both by the Purity of its Doctrine and the Power of its Arguments to work upon the Minds of Men by the clear discovery of the mighty Rewards and Punishments of another World And now the proper Inference from all this Discourse is the very same with that which the Apostle makes from the Consideration of the Perfection and Excellency of this Revelation which God had made to the World by his Son See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for how shall we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven And at the 28th Verse of that Chapter Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear that is Let us Live as becomes those to whom God hath made so clear and perfect a Revelation of his Will We have all the Advantages of the Divine Revelation which the World ever had and the last and most perfect that the World ever shall have We have not only Moses and the Prophets but that Doctrine which the Son of God came down from Heaven on purpose to declare to the World God hath vouchsafed to us that clear and compleat Revelation of
are the very same in Sense If we be dead with him that is if we lay down our lives for the Testimony of the Truth as he did we shall also live with him that is we shall in like manner be made Partakers of Immortality as he is If we suffer or endure as he did we shall also reign with him in Glory The other Sentence is Matter of Terrour to those who deny him and his Truth If we deny him he also will deny us to which is subjoyned another Saying much to the same Sense if we believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we be unfaithful yet he remaineth faithful he cannot deny himself that is he will be as good as his word and make good that Solemn Threatning which he hath denounced against those who shall for fear of Suffering deny him and his Truth The Words being thus explained I shall begin with the First Part of this remarkable Saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also reign with him This it seems was a noted Saying among Christians and whether they had it by Tradition of our Saviour or whether it was in familiar use among the Apostles as a very proper and powerful Argument to keep Christians stedfast to their Religion I cannot determine It is certain that Sayings to this Sense are very frequent especially in the Epistles of St. Paul Rom. 6.5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection and Verse 8. Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him 2 Cor. 4.10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body and Verse 18. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh and Rom. 8.17 If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together Phil. 3.10 11. That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made comfortable unto his death If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead 1. Pet. 4.12 13. Beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as tho' some strange thing happened unto you but rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy You see that the Sense of this Saying was in frequent use among the Apostles as a powerful Argument to Encourage Christians to Constancy in their Religion notwithstanding the Dangers and Sufferings which attended it This is a faithful saying If we be dead with him we shall also live with him If we suffer we shall also reign with him And the Force of this Argument will best appear by taking into consideration these Two things I. What Virtue there is in a firm Belief and Persuasion of a Blessed Immortality in another World to support and bear up Mens Spirits under the greatest Sufferings for Righteousness sake and even to animate them if God shall call them to it to lay down their Lives for their Religion II. How it may be made out to be reasonable for Men to Embrace and Voluntarily to submit to Present and Grievous Sufferings in Hopes of a Future Happiness and Reward concerning which we have not nor perhaps are capable of having the same degree of Certainty and Assurance which we have of the Evils and Sufferings of this present Life I. What Virtue there is in a firm Belief and Persuasion of a blessed Immortality in another World to support and bear up Mens Spirits under the greatest Sufferings for Righteousness sake and even to animate them if God should call them to it to lay down their Lives for their Religion If Men do firmly believe that they shall change this Temporal and Miserable Life for an Endless State of Happiness and Glory and that they shall meet with a Reward of their Sufferings infinitely beyond the proportion of them both in the Weight and Duration of it this must needs turn the Scales on that side on which there is the greatest Weight And there is a sufficient ground for a firm Belief of this For if any thing can certainly be concluded from the Providence of God this may That Good Men shall be happy one time or other And because they are very often great Sufferers in this Life that there is another State remains for them after this Life wherein they shall meet with a full Reward of all their Sufferings for Righteousness sake But besides the Reasonableness of this from the consideration of God's Providence we have now a clear and express Revelation of it life and immortality being brought to light by the Gospel This St. John tells us is the great Promise of the Gospel 1 John 2.25 This is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life And this Promise our Saviour most expresly makes to those who Suffer for him Mat. 5.10 11 12. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falslly for my sake Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Mark 10.29 Verily I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospel's but he shall receive an hundred-fold now in this time with persecutions that is so far as a State of Persecution would admit and in the world to come eternal life And if such a Perswasion be firmly fixt in our Minds the Faith of another World and the assured Hope of Eternal Life and Happiness must needs have a mighty force and Efficacy upon the Minds of Sober and Considerate Men because there is no proportion between Suffering for a little while and being Unspeakably and Etternally happy So St. Paul tells us he calculated the matter Rom. 8.18 I reckon says he that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us The vast disproportion between the Sufferings of a few Days and the Joys and Glory of Eternity when it is once firmly believed by us will weigh down all the Evils and Calamities of this World and give us Courage and Constancy under them For why should we faint if we believe that our light affliction which is but for a moment will work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory As the same St. Paul assures us 2 Cor. 4.17 If our Minds be but throughly possest with the hopes of a Resurrection to a Better and
Prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this Generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias which perished between the Altar and the Temple Verily I say unto you it shall be required of this Generation There are Three considerable Difficulties in the Words which I shall endeavour to explain to you I. What is here meant by the Wisdom of God II. Who this Zacharias was here mention'd by our Saviour from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias who perished between the Altar and the Temple III. In what Sense and with what Reason and Justice it is here threatned that the blood of all the Prophets and righteous men shed from the foundation of the world should be required of that Generation I. What is here meant by the Wisdom of God Therefore also said the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles c. In St. Matthew our Saviour speaks this in his own Name wherefore behold I send unto you Prophets For which Reason Some think that by the Wisdom of God our Saviour here designed himself as if he had said therefore I who am the Wisdom of God declare unto you But this is not very probable our Saviour no where else in the Gospel speaking of himself in any such Style tho' St. Paul calls him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God Others think that our Saviour here refers to some Prophecy of the Old Testament to this purpose therefore the Wisdom of God hath said that is the Holy Spirit of Wisdom which Inspired the Prophets in the Old Testament But this Conceit is utterly without ground for we find no such Passage nor any thing to that Sense in any of the Prophets of the Old Testament But the most plain and simple Interpretation is this therefore hath the Wisdom of God said that is the most Wise God hath determined to send among you such Messengers and Holy Men and I foresee that ye will thus abuse them and thereby bring Wrath and Destruction upon your selves And whereas our Saviour says in St. Matthew behold I send unto you Prophets it is very probable he speaks in God's Name and that it is to be understood behold says God I send unto you And this Phrase of the Wisdom of God for the most Wise God is very agreeable to other Forms of Speech which we meet with in the Jewish Writers as Dicit norma judicii the Rule of Judgment says that is the most Just and Righteous God which serves very well to explain the Phrase in the Text Therefore saith the Wisdom of God I will send them Prophets and Apostles By Apostles is here meant all sorts of Divine Messengers For so St. Matthew expresseth it I send unto you Prophets and wise men and Scribes that is several Holy and Excellent Men endowed with all sorts of Divine Gifts Prophets and wise men and Scribes which were the most glorious and admired Titles among the Jews And some of them they shall slay and persecute St. Matthew expresseth it more particularly some of them ye shall kill and crucifie as it was afterwards fulfilled in the two James's and Stephen who were slain by them and in Simon the Son of Cleophas and before him in Jesus the Son of God who were Crucified and some of them ye shall scourge in your Synagogues as we read they did to Peter and John and persecute them from City to City as they did Paul and Barnabas The sending of these Messengers of God among the Jews and this ill usage of them the All-wise and All-knowing God had determined and foreseen II. Who this Zacharias was here mentioned by our Saviour And there are so many of them no less than Four of this Name to whom it may with some probability be applyed but especially to Two of them that it is very hard to determine which of them our Saviour means Three Zacharias's are mention'd in Scripture and one more in the History of Josephus There was Zacharias the Father of John the Baptist but whose Son he was we do not read and tho' of his Death the Scripture is silent yet there are two Traditions about it one that he was slain by Herod's Officers because he would not tell where his Son John the Baptist was when Herod sent for him But the Credit of this relies upon very doubtful Authors The other is mentioned by several of the Fathers and the substance of it is briefly this that there being a Place in the Temple where the Virgins by themselves used to Pray the Virgin Mary coming to that Place to pray among the Virgins was forbidden because she had had a Child and that Zacharias for maintaining her Virginity was set upon and killed between the Temple and the Altar But this Tradition is rejected by St. Jerome and I doubt there is little ground for it Zacharias one of the lesser Prophets was the Son of Barachias which agrees so far with St. Matthew's description of him But there is no mention in Scripture that he was slain nor could he well be in the Temple which was but building in his Time tho' the Author of the Targum says that Zacharias the Son of Ido was slain by the Jews in the house of the Lord's Sanctuary on the Day of the Propitiation because he admonisht them not to do Evil before the Lord. Now Zacharias the Son of Barachias was the Grand-Son of Ido but yet I think this was only lapse of Memory and that he means Zachary in the Chronicles who was slain by Joash And He is the Third Zacharias I mention'd 2 Chron. 24.21 who as he was reproving the People for transgressing the Commandment of the Lord was stoned with stones at the Comandment of the King in the court of the house of the Lord. And this our Saviour seems more particularly to reflect upon immediately after the Text O Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that stonest the Prophets c. Now this one would think was certainly the Person intended by our Saviour and fit to be mentioned with Abel whose blood is said to have cried to the Lord. For of Zacharias it is likewise said that when he died he said the Lord look upon it and require it And Derusius cites a Jewish Writer speaking thus by way of complaint against the Jewish Nation because in the midst of thee fell the Priests of the Lord and his Prophets and because before the Holy Temple in the midst of thee was slain the Godly and Righteous Prophet Zacharias who lay unburied nor did the Earth cover his blood but to this day it goes up and speaks in the midst of thee So that none could have been more fit to have been joyn'd with Abel in this respect But as probable as this looks there are Two very great Objections against it One is that St. Matthew calls the Zacharias spoken of by our Saviour the Son of Barachias whereas this Zacharias slain by