lightning struck into his mind xviii Psal 33. He maketh my feet like Hindes feet and setteth me upon my high places which he expounded to this sense God will inable me with speed and easiness to run not only upon the even ground and over the plains but in craggy and steep places he will lead me not only upon the level but assist me to climb Mountains and to overtop the highest difficulties that are in my way to Heaven and immediately he found all his fears vanish his resolutions determined and such a courage put into him that from this time forward he was immoveably bent to that formerly dreadful kind of life Would not this word of God then think you which I have expounded inspire us with as manly a resolution and greatness of mind to obey God's unquestionable commands if we did but suffer it to penetrate into our hearts Did we but conceive that we heard the Father say to us perpetually This is my Son This that came by Water and Bloud that climbed even the cross it self that surmounted the highest difficulties He is my beloved Son and if we thought we heard the WORD say the Son of God is come God is manifested in the flesh and felt the Holy Ghost inspiring him with the same heavenly thoughts the whole glorious Trinity telling us they will assist us and afford us their continual help it could not but give wings as I may say to our feet and make us skip over the most mountainous discouragements and run the ways of God's commandments and not be tired that we might follow after and go to the blessed Jesus For the course of life which that Gentleman affected was that of a Religious Order as they call it where they are tied to do more than God commands to live by a Rule stricter than the Gospel and under the Will of a Superiour whom they are bound to obey as if he were Christ himself And it was not the literal sense of the place neither which thus animated him and put it into his heart to undergo such a servitude And therefore if he did the will of men so chearfully and undertook more than God requires of us and upon a weaker perswasion by accommodating the sense of an holy word to his own present thoughts there is no doubt but a right faith would indue us with the like power notwithstanding the appearance of great labours in the true service of God in obedience to his indispensable commands we having this word of God to strengthen our faith the prime and natural intention of which is to make us confident that He who leads us in this way the Captain that conducts us is Gods Son his most dearly beloved who cannot but be as faithful as he is powerful to make good all his promises to us And we should the rather strive to follow after him and to run with joy the race that is set before us because then we shall have the honour still to testify to him upon Earth we shall be his WITNESSES and prove at this day by his mighty power in our hearts and lives that he is the Son of God Turks and Jews that read not our Books cannot be convinced by any arguments at present so much as by this They see how we live but we can shew them no Miracles to convince them nor can we make them hear the voice from Heaven for their conversion till we can recommend our Bible to their serious consideration And the only way to do that is for us to live more justly soberly charitably and piously than the rest of the World By which means they may be brought to have better thoughts of Jesus by having good thoughts of us and be induced to read our Books by seeing so much of them in our good works And what happy days might we hope to see could we but use this argument to prove Jesus to be the Son of God that no men are so good so holy and pure so peaceable and kind-hearted so free from fraud all guile as those who are called by his Name How glorious then would the name of our Lord be over all the world His word would run and be glorified as the Apostle speaks 2 Thess iii. 1. just as it did in ancient days when they could say confidently Non de nostro sed ex illorum numero c. * Lact. lib. 5. cap. 19. They are not of our company but of theirs that follow the Heathen superstition who rob and steal by Sea and Land who murder and kill who cheat and cozen who drink and swill who prostitute their bodies and profane themselves by filthy fusts the Whores the Fornicators the Cheats the Forgers of Wills and Testaments the Drunkards the Thieves the perjured Persons and all the rest of the wicked crew are of their number nothing of this can be objected to our People whose whole Religion is to live without wickedness nay without any spot or blemish How would it stop the mouth of all the world nay make them fall down and confess that God is certainly among us could we but say thus in our days and make such a challenge to Turks and all other unbelievers Shall we always let our Saviour want this noble testimony Shall we do nothing but talk of him and prattle of our Faith and make our boast that we are right Believers and damn all Infidel People Alas alas these big words will do nothing As long as they see us live no better than they we shal not perswade them that we believe better And therefore let us have this worthy ambition in our hearts to become WITNESSES our selves unto Jesus Let us study how to show forth his praises or rather Powers * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 who hath called us into this marvellous light And since we cannot do it by Miracles let us do it by well doing and patient continuance in it So shall the Name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in us and we in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess i. 12. who at his appearing will bear WITNESS to us xi Hebr. 4. that we were faithful and righteous by receiving us as God did Abel's gifts up unto himself For hereby also we shall be instruments of conveying this Faith down to Posterity with some power Would you not have them believe the same that you do Is it not your desire that the next Age may confess him as well as this There is no such effectual means can be thought of to promote and propagate his Faith as the fruits of it in an holy life This will make men afraid now to speak evil of him and this will teach our Children after us to be zealous professors of Christianity and not such cold believers or such infidels as we see and hear of in the World Assure your selves it is Prophaneness which hath made so many unbelievers in this
be no such voices from Heaven such apparitions of Jesus such a descent of the Holy Ghost as it is possible there may be such conceited fools who think themselves wise by doubting of all things yet that there were such Witnesses as the WATER the BLOUD and the SPIRIT no man can be so obstinate as to deny they were so visible to all sorts of men whatsoever that would but open their eyes to behold them In the sixth verse of which the eighth is but a repetition after the Apostle had said that the only Conqueror is he who believes Jesus to be the Son of God He adds This is he that came by WATER and BLOUD even Jesus Christ not by Water only but by Bloud also and it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness c. Where that phrase HE CAME is to be diligently observed which in the stile of the New Testament writers signifies as much as that He manifested himself to be the Messias or Christ He made it appear that he was sent of God For thus the Messias is described in that question which John Baptists Disciples put to our Saviour xi Matth. 3. Art thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that COMETH that is as Grotius well expounds it he that is prophesied of by Jacob our Father under the phrase of COMING xlix Gen. 10. And so He is said to be the light which COMING into the World enlightneth every man i. John 9. And John Baptist tells them He that COMETH after me is preferred before me ver 15. He was preferred to be their King as the multitude cried out saying Hosanna to the Son of David blessed be he that COMETH in the Name of the Lord xxi Matth. 9. There is the true explication of the phrase He was sent by a special commission such as never any man had from God the Father he appeared with his authority and acted in his name And as before he appeared in his Majesty he was called He that COMETH so afterwards the Apostle here calls him He that CAME The person that is whom God had promised from the beginning of the world to send into it His SHILO that is his Seed as De Dieu hath excellently expounded that word the Seed of Judah and the Son of God Who in this fulness of time was to receive Commission from God and take upon him the Government of the World Now this person says S. John CAME that is appeared to be sent of God as his Son his only begotten by Water and by Bloud Which is as much as to say that it was manifest he came from God and not of himself by these two Witnesses to which the SPIRIT also adds its testimony as it here follows and the SPIRIT bears witness which is such a certain evidence that they who rely on this together with the former can never be deceived by it because the Spirit is the TRUTH As therefore God SENT him so he CAME and by these three Witnesses proved that he was the Person who God promised should come and was now sent whose testimony let us prepare our selves to hear and examine diligently that the faith of Christ may still be rooted deeper in our hearts And let us hear them if you please in that order wherein they stand in the sixth Verse the place where we first meet with them receiving first the testimony of the WATER then of the BLOUD and then of the SPIRIT Of the WATER And by WATER sure can be meant nothing else but either Purity and innocence or else Baptism which we use as a sign and a means of those We may consider it in both sences and not be in any danger to wander from the scope of the Apostle or do any wrong to the argument in hand but receive most satisfactory evidence from both that Jesus is the Son of God I. First then let us take it in the notion of PURITY which we use the help of Water to procure in bodily defilements And therefore when the Prophet would express the intention of God to purifie his people from moral filthiness he says he will pour clean WATER upon them xxxvi Ezek. 25. and in other places he calls upon them to WASH themselves when he would have them amend their ways and lead new and holy lives And when we speak of the PURITY of Jesus wherewith he CAME that is demonstrated himself to be the Christ we must consider that there is a double Sanctity or holiness for which He was eminent above all other persons which may both be denoted by WATER The one is of his DOCTRINE wherewith Christ is said to cleanse his Church for which he died v. Ephes 26. He gave himself for it that he might sanctifie it having cleansed it with the Washing of WATER by the Word Where the Word the preaching of the Gospel is either the explanation of washing with Water or else denotes that Christian Instruction which succeeds Baptism to which by our being washed with Water in the Name of Christ we are bound to attend as the great instrument of our purification The other is holiness of LIFE and conversation which the same word WATER is used to express in the Epistle to the Hebrews x. 22. where the Apostle exhorts all those who believed there was such a royal High Priest as Jesus set over the family of God to worship him with integrity of heart and sincere affection to him nothing doubting of the truth of his promises and having their hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and their bodies washed with pure WATER Now by a short view of the perfect spotlesness of Jesus in both these in regard of his Doctrine and in regard of his Life we shall be able from thence strongly to draw this conclusion that he must needs be the Son of God I. First for the PURITY of his DOCTRINE it is such that it not only teaches no evil at all but teaches all manner of Goodness and severely prohibits every vice There is not the least sin to which the Holy Jesus gives any countenance no he declares the wrath of God from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men whom he fully instructs likewise and encourages in every piece of true piety and vertue So perfectly Holy is his Word that if we did entertain it the power of it would throughly wash us from all uncleanness and not leave the least speck of dirt in our hearts For he intends by that as the Apostle tells the Ephesians in the words following those now named ver 27. to present to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Whatsoever belongs either to our knowledge of God or to our Duty in every respect condition and relation His Doctrine completely comprehends it He hath first of all so clearly revealed to us the ONE GOD Creator of Heaven and Earth that none could do it more expresly or with greater
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
unto me in Paradise a place most sweet to behold and far sweeter to enjoy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the experiment exceeds all belief Into this the crooked Serpent cannot wind himself as he did into that of our Forefathers nor so much as whisper any of his deceitfull temptations There is none among us but whose Mind is impregnable and cannot be overcome by any artifice nor can we desire to be gratified with any greater good For we are all of us wise with the Divine and heavenly wisedom and our whole life is a continued magnificent festivall in the enjoyment of infinite and unspeakable goods Splendidly cloathed we see God in a splendid manner as far as man can see him and ravished with his inexplicable inconceivable beauty we rejoyce alway and are never weary Which abundant pleasure is the very perfection of love and the power of enjoying accompanying love begets that ineffable joy and exultation of spirit So that now while I converse with thee a most mighty love to those things draws me away and suffers me not to expound the least part of them Thou and my dear Mother shall one day come thither and then confess I have said very little of such great Goods but accuse thy self very much for bewailing me who happily enjoy them Therefore my dearest Father let me go away with joy and do not detain me any longer lest thou suffer a greater loss and for that be more bitterly afflicted If thy Daughter I say could after this or the like sort speak to thee wouldst thou not be ashamed to continue thy lamentations and chuse rather with joy to let her go away rejoycing Consider then if upon a Child's saying such things we should presently grow better and be of good comfort shall we when our common Creatour and Lord cries He that believeth in me though he die yet shall he live and God hath prepared for them that love him such things as eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have they entred into the heart of man be nothing better for such joyfull tidings but like infidels go on still to increase our sad lamentations We cannot answer this Question any other way but by silence or rather chearfull thanksgivings to God who hath given us such everlasting consolation and good hope through his grace as may well enable us to say in every other troublesome condition Why art thou thus cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me Hope in God and rejoyce in his holy Name who thanks be to his goodness giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Let us shake hands with grief sadness and sorrow and leave them to those who have no hope of Eternall Life Let us make our boast in the Lord and say that He is good for his mercy endureth for ever Come my Soul what is it that afflicts thee Will not the thoughts of the joys of heaven give thee ease nay perfectly cure thee Will not a sight of Jesus sitting on the throne of his glory revive thee It is but a moment or two and we shall be with him where he is Let us have patience for a few days more of banishment from our heavenly country Hold out my Soul for a short pilgrimage and we shall arrive at our promised inheritance Shall we bemoan our selves thus miserably for whom our God hath made such gracious provision Shall we be weary who want but a few steps and we are at our eternall rest Behold behold thy Saviour Yonder he is I see him shining in his celestiall glory He looks upon me methinks and saith Be of good chear for I am preparing a place for thee Do we not forget O my Soul that Jesus is so highly advanced when we suffer our selves to be thus cast down and sadly dejected Do we not reproach his memory and in effect say too grossly He is dead He is not risen who can chuse but mourn and be sorrowfull For shame let us stay our tears till the testimonies we have heard can be disproved till it appear that Jesus is still in his grave and these are Six false Witnesses which stand up for him But in the mean time let us rejoyce that they never yet could be confuted but have born down all the opposition of the World and the Devill for more then Sixteen hundred years to the eternall honour of Jesus O sweet Name why do we dishonour it with sour faces and sad countenances and a melancholick life If he live sure he will be as good as his word that we shall live also Let us never forget those words of grace Because I live ye shall live also And let us never remember them but with new delight Let it delight us to repeat them a thousand times in a day As long as we live let us comfort our selves with this Our Lord hath said Because I live ye shall live also Doth it not fill a Merchant's heart with joy to hear that his Ship is arrived at a safe port though many leagues from his own house Doth not the Country-man look brisk when his Seed-time is good though he must wait many weeks before he reap his desired Harvest Let not us then be the onely lumpish insensible things who hear the joyfull news that Jesus is alive and safely arrived at our Father's house where there are many Mansions Let not us be so stupid as to be discontented who have his word for it that we shall live with him But let us rejoyce and say as the Psalmist doth we have more reason for it Psal lvi 10 11. In God will I praise his word in the Lord will I praise his word In him have I put my trust I will not be afraid what man or any thing else can doe unto me Jesus hath said I shall live I will depend on his word and expect after all my tossings up and down in this troublesome World to land shortly in the Paradise of God Paradise O that comfortable word that sweetest of all words What should we not have given to hear of any hopes of it if God had not promised it And shall we now make light account of it God forbid We will not sigh at the thoughts of death it self seeing it is but the gate of Paradise We will look upon it with a smile and say it is welcome We will tell it that it is a long-lookt-for friend and bid it doe its office and make way for our entrance into the place that Jesus hath prepared for us What though we have not much acquaintance with that World what though it be a place where we never were and from whence no Friend that is gone thither hath returned to tell us what it is Jesus knew it very well that 's enough else he would not have endured so much for it He is perfectly acquainted with it for from thence he came and there he is And therefore let us not be timorous when we
proved John's words to be true which he spake of him that he should be preferred before him be the true Joshua whom they must all follow the Messiah the KING of Israel to whose conduct they must trust if they meant to enter into rest I have done with the first BAPTISM that of John which if you consider throughly the Person from whom Jesus received it the place where he went into the water the testimony that was here given him both by the Father by the Holy Ghost and by John you will easily grant it might well be affirmed in respect to all these that he came by WATER and that this was one of his WITNESSES II. It is time now to come to the second particular and take into consideration awhile his OWN BAPTISM which he administred For that is not without some proof that he was the CHRIST Indeed Jesus himself baptized not but his Disciples as you read iv John 2. But yet because whatsoever a Servant doth by the authority of his Master it is reputed the Masters Act and he himself is said to do it therefore Jesus also is said to baptize in the same Evangelist iii. 26. iv 1. Now this was an argument to the Jews that he was the Messiah 1. First because all expected that the Messiah or CHRIST should come with Baptism and thereby renew the world as the Hebrew Doctors sometime speak It began they say in the time of Moses when he brought them to receive the Law from God and entred them by this Ceremony of washing into a new Religion xix Exod 10 14. By which they tell us Proselytes were received into their communion in succeeding times when they passed from the state of Gentilism and were regenerated to worship God with the Israelites And therefore when CHRIST came and with him a new world for there is nothing more common in their Books than to call his days The WORLD TO COME they concluded he should begin it with Baptism as Moses did that frame of things which he erected This is certain it was one of their marks of him that in his days there should be an universal Baptism and cleansing of the people Which they gather from xiii Zach. 1. where we read of a FOUNTAIN opened for sin and for uncleanness and from several places in the Prophet Isaiah where he speaks of the Waters in the wilderness in which S. Mark tells us John baptized i. 4. and from the xxxvi Ezek. 25. where he says I will sprinkle Water upon you c. a new heart also will I give you which is applied by the Apostles to the days of Christ who began his new Kingdom with washing with Water or Baptism in his name And therefore when John the Baptist came with this Water they sent as I noted before to know of him who he was thinking he might be the Christ For which there appears no reason for he did not work so much as one miracle but that all Judea and all the region about Jordan went out to him and were BAPTIZED of him in Jordan confessing their sins iii. Matth. 5 6. And therefore when He told them that he was not the CHRIST nor Elias nor that other Prophet whom they expected to accompany him they ask him then i. John 25. Why BAPTIZEST thou if thou art none of these They thought it was not in the power of any man to institute and introduce this new Ceremony unless he was either the CHRIST or his Forerunner or some other Prophet Jeremiah it is like who they fansied should rise from the dead and come along with him A new Ceremony I call it because though we should grant that Baptism was in use among them as much hath been said by Mr. Selden * Lib. de Jure Nat. L. de Succession among others to prove it yet thereby they only received Proselytes and their children from other Countries But it was not the manner to baptize Jews such as were grown and adult much less did any of the Masters in Israel gather Disciples after this fashion and therefore the Sanhedrim might well send to enquire who this was that took upon him to call all the Country to repent and sanctifie themselves and also like a Prophet had particular scholars ministring unto him The most learned of the Jews indeed had but confused notions of things to come and the Priests and Levites you see here by their questions did not certainly know whether Baptizing with such an authority was a sign that a man was the Christ or not yet they generally inclined to believe that it was a note of him as may be gathered I think from iii. Luke 15. where you read that the people were in expectation knew not what to think but waited that John would declare the Christ to them and ALL MEN mused in their hearts of John that is debated and reasoned within themselves as it is in the Margin whether John would at last declare himself to be the Christ or not And another Argument there is to prove that they lookt upon Baptism as a mark of the Messiah for as soon as our Saviour began to make this his business and to authorize his Disciples to baptize then they were more in suspense as that word expectation in S. Luke now mentioned may be rendred than ever And knew not what to imagine when they saw two great men doing one and the same thing and thereby drawing the people after them But after they had debated the matter better it seems they began to leave their opinion of John's being the Messiah and to look rather upon Jesus as the person at least to have some thoughts that it might be so For we find in iii. John 25. that there arose a controversie between some of John's Disciples and some Jews who were not his Disciples about purifying or cleansing by which may be understood Baptism which was the sign and the instrument of it And the dispute as far as the following discourse directs our conjectures was this Whether their Master John's Baptism or that of Jesus was the best and which of them a Jew should receive For they saw them both baptise Jesus in Judea ver 22. and John in Enon near to Sabim ver 23. To which of these places therefore they should resort seems to be the question If John's baptism was from Heaven why should it be laid aside or why should another come and take his work out of his hand Was Jesus now sent with a greater authority so that they must leave John and go to him To this his Disciples being able to give no satisfaction they go to the Master himself for a resolution and tell him Rabbi he that was with thee beyond Jordan to whom thou barest witness behold the same baptizeth and all men come to him As much as to say we are much perplexed being in doubt which of you two to receive for our Master For Jesus who was baptized of thee
it was no common thing but the BLOUD of the Holy one of God It witnessed to that WITNESS and proved that as he did not speak contrary to his knowledge so he did not speak contrary to the truth And if the SPIRIT could not be believed in this it would have lost all its credit and never have been believed more we could never have known any thing by the greatest wonders it can work if such things had been done for a deceiver as it is apparent were done for Jesus For that he was raised up to life again we are assured by the testimony of the Apostles and by the testimony of the Holy Ghost of which none can reasonably doubt as it were easie to show if it were not my present business rather to demonstrate that this was an irrefragable testimony of the SPIRIT to him a most powerful means to beget faith and assurance in mens minds that Jesus is the Son of God It was for this very end that S. John wrote the History of his Resurrection and the several signs and tokens they had of it as he tells us in those words xx John 30 31. Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name For this plainly reversed the sentence of condemnation which the Jews had pass'd upon him It showed that he was acquitted in a far higher Court than that which judged him worthy of death Whose decree it rescinded and openly declared that he was no Blasphemer when he said he was the Son of God If he had God would have been more concern'd than they to have kept him fast in his grave for ever that there so great a lye might have been buried together with himself For the further clearing of which it will be fit to consider briefly these three things First that before he died he promised his Apostles that he would rise again and gave this also as a sign to all the people whereby they should know that he was the Christ And secondly that he declared this to be the greatest sign he had to give of it And thirdly that his very enemies confess it is a sufficient sign and satisfactory testimony of any truth I. For the first of these that it was a sign promised to his Apostles and predicted to the people there is nothing more easie to be observed in the Gospel story For he tells his Apostles very often that they should see him betrayed and killed but on the third day he would rise again No sooner had S. Peter confessed that he was the CHRIST but from that time forth Jesus began to shew them how that he must go to Jerusalem and there suffer many things and be killed and be raised again the third day xvi Matth. 21. For he would not have them expect a Christ that should reign here on Earth but in Heaven And till he went thither he would not have them so much as preach that he was the CHRIST ver 20. And what he had said here at Caesarea he repeats again when they were in Galilee xvii Matth. 22 23. And again when they were going up to Jerusalem xx 19. And not many hours before he was apprehended he said again A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me because I go to the Father xvi John 16. At which words they were greatly troubled because they minded more what he said about his death than they regarded his resurrection which was to follow But the greater their trouble was then the greater their satisfaction was afterwards when they saw him alive again The less disposed they were to believe it the more confident they grew when they saw such a wonder They wept and lamented when he was gone as he told them they would ver 20. But when he came to see them again their heart rejoyced with such a joy as none could dispoil them of ver 22. The ground of which joy you shall see presently when I have also remembred you how he foretold his Resurrection to the people as a testimony that he was the CHRIST It was their wont in all Ages and with great reason to ask for a sign that a man was sent of God And therefore now that Jesus came with such authority as to redress many abuses among them and to reform that Nation and Temple they ask him what sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things ii Joh. 18. He had given them signs enough already and therefore makes no other answer but this to let them know what should be the last sign Destroy this Temple pointing to his own body and in three days I will raise it up vers 19. From whence we may safely argue that Jesus having given this as a sign and token whereby it should evidently appear more than by all his miracles that he was the Son of God the Almighty would never have fulfilled this promise and prediction if He had usurped his authority and taken upon him to be his ANOINTED without his leave Nothing was more easie than to quash all his pretences which relyed upon his Resurrection without which his Apostles as I told you had no authority to Preach that he was the Christ It had been but letting him rot in his grave as all men naturally do when they are dead and all the World would have been of the mind of the Pharisees that he was a Deceiver And God sure hath not so little care of the World as to deny them such ready and obvious means of satisfaction about the most important truth We ought to think rather that he would have concerned himself to see that this Temple which he spake of should lye for ever in its ruines and be turned to dust and ashes He who alone could do it would have been so far from rearing it up again that he would have provided it should be prophaned and made the vilest rubbish in the World But there being very good proofs many infallible proofs as S. Luke speaks i. Act. 3. that it was quite otherwayes and that indeed it was raised after three days as he had told the People it was a Testimony from God most high that He dwelt in that Temple and that it was his Holy place where he manifested his glory He declared to them by this that Jesus was no Deceiver but that they ought to believe he was the Christ of God For that a man should be raised from the dead by any other power than that of God's all the World concludes is impossible If any of those lying spirits which love to cheat and abuse the world could do such feats why do we not see this frequently happen that so they might break the force of this testimony and overthrow our belief Above
Lord art high above all the Earth thou art exalted far above all Gods Blessed is the people that know this joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance In thy name shall they rejoyce all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted For thou art the glory of their strength and by thy favour shall we be highly honoured For thou hast a mighty arm strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought of thine can be hindred Thou canst break the chains of death and raise our dust and ashes to immortal life Thou canst tread Satan under our feet and send thy Angels for our security and defence By thee we shall run through the greatest dangers and surmount all the difficulties that are in our way to thee Who shall separate us from thy love O Christ who diedst for us yea rather art risen again who art even at the right hand of God who also makest intercession for us O live thou for ever in my mind and heart and be the daily delightful subject of my thoughts Direct and guide me in all my ways and lead me safe unto thy self Still let my meditations of thee be sweet and my joy exceeding great in thy salvation Still fix mine eyes on things above where thou art at Gods right hand Lord still increase my Faith that it growing in strength may work by a more vigorous love Let me feel the power of thy holy Spirit perpetually in my heart that being led by the Spirit and mortifying thereby the deeds of the body He that raised thee up from the dead may also quicken my mortal body by his Spirit that dwelleth in me Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that wrought such wonders unto him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without end Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Witness of the Holy APOSTLES of our Lord. I Know not what remains to be done for the full explication of these words of the Apostle unless it be sit to note that our Saviour is said to COME not only in his own Person but likewise in his Apostles and Evangelists I need name but one place to prove this ii Ephes 17. And CAME and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh It is well known that Jesus of whom he there speaks was not SENT save to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and therefore in his own Person was not to go to those who were afar off such Gentiles as these Ephesians were to whom notwithstanding he is said here to COME He came unto his own saith this very Disciple and though his own received him not yet he kept himself within the confines of their Country and charged his Disciples during his life not to go into any City of the Samaritans to whom he never went but only in his passage from one part of the Jews Country to another We can give no account then of his COMING to them that were afar off as well as unto the Jews who were nigh but only this that by the Apostles whom he sent and who were his Embassadors to preach the glad tidings of Salvation he was made known to the Gentiles even as the Father is said to come to the Jews and to speak to them when he sent him his Son to declare his mind and will among them Now it is possible that S. John might have some respect to his sending them as the Father sent him to prove him to be the Son of God when he saith that Jesus CAME by WATER and by BLOUD and by the SPIRIT and that these three were his WITNESSES on Earth For first the Apostles were his WITNESSES as they are called in many places both by him and by themselves Ye shall be WITNESSES unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judaea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth says our Saviour just before his Ascension i. Act. 8. The same he said to S. Paul to whom he appeared afterward xxvi 16. xxii 15. And in the same stile S. Peter speaks of himself I exhort you who am an Elder and a WITNESS of the sufferings of Christ i. Pet. v. 1. And as they were witnesses of his sufferings so they were of all that he did as you shall hear presently and of all that was done for him to prove that he was the Son of God and the King of Glory That is they were witnesses that there appeared such witnesses both in Heaven and Earth for him as we have examined And 2. witnesses they were of very great credit worthy of all belief For they were WITNESSES chosen of God x. Act. 41. select Men pickt out by Heaven some of them in an extraordinary manner for this purpose And they spake nothing by hear-say but upon their own certain knowledge being eye-witnesses of his Majesty as ye have heard before from S. Peter 2. i. 16. And S. John says the same in this Epistle iv 14. We have seen and do testifie that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the World First they saw and then bare witness Or as he expresses himself more largely in the beginning of the Epistle That which they had heard and seen with their eyes and looked upon and which their hands had handled of the Word of life for it was manifest and they saw it and bare WITNESS that he repeats it again which they had seen and heard they declared unto the World Why should not such witnesses be believed who spake nothing but what all their senses that could be imployed in this case gave them full assurance was undoubtedly true They were Men sure of common capacity and they had opportunity also to see and hear and feel and examine every thing which Jesus did or was done in honour of him For therefore our Saviour chose them to be his witnesses because they were thus qualified xv Joh. 26 27. When the Comforter is come even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testify of me And ye also shall bear WITNESS because ye have been with me from the BEGINNING That is because you are abundantly informed how all things have passed from my very first entring into the World to preach the Gospel therefore you shall be imployed to testifie all things that you have seen and heard and felt as the fittest persons to be believed For which reason when they wanted one of their Number by the apostasie of Judas they were very careful according to this Rule of their Master to chuse such an one to succeed him as had been a constant follower of Jesus and had taken notice of every thing they were to witness i. Act. 21 22. Wherefore saith S. Peter of those men which have companied with us all
men in former times but had not such strength to enforce it Blessed be God should we all say A PRAYER BLessed be God who hath not done so for any people He hath shown us HIMSELF his WORD and the HOLY GHOST Israel hath not seen his Glory so as it shines in our eyes And as for his Power and Might they have not known them no more than the Promises and the Laws whereby he now governs us He hath given us a better Covenant founded upon a better Bloud which hath brought in also a better Hope and is confirmed by a more powerful Spirit Blessed be his Goodness that our eyes read and our ears hear those things which many Prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear but could not see nor hear them For it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us by them that have preached the Gospel unto us which the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into O Bless the Lord with us ye Angels of his that excel in strength praise him and magnifie him for ever O all ye Powers of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye Spirits and Souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Praise him all ye Apostles and Prophets praise him all ye Martyrs and Confessors praise him all ye glorious Lights who have made the Gospel of Christ to shine throughout the world Praise the Father Almighty praise his Eternal WORD praise the Holy Ghost who have made our Faith to stand not in the wisdom of men but in the mighty Power of God Praise him for the Incarnation the Life the Death the Resurrection the Ascension and the Glorification of the Lord Jesus who hath given us strong Consolation by that sure and stedfast hope which throughout all these means he hath setled in our hearts O praise him for his marvellous love to us whom he hath called after a glorious manner and by an amazing vertue to the knowledge of Christ by whom his Divine power hath given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness And make us who are so nearly concerned in this love to be very sensible how great it is which hath not only called us to his Heavenly Kingdom but made us sure and certain by so many Witnesses that Jesus is the Lord of all the King of infinite Majesty Power and Glory Let our Souls never cease to show forth and publish the vertues and powerful operations of him who hath called us into his marvellous light Let our mouths be filled with his praise all the day long who out of the riches of his mercy hath made us who were not his people to be a chosen generation an holy nation a peculiar people to himself O that our Faith may grow exceedingly and be deeply rooted and grounded in our hearts And as it stands upon the surest foundations so we may be built up in it with the most assured confidence and stand unshaken and immoveable in it unto the end And as thou hast differenced us from all other people in the clearness of that Light which lets us see that ours is the most holy Faith so help us by thy grace to distinguish our selves from all others by holding the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience and by the upright actions of an unblameable life O that the light of Christians may so shine before men that others seeing their good works may glorifie thee our Heavenly Father O that it may disperse the darkness which over-spreads so great a part of the world That all impostures may be discovered and they that live in error may be brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus O that his Dominion may reach from Sea to Sea even unto the worlds end Let them who dwell in the most desert places kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust Let all Kings of the Earth adore him and all Nations do him service Kindle in the hearts of Princes and Nobles an holy ambition to advance his Glory Inspire the hearts of all Bishops and Priests with an ardent zeal for the conversion of Souls And dispose the hearts of those who are in error that they may be apt and ready to receive thy sacred truth Plant thy Gospel where it hath not yet been and replant it where it hath been rooted out And give us grace who have long been thine own vineyard to bring forth plenty of good fruit That our lives may be as holy as our faith and we may convince Jews Turks and all other Infidels that thou art among us and that Jesus whom we worship is the Lord. To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Praise among all mankind and throughout all Ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. Other necessary Vses we are to make of their Testimony THere is no great skill required to see the difference between that Holy Religion which we profess and all others that are entertained in the rest of the World Some we must have and it is as palpable that this is incomparably the most excellent as it is that there is any Religion at all There is no Nation so barbarous but pays some respect and ceremony to use the phrase of Tully when he defines Religion to some Superiour and more excellent Nature which we call Divine Though they are ignorant what kind of God it becomes them to have yet they know a God must be had and must be worshipped Their own mind teaches them this as soon as they cast their eyes upon the admirable frame of the World which all naturally conclude must have had some most wise and mighty Builder But what respect and reverence that is which will be pleasing to him they are very uncertain it is manifest by the various ways they have invented to express their Devotion They all with one consent acknowledge a necessity of a Revelation to instruct them for there is no Nation but pretends to have received some things by the instinct inspiration or apparition of their Gods That which pure natural reason dictates is not to be found simple and unmixt in any Nation under Heaven For if we should stand meerly to that it hath ever resolved that the worship of God consists in the study of Wisdome Justice and all other Vertues Which as they are most eminent in God so he is best pleased with them in us And they that addict themselves to resemble him in this manner are the men that shall obtain his favour There are a number of notable sayings both in Heathen and Christian Writers to this purpose But when all this is said and acknowledged Men will offend against these Rules of Vertue and what shall they do then what will make him satisfaction and procure a reconciliation with him whom they have reason
words as these Lay not up your treasures upon Earth and the luxurious are told that he who soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and the proud are told that he who exalteth himself shall be abased the angry are exhorted when one cheek is smitten to turn the other they that live in discord are taught to love their enemies the superstitious are instructed that the Kingdom of God is within us to the curious it is said continually look not at the things that are seen but to those which are not seen and lastly it is said to all Love not the world nor the things that are in the world if these things are read throughout the world if they be chearfully heard with great veneration if after so much bloud such fires so many crucifixions of Martyrs the Church is grown more fertile and hath propagated it self to the most barbarous Nations and to omit the rest if men are every where so converted to God that every day all mankind answers almost with one voice LIFT UP YOUR HEARTS UNTO THE LORD why should we drowsily still continue in a sottish unbelief There is nothing can be said in the excuse of such Souls as having received notice of such a marvellous Love of God to mankind and such evident proofs that it is no fancy will not be perswaded to entertain the belief of it But when light is come into the world chuse to remain in darkness and will be guided merely by themselves when there is a revelation come from God Which ought to be entertained with the greatest joy as the thing which the world wanted and wisht for and without which they could meet with no resolution of their doubts nor certain directions how to please God whom they had so highly offended In this the Christian Religion gives us full satisfaction and propounds nothing to our practice but what the wisest men ever said was best to be done and took for the most excellent piety As for that which it propounds to our belief it is all made credible by this one great Truth which is proved by a number of Witnesses that Jesus is the Son of God We ought to receive that which such a person taught either with his own mouth or by those whom he inspired and sent in the same manner as the Father sent him For if it be so reasonable as I have demonstrated to be a Believer then it is as unreasonable to be an Unbeliever and no man will be able to open his mouth to justifie such a sin against so many Witnesses as will appear to testifie that they called him to the faith by the clearest and the most powerful evidences that ever were For if the Jews were bound to believe in Moses having no more testimony from God than you have heard we are much more bound to believe in Jesus who hath more and greater Witnesses that he not only came from God but is gone to God and hath all things given into his hands whether in Heaven or in Earth As it was said of them therefore xiv Exod. ult that they believed the Lord and his servant Moses so let it be said of every one now that we believe the Lord and his Son Jesus For this very end were these words written by S. John that we may believe on his Name ver 13. And this is the summ of what God would have us to do the Commandment he hath given us That we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another iii. 23. If we do the former we shall see an evident consequence of the latter For when we are perswaded that He is the Son of God we cannot but see that we ought to receive every word that he says with affectionate reverence and to let every thing that is said concerning him into our very hearts so that we fear him and love him and become obedient to him and depend upon his word and as he himself hath taught us honour him as we do the Father Almighty For we are assured by those who heard him and were with him from the beginning and were witnesses of his Resurrection and received the Holy Ghost from him that He was the WORD MADE FLESH and that the Word was God and all things were made by him and is the Son of God not by office only but in his nature and essence and having assumed our Flesh therein reigns Lord of all for ever For what reason should we refuse to receive that which is so credibly witnessed to be the very Truth of God They that report these things were so pious as I have proved that they cannot be suspected to have invented them nay the very end for which they published them quits them from all suspicion of fraud and forgery For they aimed at nothing but by making man sensible of his great Dignity and the high honour God hath put upon him to possess his heart with an ardent love to God and to his Neighbour and to make him perfectly subject unto his will And is there not great reason if we believe what these Witnesses say that we should apply our best endeavours to please him by living soberly righteously and godly and by abstaining from the least appearance of evil Think what Jesus was and then resolve with your selves what regard is due to his Word Will not the wicked man tremble when he hears him say that none shall go to Heaven but they that do the will of his Father which is in Heaven Then he does not believe that these are the words of the Son of God or does not mind what he reads Who can with any face call him Lord Lord and not acknowledge that he ought to do the things that he says And to acknowledge this and not do those things what a madness is that if we believe our Lord is able to call us to a severe account for our neglect of his will What is there that can recommend chastity and purity of heart to our affection together with mercifulness meekness peaceableness poverty or contentedness of spirit the humility of little children saith in God's providence and such like vertues if this will not that the Son of God hath preacht them to the world as the most amiable qualities in the eyes of God without which we shall never see him nor inherit his Heavenly Kingdom Are not these his words Do not his Sermons teach us these Lessons And if we do these things does he not say we shall have everlasting life and enter into his joy and see the glory which God hath given him For what cause do we question whether this be the way to happiness Do not the same Witnesses which tell us that he is the Son of God testifie withall that he came to teach us Gods will and that this is his will which by the Gospel is declared unto us Why do we not seriously believe it then let me ask again
good works ii Tit. 14. To the doing of which 6. he hath given us the Spirit for our helper Every Miracle that it wrought to say nothing but what is within the verge of these words bids us consider what a Potent Lord we serve for whom nothing is too hard By a Thousand Wonders by more miraculous works than we could have had time to read should they have been all written did he awake the sleepy World commanding them to arise and go about his work and he would be with them his Power which nothing can withstand should aid and succour them The obedience me thinks which the Winds and the Sea and the Fishes and the Graves and the Devils themselves paid him call upon us and tell us both what we ought to do and what assistance we may expect from the power of his might to make us obedient to his Faith Who can resist the joynt importunity of so many Witnesses who can hear all these tell us that the Son-of-God is come by whom we must be governed and yet be so senselesly obstinate as to say We will not have this man to rule over us O deaf ears O hearts harder than the nether Milstone which will not let such loud voices sink into them such mighty arguments penetrate and mollifie them into compliance with him What can reduce such Souls and bring them under any government who will not be reclaimed by the authority of the Son of God I may call Heaven and Earth to Witness against such obdurate hearts The Father Word and Holy Ghost these are Witnesses in Heaven that testifie it is our duty and interest too to submit our selves unto him The Water Bloud and the Spirit they are Witnesses on Earth which agree together to perswade us to take his easie Yoke upon us Can neither Heaven nor Earth prevail with us Is not God the Father Almighty great enough to lay his commands upon us Is the WORD of God of less credit than the common vogue and opinion of the World with us Cannot the Holy Ghost be believed concerning the place from whence it comes when it says that no unclean thing shall enter in thither Do we think his holy life to be a troublesome folly and despise his bloud and resist his spirit and receive all the grace of God in vain Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth after God had sent many of his Servants who were disregarded He last of all sent his Son into the World saying surely they will reverence my Son but they have rebelled against him I might call for Hell it self to witness against such perverse and disloyal Creatures The Devils will not fail to accuse such men hereafter for they believe and tremble they acknowledge this great Truth that Jesus is the Holy one of God iv Luke 34. which is the very same that Jesus himself said when he tells us the Father hath sanctified him i.e. made him his holy One and sent him into the world x. John 36. And that is more I doubt than a great many irreligious spirits will confess in their works I am sure the most of the Christian world utterly deny it Do you think the Devils who made that confession would have disobeyed him if they might have taken our place and had his Salvation offered to them Would they not have shaken off their chains and taken upon them his yoke had they received such gracious invitations as he hath made to us Let us not be worse than they I beseech you by casting away that hope which was never given them and slighting such tenders of mercy which are peculiarly directed to the children of men But let us rather admire adore and magnifie this amazing love of God who sent his Son so kindly to speak to such wretches as we are And let us show that we are sensible of his love by hearkening to his voice and readily submitting our selves with all dutiful nay joyful affection to his commands See I beseech you again that you refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Let all his Laws be held most sacred and be devoutly reverenced and observed Know that this is your wisdom and understanding nay remember that it is your life And therefore keep your Souls diligently lest you forget those things which you have heard and lest they depart from your hearts all the days of your life Chuse death rather than the life of the unrighteous fornicators idolaters adulterers thieves covetous drunkards revilers and extortioners who he hath pronounced shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Do you not remember how observant the children of Jonadab the son of Rechab were of their Fathers Commandment and how they could not be tempted no not by a Prophet to contradict it xxxv Jer. 6. What Arguments I pray you had they so reasonable and moving as those which urge us for this injunction Might they not have slipt many ways with better colour than we can do from this obligation Did there want plausible pretences to plead their excuse if they had absolved themselves and not observed it Might they not have said that every Creature of God was good and none to be refused That their stomachs sometimes required a little Wine and that it was reasonable to give them satisfaction That their Father had gone beyond his Authority and taken away the just liberty which God had left them That they were restrained enough by the Divine Laws and that there needed no more of his making O the insensibleness and ingratitude of Christian people that can think of these mens reverence to so severe and hard a command of their Father and be less obedient to their most gracious Lord What a forehead hath that man who dares venture to break any of his Precepts when he hath so many Reasons to believe that he hath laid none upon us but those which are the very mind and will of God and are such a necessary indispensable burden that unless we carry them we cannot be saved There is nothing that can be pretended why we should not strictly tye our selves to his will Not only the love which engaged the Rechabites enforces our obedience but infinitely more reason than there was in their Fathers will and pleasure for we are assured that Jesus is the Son of God He could not but have a perfect understanding of what was fit and convenient for us If there had been any other way more easie to Heaven than this he hath set before us we cannot but think He would have revealed it unto us If there were any license that could be granted us to dispense with our obedience He was not so unkind as to conceal it much less would he have taken it upon his death that none will be allowed For he declared openly in his Sermons that he will not only take
Age. Increase of wickedness not only in themselves but others hath made some so impudent as to scoff at Religion and blaspheme Christ While they see those who acknowledge him do no better than themselves they are inclined to think that their belief makes them no more worth than those who have none at all Nay since they concur with them in their wicked practises they imagine that their fear of Hell and hope of Heaven is no part of their belief but only of their profession The hands of Infidels are strengthened in their impieties by the perfidiousness of ungodly believers They joyn with them to pull down Christian belief and make that be thought nothing which doth nothing above what infidelity doth And therefore let all those who love the memory of our Saviour who love their posterity and would not have them in danger to be drown'd in a deluge of infidelity put a stop to it by holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience 1 Tim. iii. 9. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity and endeavour all he can to support the honour of his Name and of his Religion by a strict observance of all his holy commands They who believe not or mind not what they believe may think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 1 Pet. iv 4. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20.21 And that now is the next thing which flows from hence If we believe the Record or Witness which God hath given of his Son it contains in it the greatest joy in the World For this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son But I must refer that to another Discourse alone by it self Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy-Ghost GLory in the highest Let the Holy and undivided Trinity be for ever glorified by all Mankind especially by all Christian People who are made partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit Blessed be God I most thankfully receive the manifold testimony which he hath given of his well beloved Son and humbly bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family of Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by the same spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that I may be filled with all the fulness of God And God forbid that any Soul who hears the voice of these Witnesses of God should refuse and turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven and hath declared to us the unsearchable riches of God's grace and the whole counsel of his will O that all they upon whom the glorious Gospel of Christ hath shined may most heartily believe in his Name Let them all be knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And God forbid that any of them should hold the truth in unrighteousness But as they have received Christ Jesus the Lord so let them walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as they have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving And quicken that faith O thou author and finisher of it that it may work with great power in all Christian hearts and mightily bow their wills to forgo any of their own desires rather than displease thee and forfeit thy love and favour Let it inable them to overcome the World that they may be no longer slaves to the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life but conquering all these may yield themselves unto God to be the servants of righteousness and obey from the heart that form of doctrine which is delivered unto them And may the powerful working of faith and love and hope make all our duty easie to us that we may ever render thee cheerful as well as constant service May thy testimonies be our daily delight and the rejoycing of our heart May we love them above gold yea above fine gold May they be dearer unto us than thousands of gold and silver May we daily renew our strength and run and not be weary and walk and not faint May the holiness of our lives bear witness to the sincerity of our faith that others may glorifie thee our God for our professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ And we obtaining a good report by faith and carrying this testimony out of the world with us that we have pleased thee thou mayst receive us to thy self to be glorified with thee and to rejoyce in thy love towards us for ever Amen THE END Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1 9. And when he had spoken these things while they be held he was taken up a Cloud receiued him out of their sight to And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell H. Which also said this same le sus shall so come as you haue seen him go into heaven THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN V. 11. PART II. By SYMON PATRICK D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by E. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXVII 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 Majestie 's most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO cast your eye upon the Second Part of that Work the First Part of which I took the confidence to address unto your Grace the last year It is concerning that ETERNALL LIFE which was with the Father as St. John speaks and now is manifested to us by his Son Jesus Christ who hath published the most gracious Purposes of God the Father towards us The thoughts of which as they cannot but be at all times exceeding welcome to Devout Christians especially to those who are faithfull Ministers in Christ's Kingdom so never more then when they
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
persons use are to the Nobleness of this Life In which saith Maimonides Cap. viii de Poenitent there is no room for meat and drink and such like pleasures but the just sit with Crowns on their heads and delight themselves in the Splendour of the Divine Majesty There are many names whereby this Life is called Derech Mashal after the figurative way of speaking in the Holy Books For example the Mountain of the Lord the place of his Holiness the Courts of the Lord the Beauty or Sweetness of the Lord the Tabernacle of God the House of God his holy Temple the Gate of the Lord. And after the same way of similitude and figurative speech Wise men call this Good prepared for the Just by the name of a Banquet or Feast and most commonly the World to come Let not this Good seem light to thee nor do thou imagine the reward of Piety to be so little as to drink the richest wines to eat the best victuals to have the most beautifull wives to be cloathed in silk and scarlet to dwell in ivory palaces and to have all the furniture of gold and silver and such like things But understand that there is no Good in this world to which that supreme Good can be compared but onely by way of figure and similitude In truth there is no proportion between the Good of the Soul in the other World and the Goods of the Body such as meat and drink in this But that Great Good is incomprehensible and incomparable according to those words of David xxxi Psal 19. O how great good hast thou laid up for those that fear thee He could not tell how great but with what desire did he long after the life of that world when he said xxvii Psal 13. I believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living That 's another name whereby they called this place of Bliss For wheresoever their ancient Wise men saith their Mysticall exposition of the Psalms meet with this phrase in Scripture the land of the living Manasseh Ben Isr Probl. xvii de Creatione they expound it of Paradise because that is the country where men live for ever But there are no words like those of our Blessed Lord to represent this surpassing Happiness of the pure in heart who he promises shall SEE GOD. Let us therefore here fix our minds and stay a while before we pass on any farther to search into the meaning of this phrase which is the sublimest and most comprehensive of all other whereby this ETERNALL LIFE is described to us I. And the least that can be meant by it is that we shall be there where He hath his most special residence and shall dwell in his House in the Heavens where there are so many Mansions There the Angels are said to stand before God to behold the face of our heavenly Father And therefore for us to see GOD or behold him must in generall denote that we shall be more like Angels then Men and being admitted into the society of those heavenly Ministers shall take up our habitation in the same place where they wait upon the Divine Majesty Whence it is that as the Angels are called the Sons of God i. Job 6. ii 1. so are all those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that World and the Resurrection of the Dead xx Luk. 35. We are now the Sons of GOD saith St. John 1. Epist iii. 1 2. in a state that is of great favour with him and therefore need not care if the world hate us But we have far greater things in hope and look for a more excellent relation to him it not appearing yet what we shall be The meaning of which last words in all probability is this that the manner wherein we shall be the Sons of God in the other world is not now manifest There is no body knows how near we shall be to him when we shall be the Children of God being the children of the Resurrection as our Saviour speaks in the place before mentioned Onely this is certain as I said just now that we shall be Companions of Angels and such Sons of God as they are And withall St. John here tells us that when He or it shall appear we shall be like him it being naturall that the Child should bear some resemblance to its Father II. Now from hence it follows that to SEE GOD is to enjoy such favours as He will be pleased to impart unto us in that high and holy place where he dwells yea to have some participation with him in his Blessedness who is most Blessed for evermore For to See in the language of the Hebrews is to enjoy when it is applied to a thing desirable or to be in that state when it is applied to that which is hurtfull Thus to see good xxxiv Psal 12. is to possess it and to lead an happy life and to see the good of Jerusalem cxxviii 5. is to partake of its peace and prosperity and to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living xxvii Psalm 13. is in its first sense to be delivered by God and to enjoy the sweet fruits of it before he died Nor is there any other meaning of seeing life and seeing the kingdom of God but this that the parties to whom those promises are made shall be put into the possession of such blessings And on the other side to see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds xxvi Matth. 64. is to feel his heavy wrath the stroke of his revengefull hand upon their nation as may be gathered from i. Revel 7. And to see death lxxxix Psal 48. ii Luk. 26. is no more then to die This is so plain that those things that belong to other senses yet are said to be seen which can signifie nothing else but that they are perceived or enjoyed O generation saith Jeremiah ii 31. see ye the word of the Lord that is hear it mind and consider it or as Maimonides expounds it * More Nev. par 1. c. 46. the intention of the Prophet is that they should apprehend the sense of God's word And that likewise which is said to be seen in one place is said to be tasted in another as to see death viii Joh. 51. is the same with tasting of death ver 52. Which is a demonstration that to See in their language is frequently used for having a sense perception or enjoyment of any object And therefore we cannot necessarily draw any more out of these words of our Saviour which promise that we shall see God but that we shall have as reall an enjoyment of him and as sensibly perceive him as we do now any good in this world though the manner of it be not certainly known as not so plainly deducible from these words Let us conceive with our selves as well as we can what his
in your breasts and preserve the fire for one hour from going out and you cannot imagine till you try to what an heavenly temper it will purifie and refine your Spirits It will make you heartily in love with the Life of Christ here which leads to such a blissfull Life in the other world You will zealously follow those holy desires and resolutions which you will necessarily feel it inspiring you withall And you will not suffer any temptation whatsoever to divert you from that earnest pursuit but still be saying as St. Austin begins and ends his Confessions Thou Lord hast made us for thee and our heart is uneasie and restless untill it repose it self in thee Who being that Good which needs no good art always at rest for thou thy self art thine own Rest But to understand this what man will give to man what Angel to Angel or what Angel to man Let it be askt of thee let it be sought in thee let it be knockt for at thee So so shall it be received so shall it be found so shall it be opened Amen III. And the more we think of it the more we must needs still desire it because our Understanding being filled with the knowledge and our Will with the love of the chiefest Good we shall sensibly perceive a Divine joy resulting from these and flowing into our heart with inexpressible pleasure For it is essentially included in every act both of that Knowledge and that Love as may be clearly discerned by what hath been already said We are now compounded of different and sometimes contrary passions which frequently disquiet us and disturb our peace by falling out with our Reason and with one another But in that blessed LIFE there will be no such troublesome mixture no fear no sorrow no hatred no anger or any the like remaining But joy alone advanced to the greatest height of glory will be left in the possession of the whole Soul and have the sole Dominion of it to it self The reason is because we shall for ever have the presence of the greatest Good which will exclude the presence of any evil to give us the least fear of losing what we love That 's the originall of all our Passions As we are glad when we enjoy any thing that we love so we are troubled when we want it or when we lose it and we are full of care and solicitude when we eagerly pursue it and rise up in hatred and displeasure at that which opposes our desires When Love then is secure by the possession of that Supreme Good whom no evill can approach the cause of all other passions will be banished and Joy alone be left to triumph in the conquest of them For which cause this heavenly Joy must needs be the more excessive when we shall have nothing else to do but to rejoyce This will mightily increase the greatness of it that there will be no employment for the rest of our Passions which here whether we will or no take their turns together with it and consequently there will be nothing to diminish the greatness of it by any trouble or disorder that can be given it For the proof of which I need onely refer you to the foregoing discourses and desire you to reflect upon what you have read of the Knowledge and Love of God You could not but observe how joy and pleasure was so inseparably knit to them and interwoven with them that I could not well speak of them but I must touch upon this also 1. As for the first of them we all feel a certain complacency which our very Senses as well as our Understanding takes in objects conformable to them even before our appetite moves at all towards them Truly the light is sweet says the Wise man and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the Sun xi Eccles. 7. Look then how much the Divine Light excells all other and how much the Majesty and Splendour of the Authour of Nature is beyond the best of his Works the glory and brightness of the Sun and so much sweeter and more pleasant will it be for our Mind to be filled with that Light and to behold that first and Originall beauty from whence all other are derived We cannot think of God and of our Saviour now without a singular joy and therefore we shall not be able to SEE them without an excess of it 2. And secondly as for Love Joy is a no less necessary attendant on it or rather is intwined with it being nothing else but that delight and pleasure which springs up from the sense of any Good that we have taken possession of So that look how great the Good is to which the passion of Love hath carried us proportionable will be the Joy when we feel that we are owners of it And if it now please us so much to think that we are really beloved of God and of his Son Jesus what an endless pleasure will the sense of their Love yield us when it hath placed us in Heaven Do but consider now how vast the Love of the Lord Jesus is in coming down from Heaven to us and that he knows better reasons of his Love then we do and that his own pleasure is concerned in loving us and that he cannot but finish his Love to those who are purchased with his Bloud and are of his Spirit and it will give a marvellous satisfaction to your heart at present But what it will do then when he will have expressed all his Love to us and perfected his kind intentions towards us we are not able to tell We can onely consider a little farther how he hath plainly told us that they who love him will rejoyce now because he is gone to the Father xiv Joh. 28. And therefore it must needs be an additionall pleasure in the other life to see what we here believe our Dearest Lord shining in the Glory of God the Father and inthroned on the right hard of the Majesty in the Heavens It will be an exceeding high satisfaction to us to behold him who loved us so much and was so ill requited for it by men so gloriously rewarded for it by God himself But it is so easie to apply what hath been said to this purpose that I shall leave such considerations as these to your own diligence and note something that is not altogether so obvious 3. Which is that pious Souls will considerably augment their joy by the reflexions they will make upon their happiness and the strong attention of their mind to their own delight and pleasure For we are never so truly delighted as when we find that we are not deceived in the comfort and contentment which we promised our selves and when we take notice of all the pleasing motions that are in our hearts and duly mark and observe the sweetness of them Before this reflexion and self-observation our Souls are onely touched by the Objects
Schoolmen imagine is the Aureola or little golden Crown which the Judge will give to rare Vertues By which they mean some accidentall reward superadded to the essentiall Blessedness Like the little crown of gold wherewith the other crown upon the Table of Shew-bread was finished as the Vulg. Lat. renders xxv Exod. 25. from whence this expression seems to be borrowed But that the overplus of reward which Christ will give to some shall consist onely in a peculiar brightness of their body I see no ground to determine because God hath so many other ways to crown the faith and love and hope of those whom he delights to honour It is better to conclude all this discourse with the words of the same Father which follow a little after * Ib. cap. 21. What and how great the spirituall grace of the Body will be because the time is not come to make experiment I am afraid lest all that we say of it be rashly spoken And therefore I shall onely adde of which we may be certain that as Macarius observes whether it be a greater or a lesser glory that we attain we shall all shine together in one most blessed and glorious place His words are these As Birds produce feathers of a different kind Homil. 32. and some fly nearer to the earth others farther off but all fly in one common air or as there is one Heaven which hath many Stars in it some greater then others but all fixed in heaven So the Saints shall be differently planted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Heaven of the Divinity and in one invisible country Thither let us all direct our paths thither let us continually aspire saying as he does in another place to which I shall adde the words of another great man O how ineffable are the promises of Christians Macarius Homil. 4. who have such glorious expectations that the Faith and riches of one single Soul cannot be equalled by the glory and beauty of heaven and earth though we take in all their furniture and treasures and variety and goodliness and bravery And yet how fairly do these things shine in our eyes and with what pleasure do we behold their beauty Anselm in Protolog If then the created life be so good how good is that Life which creates If the salvation we receive be so pleasant how sweet is that Salvation which gives all Salvation If that wisedom be so lovely which understands the works of God how lovely is that Wisedom which of nothing contrived them all Finally if there be so many and so great delights in delectable things what and how great is that Delight which is in him that made all things delectable He that shall enjoy this Good what shall he have what shall he not have He shall have what he will and what he would not he shall not have If honour and riches be desired God will make his good and faithful servants rulers over many things Nay they shall be called Sons of God and Gods and where his Son is there they shall be heirs of God and coheirs with Christ If they desire true security there is none like that for certainly they shall be as certain that these or rather this Good shall never by any means be wanting to them as they are certain they shall never leave it of themselves nor God their Lover ever take it away against the will of those he loves nor any thing stronger then He be able to separate them and God They shall rejoyce therefore perpetually And they shall rejoyce as much as they love and love as much as they know And how much O Lord shall they know thee then how much shall they love thee Certainly neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man in this life how much they shall know thee and how much they shall love thee in that I beseech thee O God let me know thee let me love thee that I may rejoyce in thee And if I cannot do it to the full in this life O that I may profit every day untill it come to the full Let thy Knowledge grow in me here and there be made full let thy Love increase and there also be full that here my Joy may in hope be great and there in possession full Amen CHAP. IV. Of the ETERNITY of this LIFE FRom this larger then was at first designed consideration of the nature of this LIFE pass we now to a short Meditation of the ETERNITY of it which indeed is the Crown that God sets upon its head the Circle if I may so speak which wreathing it self about this Happiness makes it to be our sovereign Good And it may not be unworthy our observation that this Eternity of Life is as far above the continuance of all other blessings heretofore promised as the Life it self is LIFE among the Jews according to the letter of their Law signifying onely all earthly good things there was onely a long life not an eternall in the land of Canaan promised to them that kept that Law But quite otherwise the LIFE promised by Christ consisting onely in the enjoyment of spirituall and heavenly blessings it is not a long but an eternall never-ending life in the possession of these good things which he hath assured to us It being but fit that as the Life exceeds that which Moses promised so the duration of it also should as much out-run his as for ever extends it self beyond an Age. Now the word ETERNALL may be conceived to comprehend in it these Three things I. First that there is nothing but LIFE in this state of Blessedness which shall not be interrupted by any dolefull accident Life and Death I told you in the holy language signifie the same with Blessedness and Misery And therefore the Eternity of life must include in its notion a state of pure happiness of mere and unmixed pleasure without any thing that deserves the name of Death to give it the least annoyance There we may hope to be so happy as to know without mistake and to be wise without folly and to increase in knowledge without our present toil to acquire it Love is there without hatred jealousy or envy joy without any sighing or sorrow praises without complaints obedience without reluctance speed and alacrity without dulness and heaviness in one word perfect purity and holiness without spot or blemish to sully the glory of it As this lower region of the air we see is the place of clouds and darkness thunder and lightning storm and tempest but to the dwellings of the Sun and fixed Stars none of these pitchy vapours ascend to obscure their brightness or trouble their peace just so is this World the scene of misery and vexation confusion and disorder our bodies are tossed with severall storms and our Souls many times hurried with more violent tempests the fierce gusts of their own passions but when
we ascend to the region of Light and are cloathed with the Sun we shall be out of the reach of these troubles and find our selves in a state of perfect rest and joy without the least disgust to abate our contentment And what will make us despise this Valley of tears if this blessed hope have not force enough to lift our hearts above it Who would not desire to come to the Mount of Vision and Transfiguration where we shall SEE THE LORD and be so changed thereby as to be made impassible as he is Let the Readers pardon me if I so far digress as to ask them What is this Wilderness wherein you live that you should love it better then that heavenly Canaan What is forty years or perhaps seventy of toil and labour to that Eternall Rest which Christ hath promised Are not these husks contemptible in respect of the Manna the Bread of life of which if a man eat he shall live for ever Is not our life here a dream a shaddow of life in comparison with this Life that is everlasting Why then are you so hardly perswaded to take off your thoughts and affections from things beneath and not so much to handle the thorns and prickles that are in all mortall things Why should we be at so much pains to draw you into this Paradise where as there is a perpetuall Spring so all joy flourishes without the least sense of grief to spoil its pleasures If you would have us to account you men we cannot but expect you should entertain this Happiness unless you can either disbelieve it or prove it falls so short of this description that it is not worth the price you must give for it But how unable you will be to doe the former shall appear presently when I have told you farther how far short this description is of the incomparable excellency of this Life II. For this word ETERNALL added to it may well denote the LIFE we speak of to be without any intermission as well as without any intermixture As there is no contrary sense of grief in that happy State so there is no insensibleness of joy The blessed Soul will never cease to feel its own pleasures because as there is no night in that heavenly country so there is no sleep in which we can scarce be said to live The life we shall lead there will be one continued Act of knowing loving rejoycing praising and obeying God and there will be no void spaces wherein we shall doe nothing or wherein we shall doe something else We cannot conceive how any drowziness should creep upon us or heaviness oppress our spirits and as for other actions besides those now named what should there be since all evill is banished all sin shut out of that Paradise As for all Good works there will be none of those wherein we are now imployed to exercise our Obedience as not befitting the Nobleness of that state wherein neither we nor others shall be in any need of those things which now call for our Charity to them or Justice to our selves What shall works of Mercy doe in that world where there is no Misery How shall we visit the sick where immortality and incorruption provides for a continuall health What hospitality shall we use there where no poor inhabit nor strangers come How shall we cloath the naked where they are invested with a robe of the purest and most unspotted light What Enemies shall we study to reconcile where universall Friendship reigns What differences shall we compose where all live in unity and harmonious love And if these works of Mercy shall be useless surely then all works of Necessity as they are termed will be superfluous There will be no meat no drink no apparell or habitation to be cared for where there is no hunger thirst and cold or such like wants which now continually pinch us The onely work will be to think of God to love him whose love will appear so wonderfull to rejoyce in him to reckon up his benefits to thank him for them to perform him such services as are suitable to the dignity of that condition to love all the blessed society who will contribute all they can to each other's happiness And how incomparably great will that happiness be when we shall have no other imployment but to be happy There are two great defects as a famous Divine of our own hath observed which spoil the intireness of all our delights here but will find no place in the enjoyments of that happy state For 1. all the Capacities we have now are so narrow and weak that we cannot long bear any high pleasure but we are soon satiated with it and are fain even for our own ease to lay it aside and seek some new delight This makes our best contentments not to be pure and sincere without the mixture of some dregs for of other this fleshly state will not admit And besides this 2. while we study the satisfaction of one Capacity another must be content to go without the pleasure that it desires They cannot all be gratified together but the rest must wait till one hath done And which is worse while we fulfill the desires of the lower Faculties the nobler commonly are deprived of their satisfaction They that are given to their appetite and are great purveyors for the grosser senses of the body not onely defraud the Mind but even the purer senses the Eye and the Ear which are the great Gates of wisedome of their most delightfull enjoyments Nay such is the imperfection of this state that the Mind it self cannot eamestly fix in one sort of studies but commonly it is render'd thereby very unapt to reap the delight that other parts of knowledge afford We have seen deep Contemplatours in severall Sciences prove too unskilfull in matters of common prudence and others strangely quick in worldly business to which they have bent their minds who have been extreme inapprehensive of Divine Mysteries But in the life to come it will be quite otherwise for our Capacities as I have discoursed in the foregoing Chapters will be there mightily improved and so inlarged and widened that we shall be in no danger to take a surfeit of the fullest enjoyments that can present themselves unto us And such will be the friendly agreement and sweet harmony between the capacities and desires of every faculty there that the satisfaction of one can no way turn to the prejudice of any other but rather further and set forward its true delight and contentment For then the more we know the more we shall love and the more we love the more we shall know how good God is And this we shall doe without any weariness which now forces us to break off our sweetest enjoyments because then we shall not spend but rather improve ourselves by exercise and motion Which makes another considerable difference between this state and that which we expect All our
and let it into the dwelling of God as soon as he should put off his mortality There he beheld Jesus standing whereas he is commonly represented as sitting at God's right hand that he might know He was ready to meet his Spirit and entertain it into his heavenly mansions as well as that He was coming to destroy his persecutors and put an end to their power and nation And he saw also the Glory of God as the Crown he should win by his Martyrdom which had as sensible an effect upon his heart for the confirming of his faith and constancy as if he had heard the Almighty call to him and say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be not faint-hearted O Stephen nor suffer any degenerous thoughts to enter into thy breast Though there is no man to stand by thee no Friend on earth to assist thee in this distressed season yet I with my beloved Son behold what is a doing A happy Rest and repose is ready for thee The gates of Paradise stand wide open to thee Have patience a while and leaving this temporary life make hast to that which is eternall Still thou seest God is in humane Nature a thing beyond all worldly thoughts Thou hast been taught by the Apostles that the Father hath a genuine beloved Son behold I shew him to thee as much as thou canst bear And he stands at my right hand that by the very site of the place thou mayst know the dignity he hath It was a scandall heretofore to many that God should be on the Earth cloathed with flesh But behold him now with me on high in a celestiall supercelestiall condition still having the form of man to confirm thee in the belief of the gracious dispensation which is now compleated Be not disturbed be not dejected though for his sake thou beest stoned Beholding the Dispenser of Rewards do not fear the combate Forsake thy body and despising it as an earthly Prison as a ruinous house as a potter's vessel easily broken come run hither being set at liberty to the portion and inheritance here reserved for thee For the crown of brave atchievements is ready and expects thee Step over from the earth to heaven and take it Leave thy body to the bloudy murtherers as a morsel to dogs Leave the mad inraged multitude and come to the quire of Angels In these words Asterius expresses the sense of this heavenly Vision Encomium in Protomart wherein God shewed himself to this valiant man that he might not be struck with any fear by the greatness of the danger For this cause he did not send an Angel to assist him as to the Apostles in prison nor any ministring power and fellow-servant as he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he presented himself that being the first-fruits of the Martyrs he might leave a noble example to all that followed And indeed what could more incourage them then to hear so holy a man departing the world with these words in his mouth I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God This was a notable Testimony which the heavenly WORD gave that he was possessed of ETERNALL LIFE whereby he animated this blessed Martyr from what he saw Him enjoy to doe as He had done Which could have no force in it to persuade him unless his meaning had been that he should no sooner leave the World but ascend up thither where he was And so St. Stephen understood it for as they were stoning him the greatest punishment the Jews could inflict he called upon our Saviour saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit vii Act. 59. He doubted not of audience when he beheld him who is sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high i. Heb. 3. in another posture Proclus Orat. xvii not sitting but standing there What was the business to use the words of another ancient Bishop that made him rise thus out of his Father's throne He saw this noble Combatant in his Agony and rose up to crown his victory And it was as if he had said Fear not Stephen there is none shall beguile thee of thy reward I am risen out of my throne to reach thee my right hand Beholding me who was crucified grapple with the danger that presents it self to thee I am he whom thou sawest hanging on a tree by virtue of that crucifixion I will reward thee I preside in these Combats and deal the Crowns to Conquerours Fear not therefore those that go about to stone thee they do but rear thee a ladder against their wills to heaven Do not fear them the stones will be but as so many steps to that blessed place where thou seest me It is not for thee to fear the stones who art built on me the chief Corner-stone and therefore canst not fare worse then I do who am in glory for ever and ever With such thoughts as these this good Man laid down his life which is as great an argument as any of this nature can be that Jesus both can and will give Eternall Life to his followers For else a person so full of Wisedom that they were not able to dispute with him vi Act. 10. would not have ventured his life and endured the worst of deaths having nothing to comfort him in his agony but onely the hope he had from Jesus that he would receive his Spirit This was it that gave him such boldness and full assurance of faith With these words in his mouth he would have died but that he pitied those who did not see as much as he did Which made him expire in prayer for his persecutours wishing them no worse then that they might not be hindred by this sin from believing in Jesus and going thither where he hoped presently to be received So the same Asterius rightly understands those words LORD lay not this sin to their charge He doth not wish them absolute impunity which had been openly to oppose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Ordinance and constitution and to correct the judgment and decree of the most Just who hath appointed a deserved punishment to murtherers but he begs of God that notwithstanding this crime he would give them true compunction and bring them to repentance It being as if he had said Do not let them die in their uncircumcision Draw them by repentance to the acknowledgment of thee Kindle the flame of the Spirit in their hearts By the means of my bloud let them be converted that being washed in the laver of thy grace and in thy bloud they may be delivered from their iniquities A most pious conclusion of this bloudy Tragedy one of the principal Actours in which was presently after so miraculously touched from heaven that it was visible our Lord had heard the devout prayer of his Martyr in this particular and therefore had not denied his other request but received his Spirit also unto himself II. For if any thing could be clearer
and have reserved something peculiar to be given as a testimony of it over and above what I have done my self And that was their speaking with all tongues on a sudden and their prophesying whereby they were inabled to preach to all Nations as he had done to the Jews alone and work the same wonders among the heathen which he had wrought onely in that Country A marvellous evidence this was of the power and glory of Christ to give eternall life in that being absent he did those things by his Apostles which were not performed whilst he was present with them And therefore 8. upon this account the HOLY GHOST thus given to the Apostles and those that believed by their word is called the earnest of the inheritance in their hearts untill the redemption of the purchased possession 2 Cor. i. 22. i. Eph. 14. It was something given them in hand before his second appearing for full redemption to assure them they should as certainly receive all that was behind as they had already received this pawn and pledge of his mighty love And indeed we have all much reason to think that he will doe very great things for us when he appears in his own person as the Holy Ghost assures us he will iii. Act. 19 20. since he hath done so much good to the world by the Apostles his Deputies who were men like to our selves If his Servants brought such blessings to men then what will the Lord himself bring with him at his coming If his Ministers restored dead men to life again the Master sure will bestow a life as much excelling that which they restored as he excells his Officers In short if the people lookt so earnestly on two poor Fisher-men when they had cured a man lame from his mother's womb iii. Act. 12. much more will the Lord of glory draw the eyes of the world to him by doing astonishing things for his people when he shall come as the Apostle speaks 2 Thess i. 10. to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe He will give such a glory to us as will be much for his own credit and reflect glory on himself He will not so much consult what is fit for us to receive as what is fit for such a Prince as he to give He will cloath us with such honour and glory that it will be an honour to him to have his followers appear in such rich and shining liveries It will set men into admiration to behold the bounty of his royall favour to them and much advance the greatness of this Prince to see such subjects attend him the meanest of which are Kings Nor do we strain our fancies and exalt our hopes above what we can reasonably expect when we look for such high dignities for that we shall be admitted into his heavenly Court and be thus sumptuously apparell'd and magnificently entertained by Angels to wait upon us and carry us to him we are assured by the testimony of the HOLY GHOST which cloathed poor men here with a power greater then the most absolute Monarch on earth ever enjoyed and enabled them to deal greater and richer gifts to men yea to scatter them abroad every day as they past along the streets or did but spred their shadow over them then Kings and Emperours could doe at their Coronation or Conquerours at their most magnificent Triumphs III. And as a farther proof of this we must observe once more that the HOLY GHOST gave its testimony of the Life that is in Jesus and shall be given to us when it fell down upon the common sort of believers as it had done upon the Apostles who were not desirous to keep the miraculous gifts of it to themselves alone but readily communicated them to others It was a great wonder to hear the Apostles speak with tongues and prophesy to see them cure the lame and restore the blind to their sight nay raise the dead to life onely by bidding them live and be well in the Name of Jesus things which no Potentates on Earth as I said before could bestow though they were forward to take to themselves the name of Gods and affected Divine honours But it was a greater wonder to see other illiterate Christians receive the same gifts by the laying on of their hands and invocation of the Name of the Lord Jesus who presently filled them with the HOLY GHOST This was a thing so strange that they could not but look upon it as a token of the most extraordinary Love of God to mankind from whence they might expect as much happiness as the word ETERNALL LIFE I told you imports For 1. nothing ever discovered the capacity of humane Souls so much as this effusion of the HOLY GHOST which shew'd how large and wide they are and how much they can contain and to what degree of excellence they may be improved and raised and that on a sudden by the power of God This gave them a strong tast of what was to come and both made them relish immortall life above all other things and also put them in hope to attain it by the favour of that person who had promoted them to such a sight of it in this vast measure of wisedom and love wherewith they were indued For 2. it could argue nothing less they might very well think then that they who wore such eminent marks of his favour as to have a Crown of life and glory set upon their heads in this world should be raised to far greater honours in the next when they should be more capable of his kindness and nearer to himself And indeed 3. since hereby he dwelt in them and they became the Temples of the Holy Ghost they might be confident he would not suffer so holy a place to be pulled down but in order to the building of it better And since the Holy Ghost also 4. wonderfully inlarged their hearts and made them exceeding desirous as well as instrumentall in conveying such exceeding great benefits to others they could not but look upon it as an undeniable argument of the most bounteous goodness of God who is far more inclinable to doe good then Men can be and more ready to reward our services then we can be to doe our work And considering moreover 5. the promise he had made of ETERNALL LIFE the gift of the Holy Ghost was a marvellous earnest of it and a kind of beginning of it in their Souls What shall an ignorant Sea-man be made a Prophet and speak with all tongues a poor Tent-maker unlock Mysteries and indite spirituall Songs and Hymns a man that yesterday could mend nothing but his Nets now cure a man of a bloudy-flux or mend a lame leg a rude Souldier command Devils and storm his strong holds more easily then a town without walls Lord what light is this might they justly say which shines in our dungeon what power is this wherewith we see frail
for so villanous a Murther But they granting that his Bloud was shed by them we shall soon prove it was for another cause even that which is recorded in our Books Which none ever undertook to confute though they were put forth in the face both of Jews and Romans who might long since have exposed our Religion to shame if Pontius Pilate could have averred out of the Records of the Court where our Saviour was judged that things were not so as his Disciples have related And that this Bloud of his so shed and upon such an account as we have received is of very great force to induce us to believe another World and an eternall Happiness there for us with Jesus I am now to demonstrate and shall easily make good unless we will entertain such low and slight thoughts of him as no man can suffer to lodge in his mind who attends to the Doctrine he preached and all the arguments which prove him to be the Son of God That alone indeed is sufficient to justify all that he preached particularly that God by him will give Eternall Life to those that obey him If he be so nearly related to God as even his Bloudy Death I shew'd in the former Treatise proved him to be we may believe him when he says that As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself But I shall wave this generall way of reasoning though undeniable and offer some things more particular to every one's serious consideration I. It is apparent by the whole story which it would be too long to relate that to lay down his life was an act perfectly voluntary in our Saviour who if he had pleased might have avoided it He might have chosen whether he would have died or no for no man as he said x. Joh. 18. could take his life away but he laid it down of himself openly professing I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again He need not have faln into their cruel hands it is plain unless he had freely consented to it And when they were about to apprehend him many legions of Angels were ready for his rescue if he had pleased to lay his commands upon them xxvi Matt. 53. Nay when he made the Souldiers feel his power so that they went backward and fell to the ground xviii Joh. 6. he could withall have escaped and gone his ways as he had done at other times when this reason alone is given why they did not apprehend him as they attempted because his hour was not yet come vii Joh. 30. viii 20. that is He did not see it to be the fittest time for him to resign up himself to their power Now it cannot enter into man's deliberate thoughts that he would have so freely without any constraint or resistence given up his life especially when by preserving it he might have lived in great repute esteem and admiration of the people yea have been honoured for escaping out of the hands of his enemies if he had not been sure of ETERNALL LIFE and a greater glory in the Heavens which he should win by going so willingly out of this present world He that saved others could surely have saved himself and spoiled their jeer xxvii Matt. 42. if his will had not been otherwise resolved He that raised Lazarus from the dead could have more easily struck all his opposers dead at his feet if it had been his pleasure What should make his will then thus bent upon death What hindred the putting forth of his power for himself which it is manifest he so often used for the benefit of others What could move him so tamely like a Lamb to give his throat to the bloudy knife and to hang so meekly upon an infamous cross if it were not the contemplation of an incomparable felicity which he hoped to obtain by his Obedience to God and bearing witness to the Truth All men of sense cannot chuse but look upon this as an undoubted Argument that he himself stedfastly believed and had good assurance of the truth of what he preached For who is there that can find in his heart to die and die in such a manner so painfully and with such ignominy for that which he thinks in his conscience is false nay does not know to be certain It is next to an impossibility that any man in his wits should so far forget himself as to be forward to throw away all he hath against the strongest inclinations and perswasions of nature which abhors death and most of all a cruell and disgracefull death merely to justifie a lie which humane Nature is ashamed of without the help of torments to make it odious There have been sundry examples of rashness and foolish boldness but none can be produced nor easily imagined of such an one as this For what can a man propose to himself who lays his life at the stake to make good that which he believes hath no truth in it What can he hope to get by such a mad resolved obstinacy No man attempts any thing without an end much less will he expose his life to the least hazzard without a cause of some moment What can you see then in this case weighty enough to be cast into the balance against a man's life which should make him sacrifice it freely as our Saviour did Riches and all the Pleasures they can provide for us could be of no consideration because they will doe a man no service when he is dead and our Saviour had no posterity to whom to leave them Honour and Fame also seem to be of as little value for what satisfaction is it to be talkt of in the world when we have left it and hear nothing of what is done in it Yet this is all that can be imagined to have any power in this business One may possibly you may fansy for to get a great Name in the world by being the Authour of a new Opinion or Sect throw away his life though he know that he doth but broach a lie A strange supposition this is which a man in his right senses one would think should not be inclined to make But since some have pretended it is possible I shall briefly shew that it could have no hand in our Saviour's Sufferings As will appear if we consider either the Circumstances of his Death or the quality of his Doctrine or the manner of his Life II. The Circumstances of his Death were such that if they be but a little examined you will presently find there is no place for this conceit For 1. it stands upon good record that He himself knew of his death beforehand and foretold it with the manner of it and yet was so far from endeavouring to avoid it that he went of his own accord to the very place where he knew they would come to apprehend him This is a plain declaration that he was
thy Majesty O thou most mighty Jesus whose power is not the power of flesh and bloud but the power of God who raises those to life who are dead Great was the joy which filled thy Disciples hearts when they first saw thee alive from the dead and called thee their God Georg. Nâ—comed Serm. ix None can understand the beauty of that sight O the brightness of that appearing What a light diffused it self then through the whole Creation What a fragrant smell did the very earthquake breath forth when like a publick crier it proclaimed the Resurrection What was the savour of the ointment which was then poured out How was the whole world then transformed and made new The Angels themselves leaped for joy to see it How sweet was the sound then of their doxologies With what divine splendours were they then adorned How beautifull did those preachers of thy resurrection appear and how great was the glory and the happiness which they came then to proclaim O those Words of theirs which brought us the news of victory over the Enemy which proclaimed the destruction of Death and published thee to the World the Resurrection and the Life O that sweet and above all things desirable voice of thine which by the women that were carrying spices to thy grave sounded joy to the World The Heavens then opened their gates and received the glad tidings which were brought to us as if they had been their own The Intellectuall powers rejoyced and took a pleasure in our happiness The Spirituall as well as Sensible World was inlightned The clouds of sadness were dispelled from one end of the world to the other and the rays of joy possessed all Guilty Nature put off the robes of heaviness and was cloathed with garments of light The hand-writing of the Curse was torn in pieces and promises of Blessing were sealed in the room thereof By that new Salutation when thou saidst ALL HAIL the world was filled with the sweetest and everlasting joy For thou art the Preacher and the Cause and the very Exultation of all joy the Authour of good things the giver of pleasure the joy which can never be taken away the sweet light the spectacle above all others desirable the intellectuall tranquillity and peace Wisedom it self and Power Incorruption and Eternity Security and Delight the onely unchangeable and inconceivable Beauty Sanctity it self and Honour and Righteousness and Glory above measure glorious O how many Names would my Mind bring forth to express thine unutterable excellency It is onely my weakness that hinders and want of words But thou who art the infinite not to be named Good far above all the titles that Mind can invent who regardest not words but rather an inflamed heart who thy self broughtest the joyfull news of thy Resurrection shine now into our Minds by the bright beams of thy appearing Let us see intellectually the superexcellent beauty of the intellectuall Sun Let us inwardly injoy the incomparable sight of our Lord and Master Let us hear his divine voice speaking some sweet and joyfull word to us O thou gracious Lord come and draw us from these present thiâ—â—◠〈…〉 deeps and 〈…〉 never-decay 〈…〉 the quires of those that keep perpetuall festivals above For thou art both light and life and resurrection and the joy of those that triumph in the heavens To thee it becomes us to give together with the Father and the Holy Ghost glory honour and adoration now and ever world without end Amen CHAP. XII Concerning the Testimony of the Holy APOSTLES of our Lord. THere is nothing now wanting to compleat this Discourse unless it be to shew that if the Testimony of the APOSTLES of our Lord be at all intended when St. John saith He CAME by Water and Bloud and the Spirit as in the former Treatise I proved we have reason to think it is they also bear Witness to this Truth and by them God hath given us this Record that we have Eternall Life and that this Life is in his Son That Jesus had Disciples the Talmudists themselves confess who tell us in the same place where they speak of his being hanged on the evening of the Passeover that they were five MATTHAI Talmud Bab. Tit. Sanhed c. vi NETZER NEKAI BUNI and THODA They do not love to speak the truth but to the Four Evangelists to which perhaps they have respect they have added one more and report not one of their names aright except the first and in the last have a little varied from the Name of Judas the Brother of St. James But thus much we gain from their own Records that known Disciples our Saviour had who professed to believe on him and owned him for their Lord and Master These persons we can make no question would be carefull to communicate to the World what they had received from him because they lookt upon him as the Son of God and estemed his words as so many Oracles which his Crucifixion could not disparage Accordingly there are Books that pass under their Names besides the four Gospels which no man ever laid any claim to or pretended to be the Authour of but onely themselves and therefore we have no cause to think they were not of their inditing Now if you examine them you will find that after his Ascension to heaven and the coming of the Holy Ghost their business was to go about and preach this Truth and the certainty of it to all the World as their Lord and Master had delivered it to them They were so fully perswaded of it that they could not forbear to publish such glad tidings of great joy to the whole Earth It was the very end of their Apostleship and that which moved them to undertake so great a task as St. Paul tells us when he calls himself an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of Life which is in Christ Jesus 2 Tim. i. 1. appointed by God that is to publish the promise of Eternall Life which he had received from Christ Jesus who would certainly give it to all that believed on him And it is the very Character which the other great Apostle gives of himself 1 Pet. v. 1. that he was a Partaker of the glory that shall be revealed This incouraged him to be a Witness of the sufferings of Christ as he saith just before and not to be daunted as he had been though he followed him to a cross because now he clearly saw he had a right as a Friend of his so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Philem. 17 * Vid. Scipion. Gentil ibid. to a share in that unseen glory where He was which should one day be revealed In this they desired that all mankind might have a portion with them 1 Joh. i. 3. by becoming Members of their Society And therefore it was the constant strain of all their Sermons to invite them to it by shewing that Jesus
many Ages the sweet society of some good Friends in pure love and innocent conversation But hark He tells us we shall live with him and see his Glory and be with his Son Jesus and reign together with him in his heavenly Kingdom and be equall to the Angels and enter into the joy of our Lord and continue with him for ever What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God and being like him behold him as he is Where is our love whither is it run after what is it wandred if it be not here ready to acknowledge this kindness in making us such great such exceeding great and precious promises Ah me that we should have lost our selves so much as not to find our affections forward to meet such a love as this with the highest transport of joy When our hearts so abound with love that we have enough for every thing in the world when there is not a pretty bird or a dog but we have some to spare for it have we none at all for our Lord God for LOVE it self for that Love which hath so loved us Ah blessed Jesus that thou shouldst be pleased to doe so much for those whose hearts thou knewest to be so cold that they would scarce be warmed with the brightest beams of thine inconceivable love How shall we excuse our selves to thee that our Souls are still so frozen after thou the Sun of righteousness hast shone so long so powerfully upon us Let us consider are we fed with a mere fancy do we live onely in a pleasing dream or are we left in doubt of the truth of these things and hang in such suspence that we know not what to think of them No such matter neither He hath compleated his kindness by giving us a Certainty and full assurance of those things which are revealed to us in his Gospell Here are WITNESSES of the highest quality to attest the truth of his Love by whom we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true c. This is the true God and Eternall Life And as if one or two were not sufficient here are six Witnesses come to tell us how he loves us Heaven and Earth conspire to draw our hearts to be love of him who hath not onely given us exceeding great Promises but exceeding great Certainty that they are all true and faithfull He knew very well they would seem incredible being as much beyond all our thoughts as they are beyond our deserts And therefore he took care to give us such evidences of their truth as should not merely work in us belief but a full assurance of faith By Himself by his Word by the Holy Ghost by the Water the Bloud and the Spirit we are so many ways rooted and grounded in this perswasion that we cannot but see we are doubly beholden to his infinite bounty first for such exceeding great and precious promises and then for as wonderfully great confirmation of them to our unspeakable and endless comfort And are we not yet apprehensive of his love Doth it not yet feelingly touch our hearts but leave us indifferent whether we will love him or not Ah fools that we are who must be sent to school to those brute creatures mentioned before to teach us better nature and better manners How do our very dogs as I have said elsewhere follow us and fawn upon us for a crust of bread how close do they keep to us how ready are they to defend us and our houses and all belonging to us Even when we are dead some of them have been known not to forsake their Masters for any other And what is all this service for but such things as we have no use of or make no account of our selves O blessed God! who can endure to stay so long as to hear this applied to himself before he learn to love thee I see whither this lesson tends I behold already how shamefull it is to dispose of my heart away from thee Thou hast given us thine own dear Son What a gift how great a boon Thou hast promised us eternall life How invaluable a possession Thou hast given us good hopes and strong consolation What an excessive kindness Shall we not devote our selves to thee shall we not forsake all and follow thee whithersoever thou wilt lead us We cannot refuse we must resolve to surrender our hearts intirely to thee We should be worse then Dogs should we not with all our minds and soul and strength love that transcendent goodness which by the most miraculous demonstrations hath perswaded us that we shall live eternally with himself and enjoy the everlasting fruits of his infinite love This is the most comfortable news that could possibly arrive from heaven Should we have had our own wishes nothing greater nothing so great could have entred into our hearts desire This sweetens the bitterness of all afflictions and this heightens all our joys when we hope the one shall shortly but the other shall never end Plutarch deservedly blamed Epicurus of great incogitancy who making all happiness consist in Pleasure denied the state of the future life which it is the greatest pleasure to hope for and expect Nothing casts such a damp upon all a man's enjoyments here as the cold thoughts of an endless death seizing on his heart He cannot but sigh to think that shortly there must be a finall period put to all his delights As on the contrary this gives life and spirit to them if he can think they shall be improved and perpetuated for ever And therefore how much do we owe to the love of God who hath given us assurance even of the Resurrection of our body to an immortall life and told us it shall be so far from being lost by going to the grave that like Seed it shall rise again quite another thing then it was when cast into the ground no longer weak contemptible corruptible and mortall but powerfull spirituall glorious incorruptible and immortall and consequently capable of purer more spritely and more lasting pleasures then now it injoys O how much more comfortable is this opinion then that of the Epicurean as Tertullian excellently speaks * De Testimonio animae c. iv which vindicates thee from destruction How much more seemly then the Pythagorean which doth not send thee into beasts How much more full then the Platonicall which restores even thy body as a new dowry to thee O tast and see how gracious the Lord is Bonum Deum novimus solum optimum à Christo ejus addiscimus * Id. De Resurrectione carnis cap. ix We knew God was good before but so most excellently good we learn onely from his Christ who bidding us next him to love our Neighbour doth that himself which he expects from us He loves even our body which is so many ways of kin to him II.
so glorious a purchace Or suppose a man will chuse to lose all his worldly goods which he hath got that he may preserve his liberty and not be inslaved here is a greater Good still which will dispose a man to kiss his cords or his chains and sing like Paul and Silas in the innermost prison Or suppose again that to save his life a man should embrace the chains and fetters which tie him fast to his oar nere is something still beyond this which is the onely thing that can make a man chearfully sacrifice his life for the loss of which nothing else can make him any recompence The reason is because there is no proportion between this and all other things either as to greatness or goodness not so much as between a Kingdom and a barly-corn 5. And therefore I may adde that it will make us in love with all piety at once and with all the means leading to it though never so troublesome It doth not work upon us after the way of Art but as Nature it self doth It doth not teach us vertue and godliness by little parcels as a Statuary first forms one part of his statue and then another now working on the face and then on the hands or feet but instills it altogether in the whole mass as I may so speak and works in us such an universall love to goodness as to have a ready will presently to doe whatsoever God would have us Just as you see the spirit of Nature or a particular Soul work in the formation of the body of a plant or of an animall in the womb which it begins in all its proportions together and so proceeds on still to bring the parts to a greater bigness and strength even so doth this mighty Good operate when it touches the heart not inclining it first to the grace of temperance and then by another touch to the grace of charity and after that by a third to the grace of contentedness c. but at once begets an hearty love to universall goodness and forms the whole body of Christian Vertues all together which grow up after the same manner all alike there being the same power inspiring us unto all Which may spare me the labour of shewing what a Motive it is to inforce the practice of every particular Vertue Which it makes easie also because this one thing which is the reason for all is easily kept in our mind Eternall Life is like a short Sentence which contains in it the pith and strength of a long Discourse or like unto a little Leaven which infuses it self into the whole mass wherewith it is mixed And it makes all Divine graces intire and perfect also For where the mind is once impregnated with it and it hath begun a Divine life there it will never produce a monstrous birth No lim of the New man if I may so speak shall here be wanting It will not suffer us I mean to be defective in any part of true piety nor shall one part draw all the nourishment to it and overgrow the rest It will not let us spend our zeal about some particulars while we are cold and remiss in other Christian duties but make us equally affected and spirited unto all From whence likewise arises another benefit that while by the thoughts of this we excite our selves to any one grace we promote our growth also in every one When we stir up our selves to the practice of our present duty we are disposed thereby to the like chearfull obedience on any other emergent occasion When we call up our Souls by this to doe God's will it impowers us also though we should not then think of it to suffer what he would have us And while we animate our selves hereby to suffer one thing it enables us to doe and suffer all O the power of this Divine Good if it once seat it self in the very throne of our hearts How it makes them beat with the love of God and with the love of our neighbour How it inspires us with resolution with confidence with zeal with joy with all other pious affections It will let us scruple none of God's Commands because it is of equall force to make us submit to all Neither prophaneness nor hypocrisy neither listlesness nor despondency can ever lodge in that heart where this belief is deeply rooted that God will give to our little short labours here an immense eternall recompence in the other World 6. One cannot imagine how it should be otherwise if we go on to consider once more how naturally this belief fills our hearts with love to that blessed God who is so good as to design us such inconceivable Blessedness and to his will as the onely way and means to be partaker of it We shall easily be perswaded that the Will of him who promises us immortality must needs be the Rule of Goodness It will never enter into our hearts to suspect that he who loves us so much can enjoyn us any thing but what is truly good for us And so our wills and affections will readily bow and stoop to his without any dispute at all about it But I have said too much already about this business to have any room left for a new argument of the power of this great Good IV. Let us proceed rather to consider what the matter is that a Motive in it self so great and so powerfull should have so little power upon mens hearts to move them to vertue and goodness One may justly wonder at it and ask What is the cause that men are so dull so sluggish so backward to doe well since the reward is so certain so transcendent and it is as certain they will miss of it in any other way but this of vertue and piety Where is the Violence which the holy Gospel speaks of and which in all reason was to be expected when the Kingdom of heaven was opened One would have thought upon the report of so great a Blessedness men would have throng'd into heaven and with eager violence striven to thrust in themselves before others into such preferment as was offered them in our Saviour's Kingdom His Disciples sure thought that men could not chuse when they heard such news but all flock to his fold and prepare themselves to receive his blessing And there have been those * Maldonate and de Celada who have fansied the Apostles were so possessed with these thoughts that this was the reason they were troubled to hear our Saviour say whither he went they could not go that is at present xiii Joh. 33. because they imagined all would run so thick towards the Bliss which he promised that if they went not to heaven with him then it was to be questioned whether there would be any room left for them and all places might not be taken up before they came And to comfort them our Saviour say they bid them not be troubled for in
his father's house were many Mansions xiv 1 2. that is there was room for all comers though never such multitudes The discourse indeed of our Saviour there shews that this is but a fancy yet if we consider the haste men make in any other advantageous offers and how they will strive to prevent and circumvent one another to gain any preferment here in this world they might well think that men would come in as great crowds to heaven as we have seen them sometime come to Church and would all run as men do in a race contending earnestly who should carry away the crown For bonorum quorundam sicut malorum est intolerabilis magnitudo the greatness of some goods as well as of some evills is so excessive and intolerable as Tertullian if I forget not somewhere speaks that it weighs down all that can be cast into the scale against it and suffers not our wills as you have heard to deliberate about it Whence is it then that we see so little care and concern about that far more exceeding eternall weight of glory that good which is so vast that in this state we cannot bear the very thoughts of it In stead of that forwardness which might have been expected there is a strange backwardness so much as to think of these things A prodigious numness and stupidity hath seized on the hearts of Christian people who seem to have no life at all in them To what shall we impute it seeing the Sun of righteousness hath shone so brightly and strongly on them with these chearfull beams of Eternall Life which he hath brought to light through his Gospell Is there any thing here that can pretend to vie with the Eternall Life he hath revealed I will not stay for an Answer the disparity is so great between this and all other goods What is it then which makes men so indifferent Is there little or no hope that God will bestow such great and glorious things upon such vile wretches as we are No he hath promised and prepared them as you have heard and he cannot be worse then his word nor lose all his own preparations What is it then that stifles their endeavours after this immortall bliss Will he not give it but upon very hard terms and such rigorous conditions as are enough to freez the warmest resolutions when we think of them Not this neither For he hath prepared these good things for those that love him And what is there more easie what more pleasant and chearfull then love especially of the first and chiefest Good which will certainly make all our duty as easie and delightfull as it self is Or will you say that we cannot love him it is an impossible Condition For shame consider that the very offer of such glorious things is enough to make us love him intirely if we did believe them Were we perswaded that he will bestow upon good men such happiness with himself so great so long it would inflame our hearts with the most ardent passion towards his service Therefore I have already named the true cause of all mens coldness and sloth After all our search we shall find it nothing else but this They do not believe They are not perswaded of the certainty of the rewards in the other World or have not fixed this belief in their Minds for if they had it would not easily slip out again They are moved strongly by what they see with their eyes and feel with their hands and taste with their tongues but faith hath little or no place or power in their hearts This is proved to be too true by the lives of men which are so base and unworthy as if they did not hope for the happiness of a fly in the other World Therefore every one of our business must be to awaken that faith in our Souls which we profess that Divine principle which is of such force as to overcome the World For it is manifestly true which the Apostle writes that without faith it is impossible to please God We shall never doe any thing worthy of him unless we believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him As on the contrary it is no less manifest that if we do believe we shall not onely please him but we shall please our selves in doing so and find it most delightfull to be religious It will marvellously inliven us and infuse as it were a new spirit and soul into us so that we shall differ as much from our selves as the corn doth when it is sown in the ground and when it shoots up again in all its verdure and beauty It will make us adorn our selves I mean with all the fruits of righteousness and beget in us such a spirituall life as will fructify and increase in all good works And here consider first That the things themselves propounded to our belief are such as we cannot but desire it should be true that God intends to bestow them on us Who is there that would not willingly live for ever that doth not think Immortality the greatest prerogative of humane Nature provided we may live always in joy and pleasure in uninterrupted contentments and never-fading delights Though they should be less then our Lord hath promised there is no heart but above all things wishes to be so happy To see onely the beautifull orders of the heavenly hosts the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly Society of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the venerable Quire of Pastors the whole multitude of holy men and women who celebrate a perpetuall feast of joy to live in happy friendship with them to love them and to be beloved of them to bear a part in their eternall Song of praise and thanks to God how desirable is it above any thing that we can fansy in this world No man hath so little love to himself as not to wish he might be numbred among those Saints in glory everlasting It 's impossible we should not be pleased with the thoughts of having a consortship in such an incomparable happiness were we but perswaded that it is not a dream but a reall truth There needs nothing more to bring it into all mens favour but onely to be satisfied that there is such an Happiness And that 's the other thing I would propound to your thoughts That as we naturally desire such an Happiness so if we consider the evident demonstations we have of it in the Gospell this and a great deal more appears to be the undoubted inheritance of all good Souls who shall see God and be with our Lord and behold his glory Which wonderfully recommends the Christian Religion to us wherein we are gratified in our most important desires and have those things made sure and certain to us which we would all fain have for our portion For what is the generall intent of the Gospell but to discover to mankind immortall life
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
What pretence is there now for unbelief Why do we not slight all those who by Philosophy and vain deceit set themselves against a simple faith and stick to this naked confession that there will be a resurrection of the body to Eternall Life And to make our holy belief more acceptable to all Christian Souls let me briefly adde That Faith being as certain a way of knowing as any other Believers must needs be the most knowing men in the world Which is a very great motive to Faith whereby we are informed of a great many things and those the most excellent of which other mens minds are perfectly ignorant It gives a new light to the Soul whereby to see things invisible There is no less then a whole world of things that Believers are acquainted withall which are hid from their eyes who remain in darkness by continuing in unbelief While the thoughts of such Souls are confined within the narrow bounds of this visible world and know but little of it neither the Minds of Believers are inlarged beyond the limits of all things seen to behold another and far more glorious world in which Jesus is the Sun and the Angels and Spirits of just men are the Stars and the brightness of the Divine Glory is the Light and splendour In this the ancient Christians justly made their boast And there being a company of vain men who pretended to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowers men of intelligence beyond all others but indeed unbelievers Clemens Alexandrinus reproves their folly L. v. Stromar and tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are they who believe that which is incredible to others and therefore are they who know that which is unknown to others None so knowing as they that believe the Gospell and therefore let us not shut this Faith out of our Souls and thereby exclude the greatest Good Nor let us think our selves unhappy because we do not see that which we expect For this would be to complain of our privilege and preeminence above those that depend merely on Sense and will not be wise beyond the narrow confines of their eyes Faith is that divine gift whereby God raises our minds above the pitch of vulgar Souls He brings us acquainted by this means with the most noble and glorious objects and illuminates us with the most comfortable knowledge without which we shall remain notwithstanding all our other wisedom in a sad dull night of ignorance and darkness And if this Faith touch our hearts also it will raise us to as excellent a temper of spirit and make us truly heavenly and divine We shall feel it altering the very frame of our thoughts designs and desires It will lead us to such a pitch of Vertue that we shall adhere to God and goodness whatsoever befalls us and solely depending on his promises trust our selves with him both when all other things fail us and when we have the greatest supports that they can lend us Which is no easie thing to flesh and bloud as Philo * L. Quis rerum Divin haeres p. 493. excellently observes for that inclines us to trust in riches and power and dignity and friends and strength of body and a number of such things but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of a great and heavenly Mind which cannot be inticed by any thing on earth to rely upon it An example of which we have in Abraham who believed God and obeyed his voice when he called him from his own country and his father's house and he went out not knowing whither he went Divers such instances there are of the power of divine Faith in him and in others in the xi Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews From which we may certainly conclude that nothing can be too hard for the Faith of Christ which is built upon surer grounds and a stronger foundation then theirs was It is of such mighty force I have shewn that one would think there needs no more to be done to make all the World good but onely by such means as I have declared to implant this Faith in all mens hearts But such is the perverseness of humane Nature that our work is not done when the judgement is convineed There must be new arts of insinuation used by those convictions to awaken and ingage the affections The Motives are certain and sure strong and powerfull but Men are weak and impotent careless and unconcerned about their own good After they know how things are they must be made to consider lest a quickning Motive lie in a dead hand or a cold heart which draws forth none of its virtue And there is no way that I can think of to stir them up to consideration but by propounding a few sensibly-affecting Questions to them which shall be part of the business of this last Chapter V. I. Let him therefore that believes this Record that God hath given us Eternall Life in his Son Jesus ask himself what he thinks in his Conscience is the way to this supreme Felicity May we live here just as we list and yet hope hereafter to live with Christ Or can we reasonably think to come to him without any thought about it and to be received up to his heavenly Kingdom though we mind nothing now but what we can get in this World Strange that Christian people should imagine Piety and Vertue to be things superfluous and take the mortifying the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life to be nothing else but a piece of Monasticall austerity and melancholick devotion a thing which mere black choler and a peevish disposition makes men trouble themselves and the world withall Are we so blind as to think that a carefull endeavour after an inoffensive life towards God and towards men is but a precise Nicety which may be commended in those that have nothing else to doe but is of no necessity to our living eternally with God We cannot sure be so forsaken of our reason No nor think that the business of Religion is onely to hear the word of God and to be frequently on our knees and that we need not be so solicitous how to live and walk in the ways of God's Commandments What man instructed in the Gospell can be so senseless as to think by knocking often at heaven gates to get an entrance though otherwise he stands idle Do the Holy Books inspire us with any such conceits Do they tell us some holy breath will waft us safe over the dangerous Sea of worldly affairs troubles pleasures and temptations of various kinds Needs there no labour at the sails or the oars no wise guidance and steerage of the vessel no guard and defence against pirates but a man may confidently commit himself to the winds and let his vessel run whither they will carry it May he live I mean just as the course of the world hurries him and as he is driven by the