of God And there is none can continue in this unworthy slavery but he must lay aside these thoughts also that the WORD was made flesh and the Image of the invisible God hath taken up his abode in our Nature By this he hath called us to the greatest sanctity He remembers us what excellent Creatures we are and how Glorious he is desirous to make us And who is there that need despair of recovering himself by the grace of God though he be sunk never so much below himself now that God is come on purpose to lift him up He hath sent Salvation to us by one that is mighty to save He hath revealed himself so graciously and made such discoveries of his Love and Power and Glory to all mankind that they may confidently hope if they will not cast away all care of themselves to be restored to the image and likeness of God again But this Discourse will come in more seasonably when we have joyned the strength of the other three Witnesses to these and heard them all together some from Heaven others from Earth proclaiming this in our ears Behold the Son of God Jesus is your Lord for he is the Lord of all things And we shall be the more ready for a surrender to him when we see withall how much we are beholden to God Almighty for his marvellous inconceiveable love in calling us so many ways by so many arguments to Repentance Faith Obedience and Everlasting Salvation That which I have now explained deserves to be remembred with the most affectionate acknowledgments and we shall be better disposed to hearken to the rest if we give him hearty thanks for what we understand already and say A PRAYER ADored be thy inestimable love O thou Holy Spirit of Grace and Truth the mighty Power of God who hast given such gifts unto men even to the rebellious also that the LORD God might DWELL among them Blessed be thy Goodness who didst anoint our Lord with that oil of gladness which hath run down to the meannest of his subjects Great and wonderful was that Heavenly Power and Love which appeared in such visible Majesty upon him and filled him with the Holy Ghest so that he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil And much more marvellous was that Almighty Goodness which promoted him to the throne of Glory in the Heavens that he might fill all things Praised be that astonishing Love which first filled the Apostles minds with such Heavenly light and inflamed their wills with such fervent heat that they boldly preached the Gospel to all the world For ever magnified be that diffusive Grace which afterwards spread it self in such variety of gifts wrought by one and the self same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he pleased Let the whole Church be giving continual thanks to thee O Lord for stretching forth thy hand in such signs and wonders to glorifie thy holy child Jesus for giving by the Spirit to some a gift of wisdom to others a gift of healing to others divers kind of tongues to others prophecy and for making some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers that every knee might bow to Jesus and every tongue confess that he is the Lord. I confess him with all my Soul I honour him as my Dearest Lord. I see thy Glory O blessed Jesus by the light of the Holy Ghost which hath shone so oft from Heaven upon us I see the Power thou hast at Gods right hand I see the royal bounty of thy love Now I know that thou knowest all things and believe that thou art the faithful and the true whose words shall never fail O how much ought I and every Christian Soul to rejoyce in the consolations of the Holy Ghost which hath brought us new assurances from Heaven that our Saviour lives and reigns and sits inthroned at the right hand of God in incomparable majesty and glory Inspire all our minds and hearts O thou quickning Spirit inspire them O Lord and Giver of Life with such ardent love and devotion towards him that we may hope to reign with him and then shall we rejoyce before-hand in this hope with joy unspeakable and full of glory Do not wholly absent they self from us O thou Guide and Comforter of our Souls though we have not been so grateful to thee nor followed thy directions and counsels as we ought but still let thy gracious presence fill every part of the Christian Church Though we have not that UNCTION from above which endued them heretofore with the gifts of tongues and prophecy and healing and working of miracles Yet pour down every where much of the spirit of knowledge and love and devotion and purity and fortitude and undaunted resolution and fervent Zeal which may be ever glorifying the great God and our Saviour Christ Jesus O thou who didst open the eyes of the blind and loose the tongue of the dumb enlighten our minds to see more of those wonders which may inflame our love and incourage our hope and open our lips that our mouths may shew forth thy Praise Still let there be hearts full of Faith in the blessed Jesus full of love to all mankind full of ardent desire to see his Kingdom come full of wisdom to open the mysteries of Salvation to instruct men in the truth as it is in Jesus and to convince them mightily and perswade them to be obedient to it That so by the same Heavenly power whereby the Faith of Christ was planted in the world it may be graciously preserved and promoted and we may see it go forward and advance more and more till every Nation now on Earth speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God Let all the people praise thee O God Let all the people praise thee Kindle in them such devout affections as may offer up continually the sacrifice of praise to thee Let them praise thee with pure minds and upright hearts and unspotted lives and in perfect unity and godly love say every where Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on Earth and first of the WATER HAVING given a brief account of the Testimony of the first Three Witnesses and finding much satisfaction in their perfect agreement we have the greater encouragement to go to the other Three who are also nearer to us than the former and take that evidence which they are willing to afford us for our further confirmation in this belief that Jesus is the Son of God These three you read in the eighth Verse are such as bear witness on EARTH whereby we may be the better acquainted with them and they are the more undeniable and furthest off from all question or exception For should any be so bold as to dispute that there might
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
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
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
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
other end but to shew how stupidly blind men are when they are left to walk in the ways of their own hearts and how deeply we are indebted to the exceeding great love of God who when he saw the minds of men too weak to comprehend such things and that they stood in need of a Divine Teacher as Clemens Alexandrinus * L. v. Stromat p. 548. speaks was pleased in his infinite condescension to send one from the very place his own dear Son from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Teacher and the Giver of that possession of Good the secret holy token of that great Providence which took care when men had lost themselves in vain imaginations to lead them right by Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life Who hath made that certain which was dubious and that plain to every body which was the hardest thing in the world to know before and bids us lift up our Minds to God himself with whom he dwells and to whom he will bring us that we may rejoyce in his Love for ever in the happy company of Angels and good men and in that place of which the Divine Majesty is the glory And it was but needfull we shall see he should send us such a Conductour when we consider how little even they who were instructed by God himself understood of this Eternall Life before our Saviour appeared It cannot be denied that the greatest part of the Jews before our Saviour's coming did expect the Resurrection of the dead and Eternall Life v. Joh. 39. xxvi Act. 6 7. And their pious Ancestors before the giving of the Law xi Heb. 9 10 16 26. as well as after ver 35. sought an heavenly country and had respect to the recompence of reward and refused deliverance from their tortures that they might obtain a better resurrection And their Writers in all Ages have spoken much of the World to come whereby they understand sometimes the days of the Messiah and sometimes the future State which we expect after death All this is true but it is as certain I. That they had no such express promises of these things either in the Law or in the Prophets as we have in the holy Gospell Where do you reade one such saying as this which we frequently meet withall in the whole Law of Moses Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world vi Joh. 47 51. Promises indeed of the good things of this world are very rife to those that diligently keep God's commandments to whom he says I will give you the rain of your land in due season that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattel that thou mayest eat and be full xi Deut. 14 15. Which is repeated again more largely xxviii Deut. 2 3 c. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field Blessed shalt thou be in the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground c. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out But in what place do you find any such promises as these BLESSED are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE GOD Blessed are they that doe his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life with such like of which the New Testament is so full that a little time will not serve to number them all v. Matt. 3 4 8. xxii Rev. 14. Alas when their Writers undertake to prove the life of the World to come out of their Law it is out of places so far from the purpose that this endeavour is a plain confession they have no express promises of it but are fain to squeez the words to speak that which is not in them Shall I give a few instances of this truth Joseph Albo a famous man of that Nation and of good reason from that place xiv Deut. 1 2. Ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead For thou art an holy people c. thus fetches about his discourse Behold one would think the quite contrary should be concluded They should the rather mourn and grieve because they are the children of God as the Son of a King is more to be lamented when he is dead then the child of an ordinary man But the true interpretation is as if he had said Seeing the most Blessed God is holy and his Ministers are holy thou also art an holy people All things are joyned to that which is like themselves and therefore without doubt your Soul is joyned to the Angels because it is holy as they are holy for which cause you must not cut your selves for the dead nor mourn more then is fit And this teaches us that there is a blessed immortality for the Soul after death Such is his conclusion from those words which rather teach us how hard it is to find anything in the Law to that purpose and how much we are bound to magnify the love of God for the revelation of his blessed will in the Gospell He argues something better when he gathers it from those words xxxii Deut. 47. where he saith there is a twofold happiness or reward spoken of one spirituall it is your life the other corporall because it is said through this ye shall prolong your days And yet so weak and infirm are their reasonings that at another turn they shall prove Eternall Life from this promise of prolonging their days though it be expresly added in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee For there being the letter Jod wanting in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fifth Commandment where God promises to prolong their days they conclude that there is no prolongation of days in this world but it belongs to the next Nor can he find any clearer place to prove the Resurrection of the body then that in the same book xxxii Deut. 39. I kill and I make alive Nay our Lord himself alledges a place for it which was but dark till he illustrated it and proved by consequence not an express promise that Abraham Isaac and Jacob should be rewarded by him who called himself their God But we cannot I think learn this truth better from any then from Philo a
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
where both Soul and body shall be so wonderfully improved as to be capable of more solid pure and durable pleasures then this Earth can ever afford He that considers how weak humane Nature is in this state and how unable to entertain it self long with any of those things which please our senses will not take much time to resolve this question Should we be furnished with the best delights that Nature can crave in the most perfect health and vigorous strength still we should find either fulness and satiety or lassitude and weariness follow the enjoyment This is a great part of man's vanity in his best Estate that all his fruitions either suppose or make a consumption of his spirits And how short our understandings are and will be while we apprehend by the brain and are forced to spend so much time in serving our bodily necessities we cannot but be sensible and therefore shall always be possessed with desires which cannot here be satisfied and long to know those things of which should we stay never so many Ages here we must remain ignorant Who would not then that hath any hopes in another world freely consent to a dissolution in order to a better conjunction of Soul and body in a state of greater strength and spriteliness to enjoy a fuller good with greater constancy without any weariness or dejection of appetite with perfect satisfaction and an eternall pleasure in enjoying the same again And if we agree to this judge then what reason there is to be exceeding solicitous to attain that heavenly Bliss which so inconceivably transcends all that we can fansy to our selves but are never like to enjoy in this world And judge again how unworthy then this short this troublesome life which is but like a dream full of distracted thoughts and cares and fears is to come into any competition with that Eternall life which we expect And once more how mad they are who prefer a brutall wicked life which mere rationall men have hissed out of the world before that happy state which far exceeds even the life of innocence in a Paradise upon earth VI. And let us hence take occasion to consider again if it be not desirable alway to stay here on this Earth how far distant are they from the happiness of the other World who have their thoughts very rarely there What shall we think of such careless believers as love not to have their minds troubled with the thoughts of Death and of Eternall Life with which they desire to have as little acquaintance as may be till they come thither Are they afraid of believing it too strongly for fear it should spoil all their earthly delights and make them lose the relish they have of bodily pleasures or hinder their business and make them have no list to follow it There is no danger of this for a lively belief of the Life to come heightens all our other joys by making them innocent and furthers our affairs by making us diligent but not too solicitous But some such fancy possesses the hearts of men who have no inclination to entertain any familiarity with Heaven till they think they are shortly to leave this Earth For if we desire them to think often and seriously of Eternall Life they return such an Answer as Antipater made to a man that presented him with a Book concerning Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not at leisure Tell me of this when I have nothing else to doe now I have other more weighty imployments This is the sense of mens gross negligence and their seldom retiring to look up unto Jesus Who justly expected not onely that greater multitudes upon the publishing of such an incomparable glory and happiness should become Religious but that their Piety should arrive to a greater height of Vertue by perpetuall contemplation of it Christians one would think should love Vertue more dearly and be more intirely devoted to the study of it now that it hath such a dowry then any Philosophers ever were who loved it for it self and thought it to be its own price and portion And so they would if they did not lay aside all consideration and suffer the thoughts of Eternal Bliss to slip out of their minds It is a saying among the Jews that when God first created Man his stature was so tall that he reached from heaven to earth and could grasp all this world in his arms as a very little thing But post peccatum Deus eum minuit ad centum cubitos after he sinned God took him down to the height of an hundred cubits And still as men grew worse and worse they sunk lower till they dwindled away as we see by our selves almost to Nothing The Morall of it is very true And if the Christian Faith like the breath of life wherewith God inspired Man at the first did throughly possess and renew our Souls we should grow up again to such an excellent pitch as to be above all the Earth and tread it under our feet At the very entrance of it we should be inflamed with a most vehement desire and hope to grow till we be above the heavens and made associates with the Angels and sit down with our Blessed Saviour in his Throne And the lively hope of this will make us presently discharge our selves of all those evill affections which have degraded us and sunk us so low that many men can scarce be discerned from the brutes that perish They can speak indeed but that too is so sottishly unreasonable as it onely serves to proclaim into what a pitifull condition they are faln Out of which nothing but the Christian Faith can raise us which delivered the Gentile world from their Idolatry and purged their hearts when they lay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen often speaks in the most confused mixture of all filthiness and impurity It retains its virtue still did we but inliven it by such affectionate considerations as these Which make us so ashamed to continue wallowing in the mire that they will not suffer us to content our selves with a mean degree of purity but as he which called us is holy so they press us to be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. i. 15. V. And can any man now imagine there is no danger at all in resisting so mighty a motive as this to all well-doing or that a man shall be no more miserable after his neglect of such great Salvation then he would have been if no such proposall had been made to him Where have those men lived what have they been thinking of all their days into whose hearts such a belief can enter that Christians may sin at as easy a rate as heathens What will despite done to such astonishing love of God to men as is manifested to us not at all inflame the reckoning Can a man see the Kingdom of Heaven set open before his eyes and offered to him and after he
evidences which He produced while he was on Earth to justifie his high Authority which is comprehended under the Name of the Son of God but enquire after those only which He hath given of it since He went to Heaven and ascended to the Throne of his glory From whence this Word of God hath been pleased to speak or in some very remarkable manner to assert this Truth upon no less than three several occasions I. First of all He showed himself to his first Martyr S. Steven in a sensible Majesty standing at the right hand of God in the splendor of the Divine glory Read but the vii Acts 55 56. and there you will find He made himself so plainly appear to be the Son of God and that with power as S. Paul you have heard speaks in 1. Rom. 4. that is the King of Heaven and Earth next to the most supreme Majesty of God the Father Almighty that nothing can be said against it unless any man will be so audacious as to fancy that this holy and glorious Martyr was strongly deluded But there is a clear demonstration against that from the whole story of his Life and Death For He was a man of great note and eminency in the Church who held the very first place among the seven Deacons vi Acts 5. that were chosen to attend the daily ministration to the poor The feeding of whose bodies He did not think the only thing belonging to his charge but such was his zeal he likewise broke and dispensed the Bread of life to all his neighbours He justified the Christian Faith of which he was full vi Acts 5 8 10. against all opposers with singular wisdom great fervour and mighty demonstrations by the power of the holy Ghost He confounded all those whom he disputed withall though he could not overcome them He stopt their mouths by the wisdom and spirit wherewith he spake which made them wish they could stop his though there was no other way they saw to silence him but by taking away his life They suborned therefore false witnesses against him whom they knew not how to confute They brought him before their Great Council to be tried Where all his Judges fixing their eyes upon him saw he was so far from being at all daunted that there was a sparkling Majesty in his countenance like that of an Angel when he appeared to their forefathers vi Acts 15. They could never devise or fancy any thing greater to say of them or of their most eminent Doctors than now they beheld in this illustrious person The face of the Patriarch Isaac they tell us was so changed when the holy Spirit rested on him that a Divine light or splendor came from his face And they would have us believe that Phineas his countenance did burn and flame like a Torch by the inhabitation of the holy Ghost in him Nay Maimonides himself to omit the other Authors in which I find these reports will have the Prophets to be Angels So he interprets more than once the first and the fourth verses of the second Chapter of the Book of Judges Where by the Angel of the Lord he understands a Prophet whom God sent to them to bring them to repentance And expresly says * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. that their wise men have told them This was Phineas for at that time when the Majesty of God dwelt upon him He was like to an Angel of the Lord. And it is the opinion of some of them whose Names are not worth mentioning that in the Prophetical visions the form of a man vanished and the appearance of an Angel came in the room thereof till such time as the Vision ceased The light which shone within was so great that it broke through their bodies and externally appeared if we could believe these Doctors who would fain adorn their wise men with that glory which they really beheld in this man of God S. Steven Who was so full of the holy Ghost and had such glorious illuminations in his mind that there was indeed an amazing lustre in his face and he lookt more like an Angel than a man This emboldened him to speak to that grave Senate with all the assurance in the world and to reprove them for resisting the holy Ghost Which so cut them to the heart that it enraged them to the highest degree of fury and they lookt upon him as if they would eat him up But he still full of the holy Ghost and nothing fearing what he saw he must suffer from an exasperated multitude cast up his eyes above and fastned them stedfastly upon the Heavens from whence cometh our help Where He bade them all take notice vii Acts 54 55 56. that he saw the glory of God and Jesus shining at his right hand in a far greater glory than they had seen in his face That was only a glimpse of the Majesty of Jesus whom he preached to them and now feared not to affirm that he saw in his royal splendour and greatness incomparably above all the Angels in Heaven And is it not a great deal more reasonable to believe that He indeed saw Jesus there than to think that he would obtrude thus boldly a mere imagination upon them with the certain loss of his own life If he had not been sure that he beheld him whom they crucified now most highly glorified a person of his wisdom and spirit would have been more cautious than to follow him in that bloudy path to which this assertion led him when if he would have held his tongue there lay a fairer and smoother way before him But so visible was the royal Majesty of our Saviour that he could not but proclaim it aloud and speak as S. Peter said the things which he had seen though he knew they would call it blasphemy and punish him for it with present death He was willing to suffer that for the honour of his Master and to testifie his love to him who told him his Faith was no fancy as he might see by the glory wherein he appeared Which abundantly satisfied him that he was the Son of the Highest able to reward all his faithful servants with immortal glory It is true we read of never a word that our Lord spake to this Saint but the splendour of his appearance in such glory and Majesty at God's right hand was as significant as any words could be and bid him be assured of the truth of what S. John is here proving that indeed he is the Christ the anointed of God anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows made the Lord of all things inferior to none but only him who hath put all things in subjection under his feet If any one ask me how he could see the glory of God and how he knew this to be Jesus who appeared at Gods right hand I Answer to the first enquiry that He saw God's glory in the same sence that
saith that if he went away he would send the PARACLETE that is his Advocate unto them whose office it should be to convince the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment Of this place I shall be able I hope to give a full account hereafter together with all those that relate to the Holy Ghost and therefore I shall say no more of it now than this That the end of the PARACLETE'S coming was to plead the Cause of our Saviour to maintain his innocence and to prove against all accusers that though he was condemned by men yet he was acquitted by God and had said nothing but the truth For observe but the crime whereof he was accused and for which he was sentenced by the Jews and you will soon see that nothing could clear him so much as this The great thing they laid to his charge as you have heard already was that he affirmed when they adjured him to speak his thought that he was the Christ the Son of the Blessed This was the blasphemy which they pretended wounded their hearts with grief when they heard it and for which they adjudged him to be worthy of death Now what could demonstrate the vileness of this calumny and prove him not guilty more than such a power possessing his followers even after he was dead as they saw in himself when he was alive Nay a far greater which declared as they truly said that he was Lord of all x. Acts 36. He could not have done such things as they beheld were wrought at the invoking of his Name if he were not truly the Son of God The Apostles might have called long enough upon him before they had made a man lame from his Mother's womb walk up and down and leap and praise God if he whom they crucified were not exalted by God's right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour And it had been the vainest thing of all for the Apostles to go and preach up the authority of a dead man and who was ignominiously crucified as a great Malefactor if they had not known that the Holy Ghost from him was ready at hand in every place and time to be his ADVOCATE and take his part against all gain-sayers This Heavenly Witness never failed to appear when there was need of him to justifie our Saviour and to set all things right in the opinion of the World by reversing their false judgment and by establishing and verifying the sentence he had passed on himself when he said that he was the Son of God The Tables were now turned by the appearance of this PARACLETE who pleaded so strongly and convincingly that many who had before accounted him an evil doer were now forced to alter their mind and confess him to be a righteous person They who had reviled him now gave him worship and honour They that cried Crucifie him said as the Centurion when they heard the HOLY GHOST speak on his behalf Sure this was the Son of God And all those who were so hardy as to resist the Holy Ghost vii Acts 51. were fain to oppose it with rage and throwing stones for in any other manner they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit whereby S. Steven a man full of the Holy Ghost spake to them and reasoned with them vi Acts 9 10. So great a testimony was this of the HOLY GHOST to Jesus that the Apostles were not fit to be his Witnesses till they had received it xxiv Luke 48. i. Acts 8. But after it came upon them and joyned its testimony with theirs then they defended his cause so successfully that a great company of the Priests the greatest enemies to it yielded themselves and became obedient to the faith vi Acts 7. Then if any one asked how dare you contradict the sentence of the High Court to which all men are bound upon pain of death to submit xvii Deut. 9 12. what can you say to justifie this presumption in maintaining his Righteousness whom the Grand Council of the Nation hath condemned to suffer death They could soon make this reply Let the HOLY GHOST answer you hear what he says to you If He do not speak enough for us and for Jesus to satisfie you then we refuse not to die you may deal with us as the despisers of God and his Law And so mightily were they astonished and perplexed by the pleadings of the HOLY GHOST that the Sanhedrim the Supreme Court of Judicature among them knew not what to say to the Apostles nor what to do with them They only clapt them in prison for preaching Jesus iv Acts 3. and threatned farther severity if they did not desist ver 21. but they durst not proceed to pass the sentence of death upon them according as the Law directed the people glorifying God so heartily for what they saw them do by the power of the Holy Ghost Nay so much were some of this great Council staggered that according to the perswasion of Gamaliel a great Master among them they let the Apostles go free after a second imprisonment lest perhaps they should be found fighters against God ver 39. If this be an humane project says that wise man do not trouble your selves about it for it will come to naught as the vain attempts of others have done who at the first drew much people after them But if these men prove to be authorized by God and he will have it so who can overthrow it We had best take heed how we proceed in a business wherein we may chance to have God against us It is better in my judgment to be quiet and see what the issue will be lest in stead of contending with men we be found to oppose God Almighty himself III. And the issue was this which is the last thing that by the power of this Advocate alone and no other our Lord Jesus actually obtained a Kingdom in spite of all the opposition that could be made against him This was the greatest testimony of the Holy Ghost to him which effectually proved him to be a King by winning him a Kingdom and perswading men to submit unto him though he was invisible and not like to reward their services in this World at all but only in another It proclaimed him all abroad in the World to be the Lord of life and glory and by the mere preaching of the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven as S. Peter speaks 1 i. 12. the Nations were subdued to him and acknowledged him for their Sovereign The High Priest and Council of Jerusalem as it there follows in v. Acts 40. desiring to discourage the Apostles in this preaching ordered them to be beaten and then commanded them to speak no more in the name of Jesus for fear of a worse punishment that might follow Alas vain men that thought to choak this Truth and bury this report concerning Jesus Did they think it was in their power to murder his
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
reverence to his Majesty Whatsoever Moses hath written against Idolatry S. John here from Jesus in the conclusion of his Epistle hath summed it up in a few words Little children keep your selves from IDOLS In this the Jews could not accuse him nor durst let such a word fall from their mouths that he was a false Prophet because he endeavoured to draw their hearts after other Gods which was the great mark of an Impostor xiii Deut. No he tells them that this is Eternal Life to know the only true God which words are spoken in opposition to all others and Jesus Christ whom he had sent But in this they might have seen that his design was far more noble and glorious than that of Moses who contented himself to preserve that one Nation from the infection of Idolatry whereas our Lord Jesus plainly declared his intention was by his Apostles to turn all Nations from Idols to serve the living and true God There was never any man that appeared so great a lover of God as he was Never any man that undertook to set on foot such a design for the advancement of the universal knowledge of him All the Divine Attributes and Perfections also He hath revealed so perspicuously that there never was such a manifestation made of them to the World as we see in Him From whom we learn how Just how Good how Wise how Faithful and how Powerful the Blessed and only Potentate is who only hath immortality whom no man hath seen or can see And if we would know our Duty either towards God in actions of Piety or towards Men in actions of Righteousness or towards our selves in actions of sobriety we can learn it no where so easily and completely as if we go to him and to those who have delivered it to us with great care and plainness from his mouth As for the Actions of PIETY He teaches us inwardly to Honour God v. Joh. 23. that is to have an high esteem of him as our Lord and as our chiefest Good to Love him also and that with all our heart and all our Soul and all our mind and all our strength xii Mark 30. And to Fear him seeing he can cast both Body and Soul into Hell which makes him again and again bid us be sure to Fear him xii Luke 4 5. To confide likewise and Trust in him the living God 1 Tim. iv 10. To Hope in his mercy 1 Pet. i. 21. And to rejoyce evermore 1 Thess v. 16. And as we are thus to worship him in our Minds so we are taught by his Religion externally to adore him and fall down before him iv Matth. 10. iv Rev. 10. to pray to him both for our selves and others 1 Tim. ii 1 8. and to be incessant in our Prayers or to perform this holy duty very oft xviii Luke 1. 1 Thess v. 17. and to offer up by him the sacrifice of Praise to God continually xiii Heb. 15. And in every thing to give thanks which is the will of God concerning us in Christ Jesus 1 Thess v. 18. and especially to shew the Lords death that is publish it with thanks and praise till he come to judge the World 1 Cor. xi 26. The manner also of addressing our selves to God he hath taught us so fully that nothing can be added to it For he tells us The Father will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth iv John 23. And that we must lift up holy hands 1 Tim. ii 8. And that when we pray we must forgive others xi Mark 25. and ask in Faith xxi Matth. 22. and avoid vain babling and not affect much speaking nor desire to be seen of men and to joyn Fasting and Alms with our Prayers and Devotions to God Matth. vi It is impossible to conceive any thing more Divine than these Instructions To which he adds as rare Precepts for Actions of RIGHTEOUSNESS concerning which he hath given us such an absolutely perfect Rule that it comprehends the measures of CHARITY too No wit of man can think of any thing more holy than that LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THY SELF or that WHATSOEVER YE WOULD THAT MEN SHOULD DO TO YOU DO YE EVEN SO TO THEM This is a rule that reaches all men and compendiously yet completely tells them how they should behave themselves towards each other If a man were a Magistrate or a Parent or stood in any other superiority over his Neighbours he would desire honour and obedience from them that therefore says our Saviour let him give to those who are in Authority If a man be our equal we desire if not his friendship yet his fidelity in word and deed that very thing let us be sure to render him and all others in the same equality with us If we be placed below others we desire the favour the help the relief and counsel of our Betters all these Jesus here teaches us to afford with the same chearfulness that we would expect them in their case to those who are in want of our kind assistance Nay he hath told us in particular what our duty is in these matters by the mouths of his holy Apostles that no man may think to excuse himself by his ignorance and inability to apply a general Rule to every action of his life I shall not name all the places where you may find such words as these that follow but only tell you He would have us so far from doing evil to any man that he requires us owe him nothing but only love And this debt we must be always paying and think our selves debtors to all men not only to treat them civilly and give them good words but to love them in deed and in truth Which Love must teach us as to be meek and gentle towards all men to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking not to circumvent or go beyond our Brother in any matter not to lye to our neighbour nor defame him much less do him any hurt in his body or goods So to relieve his poverty to help forward his joy to comfort him in his sorrow to cover his defects to make a fair interpretation of his actions to let our judgment of him incline to the more favourable side to mind what is lovely or grateful to others and what things are of good report to study things that make for peace to compose and reconcile differences to beg pardon of those whom we have offended and make them satisfaction and if any have offended us readily to forgive their fault to forbear revenge when it is in our power to requite an injury to do good for evil to bless those that curse us to overcome mens hatred with benefits to pray to God for those who use us despitefully and to be long-suffering when it is fit to punish any man for his crime And as for those who are truly pious we are taught to do them good above all other men to
live with them in unity and godly love to sympathize with them in their several conditions rejoycing with those that do rejoyce and weeping with those that weep Nor hath he failed to tell us by his holy Apostles with what kindness and indulgent affection Husbands should treat their Wives and how they again should so affectionately observe their Husbands that they may together make up a lively Image of that Dearest Love which is between Christ and his Church And he hath instructed us all how to behave our selves towards Magistrates Bishops Presbyters Masters and Parents whom he hath also taught how to bring up their children to use their servants to feed and govern their flocks and to rule their people committed to their charge so that no man can say he goes without that Lesson which is proper for his condition And then if we proceed to those things which we call SOBRIETY his Doctrine is so holy and pure that it requires the greatest Moderation in all things It favours nothing that relishes of Covetousness or Ambition or Voluptuousness or any other violent and inordinate passion whatsoever But quite contrary commands us not to labour with too much eagerness and solicitude for the meat that perishes to lay up our treasures in Heaven to be humble and lowly like little children to be temperate in all things to be watchful and vigilant lest we be overtaken with surfeiting and drunkenness or the cares of this life to be chaste and pure in heart to mortifie our members that are on the Earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection and evil concupiscence to abstain from lasciviousness foolish talking wanton and unseemly jesting to cut off our right hand and pluck out our right eye if it prove an offence to us to take just measures of our selves as well as others to be content with our portion to do those things which are venerable grave and beseeming our condition and employment which if it be not according to our desires not to repine or be dejected at it if it be not to be transported with vain joy much less with pride and contempt of our neighbours And after all these and such like incomparable Lessons He teaches us to suffer any thing for well doing to bear all worldly troubles valiantly and with a magnanimous heart to despise reproaches nay to rejoyce when our names are cast out as evil for his name sake in patience to possess our Souls and not to be weary in well doing nor faint in our minds but to endure chastening to persevere and suffer with long patience to stand fast in the faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might To all which duties he urges us likewise by the purest the most spiritual the noblest and most Divine Arguments He does not press us with such low and poor motives as the hope of Riches though he promise us things convenient or of Greatness or of Fame and Glory either while we live or when we are dead but propounds his own example to us and the example of all the Saints that are gone before us and quickens us with the hope of Immortality when we depart this life and assures us at present of the friendly protection of Angels and of the joys of the Holy Ghost which none of those shall fail to receive who are not inticed nor affrighted from their duty but resolutely hold out in their Christian warfare and overcome And if any man say that several Philosophers taught excellent things and gave Rules of a vertuous life and yet it does not prove the best of them to be so great as these Witnesses are brought to demonstrate our Saviour was The Answer is that none of them delivered such a complete Rule of holy living as our Lord hath done none of them touched the heart with such powerful reasons and Divine motives nor did any of them write without some mixture of folly or themselves exactly perform that which they taught others Besides that none of them ever had the confidence to pretend to that quality wherein our Saviour came which you shall see presently is of great force to prove such an Holy Person as he was to be indeed what he pretended the Son of God II. But first let us a little consider the second sort of PURITY that of the Life in which our Lord Jesus far out-stript all others He did not only preach after that manner I have now related but so he lived and became a complete pattern of that which he taught He was a LIVING LAW as Lactantius calls him * Lib. 4. Instit C. 25 to all his Disciples whom he taught by Himself and not merely by his Lectures of Piety Other Teachers had conceived in their minds and painted in their Orations a vertue that was no where to be seen for they were not able as the same Author else-where speaks to confirm by present Examples that which they asserted in their Doctrine Their Auditors might still say that no body could live according to their prescriptions because no body ever did Behold therefore our Saviour comes to do and not only to preach the will of God And so holy pure and free from all blame were all the Actions of his life that his greatest Enemies could lay nothing to his charge but only certain words and those such as contained most perfect truth as he proved by his actions and many other ways He was the Lamb of God without spot and without blemish as S. Peter speaks 1 Pet. i. 19. He offered himself by the eternal Spirit without spot unto God ix Hebr. 14. His whole life was such a fair example of that Piety Humility Charity Gentleness Forgiveness Peaceableness Patience and all other vertues which he taught that God restored him to life again after they had crucified him and put him to death because there was no fault in him He was frequent in Prayer to God and sometimes continued therein a whole night together Upon all occasions he gave him thanks He loved his Glory and the Good of mankind more than his life He went about doing good And he taught his Family to be as kind and tender-hearted as himself He was meek and lowly in heart When he was abused He was dumb as a Lamb before the shearers so opened he not his mouth He was full of respect towards Magistrates and Governours very sweet and affable towards the poorest people exceeding kind and compassionate towards his envenomed enemies and perfectly contented in the lowest condition When Foxes had holes and Birds had nests but He not where to lay his head none could be found more chearful thankful and well pleased than he was And as for his Fortitude Courage Constancy Resignation and all other suffering vertues there never was any thing comparable to them For he endured the Cross and despised the shame and contentedly took the contradiction of sinners saying Father not my will
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
who have offended them to pass by injuries and to do good for evil and especially to be kindly affectioned one to another in the love of the Brethren in honour preventing one another For which end endue us all with true humility of Spirit with very contented minds and moderate desires Let no covetousness no ambition or love of any pleasure betray us to dishonour thee hurt our neighbours or abuse our selves Help us to possess our bodies in sanctification and honour to preserve our hearts chaste and pure to be temperate in all things to mortifie our members that are on the Earth to put away all foolish talking and corrupt communication out of our mouth and to abstain from all appearance of evil Finally whatsoever things are sincere and true whatsoever things are grave and honest whatsoever things are just and equal whatsoever things are pure and modest whatsoever things are amiable and endearing whatsoever things are of good fame and well spoken of if there be any occasion to exercise a vertue if there be any thing laudable dispose us to have these things always in our mind and to be readily prepared for them That so we may be good in every relation Governours and Subjects Priests and People Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants doing their duties faithfully and to their mutual comfort joy and satisfaction And if thy wise Providence call any of us to part with any thing for thy names sake O that our Love may give an eminent proof of its sincerity by resolved and patient suffering with an humble meek and chearful submission to thy holy will Then shall our Souls rejoyce and triumph in thee when we not only call thee Lord and Master but do those things that thou sayest It will be our exceeding joy to think that thou lovest us as thy children and delightest to behold thine own Image in us We shall rejoyce that thou reignest and rejoyce again in hope that we shall reign with thee Blessing honour glory and praise shall we be for ever giving unto thee who hast washed us from our sins in thy own bloud and redeemed us from all iniquity that we should be holy and unblameable before God in love looking for thy mercy unto eternal life Amen and Amen CHAP. VI. Concerning the Second Witness upon Earth the BLOVD COME we now to hear what the next Witness says which we shall find to give in an Evidence as strong as the former and that is the BLOUD By this word every body presently understands the Sufferings and DEATH of Jesus when his Bloud you know was shed upon the Cross in a most ignominious manner For that envy which began to rise in the Pharisees hearts as I observed in the end of the foregoing Chapter from iv John 1. when they saw him baptize so many disciples never ceased boiling till it turned into perfect Gall and the rankest hatred and malice in the World which was never satisfied till they had baptized him as S. Luke speaks xii 50. with his own bloud For the present indeed as you read there and in many other places he avoided their snares and went out of their way when he thought they intended to apprehend him because he would preserve himself till he had preached all the Country over But when that was done he suffered them to take him at a publick feast and delivering up himself into their hands let them do with him just as their murderous malice inclined them Now this voluntary Oblation and Sacrifice of himself to suffer what they pleased to inflict was such an evidence that in truth he was the Son of God as he had made his disciples believe that there is a particular mark set upon it to this purpose both by himself and by his Apostles He himself in his discourse with Pontius Pilate just before his crucifixion and when he stood before him condemned by the Jews for saying he was the Son of God expresly affirms that for this end he was born and therefore he came into the world that he might bear witness to the truth xviii John 37. Which was as much as to declare that he had rather die than lose the end for which he had lived thus long which was to speak the Truth and particularly this Truth that he was indeed a KING as you there read the very Son of God This was the thing he would justifie whatsoever he suffered for it God had appointed him to seal this with his death and to attest it in the most solemn manner even before his Judge here on Earth and when he was going to be judged by God and therefore he would not for all the world deny it or not confess it We ordinarily say when we would affirm any thing very strongly that if it was the last thing that ever we should speak we would not stick to maintain it And just so did our Saviour I came says he into the world for this end to bear witness to the truth and here I take it upon my death that I do not swerve from it in the least when I say that I am the Son of God S. Paul also as I have noted already takes particular notice of this when he remembers Timothy 1 vi 13. how Jesus did WITNESS a good confession before Pontius Pilate That is asserted this Truth that he was a KING though not of this world by confessing it before him who sate in judgment upon him with the apparent danger of his life He durst not retract any thing which he knew to be a truth though he knew withall it would prove so costly that he must defend it with his bloud He stood in this to the very last that he was the CHRIST and durst not to save such a precious life speak one word otherwise for then he knew that he should have been a lyar like the Jews who denied it This that hath been thus premised to the following discourse is very serviceable to the demonstrating what a Witness his BLOUD was because it calls to mind that which is necessary to be here again considered how he lost his life for nothing else but merely because he confessed that he was their CHRIST the Son of the Blessed Many causes of death were industriously sought for and sundry false witnesses boldly rose up against him and yet none of their testimonies when they came to be scan'd were found to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Mark 's expression is xiv 56 59. equal to the endictment or charge that was brought against him and to the intended judgment which was to pass upon him There was nothing ponderous enough of sufficient weight to justifie such a sentence as that of death which they were desirous to pronounce upon him and therefore they despaired of attaining their end unless they could have such words out of his own mouth as in their opinion would prove him a blasphemer for which they might justly condemn him
whereby the nature of things is inverted so that it appears it could not have been done by any power but only by his who is the author of Nature and made all the things we see out of nothing at all And secondly this miracle must not be wrought in secret but to gain belief it must be done before the eyes of a multitude who may see it and be satisfied of the truth of it And lastly diligent inquiry must be made and it must be examined strictly that no doubt may be left in mens minds but they may be fully satisfied it is no fancy nor done by any trick or subtile imposture Now if we consult this History of Lazarus we shall find there is none of these wanting to settle the most doubtful mind in the belief of our Saviours Almighty power and authority For to raise the Dead is a work that exceeds all natural powers There is none that can restore life as has been said already but he who at the first gave it So much the Jewes themselves acknowledge who have a common saying that the Key of the Grave is one of the four keys which is kept in the hands of the Lord of the World alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither to Angel nor to Seraph as the Jerusalem Targum speaks upon xxx Gen. 22. that is neither to lowest nor the highest of the Celestial Ministers is this power given but it is reserved to him onely that made them and all things else Now that our Saviour indeed raised a dead man there were many witnesses as you heard before from xi Joh. 45. where it is said that many of the Jews which came with Mary and had seen these things which Jesus did believed on him And the fame of it was so great that it drew a greater concourse of People thither to be satisfied of the truth of the report For he tells us xii 9. that much People i. e. a multitude of the Jews came to that place not for Jesus his sake only but that they might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead Nay the Pharisees as I told you had the news of it brought to them by some that were present and had seen the things which Jesus did xi 46. who were curious enough no doubt to inquire into the business and had satisfied themselves that indeed he was dead laid in his Grave and continued in that state till according to the course of Nature he must begin to turn to corruption and stink Which was all that needed any proof for that he was now alive their eyes were witnesses And therefore they could not deny this miracle vers 47. But to extinguish the light and take away the convincing power of it they thought it was best to remove Lazarus out of the way and to put him to death as well as our Saviour For the sight of him converted a great many as you read xii 10 11. The chief Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus It was a thing confessed then that this wonderful work had been done There was the testimony of the man himself and of his Sisters and of our Saviour's Disciples and of MANY of the Jews who were come to comfort Martha and Mary concerning their Brother xi 19. In so much that not long after our Saviour coming to the Feast of the Passover at Jerusalem Much people went forth to meet him and brought him in with a triumph due only to so great a Person saying Hosanna blessed is the KING of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord xii 12. And if you would know what excited them to meet him it was the fame of this miracle which the eye-witnesses of it had brought to them as you read there ver 17 18. The people therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead BARE RECORD For this cause the people also met him for that they heard that he had done this miracle Here it is visible were two Troops or Companies both called much people one of which went from Jerusalem to Bethany to see Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead ver 9. The other met Jesus the next day as he was coming from Bethany to Jerusalem ver 12 13. For they had been informed by those who were present at the time when it was done that for certain Lazarus was raised from his grave by the word of Jesus and now they were confirmed in this belief by the company that went to Bethany the day before to enquire of it who testified to these that came to meet him that they found it to be an undoubted truth that he had been really dead and now was alive again by no other means but those words of his Lazarus come forth which might well make them all acknowledge him to be their KING who was come unto them in the name of the Lord as appeared by this miraculous work which none but the hand of Heaven could effect What heart would not be moved to bow to him who had such power over quick and dead who could think him to be less than the Lord of all who they saw was the Lord of life None but proud ambitious Pharisees who were afraid they should lose as much authority as he got These were more startled than ever to see such crouds of people flock after him to do him honour and to hear them applaud him as the great Son of David and follow him with their Hosanna's in the highest This made them despair of blasting his fame and discrediting him with the people as long as he lived and therefore they grew the more resolved to hasten the execution of their decree against him that he should be put to death For they said among themselves as you read in the following words ver 19. Perceive ye how ye prevail nothing behold the world that is vast multitudes is gone after him followed him that is as their KING notwithstanding all that had been done to disparage him They are forced here to speak more truth than they were aware of that it was in vain to oppose him For even when they had killed him they perceived presently that they prevailed nothing but found this literally true that indeed the world went after him Men of all Nations and not the Jews only followed him zealously and became his Disciples notwithstanding the scandal of the Cross which they had cast in their way to discourage them Of which there immediately follows in this story an illustrious presage For some Gentiles desiring to see our Saviour ver 20. there came a voice from Heaven upon his prayer that God would glorifie his own Name saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again ver 28. The glory of God that is had appeared lately as I have explained it before in
persons with any shadow or colour of reason Let us perswade our selves that this is a true History which they have written and then we have no faculty of discoursing if we cannot conclude who our Saviour was He could not possibly have done such things as the blind man well argued when his eyes were opened by him ix John 31 33. if he had been a sinner that is a deceiver and not authorized by God to come in his Name If he had been a mere pretender to this dignity God would not have honoured him on this fashion nor have given countenance to a lye by as great miracles as can be wrought for the proof of any Truth He would not have deprived himself of all means to declare his will to us as he must have done if he had suffered such a vast number of miracles to be wrought by a deceiver for three years together and given the most honest-hearted men no means to discover the cheat We cannot believe him to be wise and to have a care to preserve his own authority and to support his government and not think that he would some way or other have controuled the designes of a person of such high pretences if he had opposed Him and come without his consent as his only begotten Son into the world In brief if all these things be true which are reported then our Saviour was God manifested in our flesh and you know what regard and reverence is due to such a person And that they are true we have not the least reason to doubt being reported by eye witnesses of his majesty and power who were so convinced of his Divine authority that they ventured their fortunes and lives in his service merely to promote his honour And as that whereby they perswaded others to believe in him was the power of the SPIRIT working so many miracles by their hands and the power of the HOLY GHOST in divers other wonderful gifts so it was the same SPIRIT that first convinced them and made them confidently conclude that he was the Son of God For the first time that we find they made a solemn acknowledgment of him was upon the working of a great miracle before S. Peter James and John heard the voice from Heaven when they were with him in the holy Mount He had fed you read xiv Matth. 19 c. five thousand men beside women and children with five Loaves and two Fishes And as soon as he had done straight-way constrained his Disciples to get into a ship and go before him unto the other side ver 22. lest they should joyn with the multitude in the design which he saw they had in hand vi John 15. to take him by force and make him a King When he had dismissed the multitude and spent the rest of the day in prayer he overtook his Disciples in the midst of the Sea in the fourth watch of the night and found them tossed with the waves because the wind was contrary xiv Matth. 24 25. They were afraid at the first sight of him and imagined it had been a Ghost who perhaps they thought had raised that storm But when he spake to them and bad them be of chear and said It is I be not afraid Peter was desirous if it were he that he would call him to him and enable him to walk upon the water with him And so he did as if it had been firm land till his heart began to fail him when he saw the wind boisterous But then our Lord put forth his hand and kept him from sinking and both brought him safe to the ship and made a calm Upon this They that were in the ship that is the rest of the Disciples came and worshipped him saying Of a truth thou art the Son of God ver 33. The sudden ceasing of the wind that is his coming to them upon the water his bearing up Peter and making him walk along with him and that when the surface of the water was not plain but very rough by the crossness of the wind and his feasting also great multitudes with little provision made them conclude without any more ado that he was greater than any man ever was Their minds were overcome by this mighty power of God in him which subdued their understandings perfectly to the faith and so bowed and inclined their hearts that they could not but prostrate themselves at his feet and acknowledge him to be the anointed of God They believed no doubt before that he was a great Prophet and a teacher sent of God as Nicodemus did nay had some beginnings of faith that he was the Messiah i. John 41 45. But it was not till now that they were sure of it and did him honour as of a truth or certainly the Son of God And they were no easie People that believed lightly and foolishly only out of love of novelty or some such vain humour but were convinced and overpowred by the hand of God which was stretched out to work such wonders as these whensoever Jesus pleased III. And therefore he had great reason which is the third and last consideration when any disputed or doubted of his authority to refer them as he doth very often to his miraculous works for a proof of it and he appeals to them as one of his Witnesses according as S. John here calls them when he says the SPIRIT beareth witness So you read in several places of his Gospel where you find that when the Jews incircled him as if they would not let him stir till he told them plainly whether he was the CHRIST or not x. Joh. 24. He answered them I told you and ye believed not the works that I do in my Fathers name they bear WITNESS of me As if he had said I have no more for the present to tell you than I have told you often by my works If you can see nothing in these to convince you that I am the CHRIST all my telling you so in words will be to no purpose but for the present you must remain in unbelief To the same effect he discourses again in the same Chapter vers 37 38. If I do not the works of my Father believe me not though I should say never so oft I am his Son But if I do though ye believe not me believe the WORKS that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him And thus he reasons with S. Philip xiv Joh. 10 11. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self But the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the WORKS a clear sign he spake not of himself and that he was most nearly one with the Father Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the very WORKS sake And so he tells all his Apostles that the Jews were inexcusable upon
all things they should be concerned one would think to work this wonder for then we should be forced to confess that there is nothing so eminent and singular in this thing as to move us to give credit unto Jesus But since it never has been done but only in this instance and it was also a fulfilling of his word when he gave it as a token of this truth we have reason to conclude as S. Paul did after he had seen him alive that this is very CHRIST Upon this ground it was that the Apostles so much rejoyced when they saw him again for now as S. John tells us ii 22. when he was risen from the dead they remembred that he had said this unto them concerning the raising up the Temple of his Body and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said Now they were assured they had not been deluded and yielded their assent all this while to a fancy They saw clearly that he was their KING though he had been vilely disgraced and crucified And therefore when they parted with him again after his Resurrection they did not lament and mourn as they had done before but worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God xxiv Luk. 52 53. II. But it is time to add that as it was a sign which he gave them before-hand of this Truth so he told them it was the greatest sign which he had to give He had done many things in his life time to perswade the Jews that he was the CHRIST But still they were so perverse as to ask for more signs of it Though he had done more miracles than ever Moses or all the Prophets had done from the beginning yet the Pharisees continue to say Master we would see a sign from thee xii Matth. 38. One would think they had a mind to learn of him since they call him Master but it was only a complement as S. Luke informs us xi 16. And therefore our Saviour calls them an evil and adulterous generation who were degenerated from the manners of their pious ancestors for they were contented with less proofs of that which God required them to believe and would have been ashamed to seek after a sign as these men did after such evident tokens of a Divine presence in him as they beheld Why should he gratifie men of so naughty a humour whom nothing would satisfie but a sign from Heaven which S. Luke says they demanded nor would be convinced then neither he clearly discerned by their frivolous cavils at all that he had already done Therefore he tells them no sign shall be given them but the sign of the Prophet Jonas which was not a sign from Heaven but from the bowels of the Earth For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth vers 39 40. Which was as much as to say It is in vain to attempt the conviction of such corrupt and depraved minds as yours are by such means as these And therefore I must tell you all that is remaining for the opening your eyes and conquering your perversness is my Resurrection As Jonas was miraculously restored again to live upon the earth after he had been swallowed up by a Whale in the Sea and layn there three days which was a notable sign that he was a Prophet and could not but obtain him credit with the Ninevites when they came to the knowledge of this wonder So will I be restored again to life after you have killed me and I have layn three days in the bowels of the earth and if this will not satiffie you there is no other sign to follow this for your conviction But let me tell you as he adds vers 41. if you still persist in unbelief when this is fulfilled the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with you and condemn you for they repented at Jonas his preaching and behold a greater than Jonas is here That is though Jonas was not really dead but only had his life wonderfully preserved yet the report of it wrought faith and the fruits of faith repentance and amendment in the hearts of the Ninevites and what a condemnation will it prove to you if after you have seen me actually dead and it be demonstrated to you that I am raised to life again you will not believe on me The very same thing is repeated again xvi Matth. 4. where they having once more demanded a sign from Heaven ver 1. He answers them that they should have none but this of Jonas and he left them and departed As if he had said I have nothing more to say to you now all that remains is that I dye and rise again which is the last and greatest token that I am the CHRIST And indeed this was a sign so great that it gave force and strength to the other signs which had been given of this Truth For in the next Chapter Matth. xvii 9. we read that Three Apostles having been confirmed in this belief by a voice from Heaven which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Jesus charges them saying Tell the Vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead Till He had taken possession of his Kingdom and was set upon his Throne and thence sent the Holy Ghost He saw it would be to no purpose for the Apostles to publish this testimony of God the Father to him For they had already slighted the testimony of John Baptist who heard the like Voice from Heaven at his Baptism and thereupon bare witness that Jesus was the Christ And therefore it was not likely that they would listen to the Apostles when they came and testified that the same words were spoken in their hearing until their testimony should be justified by the authority of such a proof as this that he was risen from the dead This would mightily back all that they said and make it undeniable by any but those who would still deny his Resurrection which was wilfully and without any reason not only to call them lyars but to affront the Holy Ghost who witnessed together with them that he was risen from the dead Which being a proof of such strength that our Saviour relyed upon it above all other it is manifest to common reason that if there be a God as we are sure there is who loves sincerity and truth he should above all things have taken order that this should not have had such evidence as it hath if indeed Jesus was not his Son Though he had suffered wonders to be done by him and voices from Heaven had been heard yet still he gained not much belief in the most considerable part of the Jewish Nation and therefore appealing in conclusion to this Grand Testimony sure there
be made alive again after Death than to save a Man's self from dying I hope then I may conclude with the Apostle S. Paul that this piece of the Mystery of Godliness is without controversie God was manifest in the flesh Justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in or by the SPIRIT The SPIRIT which did such mighty things by Jesus and at last raised him from the dead warranted him to be God manifested in our flesh It cleared him from all the envious and malicious accusations of his adversaries while he was alive by the many miraculous works which it wrought and it purged him from all suspicion of blasphemy which was charg'd against him and took away his life by raising from the dead and presenting him in Heaven a pure oblation to God It hath acquitted him fully in all impartial mens thoughts wiped off all the guilt which was cast upon him set him before the eyes of all the world as a person innocent and just and made him glorious and great even in his bloud as those words may be rendred xiii Hebr. 20. wherewithal he is gone into the Heavenly places there to appear before God for us which he would not have been able nor ever dared to do if he were not fully justified and perfectly a righteous person This is that witness which our Saviour himself promises to Nathanael as higher than that which he had already received i. John 50 51. He was convinced of the Authority of Jesus and acknowledged him to be the King of Israel because he could search into the secrets of the hearts and know men at a distance But our Lord tells him he should see greater things than these even behold the Heavens opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man That is He should have the witness of the SPIRIT sending the Angels to minister unto him when he was raised from the dead and when he was exalted unto Gods right hand in the Heavens The Ascension and Descension of Angels is but an Hebrew form of speech whereby they express the ministry and service of Angels to the Divine Majesty A servant first goes to his Master to receive his orders before he can be sent by him and therefore ascending is put before descending and by both is nothing else meant but the ministry of those Heavenly Creatures that wait upon the Throne of God and do his Commandments hearkening to the voice of his Word From thence they were sent to attend on Jesus at his Resurrection and at his Ascension as his Disciples witnessed and Nathanael among the rest for he is mentioned as a person present when Jesus showed himself to his Disciples after his Resurrection xxi John 2. and is thought by many to be the same with S. Bartholomew As Israel saw in a dream the Angels ascend and descend upon a Ladder reaching from Earth to Heaven xxviii Gen. 12. So this true Israelite who as Greg. Nyssen * Homil. 15. in Cantic expresses it showed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the pure character or mark of that Patriarch upon him in his honesty and uprightness of heart beheld the like vision of Angels but in a more apparent manner when he was awake that he might hereby be confirmed in the faith of Jesus as Jacob was by his vision in the belief of God's providence And indeed this was a great confirmation to his and to our faith For I conceive that this phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the Son of man is the same with that where it is said the Holy Ghost came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon him Which as it signifies that he was made partaker or rather was possessed of the Holy Ghost and it became His so this other like phrase of the Angels ascending and descending upon him denotes by the same reason that he was made the Lord of them and had them given to him as his ministers and attendants to be imployed in his service And so it was remarkably fulfilled which our Saviour said that he should see GREATER things than those he mentioned before For hereby he knew not only that he was the King of Israel as he had confessed ver 50. but that he was the King of Angels the Lord of Lords Yea hereby it appeared that he hath the power of God because just as the Angels are represented doing their service to his Majesty in that xxviii of Genesis so our Lord foretells with the greatest certainty they should see them waiting upon him And so they did as you read in the first of the Acts of the Apostles ver 9 10 11. which proved him to be indeed the heir of all things Now to shew a little more fully the greatness of this Testimony of the SPIRIT and that it was greater as Jesus here saith to Nathanael than the gift of discerning Spirits which I called a gift of the Holy Ghost to distinguish it from the Spirit let us consider a little that speech of our Saviours xii Matth. 31 32. Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men c. Which heavy doom S. Mark tells us was pronounced upon them because they said he had an unclean Spirit iii. 30. This shows what the blasphemy was in which if they continued there was no hope of pardon For if he by the SPIRIT of God cast out Devils as he tells them ver 28. then it was rank blasphemy the highest degree of evil speaking and calumny to impute these very cures and wonderful works to the power of the Devil which were wrought by that Divine power And this sin was therefore unpardonable which shows how great this testimony of the SPIRIT is because there were no means left to convince them that Jesus was the Son of God without which belief their sins could not be forgiven if they persisted not only in denying the authority of the SPIRIT but were so bold as to blaspheme it For what could work upon their hard hearts if this proved ineffectual might they not better deny the voices from Heaven which they did not hear than these wonderful works which they beheld every where with their own eyes Or might they not as well say that those were delusions as call these works diabolical operations Might they not in like manner slight his power of knowing secrets and impute it to some other skill What is there in which they might not shuffle and resist the light if in so clear a case as this Jesus his opposition to the Devil casting him out of possession and that on purpose to establish an holy doctrine quite contrary to his interest and in a number of other miraculous works they would be so obstinate as to say the Devil himself had the principal hand There is no question to be made but they who were so perverse as not to see this finger of God
Ulcera oris immensi wide and very gaping Ulcers they gave feet to the lame eyes to the blind and life to the dead Nor was there any thing that astonished all beholders done by him which he did not subject to the power of these infants these rusticks and gave them authority to do it What say you now O ye incredulous ye hard ye obstinate hearts Did your Jupiter himself ever give any mortal man such power Did he ever so much as bestow upon his High-Priest upon the most sacred of all his High-Priests I will not say the power to raise a dead man or make a blind man see but so much as to make a wheal or a pimple sink down and lye even with the skin by speaking a word or cure a little cleft which a loose skin sometimes makes in the fingers end only by touching it or bidding it be angry no longer And was it an humane power then from which such great things as I have told you of proceeded Sure it was sacred sure it was Divine or if you will admit any more superlative expression it was more than Divine more than Sacred For when thou dost that which thou art able to do and which is proportionable to thy power and strength there is no such reason that admiration should cry out thou didst that which thou hadst strength to do and which one might expect from such a power But now to be able to transfer thy right and power to another and to make a frail weak creature do that which is proportionable to thy might alone this is the effect of a power which is above all and which contains in it the causes of all things and the natures of all faculties Go then and fetch us Zoroastres that great Magician you brag of through the torrid zone or go and bring hither the Armenian that Ctesias writ of nay summon Apollonius Damigero Dardanus and all the rest of your most eminent wonder-workers that ever were let them be gathered together and joyn their forces and let us see them give but one of the common people power to command by a plain word a dumb man to speak or a man whose arms and leggs are withered to work and walk Or if this be too difficult a thing to make another do this and do it with a simple command let us see any of them do it themselves And let them call in the assistance of all their Daemons let them gather all the magical herbs which they can find in the bosome of the Earth and come with the whole power of their murmuring words and with all their charms we will except none of them we forbid them nothing that they can get to aid them and let them try if with the help of all their gods to boot they can do any such thing as these poor rustick Christians effected nudis jussionibus by their naked and bare command Cease O ye ignorant souls therefore to scoff and to curse when ye hear of these things which cannot hurt him at all but will bring no small prejudice to your selves For the Soul is a precious thing nothing ought to be so dear to a Man as that which is in hazard by blaspheming Christ Who is no such contemptible person that you may laugh at him but as appears by these things Deus ille sublimis c. That High God God of God God from unknown Kingdomes God sent by the most High to be the Saviour whom neither the Sun himself nor the brightest Stars if they have any sense nor the Principalities and Rulers of the World no nor your great Gods or those who feigning themselves to be Gods terrifie all mankind with their formidable power could so much as know or suspect whence or what he was he is so great But now that it is known and he hath demonstrated it to the World by his Divine works you had best submit to him and not imagine he is but one of us And that truly is good counsel for us all to acknowledge Jesus to be the Lord and submitting our selves to his authority to be governed by his Laws which God from Heaven confirmed by the most miraculous operations of the Spirit and of the Holy Ghost It is true we do not see and hear those things of which the Apostles and they that lived in their days were spectators and auditors but we have the faithful records of those miraculous works and of their Sermons left by themselves Registers were delivered under the unquestionable hands of those divine men of what they had seen and heard and of what they themselves said and did That is the Testimony of the Apostles and the Testimony of God was preserved and kept in the Holy Books which spake the same to the next Age which their Fathers had seen with their eyes and heard with their ears in the Age foregoing And moreover for a further confirmation that these were the lively Oracles of God his word transmitted unto them on which they might rely they had a continuance of the gifts of the Holy Ghost for some Ages following As Justin Martyr and Tertullian witness for the second Age after our Saviour And Origen Minutius Arnobius and Lactantius to name no more in succeeding times witness for the third and part of the fourth How could they doubt of the truth of the reports which they had received when they beheld them still verified as much as was necessary in their own days by the testimony of God himself And as for the incredulous Gentiles who stopt their ears to these reports they pressed them very strongly in this manner to use the words that follow in Arnobius as we may do those who question or disbelieve the Evangelical History in our own Age. Will you not believe good witnesses of things that were done unless you see them done your selves Shall Authors of certain credit be rejected who received such things themselves and delivered them to their posterity to be belived with no small approbation You will say who are those I answer whole Countries People Nations all that incredulous race of mankind are our Witnesses and the Authors we produce Who would never have entertained these things unless they had been clearer as we say than the light Do you think that the men of that time were such vain lying fools such sots such brutes that they feigned and imagined they saw such things as they never saw and that they childishly affirmed such things were done when there was nothing like it and when they might have lived with you in good esteem and contracted alliances and kindred among you would chuse to become the publick hatred and to make their very name execrable without any reason for it If this story be false whence comes all the world to be filled so soon with this Religion Or how was it brought about that so many people in such distant Countries and of such different humours should all conspire and agree
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
therefore we ought to study this place of holy Scripture and have it much in our thoughts that so our Faith may stand in the Power of God For otherwise how shall we be able to follow the Apostolical Precept which would have us when we are questioned to render a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Pet. iii. 15. We may be able to stand our ground though we be ignorant of the true causes of belief but the enemies of it will look upon it as a foolish obstinacy if we have not so much understanding as to give some other account of our Faith than they give for theirs Suppose they should say Why are you a Christian whence is it that you look for a Resurrection a Glorious body and Eternal life in another world Would they not think us very stupid if we could say nothing to them but that so we have been always taught and are resolved to believe Would not this be as good a reason for them as it is for us and make us unworthy of the name of Christians who know our Books no better which bid us give and furnish us with a reasonable account Consider therefore what Answer you would shape to them that should make such a demand The Apostle says it is fit they should have a reason what is the best that you can offer for their satisfaction shall I tell you The plain Answer is this That Jesus whose Religion we follow was the Son of God and therefore we believe these things because the Son of God taught us so who cannot deceive us and we will not exchange this for any other perswasion though we should die for it It is certain enough that every body who hears this will presently consent to us that he is a fool who doth not stoop to him and comply with us if it be certain that Jesus is the Son of God But how do you prove that will be the next question Here is the labour this is our work and whence will you fetch convincing Arguments to make them yield to you this weighty point There is no such Compendious Abridgment of them any where that I know of as in this place of S. John which furnishes us with reasons both many and mighty to perswade us and others that Jesus is the Son of God You may tell them that the Father Almighty said so by voices from Heaven in the audience of credible persons and that the Word said so as they may be informed of S. Paul who had no reason greater than this to force him to leave all and with the daily hazard of his life to follow Jesus You may alledge the testimony of the Holy Ghost both at his Baptism and afterward the marvellous sanctity of his Doctrine and Life the Confession he made at his bloudy Death the Glory of his Miraculous works his Resurrection from the Dead the Power of the same Spirit in his Apostles after he was gone to Heaven all the Miracles which were wrought long after their times in the places where the holy Martyrs of Jesus suffered together with the wonderful success of these Witnesses who perswaded innumerable People in all Countries to become the subjects of this crucified King Christ Jesus Study this place therefore I say again very well that you may be able to oppress any gain-sayer with the great weight of those reasons which you render of your faith And study it likewise till you feel the faith of Jesus doing something in your hearts till that faith which hath so good a cause have sutable effects that is till it change you as it is ever apt to do into the nature of that cause from whence it flows It comes from God see that it carry you to him and change you into his likeness It relies on his Testimony be sure that it make you perfectly of his mind It comes with the authority from the Word of God it self and from the Holy Ghost let it mightily inspire you with devotion to him and set your affections on things above where Christ is now at God's right hand It relies upon the Purity of his holy Doctrine and Life and therefore ought to purifie our hearts that we may behave our selves in all holy conversation and godliness It is founded on his Bloud on which we can never look but it will deaden our affections to this World and make us crucifie the flesh with its passions and lusts It stands upon the power of God and should therefore make us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might It grows as you see upon sundry roots and flows from several heads and therefore should dispose those in whose hearts it is planted to be abundant in the work of the Lord and to bring forth much fruit that we may be known to be indeed the Disciples of Jesus whose faith is supported by such numerous Witnesses And this now will lead me to the next thing which S. John here makes to be the necessary consequent of this faith and therefore ought not to be omitted IV. If there be such great such abundant reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God then there is as great a necessity lying upon us to be obedient unto him and punctually to observe all his commands This Faith both requires our submission and obedience to him and also gives us power and ability to perform it It is a meer trick of the Devil another piece of his Sophistry when He cannot dig up the foundation of Christianity which I told you was his first indeavour to hinder all superstructure upon it by perswading Christian People that Faith and Obedience are no necessary Companions but that they may be good believers and yet not keep Christ's Precepts Some think they need not and others which is the same cheat in another shape think they cannot But I appeal to every Man's conscience if he be a believer whether he do not perceive his heart over-awed and his will inclined to reverence and subjection and all his powers mightily moved to tender their service when he seriously thinks that Jesus is the Lord to whom God the Father hath committed all Judgment and will render to every Man according to his works Do you not feel this faith carrying a great authority with it Nay is there not an irresistable energy and vertue in it while you attend to it pressing you to conformity with his holy will Who can gain-say this And who can say then that his Faith does not both engage and inable him to be obedient to his Saviour if he do but mind what he believes He never thinks of that but it powerfully urges and constrains him to yield himself to be a faithful Servant of Jesus in every thing that he declares to be the mind and will of God These uncontrollable inclinations declare to us so plainly the tendency and natural disposition of Christian Faith that we cannot but see it is so far from
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
capacities so much inlarged And therefore you may consider farther 5. that if this capacity and this desire in our Souls be not filled we shall be so far from leading an happy life that we shall be more miserable then we are now because we shall be more able to discern our wants And thence we may conclude that to make us happy our Mind shall be gratified and it s widened enlarged Faculties filled with a Divine light proportionable to the power it hath to apprehend Well then 6. considering that all objects are finite and limited both in their nature and number except God alone who contains in his own Being all things that are and can possibly be our Minds will certainly be carried to him as the onely object that can perfect their Happiness by satisfying their boundless desire of wisedom and knowledge He alone can fill those Minds who long to know all things and who have an aptitude to a vaster knowledge then now can be conceived And 7. who can doubt but he will fill them since he hath promised as you have heard by our Saviour that the pure in heart shall see him that is know him and contemplate him in that Eternall LIFE which Christ hath revealed For in this our enjoying God must begin and it may well be called SEEING in Scripture because Knowledge to the Mind is the same with Seeing to the Eyes and the Vnderstanding to the Soul is the same with the Eye to the Body And 8. we can as little doubt but that their Souls will be most happy who shall lead such a Life which begins in their admission to this blessed Sight The contemplative Life even in this world hath been thought by the greatest Philosophers to be the most excellent and in a manner Divine as Aristotle endeavours to prove by severall Arguments in the conclusion of his Ethicks Lib. x. c. 7 8. Now the more excellent the object is which we contemplate the more excellent is the contemplation it self From whence he concludes xii Metaphys in another place that God must needs be the most Blessed because he perfectly and perpetually contemplates himself whom all acknowledge to be the most excellent and perfect object And since the Understanding says he conceives by a kind of conjunction with that which it understands so that in some sort they are made one from thence also we may argue that his Contemplation of himself must needs be the most excellent because it is the most intimate as well as constant and never interrupted enjoyment of the most excellent Being The more then our mind can be fixed on God and the more we understand of him and the nearer we approach to him the more we shall partake of his most blessed Life who being most intimately One with himself never ceases to contemplate his own most adorable Perfections You will be the more sensible of this if you do but imagine how happy many a man would think himself could he but raise his mind to understand the wonderfull frame of the World and discover the rare wisedom that lies hid in the contrivance of every part of so goodly a Fabrick If there be such pleasure in looking into the curious composure of this great Book of the Creatures and searching after all the mysterious learning contained in it which employs the study of innumerable souls night and day you may easily conceive it must needs be a most sublime satisfaction to know him clearly who is the Authour of this Structure whose Artifice now ravishes contemplative minds into such admiration They seem to have meant nothing else anciently who discoursed of the Musick of the Spheres or celestiall Orbs but the extraordinary pleasure and delight wherewith the minds of those Philosophers were struck who beheld the orderly and gracefull motion of those heavenly bodies And the same men said the Mind of man was an Harmony because of the well-set notions whereof it is composed and the sweet touches that it gives us when it is in tune and runs into coherent thoughts and orderly speculations Now look what joy it would be to a contemplative man if he could know the Art there is in the frame of the Heavens or if he could but so reflect upon his own Soul as to know its nature all its motions the spring and the manner of them nay but to know his own Body which as the Psalmist says is so fearfully and wonderfully made that it astonishes our minds when we seriously think of it and by this you may judge what an happy life it will be to be acquainted with God by whose wisedom the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth and who fashioned all our Souls and curiously wrought all the members of our bodies where no eye could see but onely his own yea to know so much of him that But it is not in my power to make you understand what this Knowledge shall be for that would be to place you in Heaven Nay we cannot conceive how God himself should make us know it in this state unless he work a change in us and cause these bodily operations to cease All that I can doe is to make you understand that our Souls shall be enlarged to know more then now we can conceive and that we shall be as inconceivably pleased in that knowledge for the very hope of it now is not without its singular pleasure You will ask perhaps But what is it that we shall know of him Do you tell us of a mysterious Darkness or which is all one an inapprehensible Light This is but to know that we are ignorant And who can fasten his heart on things of which he hath no perception or delight in the thoughts of that with which he hath no acquaintance I answer We are already acquainted blessed be God with something of him though as I have said before we see but through a glass darkly 1 Cor. xiii 12. As a glass represents not the thing it self but its image and he that sees a thing in a glass doth not know it immediately from its self but from its image such is the knowledge we have of God in this life We know him by the effects of his Wisedom Power and Goodness and by the revelation he hath made of his Mind and Will in his Gospel We know him not immediately and by himself but we know as it were an Image of him in his Works and in his Word And though this knowledge be but obscure and not so clear as we desire yet so much is plainly revealed that one day we shall see him face to face that is we shall be more nearly present to him and immediately contemplate him who is a Mind and Spirit joyning himself to our very Mind by himself and not by an image What that is some excellent Souls seem also to have had a little tast of here in this world by gasping with the mouth
him Whosoever he be therefore that is insensible of all other charms let him hearken to this and see what pleasure can doe to make him in love with this Life of our Lord. Pleasure I say which all mankind most passionately desires be it never so weak and imperfect the Light of all good things which should we suppose separated from humane life it would be nothing but darkness and horrour And if thou knowest not yet what spirituall delight means let thy fleshly pleasures tell thee something of this happiness If thou art not so sottish as never to have a thought of any thing beyond the satisfaction of thy fleshly lusts think how much more noble a Spirit and the pleasures of it are then a Body and all its delights And then raise up thy mind a little higher to consider that if pleasure have now such power over thee here are the greatest to invite thee Pleasures that as much exceed those of the spirit as they do those of the flesh Pleasures at God's right hand the very joy of the most High the Father of spirits the pleasures of God himself O come come if thoâ— lovest thy self and thy own perfect satisfaction come I say whosoever thou art that eagerly followest after pleasure to the contemplation of these joys which are so sublimely sweet And be content to part with all other if that be the onely means to be possessed of these What if thou shouldst suffer by devoting thy self to pursue these in many outward accommodations nay if thou shouldst lose this Life to attain that which is Eternall It will be no dear purchace but bring thee in an increase of more then an hundred-thousand-fold Whatsoever thou expendest here for the Lord Jesus He hath given thee his Bond for it that it shall be repayed with good measure heaped up pressed down thrust together and running over into thy bosome vi Luk. 38. An overflowing joy it will be but it runs over into our own breasts None of it will be spilt beside our selves but it will trickle down with a delicious sweetness into our own hearts Which should stir up our most thirsty desires methinks to be made partakers of it If we fore-taste the least drop of it in such Meditations as these it should fill our hearts with sharp longings after more and dispose us to say with the devout Father I named at the conclusion of the foregoing particular Far be it from me O Lord August Lib. x. Confes cap. xxii for be it from the heart of thy servant to think my self happy whatsoever joy I have in this world There is a Joy which is not the portion of the wicked but of those who serve thee freely whose joy thou thy self art And that is the truly-happy life to rejoyce to thee because of thee for thee This is it and there is no other O how far distant is this present life from that Here is Falshood Orat. contra Judaeos Pagan Arrian cap. xxi there is Truth Here is Disturbance there is sure Possession Here is the worst Bitterness there eternall Love Here dangerous Pride there secure Joy and triumph Here we fear lest he that is a Friend should on a sudden turn an Enemy there a Friend is always constant because no Enemy can be admitted thither Here whatsoever Good we have we are afraid to lose it there whatsoever we receive shall be preserved by him who takes care that neither we pass away from it nor it from us Here is Death there is Life Here all things that God hath created there God himself in stead of all and in all things But what humane tongue can extoll that which no sense of mortalls can comprehend We will go thither that we may comprehend it We will go and see there that which eye hath not seen and hear there that which ear hath not heard and understand there what the heart of man cannot now conceive and seeing hearing and understanding we shall exult with unspeakable joy And what Joy is that where no Fear will be Whaâ— kind of Joy will it be when thou shalt see thy self a companion of Angels a partaker of the Kingdom of Heaven in Royall state with the King of all desiring nothing in passession of all things rich without covetousness administring without money judging without Successour reigning without fear of Barbarians living an eternall Life without Death CHAP. III. A farther Explication of the Happiness of this LIFE IV. WE must stay as I have said before for the resolution of such Questions till we enter into that Joy And for the present be glad to know that our Souls being thus happily disposed shining with the Divine Light satisfied with the Divine Love and rejoycing in both must needs issue forth in the most chearfull and delightsome Praises of God who hath preferred us to such a blissfull state For this we all find is one of the naturall effects of Joy here in this Life As it transports and raises the Soul above it self as it makes us eager to possess if it were possible more of that Good which gives such delight and as it makes us for the present forget all other things all the cares and troubles of this life and indeed so much betters and improves our Soul that of all other things we are not willing to forgo it So it never fails likewise to employ the tongue in praising and commending that Good to which it owes it self How barren soever the Mind be or what slowness soever there be in our Tongues joy and pleasure make us fruitfull in Thoughts and quicken our Speech to declare the content we take in the company of that which is the cause of it Nay the Voice becomes bigger and louder by its means and it never utters it self but with earnest notes of its high satisfaction And therefore it is impossible for the ravisht Soul when it is come to the delightfull Vision of God to refrain from joyning with the Heavenly Quire to give Glory to God in the highest that is after the most excellent manner and with the most exalted affections As the Understanding by reflecting upon the blessedness of the whole Man will excite an extraordinary Joy in the heart as I have just now discoursed so by reflecting upon the fountain from whence that happiness flows and earnestly observing the Originall of its enjoyments it cannot but excite in it self admiration and wondering thoughts and presently employ them to invent the noblest hymns and songs of praise whereby to magnifie and laud this glorious Goodness of God And this will make still greater additions to the Joy before spoken of which must necessarily be intermixed with these most affectionate Thanksgivings as every one can witness who hath tried this heavenly employment which the Psalmist in his experience found so good so pleasant and so comely cxlvii 1. Were all the mercies of but one day placed now in a clear view before your eyes or
could you but at once behold all the blessings that are crouded into every moment what admiration would it raise up in your hearts what a volume of praises would you be able to compose and how much sweeter would this one act of lauding and praising God be then the enjoyment of all the good things you praise him for Raise up your minds then to conceive the height of those Praises that will be continually springing and bubbling up from thankfull hearts and always filling their mouths when they shall be able to shoot their thoughts down to the very bottom of their days and see all the curious Providences of God about them all the favours they have enjoyed and all the dangers they have escaped as they passed through the tumultuous Sea of worldly affairs O what Hallelujahs will it create when these shall be represented thick together or stand at once before us and when we shall not onely look upon the past loving-kindnesses of God in one train of thoughts but in the next behold all our present enjoyments the quiet shoar where we are landed with the riches and pleasures of the Heavenly Country and when we shall also think again of those that are still future which are always beginning and never ending always present and always to come This sure will make the voice of praise more loud and shrill and every note so sweet that it will give the most gratefull touch unto the heart Look upon the little Birds and hearken how they chirp and sing in the wide and spacious air where they have no limits set to their liberty and then think what a chearfull life they lead in comparison with one that is perpetually coup'd up in a cage and spends many lonesome days and melancholick nights in that solitude And look again upon your own Souls which we think are capable of the highest pleasures and cannot you conceive a little how delightfull they will find it to be always singing in the vastest liberty and freedom to be spreading their wings in the boundless Light to which God will bring them and to be uttering their joys as they see themselves incompassed on all sides with innumerable objects of contentment O how infinitely will it transcend all that they are capable of while they are imprisoned or rather pinioned in this body though one moment of those Joys which are sometimes felt here by holy Souls is not to be exchanged for all that the world can offer in its stead And these Songs will be made the more melodious by the company that shall joyn together in the most harmonious consort All the Saints and Angels will make up but one happy Quire and will all strive we may imagine with an holy emulation to excell each other and without any envy contend who shall sing the loudest and sweetest praises to our Creatour and Redeemer And what delight may we conceive will they take in the delicate strains of each other How will they be pleased to hear their own voices accompanied with the hymns of so many celestiall creatures How will the whole number be even rapt out of themselves by the melting airs of the whole Quire when they all lift up their voices together as those myriads of holy ones which St. John saw v. Rev. 11. acknowledging the Lamb worthy to receive power and riches and wisedom and strength and honour and glory and blessing which as he says v. 13. all good Christians even in this world delight to ascribe unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever The Pagans had some little sense of this pleasure as we may learn from Metrodorus himself who though an Epicurean Lib. v. Strom. p. 614. yet in these words as Clemens Alexand observes spoke divinely Remember O Menestratus who art born mortall and hast received a life which will have an end that ascending with thy Soul even till thou comest to eternity and the infinity of things thou shalt see both things to come and things that have been For according to Plato we shall contemplate with the happy Quire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blessed Vision and Spectacle Where we attending upon Jupiter and others upon other Gods shall be admitted if it be lawfull to speak it to celebrate the most blessed Mysteries Which we shall joyfully observe being intire and insensible of any of those evills which expected us in our latter days And we shall be admitted to the mysterious contemplation of those perfect and steady sights in pure light being our selves pure and disingaged from this body which we carry now about with us to which we are tied as fast as an oyster is to its shell They felt it appears by these words very strong motions in their Souls after a sight of those things to which they could not reach while they were in these Bodies And they had a faint hope also that when they were got loose from these shackles they should neither be confined nor clouded but in pure light and liberty rejoyce and be glad in the love of their gods who they expected would admit them to the knowledge of such secrets as they imparted onely to their Friends For that 's the meaning of celebrating the Mysteries which were Secrets that all were not permitted to see and when any had seen they might not reveal but were kept with festivall joys after the most solemn manner by those who were thought worthy of them To the delight of those feasts he compares the joy they should have in the other life which they were wont to promise to all those who were admitted to the sight of their Mysteries There they fansied they should rejoyce in a nobler manner then they did when they followed the pomp of Bacchus and Ceres to whose mysteries this Authour alludes and without that noise and tumult which accompanied such trains behold in quiet the unknown spectacles of the invisible World But if you think that all the expressions I have used borrow too much from sensible things yet remember at least what delightfull touches a sweet voice or other excellent musick hath in any moment given your Soul and conceive then what a pleasure it would be to have two hours continued like that one minute or your spirits so delicately moved for one whole day together By this means you will the better understand the truth of what I have said for just such is the pleasure of those Souls which now strike themselves and touch their own hearts with a lively sense of the Goodness of God towards them and which feel withall the finger of God giving the like stroaks upon them There is nothing so delicious as this nothing so powerfull to ravish them out of their bodies The very strings would crack and the Soul and flesh would dissolve their Union should there remain such a powerfull and delightfull motion for some hours as for a little space they sometime feel transporting them They cannot but
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
after millions of ages are spent in the heavenly mansions as there was at the very first entrance into them Death being destroyed by him who is the Resurrection and the Life and who dieth no more an immortall Soul shall inhabit an immortall Body and they shall be for ever with the Lord. Where they shall be for ever employed in those happy exercises before mentioned which will for ever be to be done again In the doing of them there will be infinite pleasure and in the repetition of them there will be no disrelish but an infinite increase of pleasure As they always know so they shall always be knowing more For new beauties we may well think will discover themselves in an infinite object and this will excite a fresh love and that a more vigorous joy And so for ever round again there will be knowing loving and rejoycing more and more without any end It is but a little that can be said of ETERNITY though we should speak of it to the end of Time Nay in Eternity it self we shall not be able to come to the End of it in our thoughts no more then in our being because it hath none We can never know it all because it is still to come And therefore how little of it will this leaf of paper contain or should we write never so much how shall we be able now to reach the description of a thing so sublime Thankfull acclamations to the goodness of our Saviour for bringing life and immortality to light and serious admirations at the amazing greatness of what we know of it will be far more acceptable as well as more easie then a long discourse about it And therefore I shall end this Chapter with my wishes that this Blessedness I am speaking of may not seem small in our eyes because we can relate so little of it but rather appear the greater and the more desirable because we see it is beyond our present understanding Though this vast Circle of Eternity cannot be measured by our thoughs that makes it but so much the more excellent then our Span of time And though this LIFE comprehend such pleasures as we cannot now enjoy that doth but exalt it above the poor pleasures of this present life which we can first enjoy and then contemn We are not able it is true to conceive nor can it enter into our hearts what God hath in store for those that love him but this should onely excite our longings to conceive it and make us sigh and say when we think of enjoying God himself and of an eternall enjoyment of him O the fulness of God! O the infiniteness of him that is the Life of this LIFE Who can tell what thou art O most Blessed for ever by whom all things were made and who art All that can possibly be What comforts shine from the brightness of thy face How joyfull wilt thou make us with the light of thy countenance when we shall see thee as thou art It will put greater gladness into our hearts then if all the glory of the world should smile upon us But what eye can be strong enough to behold so great a Splendour what excellent creatures must they be made who shall be capable to SEE GOD It casts us into a trance when we do but think of being eternally beloved of thee O what will it doe to feel our selves ever ever the objects of thy infinite love The beauteous frame of the Heavens is exceeding admirable in our eyes O what a goodly World is this in which thou sufferest thine Enemies to live What a glorious torch is the Sun which thou hast lighted to shine on the unjust as well as on the just Who then can hope to know till he sees what the pleasures are which thou hast prepared for thy Friends what a glorious Light shall shine from thy presence upon the face of those that love thee Their hearts now cannot hold the smallest glimpse of that which shall for ever bless and ravish them with its joys But how can we hope to see it unless thou wilt raise us above our selves and make us no longer men of this world but children of the Resurrection and equall to the holy Angels We believe and rejoyce to think that thou wilt account us worthy to obtain that World and the resurrection of the dead It is the greatest pleasure we have here to hope we shall enjoy all the happiness of which we now discourse nay far more infinitely more then can be conceived For how great will that happiness be August de Civ Dei cap. ult where we shall neither feel any evill nor want any good where all our work will be the praises of God who shall be all in all where no sloth shall make us cease to praise him nor any necessity call us to other employment There will be true glory indeed where no man shall be praised either by the errour or the flattery of him that praiseth True honour that will be which shall be denied to no worthy person nor given to any unworthy Nay the unworthy shall not so much as seek it there where none are permitted to come but such as are worthy True peace is there where nothing shall fall cross to our desires either from our selves or any other There He who gave Vertue will be its Reward having promised that he himself then which nothing can be greater nothing better will be the portion of it What else shall we understand by those words I will be their God and they my people but that I will be their Satisfaction I will be all that every one can honestly desire both life and health and sustenance and riches and glory and honour and all good For so we reade that God will be all in all He will be the End of our desires who will be seen without end and loved without lothing and praised without weariness This will be the office this will be the inclination this will be the work of all in that Eternall Life which is common to all There we shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever There we shall keep that truly greatest Sabbath which hath no Evening There we shall rest from labour and see we shall see and love we shall love and praise Behold what will be in the End without end For what else is our End but to come to the Kingdom which hath no End Amen CHAP. V. Of the Certainty of this ETERNALL LIFE whose Excellency is a little farther illustrated out of the Holy Scriptures WHen I reflect upon the foregoing Meditations concerning the LIFE to come and the ETERNITY of it I begin to think I have wrong'd it much by so poor and dull a description of so great a Good and by endeavouring to draw that into a few particular considerations which hath in it innumerable perfections It had been more becoming our ignorance perhaps to have admired its fulness then to undertake
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
Amen CHAP. IX Concerning the Witnesses on Earth and first of the WATER YOU have seen already how many there are that solicit our affections and perswade us to believe in the Lord Jesus and heartily consent to him in whatsoever he requires So many that how we should deny him after He himself hath appeared so often with the promises of Eternall Life and the Father also and the Holy Ghost have commended him to us as the Prince of Peace and the Lord of Glory it is harder to give any reason then it is to prove that he is the Son of God and that in him is ETERNALL LIFE For as if these Witnesses were not sufficient or that we may be born down by numerous Testimonies there are Three more who are our Neighbours as I may say with whom we are well acquainted and whose witness none could ever deny that speak the very same thing and affirm it as strongly as the other that God hath given us Eternall Life and that it is in his Son Jesus Let us call them in too and hear what they say in the same order wherein we examined them before in the former business first taking the Testimony of the WATER then of the BLOUD and then of the SPIRIT Of the WATER BY Water I have shewn we are to understand either that Purity whereof it is the Instrument which was most eminent both in Christ's Doctrine and Life or else Baptism both John's and his own by which he appeared to be the Sâ—n of God Let us have so much patience as to hear all these once more and consider what they say to the point in hand I. And as for the Purity and Holiness of his Doctrine there is much in it to perswade us that he hath Life in himself and will bestow it upon his Followers Certain it is that 1. it naturally lifts up the Mind towards heaven and disposes those that entertain it to look for Eternall Life for which it is but a preparation For it teaches us to abstract our hearts from this Flesh wherewith we are cloathed and from this World wherein we live as not worthy of all those thoughts and that care which we are apt to bestow upon them The very intent and purpose of it we cannot but see is to wean our minds from earthly injoyments and to take off our affections from the pleasures of sense to make riches and the praise of men seem little things and to give us contentment with our portion of present goods though never so small in short â—o render us something like to God himself whilst we are at this distance from him What can any man make of this but that it is a preparation for another life an Institution which designs to form men and make them fit for an higher World Do but take a review of that Compendium which I have drawn of this Doctrine in my former Book and you will be satisfied that it is nothing else but a contrivance to make us heavenly and intends to guide us to such a Life as is a prevention of Heaven a beginning of the celestial state whereby we shall live in part as men of another World and not of this Which future World 2. it is manifest his heavenly Doctrine supposes or else it would be so far from that Wisedom which was eminent in him that it would be the greatest absurdity that can be imagined For it teaches us if his service require it to deny our selves even in the most innocent and lawfull injoyments of this life to forsake father and mother and houses and lands for his Name 's sake yea to lay down our very lives rather then forsake his Doctrine and violate his commands These are express Lessons which his Sermons teach his Disciples but are things so sublime so much above the reach of flesh and bloud that it would be the vainest thing in the world to propose them to mens observance without the hope of something in another life to reward such hard services He would have had no followers on these terms had he not made it as plain and evident as the rest of his Doctrine that He would be the Authour of Eternall Salvation to them that would obey him Men were not so fond of troubles and torments and death as to expose themselves to the danger of them if they had not seen the greatest reason to believe that their Master would recompense their present Sufferings with a future happiness so incomparably greater that it would be the highest folly to avoid them None can suppose the Authour of such a Religion to be so weak as not to understand that men would never embrace this profession unless at the same time that he called them to this high pitch of piety he called them also as the Apostle speaks to his kingdom and glory And therefore without all doubt our Lord took care to preach this as the principall thing and to give good assurance of a blessed state to come because without this it had been the most ungrounded and foolish undertaking that ever man went about to perswade the world to be so mortified to quit all present possessions and to part with their lives for his sake He must have been the most unreasonable of all other men in preaching such Doctrine and supposed the World void of all reason if he expected to have it believed had he not been certain himself and been able by evident proofs to perswade others that all those who hearkened to him should be no losers but exceeding great gainers by quitting all things upon his account If he had not held this truth in his hands as clear as the Sun that they who would follow him should be immortally happy he might have stretcht them out long enough before he had drawn so much as one follower after him The Trees would as soon have followed him as Men who would never have stirr'd a foot in such a narrow path unless he had shewn them plainly that it led to Everlasting Life Let us consider and illustrate this a little Would not he expose himself to laughter and scorn that should earnestly perswade his neighbours to go and labour hard in his fields all day by which they should get just nothing for their pains at night Would it not seem a piece of strange mockery and contempt of us and as strange a folly in him that should invite us to enter into his service which he confessed would make us sweat and ingage us in many toilsome imployments and when we inquired what wages he gave should be able to assure us never a farthing that lay in his power or will to bestow upon us Would they not be equally ridiculous he that should make and they that should embrace such a proposall Might not such a trifler expect rather to be kickt then to be followed by the multitude Should we not hear them expressing their indignation in such speeches as these What Do you take
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
longer upon such considerations as these when his Doctrine which is the Second thing I mentioned is so holy and pure so heavenly and divine that the constant preacher of such things could not be guilty of so great an impiety as to call the God of heaven at last to bear witness to a known untruth No it condemns lesser lies to so severe a punishment that to say he was sent of God with the words of Eternall life nay was the Way the Truth and the Life when he knew he was not deserved according to his own sentence the heaviest condemnation To which if you add the manner of his Life which was the last thing it will compleat the Demonstration For it was so perfectly conformable to his Doctrine that we cannot but think he believed it and so could not die with a lie in his mouth Particularly it was so free from all covetous designs and from hunting after the applause and praise of men that it is incredible he should seek that by death which he had despised through the whole course of his life If he was so thirsty of vain-glory as to lose his life for it why did he not make it his business to win all he could of it while he lived Why did he not lay the foundation of his after-fame by insinuating himself in the most diligent and men-pleasing manner into the favour of all the Jewish nation and conform himself so perfectly to their humour that they might have presently made him their King Nay why did he not accept the offer when the people intended to advance him to the throne This had been a more likely way to honour and renown if that was all his aim then the lifting him up upon a Cross He might have hoped to build a lasting glory on the love of the Scribes and Elders of the people whereas this infamous death he could not but see would make him so odious that it would rob him of all mens good word and quite frustrate the design of winning a reputation among men This is a truth of which I presume by this time the most suspicious and unbelieving are convinced who cannot but confess that the voluntary death of such a person as this and a death so horrid and ignominious is a plain testimony of his sincerity and proves beyond any reasonable contradiction that he did not invent his Doctrine himself but believed it to be of God and did not seek to gain any thing by it but immortall life and glory in the world to come VI. Now that we must needs be great gainers hereby as well as himself will appear if you consider that he came into the world on purpose to doe mankind good as the business of his whole life testifies He went about doing good and sought all occasions of obliging even the most ungratefull He had compassion on every body he met withall and never denied a cure to those that begg'd it though they were never so poor and contemptible He imployed his Disciples also who attended on him in the same charitable works of healing all manner of diseases and easting out unclean spirits He bad them go and speak peace unto every house into which they entred And as for themselves he professed the greatest love imaginable to them as they themselves have recorded He called them his Friends and did not use them as Servants nay his Children and at last his Brethren which are all terms of much kindness and tenderness which he ever expressed towards them From whence I conclude that unless he could have served them better by his death then by his longer life he would not have so soon and so willingly gone to the Cross and there left these dear Friends for whose sake he had hitherto lived more then his own If he had not died for their sake too and been certain he should thereby shew more love to them and doe them better service then any other way he would have been as much inclined to stay still with them as they were to desire it He saw how loth they were to part with him and with what sad countenances and troubled spirits they received the news He was incompassed with sighs and groans when he did but mention it for sorrow as he speaks xvi Joh. 6. had filled their hearts Would not this have moved a heart less tender then his to alter this resolution when it was in his power to stay longer with them How could he endure to see their tears flow so fast when he was able to dry them up with the speaking but one word that he would not leave them If he had not been sure that he was going as he told them to his Father and that it was on purpose to prepare a place for them which ought to have made them rejoyce rather then weep because he would come again and receive them to himself that where he was there they might be also xiv Joh. 1 2 3 28. without all doubt his great love would have yielded to their prayers and commanded his power to prolong their happiness in his company He should be able he verily believed to doe greater wonders for them and bestow greater blessings upon them if he did not hearken to their importunities or else we cannot but think if we measure him by our selves he would have still continued with these his dear Companions especially since none as he professed could snatch him from their society but it was his own free choice to leave them V. And he earnestly desired them to believe as much and to look upon his BLOUD as the Seal of a New Covenant which contained better promises then the former between God and men So he said just before his death when he spoke of the Representation of it This is my BLOVD of the New Testament or Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins xxvi Matt. 28. And so the Apostles believed and spake of his BLOUD in the same terms when by his resurrection from the dead they saw that it was the BLOVD of the Covenant x. Heb. 29. and that he was most eminent for this above all other things as the expression is xiii Heb. 20. where the Apostle calls him the Shepherd of the sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was great in the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Now this is one Article every body knows one of the promises contained in it that we shall as certainly have Eternall Life as Israel in due time was brought to the possession of the good Land God promised to their Fathers Abraham you reade xv Gen. 7. had the word of God for it that he would give his posterity the Land of Canaan into which he had brought him out of Chaldaea And when he made so bold as to ask how he should know that this was true you find ver 9 10 11. that God passed this promise into a Covenant which was made by the bloud of sundry beasts
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
different desires it presents also every thing So that the ambitious for example hath the greatest glory and honour set before his eyes to invite him to it with the addition of pleasure joy peace and all other desirable goods Whereby it breaks the force of all temptations which would divert us from piety or rather heightens and lifts up our minds above them as things inconsiderable For a man's Spirit being naturally formed into a likeness of the objects with which he is conversant his Mind who hath his thoughts in heaven necessarily becomes great and heavenly and is inspired with such a generous and divine sense that he is not moved with the solicitations of these little things here but overlooks them all as much below him He is made sublime and truly noble by frequent conversation with so great a Good and scorns to stoop to the lure of those temptations which have such power upon earthly souls 2. For such is the force of this motive it is manifest from hence that as I discoursed in the beginning it speaks to the whole man and leaves no part of him untouched and unsatisfied The Understanding cannot say it is not satisfied with seeing nor the Will that it is not satisfied with loving nor the Affections that they are not filled with joy nor any part of man complain that it wants a share in this Eternall life For even the Body we saw shall partake of the glory that shall be revealed and be much improved in strength and beauty and agility and durableness being made incorruptible So that while other petty goods do onely still the craving of one desire and that but for a little time leaving the rest discontented this intirely and at once quiets all and brings in an universall fulness being the very life of God himself It is desirable therefore upon its own account and for it self alone there being nothing beyond it as there is in other goods for which we should desire it We intend by the gaining of any thing here to come to the possession of some other good But it is not so in our desires of Eternall Life which being the last and chiefest Good our thoughts naturally rest and repose themselves when they come there and seek no farther There our hearts settle and no longer rove up and down in uncertainty after every thing we fansie For the hope of it gives us a full contentment within our selves and thereby preserves us from a needless pursuit of this and the other enjoyment and leaves us little else to doe but to secure the inheritance of so great a Blessedness 3. And that we cannot miss if we keep it in our thoughts for so great is the efficacy of this Good that it cannot be refused It is not in our power to set it at nought as we may do other things which have something greater then themselves to be their competitors in our affections because it is a Good so excellent that there is none above it or equal to it It will not let us so much therefore as deliberate when we attend to it whether we will have it or no but forces it self upon us on any terms or conditions whatsoever And can there be a greater motive to doe well then this which not onely baffles all temptations and quiets the heart so that it need not gad abroad after every little thing in this world but also quite takes away all liberty to reject it and leaves us no power to chuse whether or no we will embrace it Answer me in your own thoughts What is there more perswasive then that which we can have no will at all if we mind it to deny Such is the condition of Eternall Life which inclines the will just as a talent doth the scales when there is nothing but air in the contrary balance without any the least hovering or deliberation which way to turn And were it alway present to us it would wholly deprive us of all our liberty to doe otherwise then it would have us By reason indeed of its being in expectation hereafter and that it becomes sensible to us now onely by serious thoughts a strong and lively faith and by the power of the Holy Ghost the will of man retains a liberty which while this Good is before him he is quite despoiled of whereby he too often chuses other things before this Eternall life But were it not for this he could not chuse but embrace it intirely which sufficiently manifests the force of it in its own nature if we will but be at the pains by consideration faith and prayer for the Holy Spirit of God to bring it into frequent view and set it before us And what is there imaginable of greater efficacy to move us to such constant diligence to bring it near to our hearts then this that when we see it our wills have no power to be indifferent either to it or the well-doing which leads unto it Nay I may adde this So great is the force of this argument that though onely the absence of it some time from our thoughts can make it possible we should perish yet the Will being mightily affected with its presence doth not onely love it but lays its commands upon the mind also to inquire and advise more seriously about the way to attain it at last by preserving a constant sense of it at present It hath no list to part with so great a Good and therefore excites the Understanding to find out the means to keep and maintain a lively apprehension of it and requires it to be carefull and diligent in the continuall use of those means 4. And truly it is such a Good by which also you may judge how forcible a motive it is as makes all means whatsoever whereby we may attain it lovely and desirable There is no Rule more known then this that the End we design prevails with us to love those Means which we would not love for themselves As the hope of having our health restored makes bitter pills and distastfull potions go down well enough But what is there except perhaps the desire of saving our lives which will render every thing whatsoever acceptable It is the privilege of this Good alone to dispose a man to refuse nothing no not death it self that he may enjoy it It commands over all the evill things in this world as well as over the good and makes a man willing to endure the one as well as turn away from the invitation of the other It makes the greatest ends a man hath in this world to submit to serve as means to bring us to it And what will you imagine of greater virtue then that which will be received by all means Suppose a man should be content to lose his pleasures and recreations and health too for the getting riches which is all he aims at while he lives but see here a Good which will make him willing to lose them too for
and the way to it This was the great end of our Saviour's appearing who brought that glimmering light that was in mens minds of the other world to a more perfect day And upon this errand the Apostles were sent as you have heard to call men to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess ii 14. Which made the Jews so unexcusable that they would not come unto our Lord that they might have life v. Joh. 40. though there was the greatest reason in the world to believe this Record that God hath given us Eternall life and this life is in his Son A voice from heaven I have shewn you often testified as much and so did the Holy Ghost which descended on our Saviour at his baptism and the many signs and wonders whereby God the Father sealed him and set as it were his mark stamp and character upon him that all might know who he was and believe his word as undoubtedly as if they heard God the Father himself speaking to them continually with his own voice out of heaven From thence our Saviour came it was apparent and therefore did not pretend to discover things of which he had no certain knowledge but onely revealed that happy Country from whence he descended So he professes to a very wise man among the Jews who was convinced by his many Miracles that he was a Teacher come from God iii. Joh. 2. Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen ver 11. For as he came down from heaven as he farther tells him ver 13. so at that very moment he was there and had a most intimate familiarity and communication therewith and therefore might well say he had seen the things he reported from thence What they were you may reade in the following verses 15 16. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. The very same as I have likewise shewn John Baptist testified ver 36. And so did Moses and Elias who appeared in glory and discoursed with him concerning his return to the other world after he had done the will of God here ix Luke 30 31. At that time our Saviour was transfigured an evident token of the glorifying even of our bodies in the other state as three persons of integrity witness who saw his glory and the two men that stood with him ver 32. and were themselves overshadowed with a bright cloud an emblem of the glory to come in another World and so ravisht with the sight that they wisht they might always remain in that happy place Neither was this onely a sudden transport but it made such a lasting impression upon their minds that ever after they lookt upon it as a notable proof of the majesty and glory of our Saviour 2 Pet. i. 16 17. And so did the ancient Christians as appears by the Syriack Translatour of the New Testament who before the Epistle of St. James takes notice that now follow the Epistles of the three Disciples before whom our Lord was transfigured This we are to mark diligently and take it for an eminent token of the glory to which our Lord was to go and which he should be able to give For it relies upon the report of those who were persons of known worth and uprightness of heart who had no design in the world to serve but onely to promote such an important truth of which they were fully assured They appeal to all that had any acquaintance with them whether ever they saw or had reason to suspect any false or double dealing in them and had not rather been witnesses of their honesty and simplicity in the whole course of their Ministry For we are not as many saith St. Paul 2 Cor. ii 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sell the word of God and make merchandize of it to inrich themselves thereby such might not stick to corrupt God's word as we render it and mix their own dreams with it but with all sincerity as men who are authorized by God and have him before our eyes to whom we must give an account of our actions we publish the Gospell of Christ Whom they accounted it a great mercy and favour from God to serve And therefore having received this ministry saith he iv 1 2. we are not sluggish in doing our duty nor do we perform it in a base unworthy manner but have so renounced or thrust away far from us all secret devices of inriching our selves that we do not blush to think of our designs for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such practices as for mere shame men hide and cover pretending for instance onely the good of Souls when they intend nothing but to get their money nor do we walk in craftiness appearing one thing and being another nor corrupt the word of God by mixing any of our own inventions with it but in a free open and plain manner we commend our selves to all mens consciences as having God looking on us All that know us cannot but approve us if they be not led by passion more then reason and if they do not God doth This he repeats again Chap. vi where he gives a proof of their sincerity in the exercise of their Ministry from these two things first that they got nothing by it but many afflictions and then that they did nothing but good to others in recompence for all the trouble they gave them Of the former he speaks ver 4 5. of the second ver 6 7. and then returns to the other again Which argument he handles also at large towards the conclusion of the same Epistle xi 23 24 c. and once more xii 10. And thus he writes also to the Church of Thessalonica 1 Thess ii 4. who knew very well how faithfully they had discharged their trust and that they did not accommodate themselves to any man's humour but plainly delivered the message which God had committed to them No body could say that they had used any flattering speeches to sooth them up in a vain conceit of themselves ver 5. nor used any colours to hide a covetous design no as to their words and addresses the Thessalonians could testify the contrary and as to their mind and heart which God onely could know they call him to witness it never entred into their thoughts Nor did they seek glory and fame either from them or any body else but despised it as much as riches unless it were the honour of obliging them by communicating the blessings of the Gospell to them and receiving no reward from them ver 6. They might indeed have put them to charge and lived upon their cost as other Apostles of Christ did and that honestly too But He and his companions were among them with more gentleness ver 7. they parted that is from their own undoubted right to spare the Thessalonians and as a good nurse cherishes her children so they
be delivered over to the severe tormenting powers but to those that are able to bring us to the inheritance in heaven which is prepared for those that love him Which God grant we may all obtain through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XIV A farther improvement of this RECORD THE grounds of Christian belief you see are not so slender but I may take the confidence to say that he who will be at the pains to consider such things as these cannot any longer think it a piece of wit to be an infidel It is rank folly as well as baseness there being no reason in the earth to except against these Witnesses and to deny the Faith of Christ an entrance into our minds and hearts For what we know as I have shewn in the former Book by credible report is as certain as what we see and hear with our eyes and ears And what can be better attested then the holy Gospell Which is justly called the testimony of God 1 Cor. ii 1. and the testimony of Christ i. 6. Because God testified these things to us as his will by his Son Christ and Christ testified them to us by the holy Ghost For so St. Paul saith in the place last named ver 5 6. the Corinthians were inriched by our Lord with every gift even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed or established to be a truth among them After which mighty evidence whereby we are assured God intends to bestow so great a blessing on us as immortall Life it is of no weight whatsoever can be objected against this Doctrine particularly against that part of it which concerns the Resurrection of the body at the last day For that Great Lord who said it we are certain can perform it He knew his own power and would not have said I will raise you up at the last day unless he had been able to make his word good He hath also already fulfilled his word in other things which he foretold though no body would believe him till they saw it which is a good ground as St. Gregory Nyssen observes * De opificio hominis cap. xxv to expect this though it seem never so difficult and incredible had he not promised it Suppose saith he that an husbandman discoursing of the virtue of Seeds should not be believed by a by-stander that had never been bred in the country nor seen any thing of that nature would it not be sufficient for his satisfaction to take but one single grain out of an heap of corn and to tell him he should see in that the virtue of all the rest For he that sees one grain of wheat or barly cast into the ground coming up after some time a full ear will never doubt of the fruitfulness of all the rest of the same kind Even just so saith he it seems to me a sufficient testimony of the Resurrection that the truth of other things which he foretold cannot be denied In them we have an experiment whereby we may judg of every thing else that he hath said But to demand that every thing should be made out by reason before we receive it is to make us Philosophers not Christians whose name is Believers And besides the best Philosophers cannot tell us how the Corn I now mentioned grows up from a little Seed cast into the ground or a Man from so small a beginning in his mother's womb or any thing considerable of the manner how all naturall productions are performed And therefore what folly is it to resolve not to be satisfied unless we shew how a dead body can be raised It is sufficient to know that idoneus est reficere qui fecit as Tertullian speaks in this case He that made it at first is able to make it again It being more as he goes on to make then to re-make to give a beginning to a thing then to restore it after it is dissolved And we have this also to satisfy us that multitudes saw our Saviour raise men from the dead and by other miraculous works demonstrate that he wants not power to doe any thing he hath promised His word may well be taken for any thing to come who hath already done such wonders as are credibly reported to us by those that were spectatours of them in the Gospell And it is very remarkable how he deals with us as a Mother doth with her Child Greg. Nyss ibid. into whose tender mouth she first thrusts her breast to nourish it with milk and when the teeth come gives it bread and when it is grown stronger feeds it with solid meat Even so our Blessed Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. beginning with lower Miracles at the first prepares our faith by degrees for the highest He began with the cure of desperate diseases in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he prefaced to his power of raising the dead For that which men thought impossible he shew'd hereby was not incredible Who could have thought that one sick of a burning fever should be made so well by speaking a word as to rise presently and minister to the company yet Simon 's wife's mother was an instance of this Miraculous power in our Saviour Who added something to this Miracle when he restored the Nobleman's son to health though he was at the point of death as his Father thought iv Joh. 47. and this without touching or coming near him For he did not stir from the place where he was at Cana and yet sent life to him as far as Capernaum by the sole power of his command After which he proceeded to an higher Miracle for he restored another Ruler's daughter to life who died before he came to her rescue And again he exceeded this Miracle by raising up the woman's son of Naim when he was carrying out to be buried And at last as hath been before observed he raised his wonder-working power so high that he called Lazarus out of his grave when he had been dead four days Thus he raises our minds by little and little to the highest pitch of Faith to believe that is the Resurrection of the dead He teaches us to expect that in generall the experiment of which he hath shewn in particulars For as the Apostle faith 1 Thess iv 16. the Lord shall descend with a shout c. at the restauration of all things to raise the dead to a state of incorruption even so now he that lay in his grave was awakened by the voice of our Saviour's command and shaking off his corruption came whole and sound out of his tomb the bands wherewith his hands and feet were tied nothing hindring Is this nothing to confirm our belief of the Resurrection when we have not onely our Lord's word for it but by those whom he restored to life we have in deed a demonstration of what he hath promised
hath so contemned it as to prefer a little of this World before it be used as favourably in hell as if he had never heard of it What doth our Saviour mean then when he saith It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment then for those places where the Gospell of God's grace was preached This very thing will make the fire more devouring to think for what poor pleasures or gains they set at nought so stupendious a grace and that withall they have lost those things for which they lost Heaven When they see how inconsiderable all their past delights were it will make the madness seem greater and the more distract and torment their inraged Minds to think how dear they now pay for them The miserable Soul will then continually pour upon it self the hottest and most scalding thoughts of its own gross stupidity and senseless negligence It will flame with anger and burning wrath against it self for the frantick choice which it hath made And rolling it self in the fire of its own fretfull and impatient displeasure will take such a furious revenge upon it self as to become its own dreadfull executioner In this misery it will lie frying for ever sibique perpetuum pabulum subministrabit and afford to it self perpetuall fewell to keep alive the boiling rage and fierce displeasure it hath conceived against it self The stings thereof will be sharper and more frequently returning then any pain which we are now sensible of can represent The flashes of Lightning are not so searching and they will be as quick as the thoughts of a Spirit And what the hideous and dolefull groans of a Spirit are we cannot tell especially that lies under the load of this thought that it might have been as happy as now it is miserable You may take a review of what was said in the beginning concerning ETERNALL LIFE and by that make some judgment of the Misery of those who are so unhappy as to lose it They will be deprived of all that Bliss which the Souls and bodies of the just shall injoy and not be able to avoid the sorest pains which even from thence will necessarily arise For the greater you can suppose their knowledge of God to be in the other World which is the Life of pious Souls so muâ—â— the greater will their sorrow and heaviness be to think that they have lost the favour of the Creatour of the World the Fountain of all Good And when they behold the glory wherein the just appear with our Blessed Lord this will be a new grief to them and most miserably afflict their hearts whensoever they think what praise is given to those holy men whom they despised in what glory they shine and unto what dignity they are preferred and on the other side consider their own shame and reproach and how vilely they lie under a perpetuall curse pronounced against them before Angels and men by the Lord of all And it will increase the torment to consider that they are the cause of all this misery which they have drawn upon themselves Their negligence will come to mind which gave no heed to the Divine illuminations Their contumacy also which resisted the Divine motions Their horrid wickedness into which they ran against the cries even of their own consciences And these considerations they will not be able to avoid nor put off the thoughts of the greatness of their misery But they will stick close to them and perpetually sting them so that all their Knowledge which is so comfortable to others will breed in them the most exquisite grief and sorrow This our Saviour means by outer darkness into which they shall be cast From whence we may guess in what conditions their Wills and their Affections must needs be in which there will be no love of God at all nothing that we can conceive but envy at the glory of the blessed hatred of themselves as the cause of all this mischief vexation of heart to see how great it is and desperation of seeing it grow less But I shall pursue it no farther because it would take up too much room in this discourse which already begins to grow too big I shall onely adde that none knows what flames the breath of the Lord will kindle The power of his anger is inconceivable especially when incensed by the slighting of his love And therefore what can we say of the dolours which the fire that never goes out and the worm that never dies when they meet together will cause both in the Souls and bodies of such contemptuous sinners Who will begin then to wish they had never been acquainted with the glad tidings of Salvation that so they might have lain in some more private corner of the miserable World in a bed of softer and more gentle flames and without that open disgrace to which they will be exposed What an ease would they think it if they might but have the favour to houl among the poor Indians and shriek no louder then other wicked Pagans and have no worse Devills to lash them then the leud Mahometans who never had a thought of any thing higher then a fleshly Paradise And yet the Pagans themselves thought their condition would be bad enough if they lived impiously and that it was impossible to escape a just punishment in another world As appears among a number of other records from that discourse I mentioned of Gobryas who saith the first place men come into when they depart this life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Field of truth So called because there Judges sit to examine how every one hath passed his life and there is no way to evade their sentence by subterfuges or lies as his words are but they will dispose of all men with exact justice according as they deserve What they had some dark fancy of is now plainly and clearly revealed unto us who are instructed that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead xvii Act. 31. And therefore we ought to be afraid of treasuring up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternall life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of man that doeth evill of the Jew we may say Christian first and also of the Gentile ii Romans 5 6 7 8 9. VI. Consider then I beseech you once more which is all the questions I shall ask what you are now resolved to doe Will you put it to the venture whether you be immortally happy or no Is it
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