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
and true Witness the beginning of the Creation of God iii. 14. By the name of AMEN which he gives himself he would have them understand that by him all the promises made to the Church shall undoubtedly be fulfilled according to that of St. Paul 2 Cor. i. 20. In him all the promises of God are Yea and in him Amen He may be believed for he is a Witness who affirms and testifies nothing but the very truth which can never fail because he is the Efficient cause of all things by whom they were at first created and by whom mankind is now repaired and therefore is the Head of all creatures especially of all Christians who shall rise again from the dead to immortall life So I expound the last words the beginning of the Creation of God as Andreas Caesariensis doth who takes in both senses of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have of the word Creation which signifies not onely Principium the beginning or originall but Principatum the principality or dominion which the Son of God hath over all creatures of which he is the Authour What may we not expect from so great a Prince who hath such an absolute command over all things And why should we doubt of his Sovereignty who appeared in such an amazing splendour to St. John and proclaimed in these and other such like Titles the supereminent glory of his Majesty Or why shoul◠we question his truth who had approved himself so many ways the true and faithfull Witness especially by sending the Holy Ghost as you shall hear presently to bear witness to him according to his promise We ought to rely upon his word and to fear nothing but lest we should reject or distrust the testimony of a Person so great and so just whose power appeared from his very first entrance into the world to be so far transcending all creatures that the Apostles might see before his ascension to the glory wherein St. John beheld him that as he had the Words of eternall Life so he had that Life in himself which in due time he would bestow upon them For though He had all the passions of a man Greg. Nazianz orat xxxv p. 575. yet he had all the perfections likewise of God that none might be so profanely contumelious as to contemn his Deity because he took upon him the grossness of our Humanity He was born of a woman but she a Virgin that was humane this Divine He was wrapt in swaddling-cloaths when he was an infant but shaked off the cloaths that wrapt him in the sepulchre when he was dead He was laid in a manger but then glorified by Angels pointed to by a Star and worshipped by the Wise men He was driven into Egypt but there drove away the errours of the Egyptians The Jews saw no beauty in him but he shone upon the mountain brighter then the Sun prefiguring the glory to which he should ascend He was baptized and tempted as Man but he took away the Sins of the World and got the victory as God He was hungry but fed many thousands and is himself the heavenly Bread which giveth life He was thirsty but gave the waters of life and made rivers of living waters flow from those that believed on him He was called a Samaritan and they said he had a Devill but he put Devills to flight and tumbled whole legions of them into the deep and made the Prince of Devills fall like lightning from heaven He was sold for thirty pieces of silver but purchased the whole World with the great price of his own bloud He was led as a sheep to the slaughter but was the Shepherd of Israel and now is of all the World He was dumb as a lamb before the shearers but is the WORD preached by the voice of one crying in the wilderness He was wounded and bruised but healed every sickness and all manner of disease He was lifted up on the tree and there fixed but restored us to the tree of life and saved the thief who was crucified with him He laid down his life but had power to take it again and the veil rent the rocks were cleft and the dead were raised He died but he gives life and by death extinguished death He was buried but rose again out of the grave He went down into hell but he brought up Souls with him and ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the quick and the dead and to examine all such discourses as detract from his glory O my Soul for ever praise him and let thy heart rejoyce in his holy Name Love him as thy Life confide in his word depend on his power and expect from him the blessing of Eternall Life For he is the AMEN the faithfull and true witness who cannot lie the beginning of the Creation of God whom all Creatures without a voice confess to be their Lord. The Heavens cry Proclus Orat. xiii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was God who bowed them and came down to be a man for our sakes The Sun cries It was my Lord who was crucified in the flesh at the light of whose Divinity I was afraid and withdrew my beams The Earth cries It was He that formed me who suffered which made me quake and tremble at the horrid fact The Sea cries He was not my fellow-servant who walkt with one of his Disciples upon my back The Temple cries He that was worshipped here is now blasphemed and therefore I rend my garments Nay Hell cries He was not a mere man who descended hither for whom I received as a Captive I found to be the Omnipotent God And if we ask the heavenly powers and desire the Angels and Archangels and the whole host of heaven to tell us Who was he that appeared on earth and was crucified in the flesh they will all answer aloud in the words of the Prophet David The Lord the God of hosts he is the King of Glory To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VIII Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST the Third Witness in Heaven NOW I proceed to examine the Testimony which the Third Witness in Heaven gave concerning this future state which is the HOLY GHOST the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity Who openly assures us by as many ways and by the same means that we have eternall Life in Christ Jesus as he did that Jesus is the Son of God And that I may not be tedious in a business wherein we have already received such satisfaction let us take but a small taste of those three Testimonies of the Holy Ghost which I alledged in the former Treatise I. And first you know that there was a visible appearance of the HOLY GHOST at our Saviour's Baptism when the Divine Glory came down from heaven and rested on him in the sight of John the Baptist whereby he was persuaded that this was the Messiah the King of
defrauded themselves and took the meat as we speak out of their own mouths for the good of others whom they desired to breed up in Christian piety This shews the wonderfull innocency and goodness of these men who got nothing by the Gospell no not what they might have lawfully and justly taken but onely studied how to win Souls to Christ In short he calls them and God also to witness how holily how justly how unblamably they behaved themselves among those that believed ver 10. The first of which words refers to God the second to those actions which belong to humane society and the third to those which every man is bound unto severally by himself in none of which could He Silvanus and Timotheus be charged with any misdemeanour On which argument he once more insists 2 Tim. iii. 10 11. being so confident of his unreprovable vertue that he desired nothing more of all that knew him but to be followers of him and to walk so as they had him for an example 1 Cor. iv 16. iii. Phil. 17. All which I have the more particularly noted because it is from these men that we receive the testimony of Jesus Who they assure us chose to die the most shamefull death when he could have avoided it and with the greatest confidence when he was expiring commended his Spirit into the hands of God Which is an unquestionable argument that he believed and was assured that he should be with God when he went from hence and be able to doe for his followers all that he promised Which they tell us moreover God justified when he raised him from the dead and carried him in their sight up into heaven and afterward sent the Holy Ghost upon them to testify that he was still alive and possessed of an unseen glory In which they also tell us he appeared to severall persons as I have already related One of which was caught up into heaven and heard such things there as made him wish for nothing more then to leave this earth and to be with Christ To whom the Angels they also assure us witnessed upon severall occasions For they attended him at his birth and in his life and when he died and after his resurrection and when he ascended into heaven From whence he sent them many times as ministring Spirits to his Apostles of which we have very large testimonies in the whole book of the Revelation From all which we may safely conclude that there can no other reason in the world be given why any man thus informed should not believe the Gospell but onely his own desperate wickedness For the things propounded therein are most desirable above all other It reveals such a wonderfull love of God to mankind that all men would rejoyce to hear the news of it were they not averse to those pious and vertuous courses whereby they are told they must attain it Nothing attracts all hearts so much as the hope of a blessed immortality which is testified to us so credibly in the Gospell that nothing could make men turn their ears away from it by infidelity but onely the incurable wickedness of their Nature which will not let them part with those vices which the Gospell says they must quit for so great a Good In one word there is nothing in this Book but what is sutable to all mens desires save onely the holy rule of life and therefore it can be nothing else but their hatred to this which makes them reject all the rest They would follow their nobler appetite after those good things which the Gospell promises if they had not perfectly given up themselves to those baser appetites which must be denied for their sake For if our Gospell be hid saith St. Paul in the place before mentioned it is hid to them that are lost In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospell of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them 2 Cor. iv 3 4. That which the Gospell reports is as clear as the noon-day Nothing can be more visible then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the light or the splendour of the Gospell of the glory of Christ By which saith Theophylact the Apostle means the belief of these great Truths that Jesus was crucified that he was received up into heaven and that he will give future rewards This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 splendour the Apostle speaks of which if any man do not see after such evident demonstrations of these things it is his wickedness hinders him And such men after they have long resisted the light fall under the power of the Devil so inevitably that he blinds their eyes Mark as St. Chrysostom observes that the Scripture calls severall things by the name of a God not from their own worth and excellence but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the weakness of those who are subject to them Thus Mammon is the God of some and the belly the God of others and the Devill the God of all such persons because they are basely inslaved to the love of mony and of their fleshly appetite and He rules and governs them as absolutely as if he were their God Yet he hath no power quite to blind their eyes as he farther observes before they disbelieve that which is so credibly reported by such Divine arguments for as the very words of St. Paul are he blinds the minds of them that believe not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they became infidels of themselves and having given themselves over to unbelief against such miraculous evidence of the truth of the Christian Faith God gives them over to him to whose service they have so slavishly devoted themselves that they cannot be recovered but as they deserve must unavoidably perish From which miserable condition let all those who are inclined to infidelity take care to save themselves by timely considering those Divine demonstrations which these holy men of God have reported to us who beheld our Saviour's glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth i. Joh. 14. Upon which words hear what the same eloquent Bishop writes who thus summs up a great part of the evidence we have for the Christian belief The Angels appeared in great glory upon the earth to Daniel S. Chrysostom Hom. xii in Johan David and Moses but they appeared as servants as those that had a Master It is the peculiar glory of our Saviour that he appeared as a Lord as having power over all and though in a poor and vile fashion yet even in that the Creation knew its Lord and Master A Star from heaven called the Wise men to worship him A great company of Angels often attended him and sang his praises To whom others succeeded who published his glory and delivered this secret Mystery one to another the Angels to the Shepherds and the Shepherds to those
Spirit into the wilderness the Devil would have had him give some proof of his Divine power as Moses did or rather show himself by a greater evidence than Moses gave to be greater than he that he might be satisfied Jesus was no less than the voice declared him the Son of God So you read iv Matth. 3. that the first thing he said to him was If thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread As much as to say Thou art now in a starving condition for he had taken no provision with him into the wilderness resolving to depend on that God who had expressed such love to him as to own him for his Son here is a fit opportunity for thee to exercise thy power if thou hast any by bidding these stones turn into loaves which will be a greater wonder than Moses his bringing Manna out of the clouds and show indeed that thou art God's Son To which our Saviour answers as you read in the next Verse out of Moses himself viii Deut. 3. and tells him he might learn from that story of the Manna there was no need he should imploy his power which God had committed to him on this fashion for as the Israelites were maintained in the wilderness after a miraculous manner so might He who would prove himself to be his Son not this way by turning stones into bread but by trusting in God and leaving him to provide for him as he thought good That 's his meaning when he says Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God And so in the following temptations he still held to this that he was sufficiently satisfied he was God's Son and would not demand any farther proof of it but such as he himself would give who at last ver 11. ordered the Angels to go and minister unto him To carry him food it is like and congratulate this his first victory over the enemy of mankind Who was not so dull but he learnt by this and many other things afterward wherein he felt his power that this voice from Heaven was no vain rumour no empty insignificant sound but a true report of the very mind of Almighty God which he himself was forced to proclaim as loudly as any body else For you find him not long after this with a whole Legion of his companions acknowledging Jesus to be the Son of God most high and with humble prostrations worshipping him whom he had the confidence before to perswade to worship himself crying with a loud voice for Gods sake that he would not torment him v. Mark 6 7 8. viii Luke 28. Nay he was sensible one would think of this as soon as ever that temptation was ended For you read that immediately after it Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee iv Luke 14. and there at Capernaum met with a man that had a spirit of an unclean Devil who cried out with a loud voice saying I know thee who thou art the holy one of God ver 34. which is thus interpreted ver 41. The Devils came out of many crying out and saying Thou art Christ the Son of God For they knew that he was Christ But our Saviour would not be beholden to them for their suffrage it was sufficient that God had declared him his Son and that John Baptist attested as much and that the works which he did particularly his dispossessing them of their strongest holds bare witness of him And therefore he imposed silence on them as the Evangelist there tells us both because they might by their loud acclamations to him give the Pharisees occasion to calumniate him who were too forward to say he had confederacy with the Devil and because it was not fit this should be published in so many words no not by his Apostles xvi Matth. 20. till after his Resurrection and his Ascension to the Throne of his glory and the coming of the Holy Ghost which demonstrated he was completely made both Lord and Christ as the Apostles then openly declared ii Acts 36. But till then it seems to have been the work of the Father alone or principally to bear witness of him for John Baptist was his voice crying in the wilderness and the works our Saviour did were those which his Father had given him to finish and the Spirit was the Finger of God which pointed men to him as I may so speak and bid them receive him as his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And shall we not receive this for the greatest Truth when God himself says it shall we not let him dispose of our Faith is not He the Truth is it possible for him to falsifie or deceive or do we imagine He cannot declare his mind and speak to us as we do one to another He that formed the mouth cannot He speak is his power less than ours can we manifest what we would have and make it understood and cannot He in the same manner make us know his will and pleasure If his express testimony then be of any force here you have it by an audible voice from Heaven And John the Baptist whom the Jews the Enemies of our Saviour durst not but reverence bare record to him thereupon that Jesus is the Son of God Now if any one should say that the certainty of this relies upon the testimony of one single person and that it is possible he might hear amiss though there be no colour for such an objection he being a Prophet and acknowledged so to be by those who did not acknowledge our Saviour yet that this great truth might not depend upon the credit of John Baptist alone though a man well acquainted with the manner of Divine Revelations the FATHER was pleased a second time and in the audience of more witnesses than one to declare again what he had said before that he was his Son II. This was in the Holy Mount as you may read in the xvii Matth. 5. and in the two following Evangelists ix Mark 7. ix Luke 35. where the Father of all was pleased to declare in the same terms as he had done at his Baptism and with an audible voice which astonished those that heard it xvii Matth. 6. That he was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased to which Declaration he added this command HEAR HIM That is be assured that what he says to you is the Truth and what I speak to the world it shall be by his mouth Now this voice was uttered in the hearing of no less than three persons whom our Saviour had selected from the rest of his company to attend him unto this Mountain where God appeared to bear witness to him Of which three this Disciple S. John was one who therefore might with the greater confidence urge here the Testimony of the Father which he himself heard And unless they to whom he writes this Epistle could
Scripture sounding in their ears as an answer to their prayers or their doubts Or lastly there being many Jews in our Saviours time and afterward who knew very well what had been reported of him but yet continued sworn enemies to his Religion they ventured to report the same of their own Doctors and perswaded the people that they were approved by voices from Heaven and therefore ought to be received by all posterity as men of a Divine stamp who had the highest testimony from Almighty God This I am sure of there is nothing to make it credible that any man among them in those Ages was thus honoured by God No body appears that dare say they heard it Nor does any of them pretend that they saw these Rabbies shine in the least glimpse of such glory as our Saviour did when he was honoured with that glorious testimony from Heaven which pronounced him the Head of all principality and power Much less were they as S. Luke speaks by many infallible proofs for we rely not upon the voice from Heaven by it self alone declared to be the men of God And therefore that which to me seems nearest to the truth in this matter is that there had been a perfect deep silence since the death of the latter Prophets and no Revelation made of Gods mind of any sort whatsoever in that Nation till John the Baptist came who was filled with the Holy Ghost and sent by God in the spirit and power of Elias to prepare the way of our Lord. Who when he first appeared had such an approbation given him by God the Father in the audience of John as had not been vouchsafed to any person and in such a manner by a voice from Heaven as had not been in use for many ages but yet was the most ancient way of his communicating his mind to men Thus God called to Adam in the Garden and thus he spake to Abraham and Moses and Samuel and therefore so he now speaks to him who was the second Adam the true seed promised to Abraham the Prophet like to Moses Testifying both to him and to others by his own voice from Heaven which was the old way of Revelation before all others and a clearer way there cannot be that he was his only begotten Son And here perhaps it may not be amiss to observe that this voice anciently was very low like a small whisper in ones ear whereas the voice to our Saviour was loud and strong making a great noise in the ears of those that heard it So Eliphaz tells us iv Job 16. that in a vision which he had There was silence and I heard a voice The Hebrew is exactly rendred by Mercer I heard silence and a voice that is a still voice as the Margin of our Bible hath it And so Elias is said to hear a voice of silence 1 Kings xix 12. a still small voice as we render it a speech next to silence which did but whisper very low and made no noise at all in his ears On the contrary you read in the place last expounded xii John the voice which spake of our Saviour was so loud and audible that the people who were at some distance thought it had been a clap of thunder It did not silently creep into their ears but rent the clouds to make its way with a great deal of power and force into them I cannot say that the other voice was so loud which the Disciples heard on the holy Mount but it was so clear and piercing that when they heard it xvii Matth. 6. they were astonished and fell flat upon their faces The light wherein he appeared was not more visible than the voice which testified to him was audible and both were very amazing Which may very well denote the excellency of our Saviours person and the efficacy of his doctrine above all that had been before him He declared Gods mind more fully and perfectly and spake it more plainly and perspicuously He transcended all others in both these as much as a full voice is above a little murmur or whisper in the ear or a speech distinctly pronounced is to be preferred before the lisping of imperfect words But whatsoever become of this we may certainly conclude from the audibleness and clearness of the voice whereby God gave his testimony to Jesus that they are the more to be believed who affirm they heard this voice from Heaven and report it to us it not being easie for them to be deceived This voice was like that of an Herald who proclaims a Prince and it said in effect I have set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Which had a most eminent and full completion at his Resurrection and Exaltation but began to be fulfilled when he was tranfigured upon this holy hill and had a representation of his future glory made to him Which he did not assume to himself as the Apostle discourses v. Hebr. 4 5. but was called unto it by him that said then Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee and said now This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And thus you see having made an enquiry into the Testimony of one of these Witnesses the first and greatest we find it so full and clear on his behalf that we must either disbelieve God or else believe in Jesus and receive him for the Son of God For he received more than once honour and glory from God the Father Who was so highly glorified also by Him that he hath now completely glorified him with himself and therefore expects that his Name should be perpetually glorified and praised by us in some such words as these A PRAYER ADored be thy love O Lord of Heaven and Earth adored be thy great and wonderful love which hath thus glorified thy Son Jesus and given us such abundant satufaction that in him thou art well pleased Lord what is man that thou shouldest speak from Heaven with so much kindness to him that thou shouldest so often tell us thou hast sent thy dearly beloved Son in great humility to visit us what an amazing love is this that thou shouldest admit any of us into such a familiarity with thy self as to hear thy voice and behold the brightness of thy glory Our heart ought to answer thee again with the voice of joy thanksgiving and praise Thy high praises ought to be in all our mouths It becomes us to say continually with the most elevated minds and hearts Glory be to thee O Lord Glory be to thee O Lord who dwellest on high and yet humblest thy self to behold the things that are in Heaven and in Earth For ever be thy Name glorified by us and by all mankind who hast honoured our Nature so highly in the person of thy only begotten Son Christ Jesus whom after thou hadst several ways glorified on Earth thou hast now advanced
and ever Which was accomplished also with very great speed as he saw represented by an Angel which appeared flying in the midst of Heaven xiv 6. Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the Earth That motion of flying seems to signifie the haste which the great Ministers of Christ made who are compared in this book to Angels to publish his Gospel to the world Which had mighty success because it came with authority from Heaven as is represented by the Angels flying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of the air between Heaven and Earth to denote something he had in hand which was decreed above and to be done here below The greatest powers on Earth indeed set themselves against it and made war with the Lamb xvii 14. that is persecuted Christianity But he foretells his conquests even over these Kingdoms who were such furious enemies as to seek to destroy his Religion For which he gives only these two reasons because God had made him Lord of Lords and King of Kings and because those who followed him were such choice persons that their patient constant perseverance in his service to which he had called them helpt to overcome his and their Enemies and to bring them in subjection to him I can think of nothing that can be objected against what hath been said but two things which deserve briefly to be considered One of them concerns this last particular now handled and the other seems to cross all that hath been delivered in this Chapter Against what hath now been alledged from the Revelations it may be objected that this Book of Visions was doubted of among some of the ancient Christians To which the Answer is very obvious That there was a particular reason why this Book did not always go along with the rest into every bodies hands and by that means being not so generally known was afterward questioned because the making of it as publick as the Christian doctrine might have too much incensed the power of the Roman Empire whose downfall is here so plainly predicted Yet it was not kept so private but that it is cited very early both as a Divine Book and as the writing of S. John the Apostle by those who deserve to be believed Justin Martyr had that opinion of it and so had Irenaeus as I have already said and Theophilus Antiochenus and Origen especially S. Cyprian who I have observed produces testimonies out of no book of the New Testament so oft as this From whence he encourages Christians to follow their Master and all that worthy company who had hazarded their lives for him It being the peculiar glory saith he * De Exhort Martyr of our time that whereas ancient examples might be numbred now there is such an exuberant abundance of vertue and faith that Christian Martyrs cannot So the Revelation witnesses I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lamb with white robes and palms in their hands vii 9. And these he was told are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lamb. I shall not produce the words of any of the rest nor of divers others who without any manner of doubting pronounce this to be the Revelation of the WORD of God to his servant John But pass to the other thing which may be alledged to the prejudice of the whole foregoing discourse For I produce nothing some may say but the testimony which one gives of himself which all confess to be of no validity This WORD of God himself saith so as this very Apostle hath recorded v. John 31. If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true And yet what is all that S. Steven saw or that he spake to S. Paul and S. John but his witness of himself I answer in his own words also which you read in another place of that Gospel viii 14. where the Pharisees objecting to him his own concession ver 13. that a mans testimony to himself is nothing worth he seems to revoke but in truth only explains it by telling them in terms quite contrary though I bear record of my self my record is true The former words are not so to be understood as if what a man says of himself were always false or not to be regarded when he hath a concurrent testimony from others no it may be true though it will perswade no body else to believe it without other evidence That 's all our Saviour means in the Fifth Chapter if he had alone born witness to himself and there had been no other testimony given him it had not been true that is not a valid unexceptionable testimony by which he might demand credit from them So the word true is used viii John 17. in the sence of the Law which required two or three witnesses for the establishing or setling any thing in question They had no reason to believe he was Gods Son but might still have disputed it if he had been the only person that said so and could have brought no other to witness for him And yet notwithstanding He tells them here that even in this case his testimony of himself is true as truth is opposed to falshood though it wanted that truth which was necessary to make it a legal testimony That is though it could not have passed in Law nor stopt the mouth of gainsayers because it was a single testimony and the Law required more than one yet it would have had nothing of a lie in it but his words would have been perfectly true when he affirmed himself to be the Son of God But 〈◊〉 was not his case He alone did not bea◠witness to himself but there were others beside him who bare witness of him and said the same thing that he did as he shows v. John 32 33 36 c. and said it before he assumed this name to himself And therefore his testimony which single would have had no strength being joyned to the other is of great force and ought to be regarded He did not desire to be received merely because he said he was the Son of God though he ought not to be accounted a liar for saying so alone no he referred them to other proof of that truth But when they had heard and considered them then there was reason they should hear what he affirmed concerning himself and not think the worse of him because he spake those words which were no other than the very words of the Father whereby he bare witness to him So he tells them in the viii John 17 18. It is written in your Law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me That is you have no reason to disparage my
testimony of my self because I do but repeat the very same thing which the Father hath said before me For though alone as I have confessed heretofore my testimony of my self is worth nothing and cannot challenge belief yet added unto so high a testimony as his it ought to be duly regarded and accepted But besides this I must add another consideration of great moment Which is that the Testimony of the WORD concerning himself now that he is in the Heavens is of great validity even singly considered though it had no such authority alone when he was upon the Earth For during his stay here on Earth it could not appear by his bare saying so that he was the Son of God the King of Israel because he was in a poor mean and low condition altogether unlike a King And therefore if the Father and the Spirit had not testified so much none could have believed on him But when he was in the Heavens then what he said of himself carried great authority and power with it because he could not say those words to any one but he must appear as a King in glory There were things as well as words to speak for him At the same time that he bare witness of himself they to whom he spake must needs see the truth of his Testimony by the royal state and majesty wherein they beheld him If the question should be whether a person be alive his own appearing in Court would be the best testimony that could be given of it If whether such a one be a King his sitting upon his Throne with his Crown on his head in his royal Palace and his Ministers round about him would be the surest evidence that could be desired to put it out of doubt In this case therefore where the question is whether Jesus be the Son of God or no there cannot be expected a better resolution of it than his own witness to himself by appearing upon the Throne of his Glory There several persons of unblemished credit beheld him and had the confidence to venture their lives upon the certain knowledge they had that they were not deceived From thence he spake to them and directed them to speak and carry his messages to others that they might believe on the Name of the Son of God And let it but be remembred which I noted at the beginning that we are now examining those witnesses which speak from Heaven and not those which speak on the Earth and then you will soon discern that these testimonies of the WORD though concerning himself ought to be received with great reverence and to be judged very full and powerful to prove Jesus to be the Son of God Especially since besides his own word for it we have also the word of the Father who several times called him his Son and that before he took this honour to himself A PRAYER LET all mankind therefore honour thee O blessed Jesus even as they honour the Father Be thou adored every where upon Earth with the same reverence and love wherewith all the Angels in Heaven worship thee whom they and we acknowledge to be the LORD the WORD of God the Wisdom of the Father the bright morning Star the Light of the World the Prince of Life the Heir of all things the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS God blessed for ever Thou art the King of glory O Christ Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father The Beginner and the Finisher of our Faith the Judge of the World the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey thee O how happy are they that know thee and stedfastly believe in thee and sincerely love thee and heartily obey thee and have a good hope that thou wilt bless them and imploy thy power for their promotion to that glory wherein thou reignest I rejoyce to hear thee say that thou who wast dead art alive for evermore Amen and hast the keys of Hell and of Death I thank thee for appearing so often to assure our Souls that thou sittest at the right hand of God and hast all power in Heaven and in Earth Great is the consolation which thou hast given us by the sight of that Glory wherein thy first Martyr beheld thee ready to succour all thy faithful servants Marvellous was thy work O Lord for which all thy Church will for ever praise thee in calling S. Paul to be an Apostle separated unto the Gospel of God Adored be thy glorious Majesty which appeared to him for this purpose to make him a Minister and a Witness of what he saw and heard that he might go and open the eyes of the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they might receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in thee O how full of comfort is that Revelation which thou hast made of thy self to thy servant John Who received the brightest discoveries of thy glory in Heaven when he was in the most desolate condition upon Earth who beheld thy care over thy Church and thy conquests over thine enemies thy Priestly and thy Royal power to the perpetual joy of those that love thee and the terror of all those that oppose thee O blessed Jesus far be it from any of us in the least to contradict thy will who art so highly advanced far above all principality and power and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come May every Christian Soul be so sensibly affected with the belief of thy Glory as to prostrate it self before thee and say with the same spirit that thy blessed Apostle S. Paul did when thou appearedst unto him Lord what wilt thou have me to do May that ardent love burn in every one of our breasts towards thee and towards one another which was in thy beloved Disciple who bare record of thee and testified to us these things And may none of us prove so false and unkind as to leave our first love but our work and charity and service and faith and patience may be ever commended by thee and the last be more than the first Then shall we be able with a chearful countenance to look up unto thee and to think of thy majesty and glory with exultation and triumph and not with terror and amazement of spirit We will joy in thy strength O Lord and in thy salvation how greatly shall we rejoyce We will rejoyce even in the midst of tribulation and though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil but stedfastly looking up unto Heaven call upon thee O Lord Jesus and beseech thee to receive our Spirit Into thy hands be they recommended both now and ever with most earnest desires and hope that thou wilt help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious bloud and make them to be
When the LXX Elders were to receive a portion of Moses his Spirit God ordered them to be brought unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation and says he would come down and talk with Moses there and take of the Spirit which was upon him and put it upon them xi Numb 16 17. Accordingly you read ver 24. that as they stood round about the Tabernacle the Lord came down in a cloud ver 25. that is in such a manner as now the Holy Ghost descended at our Lord's Baptism But He came not down upon them who were about the Tabernacle but rather as in the next story xii 5. and at other times stood in the door of the Tabernacle from whence he spake to Moses and took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the seventy Elders Whereas here the Holy Ghost came down in a visible glory and pitched upon Jesus himself who was the Tabernacle now where God chose to dwell For this Schekinah as you have heard or Divine majesty not only lighted on him but rested there and remained in him as if God had told him who saw it both descend and abide on him Here will I dwell for ever for therein do I delight This demonstrated him to be more than any ever was not merely a great Prophet but the very Son of God Never was there such a Crown prepared for any mans head but his Never before did the hand of Heaven put such a Diadem of Glory upon any person as this which encircled and as I may say was bound about our Saviour This can be accounted nothing less than the testimony of the HOLY GHOST to him that he was the Holy one of God the anointed from above the King of God's people and the heir of all things Thus S. Peter you know expresses the honour which was now done him when he tells Cornelius and his company x. Acts 38. that God ANOINTED him with the Holy Ghost and with power The HOLY GHOST came down as an holy oil from the Heavenly Sanctuary which being poured on him in such a glorious Majesty gave him authority to be called the Son of God and made him his King So John Baptist acknowledged him you remember as soon as he beheld this strange sight and bare record of it unto others that this person thus anointed was the Son of God i. John 34. He was now invested with a royal power for that 's the meaning of his being ANOINTED and we ought I shall show you to look upon this as a solemn inauguration of him in his Kingdom to which he had now a title given him together with some part of a Kingly Authority And if there be any truth in the Traditions of the Hebrews concerning their own Ceremonies there was something remarkable in it that this ANOINTING him with the holy oil from above was immediately after he came up out of the waters of Jordan For Maimonides and the Doctors in the Talmud tell us that they never anointed a King of the house of David but at the side of a Fountain or of a River of water Which was the reason that David commanded his servants to bring his son Solomon down to GIHON 1 Kings i. 33. and there anoint him King over Israel For this GIHON was a little River as R. Solomon there notes or the head of a River nigh Jerusalem which discharged it self into the brook Kidron and in the Chaldee Paraphrase is called by the newer name of Siloah It was made very famous afterward by that memorable work of Hezekiah 2 Chron. xxxii 30. who to take away the advantage any Enemy might make of it in a siege stopt up the course of its water and brought it by Chanels under-ground into the City of David At this place without the walls of Jerusalem not in the City Zadok and Nathan anointed King Solomon That is one of them poured out the oil and the other anointed his head drawing a circle with the oil upon it For so they all say that Kings were anointed in the form of a Crown to denote the royal dignity Which if it be true and that they made choice of such a place to show as they will have it the perpetuity of their Kingdom because Rivers run alway though the Cities which stand by them decay and may be demolished then it is very observable that our Lord was ANOINTED or Crowned with the Holy Ghost by the River JORDAN rather than in any other place to denote him indeed to be the King of Israel who should sit upon the throne of his Father David as the Angel said for ever and ever But this I mention only by the way The chief thing to be noted is that now he began to reign and entred upon his Kingdom called the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven which John Baptist told them was at hand For this descent of the HOLY GHOST in such a visible majesty did not merely give him a title to the Divine Kingdom which was to be erected by him in the world and assured him that he was God's Christ or ANOINTED that is his King and endued him with such royal qualities as fitted him for that office But it made him a King by conferring several branches of the Regal power on him and by giving him authority to exercise them in the world It is true indeed he did not actually take possession of his Kingdom nor exercise his royal power completely and the time of his inthroning was deferred till he had accomplished the will of God other ways and by the suffering of death was crowned with glory and honour in the Heavens But that he did not act only as a Prophet all his life-time but likewise took upon him the person of a King or acted as a Royal Prophet doing many things which only the royal Authority could do is a most manifest Truth in the Holy story Which cannot be better explained than by the parallel case of his Father David who was the exact type and figure of him He was anointed by Samuel some years before he sate upon the throne of the Lord. But as that Unction was the designation of him to the royal dignity and a pawn or pledge of the possession of it in due time so ever after he atchieved very great things which spoke him to be the person designed by God for his Kingdom as it is called I told you 2 Chron. ix 8. and he also received some portion of it before he enjoyed it all entirely 2 Sam. ii 4.9 v. 3. Just thus did our blessed Saviour after he was ANOINTED with the Holy Ghost give several proofs that he was a King which is the meaning you have heard of the word CHRIST and had received some of the power belonging to that high office For first he cast out Devils and cured all diseases at any time when he pleased only with his powerful word and for nothing Which were Acts of such royal bounty
as to shew us by what means we may become so exceeding Blessed The serious Reader I doubt not will be sensible of all this when he hath perused the following Work In which I have endeavoured to satisfy those also who wish I had said something of that part of this Record which I undertook to explain THESE THREE ARE ONE Which words I have reason to believe whatsoever the Socinians have pretended to the contrary were always a part of this Holy Scripture For they are alledged by Saint Cyprian in his Book of the Vnity of the Catholick Church to shew how dangerous it is to break that Unity by the clashing of our wills which not onely coheres by celestiall Sacraments but proceeds as he speaks from the Divine firmness For our Lord saith I and the Father are one And again it is written of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost Et hi tres unum sunt And these three are one By which that the Apostie would have us to understand not merely the consent of their Testimony though that is not to be excluded but the Unity of their Nature or Essence we have great reason to think Because there can no account be given why he should not use the same form of speech here which follows when he speaks of the other three Witnesses if these three in Heaven were no otherwise three then those three in Earth Which being admitted and if we take in the constant sense of the Church to interpret the words we cannot make any farther doubt of it that these three are one in their Essence then it is certain there are Three Persons whose Essence is one and the same For else there would not be three Witnesses in heaven but onely one which would cross the design of the Apostle whose scope is to shew that our Faith doth not rely upon a single Testimony And indeed the Holy Scriptures in other places ascribe such Actions and Works to each of them as are proper to Persons which is a sufficient warrant to the Church to express the distinction that is between them by this Name Non quia Scriptura dicit as St. Augustine * Lib. vii de Trinitate cap. 4. speaks concerning this very business sed quia Scriptura non contradicit Not because the Scripture saith they are Persons but because the Scripture doth not say the contrary but rather I may adde directs us to say they are for the reason before mentioned When humane scantness as that Holy Doctour of the Church goes on endeavoured to express in words that which it conceived in the secret of the mind concerning our Lord God the Creatour it was afraid to say there were three Essences lest any diversity should be thought to be in that highest Equality and on the other side to say there were not tria quaedam really three was to fall into the heresy of Sabellius For it is certain there is the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and that the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Ghost the Father or the Son It sought therefore what three it should call them and it said three Persons as the Latine Church speaks by which Name it would not have any diversity understood but onely singularity That not onely Vnity should be there conceived because we say there is one Essence but a Trinity also because we say there are three Persons This Faith we ought to defend and in this simple belief we ought I have shewn to acquiesce We ought to defend it because it is the Catholick Faith revealed in the Holy Scriptures according as they have been always understood by the Church of Christ For it is sufficient as St. Gregory Nyssen * Lib. iii. contra Eunomium p. 126. excellently discourses against those that demanded more proof of these things to the demonstration of this Doctrine that we have a Tradition descended to us like an inheritance by succession from the Apostles and transmitted through the hands of holy men that followed them They that will innovate need the help of mighty arguments if they will go about to shake the Faith not of men built on the sand and wavering like Euripus but grave settled and constant in their opinion And while we see nothing but mere discourse against it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is there so silly and brutish as to think the Doctrine of the Evangelists and Apostles and of those Lights that succeeded them in the Church to be weaker then their Babble without demonstration But we shall not wholly avoid the imputation of folly unless we also rest satisfied in this plain belief not busying our selves in more curious enquiries For the greatest Lights in the Church I have shewn will lead us no farther but tell us we shall groap in darkness if we will needs pry too much into this Mystery Which we ought to discourse of as becomes Divines not Philosophers Lest as Henricus à Gandava censures Albertus Magnus in his Book of Ecclesiasticall Writers whilst we follow too much the subtilty of secular Philosophy we cloud the splendour of Theologicall purity We must remember that we are men and that our understandings are but shallow which ought not therefore to venture boldly into such depths as that of the Divine Essence There is nothing so much becomes us when we think of God as an holy fear and reverence producing in us low thoughts of our selves Without which we are not like to be illuminated from above nor can we should we know never so much be acceptable to God Quid enim prodest alta de Trinitate disputare si careas humilitate unde displiceas Trinitati as Thomas à Kempis honestly speaks For what will it profit thee to dispute loftily of the Trinity if through want of humility thou displeasest the Trinity The way to ETERNALL LIFE it is certain lies in that rode which we shall be in danger to miss if we give our selves too great a liberty of disputing about things so much above our reach We ought to be aware of this artifice of the grand Deceiver who is wont to draw us secretly from attending to our known duty while we are amusing our selves with sublime speculations Which the holy Fathers of the Church have carefully observed and caution'd us against by their severe reproofs What means saith Saint Gregory Nazianzen * Orat. xxxiii p. 533. this ambitious humour of disputing and itch of the tongue what new disease and unsatiable appetite is this While our hands are bound why do we arm our tongue Hospitality Brotherly love Conjugall affection Virginity are no longer praised Feeding the poor Psalmody Nocturnall stations Tears are not now in request We do not bring under the body by Fastings nor leave it a while to go to God by Prayer We do not bring the worse in subjection to the better the Dust I mean to the Spirit We do not make our life a meditation of death
it a disparagement to their Master Moses did they not satisfie themselves with this ridiculous reason for it to be spoken unto after such a manner as the Scripture of truth relates then by their own confession it is a great honour to our Lord and Master and argues his high dignity that the Divine Majesty spake to him in such a way as they cannot but esteem most perfect and agreeable to his Divine Goodness And we may look upon this pure Light in which God is said to dwell as a sign that Heaven was to be opened by this Person and that he would restore us to the Glory of God of which we we all faln short and bring mankind to that joy and satisfaction of heart which the Disciples began to feel in themselves at this most comfortable sight And I make no question had not the holy Books told us so expresly that God spake to them in clouds and fire and vapour they would have fabled that he appeared to their Master in pure light and shone about him in the brightness of his glory without the least darkness to obscure it For I find that many of those things which the holy Story of the New Testament reports in honour of John Baptist or of our Blessed Saviour they have thrust into the Story of Moses where he himself in his Books hath not confessed the contrary to keep him in the greater credit with their Nation in this time of their calamitous desertion It being recorded for example that John Baptist was born when his parents were very old and could not believe it was possible for them to have a child which makes his birth a wonder being out of the course of Nature they have made bold to tell the same of Moses but with a large addition of years whose mother Jochebed they say was no less then an hundred and thirty years old when she was delivered of him which Aben Ezra in his Notes upon the text * A. Ezra in ii Exod. ver 1. is desirous should pass for a current truth And as we reade that when our Saviour came into the world the Glory of the LORD an exceeding great light from heaven shone round about the shepherds who had the first news of it which was intended as a note of his Divinity and heavenly descent So they have devised * R. Solomon in ii Exod. 3. that at the Nativity of Moses the house where he was born was filled with such a light that they could not see by reason of its splendour In like manner the Apostle proves our Lord to be greater then the Angels far above all principality and power c. i. Heb. 3 4. i. Eph. 19 20. and therefore Moses forsooth must be raised to this wondrous pitch â— Moses Haccozi whom some of their Rabbins all are not so immodest will have to be higher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then the Angels of Ministry far above all creatures as another expresses it both superiour and inferiour R. Joshuah F. Sobib in xxx Exod. As if they meant to equall him with that great Lord who we believe is raised far above every name that is named not onely in this world but also in that which is to come And because also our Lord we affirm and are sure is now the Minister of the heavenly Sanctuary where he presents his own bloud before God for us as Aaron did the bloud of beasts in the earthly Sanctuary therefore they likewise have feigned as Maimonides relates from the mouth of their Doctours * Ludov. Capell ex prâ—fat in Talm. Not. in xvii Matth. 3. that their Master Moses is not dead but ascended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and ministers to God in the heavenly places And because our Lord is here said to be transfigured on this Mountain and his face shone like the Sun they have therefore transformed Moses also who they say was found by the Angel of death whom God sent to the Mountain whether he was gone up to take away his life writing the great Name of God and his face was as the Sun and he himself like an Angel of the Lord. I have observed the same before about the Bath kol voice from heaven which spake to our Saviour whose glory they study to eclipse by spreading abroad a number of tales concerning the like approbation given to their Doctours I am bold to call these reports by that name and to ascribe them to that cause because there are no footsteps of such things in the history which Moses wrote of himself who by all just ways endeavoured to beget in them a belief that he was a Prophet sent of God and because such inventions might easily come into the minds of those obstinate persons who knew not how to confute Christianity which interest and prejudice would not let them receive but were desirous by any means though never so false to raise Moses to the same degree of greatness and esteem with the Authour and finisher of our faith But it is to be considered then that they suppose such things to be a notable sign of the excellency of that person to whom they really belong and consequently that our Lord Jesus who hath these very marks upon him which they would ingrave on Moses being thus described in those Books that are certainly Divine among us as clearly as Moses is in any other regards commended in those that are truly holy among them is a Great Prophet indeed far greater then Moses who never durst say any such thing of himself nor is so magnified by any of the succeeding Prophets the Authour of a better Covenant and of more divine Promises such as this of ETERNALL LIFE which it is most agreeable for him to bestow whose Kingdom was not in this world as Moses's was but he reigns in the other world Lord of all for evermore III. To him God the Father hath given a third Testimony unto which it is now time to pass and it is a very express Record of this Truth that we have Eternall Life and that it is in his Son It is set down you know in the xii Joh. 28. where upon our Saviour's request to God that he would glorifie his own Name a voice from heaven gave this answer I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again The particle it hath nothing answering to it in the Greek but is put in by the Translatours to supply the sense And some are of the opinion that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood and the meaning to be thus rendred I have both glorified thee and will glorifie thee again But there is no need of this we may as well refer the word glorifie to Name as our translation doth and it will come at last to the same sense for God's name was glorified by glorifying his Son Fragment L. viii in Joh. as appears from xi Joh. 4. And so St. Cyrill of Alexandria observed
was attested by chosen persons to whom he shewed himself openly And then he was lifted up from the earth in another more noble and sublime sense then he had been before upon the Cross Then Angels came in bright array to testify to him what he had said of himself xiii Joh. 31 32. that God having been glorified in him had glorified him in himself This was a very glorious testimony that indeed he hath Life in himself and shall be the Authour of eternal Life to us And therefore he is called the Prince or Authour of life iii. Act. 15. because by that which overcame death his resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c * S. Cyril ib. in xii Joh. 28. we know him to be LIFE and the Son of the living God But of this more hereafter 3. Another Act whereby this saying I will glorifie thee again was verified I take to be his Exaltation by God's own right hand to the throne of glory in the heavens This he prayed for with the greatest ardency and the most assured expectation xvii Joh. 1 2. because God the Father he saith had given him power i. e. the promise of it over all flesh that he might give eternall life to as many as God had given him This promise I understand it was made to him when God uttered this voice from heaven I have both glorified thee and will glorifie thee again Then God gave him a power to raise up all as he had lately done Lazarus and to give them immortall happiness of which as he had then the grant so he now desires in this prayer to be put in possession And therefore when he says vers 1. Father the hour is come glorifie thy Son c. I take the meaning to be as if he had thus spoke Now is the time to doe that which thy voice from heaven assured me should be done viz. to glorifie me in so compleat a manner that I may glorifie thee and give eternall life to all the faithfull This he spake with eyes lifted up to heaven from whence that voice came which bare witness of him that he should be glorified more then ever and gave him authority to lay claim to the highest power of bestowing immortality Which power when God the Father had actually put into his hands according to this prayer and his own promise of which he could not fail having ingaged himself before a multitude to glorifie him then being made perfect he became the Authour of eternall Salvation to them that obey him v. Heb. 9. Then he was made a Priest for ever vii 16 17. not after the Law which was but a weak institution but after the power of an endless Life whereby he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him He can raise up us and all that succeed us as well as he did Lazarus and others in whom he gave onely a little taste of his power to give us Life that shall never die This now is the Third Testimony of the Father who in the audience both of Friends and Strangers said He had both glorified him and would glorifie him again That he had was then very well known and it was as certain because he said it that he would doe the same again By the testimony also of sufficient persons it appears that he made good this promise even at his Death after which he raised him out of his grave and lift him up far above all heavens that he may be glorified once more 2 Thess i. 10. by raising us up from the dead and promoting us to eternall glory with himself O wonderfull News Athanasius in Assumption Christi He that was lifted up to hang on a Cross is preferred now from his grave to a glorious throne And to come at it he takes a journey through the air the clouds running under his feet become his chariot the sky opens to him and the heavens with open arms receive him the troups of Angels joyn together in triumphall Songs and persuade his amazed Disciples to keep that day a festivall on earth as they did in heaven Do not stand gazing here say they any longer but go and preach this wonder to the world By his departure represent his coming again for so shall he come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven O how wonderfull are thy works O Lord which give us hope as the blessed St. Paul said when he thought of these things that we shall then be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we be ever with the Lord. We can doe no less then to those voices which came so oft from heaven to testifie this adde our poor voice of praise and thanksgiving saying with the Angels when He came into the world GLORY BE TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST and with the multitude when they met him at mount Olivet Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord PEACE IN HEAVEN AND GLORY IN THE HIGHEST Cyrill Hieros in occurs Domini Glory be to him who is the Fountain of Life coming from the Fountain of Life the Father Glory be to him who is the River of God proceeding from the Divine Abyss and inseparably one with it the Treasure of the Father's Goodness and of ever-springing Blessedness the Water of life who gives Life to the World the increated beam of the Father of Lights from whom he is undivided who being in the form of God took on him the form of a Servant not lessening the dignity of his Divinity but sanctifying the mass of our Humanity Him the Angels praise the Archangels worship the Authorities reverence the Powers glorifie the Cherubims doe him service the Seraphims acknowledge his Divinity the Sun and Moon minister to him who hath broken in pieces the gates of Hell and opened the gates of Heaven and abolished Death and confounded the Devill and dissolved the Curse and made Sorrow cease and trodden Sin under foot and restored the Creation and inlightened the World And therefore let us sing hymns to him with the Angels and rejoyce in the light of the glory of God with the Shepherds and adore him with the Wise men and joyfully magnifie him with the blessed Virgin and confess him with Simeon and Anna who were glad to see his Salvation that so we at last may also be possessed of eternall good things through the grace and the bowels of mercy and the loving-kindness of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Testimony of the WORD the Second Witness in Heaven IF we had no farther Witness of this Truth but that which hath been already produced we might well rejoyce in the comfort which God the Father hath given us and rely upon Jesus as the Authour of Eternall Life to all those that obey him
The Resurrection of Iesus Mat 28 2 And behold there was a great earthquake for the Angel of the Lord descended from heaven came rolled back the stone from the doore and sate upon it And for feare of him the keepers did shake became as dead men And the Angel sayd unto the woman Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus that was crucified He is not here for he is Risen as he sayd JESUS AND THE RESURRECTION Justified by Witnesses IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH In Two Parts The First shewing That Jesus is the SON OF GOD the Second That in him we have ETERNALL LIFE By SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrysost in Johan Hom. lxvii Printed for R. Royston MDCLXXVII THE Witnesses TO CHRISTIANITY THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN v. 7 8. BY SYMON PATRICK D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty at the Angel in Amen-Corner 1675. TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO permit these Papers to go abroad under your Name which are writ in defence of that most holy Religion of which your Grace is the prime Minister in this Kingdom They contain an explication but of a very few words yet in them lies the whole Evidence for the Christian Cause I hope I have done something to clear their sence and to illustrate divers other passages in the holy Books I have at least done my endeavour and opened the way to the plainest and most Apostolical method of asserting the truth of our Religion They that come after may supply the defects and rectifie the mistakes which they find in this account that I have given of the Witnesses to Christianity Who speak so fully and with such Authority that it is a matter of just wonder there should be any Infidels in Christian Countries We can find no other cause of it but that in stead of considering upon what grounds our Faith relies they scornfully presume that it hath none If they would but lay aside their lightness and become serious and if they would be so humble as to think it is possible they may learn of one of the despised Ministers of Jesus Christ I doubt not they would with a little study soon see him to be so great a Lord that they ought to have a due respect to the meanest of his Servants for his sake Nay they would not envy to them such high Dignities as your Grace worthily holds in the Church of Christ For the Lord himself is honoured in the honour that is done to his Ministers And thereby they are made capable to do him still better service and with the more authority to promote the honour of his Religion Of which how much your Grace hath deserved by your prudent care and vigilance for its preservation and by the countenance and encouragement you give to those that labour in its service posterity perhaps may be better judges than this present Age. Though that cannot be so ungrateful as not to acknowledge your great Munificence and Bounty of which there are such publick and lasting Monuments as declare you to be Primate of all England not only in the dignity of your Office but which is more in the generosity of your Spirit Long may our Soveraign enjoy such a wise Counsellor the Church such a Prudent Governour Learning such a liberal Patron and Benefactor and when through mere Age you must resign and exchange it for a higher and better place your See such a Successor As for my self if your Grace will be pleased to pardon this Address and reckon me in the number of those that reverence your Vertues as well as your Greatness I shall not doubt but my Design in this Work will obtain your Graces approbation and that your known Candor will pass a favourable Judgment upon the weak endeavours of the Churches and Your Graces affectionate Servant SY PATRICK THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. THE scope of this Discourse which is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God pag. 1 c. The meaning of that phrase in this place p. 8. and in some other places of Scripture p. 10. derived from the Old Testament p. 14 15. many passages in that relating to this matter explained Ib. and p. 16 17 c. A Prayer p. 22 c. CHAP. II. Concerning the Witnesses in general p. 25. and particularly of the testimony of the FATHER p. 29. which was given three times p. 30. first at his Baptism which is explained p. 30. unto 42. Secondly in the Holy Mount which is explained at large in many remarkable circumstances which accompanied it to p. 56. Thirdly in the way between Bethany and Jerusalem to p. 66. There the pretences of the Jews to a Bath Col under the second Temple is considered and confuted to p. 78. The difference between this voice which testified to our Saviour and that in ancient times p. 78. to the end A Prayer CHAP. III. Concerning the Testimony of the WORD p. 85. Who the WORD is p. 86. Why so called p. 87. First testimony he gave to S. Steven p. 90. The second to S. Paul p. 101. Christ's first apparition to him considered and expounded at large p. 104. a second p. 115. others p. 116 c. Third testimony of the WORD to S. John p. 122. Several other visions he had of him p. 128 c. An Answer to an objection about the Authority of the Revelation p. 135. To another which gives an account of the sence of two places in S. John 's Gospel which seem opposite p. 137. A Prayer 142. CHAP. IV. Concerning the Testimony of the HOLY GHOST p. 147. First at our Saviour's Baptism p. 148. When the SCHEKINAH or Divine Glory descended Ib. what it was 149 c. of its coming down p. 153. like a Dove 155. and making his abode in him p. 159 c. which was never known before p. 164. Whereby he was anointed p. 165. And now began his reign 168. The Alcoran confesses this descent of the holy Ghost p. 173. Whereby he became the Temple of God 176. As appears by six demonstrations of a Divine Presence in him from p. 177. to 198. The second Testimony of the HOLY GHOST on the day of Pentecost 199. explained by three observations 201. to 225. The last Testimony of the HOLY GHOST 225. to 238. A Prayer 239. CHAP. V. Concerning the Witnesses on EARTH 245. First of the WATER 248. As it signifies the purity of Christ's Doctrine and Life 249. The purity of his Doctrine 250. And the purity of his Life 261. Both these proofs of his Divinity 267. to 275. The Testimony of
the heir of all things He is called by the same name that they were If there were no other reason for it his office would give him a title to it because he is the Lords Christ anointed by God to the highest dignity and government under him not only over that Country but over all Nations on the Earth who by believing on him were all to be made a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people 1 Pet. ii 9. But to show his most excellent greatness he is called the Son of God with two marks of his preeminence above all other who have had that name First he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Son that eminent King the King of Kings like to whom none ever was For secondly whereas those sons of the highest spoken of before were to die like other men Psal 82.7 and to fall like one of the Princes in other Countries He is called the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that God who liveth xvi Matth. 16. that is of the immortal eternal God And by consequence is like his Father an everlasting King of whose Kingdom as the Angel told his Mother i. Luke 33. there shall be no end Thus the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews who understood this language well enough hath discoursed in the First Chapter Where he proves that Jesus is the Son of God in a more eminent sence than any Angel in Heaven according to those ancient prophecies before named concerning David and Solomon as you read ver 4 5. From whence the Jews learns to call the Messiah who they confess is in those places mystically spoken of by that name of the Son of God Which the Apostle there shows is the greatest name of excellence and signifies the highest honour and dignity such as God hath conferred upon no other And then he proceeds to show that according to other prophecies which speak of his supereminence his Throne is for ever and ever ver 8. For God who is his God in a peculiar manner loving and rewarding him hath anointed him with the oil of gladness preferred him that is above all that partake of Kingly dignity ver 9. He hath made him indeed his first-born the Prince of all the Kings of the Earth as S. John speaks i. Revel 5. to whom we are to submit our selves with the greatest devotion of spirit and from whom we may then expect Protection Blessing and the noblest Rewards For he is the long expected Son of God who excells all other that were ever called by that name the King of inconceivable Majesty whose splendor could not so much as be fore-shadowed by Solomon in all his glory Thus Nathanael I observe puts these two expressions together in his confession of our Saviour out of a vehement affection redoubling his words Thou art that Son of God thou art that King of Israel i. John 49. This is the business upon which we are to examine these Witnesses we are to consider what they say to this point that the Lord Jesus was sent from God as Moses had formerly been only Moses as a Servant but he as a Son according to what you read iii. Heb. 5 6. with a fulness of authority with all the power of God so that we may confidently rely on every thing that he hath said as the very mind and sence of God This if we can hear them speak they are witnesses so beyond all exception that we cannot chuse but reverence him and receive him and obey him and put our trust in him and rejoyce in his royal favour and love evermore For the first three are no less persons than the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost Whose gracious assistance let us humbly implore that this and all other our works may be begun continued and ended to the glorifying of his holy Name A PRAYER O Father of lights from whom cometâ— every good and every perfect gift illuminate my mind in these Meditations that I may be able to enlighten others anâ— lead them into a good understanding in aâ—â— things Guide and direct my thoughts thaâ— I may reason and discourse aright Shine intâ— all our Souls by the light of the glorious Gospâ—â— of Christ John 6.40 that we seeing the Son may believe on him and being made thy childreâ— by adoption and grace may be daily more anâ— more renewed by thy holy Spirit Settle iâ— our Souls that mighty faith whereby we may have power and strength to have victory and to triumph over the Devil the World and the Flesh Strengthen it every day by constant Meditation on those things which thou O Father Son and Holy Ghost hast so many ways declared to us that it may grow still more victorious and we may feel the happy fruit of it in greater joy and triumph of spirit in assured expectation of the Crown of righteousness which thou hast promised to all faithful Souls O that none of the inticing allurements of this world may ever more deceive us and steal away our hearts from our true happiness nor any of the troublesome passages of this life ever hereafter dishearten us and divert us from the pursuit of it But the Faith of Christ may so intirely possess our hearts as to keep us stedfast and upright in the midst of all the temptations of what kind soever they be that assault us And looking up unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith we may still say with true resolution of spirit Thou art the Son of God most high thou art the King of incomprehensible Majesty thou art the Lord of all We will constantly adhere to thee as thy faithful subjects We will follow thee in faith and love and patient obedience to the very death And hope that as we feel by thy power in us we are the children of God so we shall be heirs heirs of God joynt-heirs with thee O blessed Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory and dominion for ever Amen CHAP. II. Concerning the Witnesses in general and the Testimony of the FATHER in particular IF any man urge us to receive a thing which is new and strange we either turn away our ears if we take him for a frivolous person or else require him to show us good evidence for what he says if he seem to be wise and serious And the more importunate he is to be believed the more earnest we are to know what he hath to show for himself and to call for his proofs in which if he fail or they come not home to the purpose he is so far from gaining any credit with those who examine them that they prove a very considerable argument against him Especially when he pretends to come from God and to bring us messages from Heaven we all expect the clearer and diviner demonstrations before we can resign our mind unto him For that which is to make all things credible must have very
is a mark set before it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lo or behold that we may all attend and listen diligently to this voice for now the word of God came to him as he speaks in another place I told you concerning those who were called Gods under the old Law x. John 35. and in an audible manner authorized him to begin to act as the Christ of God whom He had anointed as you shall hear with the Holy Ghost just at this moment when He declared him his Son by this voice from Heaven Which if you carefully observe it is expressed by the other Evangelists in such a manner that we may understand it was directed to himself as that commission which was sent him from Heaven to give him power to exercise the office of Gods supreme and only Minister in this world in whom alone he was well pleased and in none else but by him For S. Mark says the voice was in these words Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Which plainly tell us that he spake to Jesus and not merely of him that he might be confident He was the person whom God had now sanctified and sent into the world And so S. Luke hath recorded it more fully and expresly Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased As if he had said Thou art the person to whom I have a favour above all others I have anointed thee above all thy fellows none that have had this name are so dear to me as thou art to whom I commit my authority and invest with my power and intrust with all my mind and will Now because we all suspect private Revelations and think it no sufficient ground to believe one that says God spake to him unless he can bring some other very credible person besides himself to attest that he also heard it or be able otherways to demonstrate it God was pleased therefore not only by other means to verifie this but so to direct S. Matthew's pen that he hath as good as told us that the voice which was directed to Jesus himself telling him he was his Son was uttered likewise in the audience of John Baptist a person famed for his sanctity reverenced by all the Nation of the Jews and acknowledged to be a Prophet Though it was delivered I believe in those words and syllables wherein S. Mark or S. Luke have set it down for as the Heavens were opened unto him iii. Matth. 16. and he saw the Spirit descending so the voice which accompanied it spake in all likelihood unto him yet it being heard also by John who had baptised him and who saw all that went before it as he himself declared it was as if God had said to him This is my beloved Son c. and therefore so S. Matthew relates it The Father Almighty by this voice awakened the attention of the Baptist and bade him as it were mark it that this person to whom he now spake was the Messiah who now entred upon his office being declared the Son of God and should increase and grow as he presently after discerned iii. John 30. till he came to be declared by the Resurrection from the dead the Son of God with power as S. Paul speaks i. Rom. 4. that is with all the power belonging to his office of Lord of all things the great King of Heaven and Earth Till this time he knew no more of the Christ but that he was coming God having ordered him to make way for him and that he should immediately appear and be so much superior to him iii. Matth. 11. that he should not be worthy to be one of his meanest servants His countenance he was not acquainted withall nor could he say this is the person when he met with him as he himself confesses i. John 31. But thus much he was told by him that sent him to Baptize as he there declares ver 33. that on whom he should see the Spirit descend and remain he should conclude that person was the Messiah from whom they might expect the gift of the Holy Ghost which had been so long a stranger to their Nation And accordingly having some intimation of him from the Spirit as soon as Jesus offered himself to receive his Baptism iii. Matth. 14. immediately after he was confirmed in his belief that this was the Christ by the fulfilling of the former sign i. John 32. And thereupon publishes it openly to all in these words ver 34. I saw and bare record i. e. gave my testimony of him that this is the Son of God So God himself taught him to call our Saviour for it should seem by the words of S. Matthew that he had this further ground to believe it and so was furnished with greater ability to testifie it that he heard the voice from Heaven as well as saw the Spirit descend upon him Though the Father spake the words to Jesus yet it was in the presence and hearing of this person who was sent from God to be his witness i. John 6 7. and as if he had said to him This is my beloved Son mind what I say go and testifie that this is He in whom I delight above all others Thou mayest be sure of it for I tell thee so who gave thee all the Authority thou hast And accordingly you read that he went and did his office for which he was sent that is He bare witness of him and cried saying This was he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me 1. John 15. which he repeats in the same Chapter as his record ver 19. in behalf of our Saviour on two other occasions ver 27. and 30. to let them know that the person of whom he gave this testimony before he was baptised of him was now come and exalted to a far higher dignity than himself being a more mighty person as the rest of the Evangelists speak no less than the Son of God This he means by being preferred before him appointed by the Father of all to an incomparably more excellent office which he entred upon after the preaching and baptism of John who began indeed his Ministry before Jesus but it was not because he was greater but rather because he was less and came to prepare his way who was as he acknowledges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first of the two not only in regard of his Divine Nature but in regard of his sublime office into which he was now put by being pronounced the beloved Son of God by this voice from Heaven Which the Devil himself one would think heard and understood to be such a testimony concerning Jesus as committed the greatest Ministry to him and was a Divine warrant to go in Gods name to the world as Moses after the Angel spake to him out of the bush did to the Jews And therefore when immediately after this our Saviour was led by the
adv Marcionem C. 22. was going in the same manner to give testimony to them concerning his Son Jesus and to confirm them in the belief of whatsoever he should teach them For thirdly this was not Mut◠Nubes as the same Tertullian there speaks a dumb cloud a silent glory but a voice came out of it which was Novum Patris testimonium super filio the Fathers New testimony concerning his Son In which testimony He was pleased to apply those very words to Jesus which had been spoken by Moses concerning a Prophet whom he had bid them look for after him For in the xviii of Deuteronomy he tells them from God himself ver 17. that there should be raised up to them a Prophet like unto him into whose mouth ver 18. the Lord would put his own words and who should speak all that he should command him UNTO HIM SHALL YE HEARKEN ver 15. as much as to say Be sure you attend to his words and give obedience to them Now these very words and syllables HEAR HIM are by that God who made that promise to Moses spoken in this place to the Disciples with a manifest application to Jesus clearly denoting him to be the person whom Moses foretold the Lord their God would send to declare his mind unto them as he himself already had done And that this was really the voice of God as much as that voice which spake to Moses we have the greater reason to conclude from this following which is the fourth observation That Moses now stood by and heard it and from thence learnt a great deal more than he knew when he wrote his Book that this person of whom he spoke was more than a Prophet being the Son of Gods dearest love For these words which declared him so were spoken there where he was present who durst not contradict them as sure he would have done had he not known them to be the very voice of God and no delusion I need not enlarge this because the Evangelists tell us so plainly that not only He appeared in glory talking with our Saviour upon this Mountain but Elias also accompanied him which is next to be considered Who being a great Prophet might pretend as fairly as any other man to be the person designed by Moses in the words forenamed and yet consented by his silence to the same undoubted Truth that the prophecy of Moses was not till now fufilled but had its utmost completion in Jesus And indeed this voice from Heaven making such an open Proclamation concerning Jesus before him that gave the Law and before the chiefest of the Prophets who had asserted it and being heard by them with the profoundest silence without any contradiction it did as good as tell the Apostles that they might be assured this was He of whom the Law and the Prophets had spoken whom they were now to give ear unto and that the Law and the Prophets must from henceforth give way to an higher Revelation from God by this Jesus If this had not been true we cannot but think that this great Zealot Elias who had been always so jealous for the Lord of hosts 1 Kings xix 14. and this trusty servant of God Moses who was so faithful in all his house xii Num. 7. would have presently entred their protestation against it and required the Apostles in the Name of God to give heed only to their voice but not to this Which now might the rather be believed to come from Heaven because these inspired persons reverence it and dare not venture in the least to speak against it when they were highly concerned so to do if it had not been the voice of God And if any one shall ask how these Disciples could tell that these two were Moses and Elias whom they never saw I think Theophylact hath well resolved it that they knew them not by their faces but by their discourse Certain it is that persons living in far distant Countries known to others merely by their works and manner of writing have after a little converse at an unexpected meeting been challenged by the Names that their Books carried without the help of any noted character in their face to distinguish them Nothing is more common than the story of Erasmus whom his Friend here in England greeted by his name after a few repartees pass'd between them though he had never seen him and little thought then to embrace him Now we are expresly told by all the three Evangelists that Moses and Elias talked with Jesus and by S. Luke that their discourse was concerning his decease or departure out of this world which he should accomplish at Jerusalem and consequently it is very probable of the glory that was to follow it by his Resurrection Which conference the Apostles hearing they might easily know though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by their pictures which many of that Nation held it unlawful to be made yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their words and discourse wherein either Jesus or they before it was done had occasion to mention their Names or their offices or to describe their persons that they were none else but those two men who then appeared to them And it is possible as Theophylact adds that Moses might say I acknowledge thee to be the person whose death I prefigured by the Lamb which was slain at the Passeover And Elias might joyn with him and say Thou art He whose Resurrection I did likewise fore-show by calling again the Widow's son to life Some such kind of discourse we may reasonably conceive passed between them whereby they discovered themselves to be the one the Law-giver the other the noblest of all the Prophets who now came to wait upon Jesus and acknowledge that he was greater than they as the voice from Heaven presently testified which declared him the beloved Son of God to whom now all must attend as they had formerly done to them And therefore it is very remarkable which is the last thing I shall observe that no sooner was this voice heard but Moses and Elias vanished and were seen no more As much as to say That Jesus alone was now to be heard the Law and the Prophets were gone and had nothing to do but only to serve him So S. Mark relates ix 8. that suddenly when they had looked round about after the hearing of this voice they saw no man any more save Jesus only with themselves They turned their eyes every way to look for Moses and Elias but there was no further news of them Nay S. Luke tells us ix 36. that in the very uttering of the voice from that Heavenly glory they disappeared So those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly signifie While the voice was speaking Jesus was found alone The clould out of which it came covered them and took them into it At the same time it opened it self to manifest him and to obscure them that it might be evident
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
Father The last words of our Saviour were Father into thy hands I commend my spirit xxiii Luke 46. And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit vii Acts 59. He died with these and the following devout words in his mouth crying again with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge In which he expressed as much charity to men as in the other he did faith in Christ And openly declared himself a person of such piety and goodness such admirable candor and sweetness of spirit so utterly void of all rancor and gall when he had the highest provocations from his bitter enemies that as we may be sure he could not be guilty of devising a lye to the deceiving of others so we may reasonably believe that God Almighty would not let such an excellent man be deceived to the ruine of himself and the casting away so precious a life II. But that jealousie and suspicion might have no pretence left nor any man justly call in question the truth of this apparition our Saviour was pleased a second time both to show himself and also to speak very audibly unto another person of great integrity and authority and that was S. Paul Whose testimony concerning this is the more considerable because he was a person of considerable note in the Nation of the Jews both for his descent and for his education and for his zeal in their Religion iii. Phil. 5. He was an Hebrew both by his Fathers side and his Mothers a Scholar of Gamaliel's i. Gal. 14. under whom he made an exceeding great proficiency xxvi Acts 5. and was addicted to the most strict Sect of Religion then among them whereby he became full of flaming zeal for the Law of which he was a rigid observer even according to the expositions they had made of it by the traditions of their Elders These he held so sacred that the name of Jesus was odious to him because he little regarded them And he was transported with so bloudy a rage against his disciples that his intention was to send as many of them as he could meet withall after S. Steven to whose death he was consenting viii Acts 1. xxii 20. that is He approved the fact of those seditious Zealots who were the authors of it or as the words may well be rendred out of the Syriack translation he was as well pleased with the killing of him as any of the company The lenity of his Master was no example for him to follow He learnt no meekness in the School of Gamaliel but suffered himself to be hurried away with the furious spirit of the multitude whom he accompanied in that tumult For he undertook to secure the garments of those who stript themselves to throw the first stone at that blessed Martyr of Christ Jesus Nor did his fury rest here but he gave his voice against other Saints when the sentence of death passed on them xxvi Acts 10. And not content to make havock of the poor Church at Jerusalem he enlarged his cruel projects and stretches his wrath as far as Damascus thither he goes armed with authority from the Senate xxii 5. whose Commissioner he was now as he had been for some time which shows he was a person of no small condition in that Nation For He tells us himself that what he did at Jerusalem was by authority from the chief Priests xxvi 10. who gave him letters also to those at Damascus that they should assist him in the apprehending all the Christians that were there ix 2. xxii 5. He brought the Decree of the Senate along with him which had been made against them and lest any should question whether he was deputed to see that order put in execution he was ready to satisfie them of that by showing his Commission xxvi 12. In short he breathed forth nothing but fire and sword as we speak against the worshippers of the Lord Jesus being exceeding mad against them according to the account S. Luke gives of him viii Acts 3. ix 1. and which he gives of himself xxii 4. xxvi 11. Now who would expect that such a man as this should himself become a Disciple of Jesus much less a preacher of his Religion A man so noted for his violence the other way and whose name was so terrible to Christian people that Ananias was afraid to go and deliver a message to him from our Lord after he was told something of his conversion Was there any hopes that he should ever confess and publish the very same thing for which S. Steven was stoned And yet so powerful were the prayers of that holy Martyr which adds much to the force of his testimony that our Lord answered them ere long by pardoning and converting this enraged Zealot To whom he was graciously pleased to appear as he had done to that Saint more than once as we find recorded in the Sacred story from his own mouth The first time and the most remarkable was when he was upon the rode to Damascus Then our Lord met him not far from that City when he had no such thing in his thoughts but was possessed with quite contrary designs and made him fall down and worship him whose Name he so hated that he would have forced all Christians to blaspheme him Read the ix Acts 3 c. and there you will find him who little regarded what S. Steven said and perhaps took him for a frantick fellow when he told them he saw Jesus glorified surrounded himself with such a glorious light from Heaven as left him no power to resist this truth which he had so bitterly persecuted For in that wonderful brightness there was a person appeared to him with such a dazling lustre that after he had beheld it he lost his eyes and could not see by reason of the glory of that light xxii 11. which was the cause I believe that he askt with no small astonishment Who art thou Lord The Angels appeared sometimes in great glory but never with such a splendour as to hurt the sight much less to take it away and therefore he now concluded that this person was of an higher condition much greater than the Angelical Ministers whose brightness was never known to be so amazing And to give satisfaction to his doubt our Lord the WORD of God told him in plain terms with an audible voice I am Jesus whom thou persecutest And wisht him not to proceed any further in this course which he might easily see would prove destructive to him For to contend with him still who was so glorious what would it be but to wound and ruine himself and by seeking to ease himself of one trouble to run upon a greater just as a beast does that kicks against the pricks which are to quicken it and put it forward This voice he alone heard who was to be instructed by it The company that was with him heard only a confused
God promised to send to rule over them He takes the Book out of the right hand of him that sate on the Throne ver 7. which signifies that he is next to God the Father of all at whose right hand he stood in power and glory As appears also by his being seated in his Throne for the thrones of the Eastern Kings to which these expressions allude were wide like one of our Couches in which more than one may sit and by his having the principal Angels the seven spirits of God at his command to imploy where he pleased Who together with the rest of the Heavenly host and with the Christian Church make their acclamations to him ver 11 12. as worthy of the most supreme power and dignity which they express in as many Names of praise as there are principal Spirits of God when they say Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive 1. power and 2. riches and 3. wisdom and 4. strength and 5. honour and 6. glory and 7. blessing And then immediately he hears every Creature joyning him in their Doxology together with God the Father saying ver 13. Blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever But the more fully to represent his Divine power you may observe that he appears in another Vision to him in the very same state and majesty wherein God was wont to make himself present in the times of old Then you read that the Lord made the clouds his chariot and walkt upon the wings of the wind ciii Psalm 3. that is came to them by the ministery of Angels who appeared in bright and shining clouds to do his will with great expedition every where For so it is expounded in the xviii Psalm 10. where instead of clouds it is said He rode upon a Cherub and did flie yea he did flie upon the wings of the wind That is there was a token of his presence by the majestick appearance of Angels who were ready to be imployed by him and immediately to execute his commands For to ride upon any thing as Maimonides observes * More Nevoch Part. 1. cap. 70. is in the Holy Language to rule to govern to have an absolute power over it and dispose of it as one pleases And therefore to ride upon a Cherub or to make the clouds his chariot which are the very same because the Angels appeared in glorious clouds is to send those Heavenly Ministers whither he thinks good to perform his pleasure Whence it is I suppose that the Psalmist says elsewhere lxviii 34. his strength is in the clouds because he is powerfully present by them in all places For as Andreas Caesariensis hath truly observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in his Commentaries upon the Revelation a cloud in the Sacred writings is ever a Minister about Divine businesses and perpetually imployed in them because they are above us and are very swift as the Angels are in their motions and are both dark and bright a fit emblem of the glory of the Divine Majesty which is inscrutable by us Now just in such a glorious Majesty and mighty power did S. John behold our blessed Saviour making the clouds that is the Angels his chariot in which he sate as a Lord to whom they were to do service So he tells us in xiv Rev. 14. And I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one sate like unto the Son of man having on his head a golden Crown and in his hand a sharp sickle Where by cloud the forementioned writer understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Angelical power of which this white that is bright cloud was a representation ministring to our Saviour For S. John saw him upon this cloud and sitting there as if it were the Throne or Royal Chariot of this Prince Who sate there with a Crown on his head denoting his Royal authority and that of Gold to show by what is most precious among us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the splendour and greatness of his Majesty and with a sickle in his hand to signifie that he hath such a power as to be able to cut down Kingdoms and States with as much ease as we mow a field of corn All these three last expressions set forth the highest dignity and most royal power and therefore so doth his sitting upon a cloud or being carried by Angels as Kings were anciently and still are in the Eastern Countries by their servants Which kind of speech and other such like phrases in the holy Language as riding upon the wings of Angels denoted by the clouds and wind signifie the exercise of his Kingly power by their Ministry Who are ready to fly any whither to convey his orders and execute them throughout the world Where he being present by them as a King is by his several Ministers in every part of his Dominions he is said to sit upon them as if whither-soever they go they carried him Thus the ancient Books speak of God the Creator and Governour of all and thus our Saviour teaches S. John to speak of him which is a sign that he is the Son of God who sends forth the Angels to minister for them especially who shall be heirs of salvation And therefore in another Vision which is all I need mention xix Rev. 11 12 c. He saw him again coming out of Heaven with the Royal ensigns of his victorious power over those who had opposed his authority For behold a white horse which was proper for a conqueror and one sitting upon him whose name was called the WORD of God Who was clothed he tells us with a vesture dipt in bloud that is with a purple garment such as Kings use to wear and his eyes sparkled or rather flamed like fire to denote how terrible he was to his Enemies and there were on his head many Crowns because he had already conquered several Kingdoms and Provinces and was now going to subdue more being attonded with all the armies in Heaven who waited upon him to minister to him in this war till as he was of right he was actually acknowledged by humble subjection to him to be KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS And what greater argument can there be of the power of our Lord and of the truth of these Visions whereby the WORD of God who hath the lineaments of future things in his mind as Irenaeus speaks represented how God would hereafter dispose of the affairs of the world than his possessing himself of a Kingdom and perswading so great a part of mankind to submit to him though a King invisible merely by the preaching of such men as S. John The event hath proved it was no delusion when he heard those great voices in Heaven saying xi 15. The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever
where the House of his Glory and the Ark of his Presence was he is said to bless his people cxxxiv. Psal 3. and to give them the blessing of life cxxxiii 4. which may be more truly said of Jesus Christ from whom now the LORD hath commanded the blessing even life for evermore iii. Act. 26. xi Joh. 25 26. In him he showed himself most propitious to Mankind and set him forth as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mercy seat iii. Rom. 25. from whence he will dispense his Divine favours towards us We need not doubt of it for he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or TESTIMONY also in the most proper seasons of the greatest love and kindness that ever was 1 Tim. ii 6. This he testified indeed most of all by his Death and giving himself a ransome for us which the Apostle is there speaking of and which Polycarp calls in his Epistle to the Philippians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the testimony of the Cross But it was apparent likewise by all the actions of his life Which testified how full he was of GRACE as well as of Truth for he went about about doing good x. Act. 38. The very name that Philo gives the Tabernacle which he calls * L. 3. de vita Mosis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactly belongs to him who was a moveable Temple a walking mercy seat an Holy place which went about and carried God's blessings to all that drew nigh unto him All the Power he had was used not to the harm of any man living but to the benefit relief and comfort of every one that came to him Whom did he ever refuse that intreated his help What suitor did he turn away that came to beg his charitable assistance He never excused himself either from the multitude of business or the distance of the place or the greatness of the thing they askt or the many courtesies he had done to them already or upon any other account whatsoever but willingly went to do them service or which is more sent his Divine influences afar off to testifie his omnipresent power for the rescuing of such as were at the point of death And as for his Doctrine you remember it was so sweetly perswasive that all the People wondred at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth iv Luk. 22. So full of mercy it was that he published a Jubilee as you there read v. 18. to the miserable World So rich in love that S. John could do no less than say 1. iv 9. That in this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his onely begotten Son into the World that we might live through him VI. And as the Sanctuary was a place separate from all others for this purpose that God might dwell in it and from thence send them the tokens of his powerful love even so was Jesus also separated after a special manner to be the Tabernacle of GOD among Men. The place where the Divine Glory made its residence was called the Most Holy And the Hill on which it stood is called the Mountain of his HOLINESS xlviii Psal 1. And the Ark which was the peculiar seat of God in the most holy place is called the Throne of his HOLINESS xlvii 8. and the HOLY Ark 2 Chron. xxxv 3. Nay it is called by the Name of HOLINESS iv Num. 20. as all the Hebrews interpret the place and with great reason for that which in one place 1 King viii 8. is called the HOLINESS is in another where the same thing is described 2 Chron. v. 9. called the ARK The ground of all which was that these were separated by Gods special command for his uses and service alone And the Tabernacle was built by peculiar directions which he himself gave and by a Divine art and skill wherewith the workmen were inspired and no other And just thus was the Temple of our Saviour's Body likewise set apart and separated from all common flesh to be the dwelling place of God Man had no hand in the making of it but it was formed in the Womb of a pure Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost Upon which score the Angel calls him before he was conceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Luke 35. that HOLY thing we render it but it is the very Name of the Temple which had not an original like other Men being made by God alone Nor did the good Angels only acknowledge this but the Evil also call him the HOLY one of God i. Mark 24. For he was again separated from all other by a voice from Heaven and by the anointing of the Holy Ghost and by many other things not now to be mentioned which declared him to be the MOST HOLY or Holy of Holies spoken of by Daniel the Prophet ix 24. which Abenezra expounds to be meant of Christ. And the unspotted Holiness that was both in his Doctrine and in his life as you shall hear afterward and the innocency and purity likewise of his followers and attendants were no small Testimony added to the rest that God was in him For he did no sin as S. Peter speaks neither was guile found in his mouth And all they that came to him v. 4 5. as unto a living stone or Temple rejected indeed of men but chosen of God and precious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even they themselves became living stones a spiritual house or Temple an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ But it would be too long to note all that the holy Scriptures speak of this Therefore V. Let us briefly observe how the Omniscience of God which appeared in our Saviour declared that He dwelt in him as the punctual prediction of many things formerly declared his presence at the Tabernacle There Moses you know made his enquiries upon all occasions And from thence in after Ages God gave them answers concerning things unknown when the High-Priest stood before the most holy place with the Urim and Thummim on his breast And therefore that the World might see God had chang'd his Seat and now dwelt here in his Holy Child Jesus He declared things secret and not onely foretold a number of things both concerning himself and others but manifested that he knew even the thoughts and purposes of Mens hearts ii Joh. 23 24. And understood what was done at a distance from him i. Joh. 47 48. Which was so demonstrative a proof to the true Israelite of the presence of God in him that immediately he cries out Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel But the manner of his knowing what was in man and all other things was the most admirable For whereas Moses was fain still to repair to one place and inquire at the Mercy seat before he could tell the mind of God And could not so much as resolve a difficult case about the observation of a Law
the very shadow of some of them did more than all the power of Medicines This was a very great demonstration of his supreme dominion over all Creatures Nothing could be more effectual to induce men to obey him to whom they saw every thing else was subject Without this they could never have moved men to believe that he was the Lord but this gave it sufficient credit For suppose they had stood up in the places of popular concourse and said We come to preach to you in the name of Jesus and require you to submit your selves to him whom God hath made the Lord of all He was born of the seed of David a great King in Israel did many wonders in that Nation though he was hated and rejected by them and delivered to Pontius Pilate by whom he was crucified but God raised him out of his grave and we saw him go to Heaven where he is inthroned in the most glorious Majesty and reigns over all Angels as well as mankind Cast away therefore your ancient Gods who are his subjects Forsake presently all your superstitious Rites and Ceremonies Believe on this person submit to his government and obey his commands Though you get nothing in this world by it but perhaps may lose all you have he will reward you for it in his Pleavenly Kingdom What force do you think there would have been in such a speech to perswade the Nations far distant from Jerusalem to fall down before him as their Sovereign Would they not have smiled and said What do these bablers mean to bring us these strange stories from a foreign land Why should we acknowledge him to be our King whom his own Country-men would not suffer to reign over them Shall we become the subjects of one whom we never saw nor heard of until now and venture the loss of all our liberties and perchance of our lives for one whom they confess to be crucified and dead What likelihood is there that he should rise again from the dead who could not keep himself when he was alive from being put to death Truly saith Eusebius when I consider the mere doctrine they were to preach I cannot see how they could hope to draw the people to their belief But then when I consider how they did prevail every where at Rome at Alexandria at Antioch in all other places I must have recourse to a Divine power which succeeded this Doctrine Jesus plainly declared by putting them upon the attempt that he was confident he had all power to get himself a Kingdom by this preaching And by the issue it appeared that it was no presumption wherewith he was possessed instead of a well grounded confidence They preached as he bad them but it was not with such Rhetorick as is in use among us not with the enticing words of mans wisdom with eloquent expressions enchanting language or mere plausible arguments but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. ii 4. The HOLY GHOST from Heaven presently appeared wheresoever they preached to justifie their words and to testifie by many miraculous operations that Jesus was no less than they affirmed This evident demonstration perswaded mens minds This was such a power that the people were ready to take them for Gods and imagined that Mercury and Jupiter were come down from Heaven to them and thereupon prepared publick sacrifices to be offered in their honour xiv Acts 13. Natural reason told them that such things could not be done by mortal nature but they must be concluded to be the works of some God though no body told them that they were And therefore this was all they had to do for their own satisfaction to enquire by what power and authority the Apostles did these wonders since they themselves confessed that they were but men And here now they took occasion to let them know that it was Jesus who did these Miracles Him they preached and him they hereby proved to be the Lords ANOINTED who by this power would prevail notwithstanding the fierce opposition that was made against his authority For as you read in a devout address which the whole company of believers made to God the Rulers were gathered together and the Kings of the Earth stood up against the Lord and against his Christ At their first entrance upon this work there were mighty endeavours to overthrow it just as there had been against his holy child Jesus whom he had ANOINTED that is promoted to a greater glory than he had on Earth And therefore they desire God to go along with them and stretch forth his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done by the name of his holy child Jesus for the propagating of this Religion which it was not in their own power to advance iv Acts 26 27 30. Now this was a further testimony of the power and glory of Jesus that when a solemn address was made to God and they represented to him their design they were so far from receiving any discountenance from him that he incouraged and promoted this undertaking For the place where they prayed was shaken by a powerful inspiration which came upon them all as it had done upon the Apostles And they were ALL filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness ver 31. III. And this leads me to the last Testimony which the HOLY GHOST gave to him by descending upon other persons as well as upon the Apostles though not in such a visible form as it did on the day of Pentecost The place indeed was SHAKEN where these believers were assembled by the like mighty wind I suppose as filled the house where the Apostles received the Holy Ghost ii Acts 2. But there were no fiery tongues now appeared as there did then Nor do we afterwards read of any such sensible sign of an invisible power coming upon them as this shaking of the place was when the Holy Ghost first descended upon the body of the Church But whensoever the Apostles laid their hands upon any person who believed in Jesus and was baptized presently the Holy Ghost fell down upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied viii Acts 15 17. xix 6. This laying on of their hands was ever after the only external sign of the Divine power for that 's the meaning of stretching out the hand in the place just before named iv Acts 30. wherewith they should be endued at the request of the Apostles Which was a plain demonstration of the royal Majesty and munificence of Jesus whose Servants and Ministers these were and hereby the HOLY GHOST bare record to him that he was the Son of God So this very Apostle teaches us in the second Chapter of this Epistle where he tells them to whom he writes that he need not be very solicitous to prescribe them Antidotes against those Antichristian doctrines which then began to poison the Church because they had an Unction
unto them So S. Paul writes to the Thessalonians 1 ii 8. every one of whom he exhorted and comforted and charged as a Father doth his children ver 11. But he never used any flattering words towards them nor spake as pleasing men but God who trieth the hearts nor carried on any design of covetousness or winning of glory to himself nor would be in the least burdensom to them but was gentle among them even as a nurse cherisheth her own children ver 4 5 6 7. Show me the man that ever spoke with such wisdom and judgment as they did and with so much tenderness of heart None but their Master ever preached or wrote with so Divine a Spirit which John the Baptist describes in such words with which I shall content my self as prove the excellence of his Person from the excellence of his Doctrine which he delivered unto men They are in the iii. John 31. where he says He that COMETH from above is above all He that is of the Earth is Earthly and speaketh of the Earth He that COMETH from Heaven is above all That is He who appears from Heaven with such a Divine Authority who delivers the mind of God in so rare a manner that one may see he hath been with God must needs excel all other persons in dignity Moses and the Prophets and me also who am of an Earthly extraction born like other men and can speak only like a man poor and low things in comparison with those which that Heavenly teacher delivers who I must needs again confess is far superiour to me because he is not a mere man but comes from Heaven and so is above all Prophets whatsoever who had more of the Earth than of Heaven in them that is knew none of those secret counsels of God concerning mans everlasting bliss nor could direct us in so short but plain and sure a way to it as he hath done And then it follows ver 32 33. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth c. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God That is he speaks such things that a man may easily see he is the only begotten of the Father who is in his bosom and knows his very mind having as certain an understanding of Heavenly things as we have of what we see and hear And therefore whosoever believes him does no more but assent to God whose words he speaks by a particular commission he received from him to act in his Name It is very observable that just after the mention of these Witnesses 1 John v. 10. S. John adds that He who believes not this record which God gives of his Son hath made him a liar as on the other side John the Baptist here says That he who doth receive his testimony i. e. believes solemnly acknowledges God to be true From whence I conclude that what is said in this Epistle hath a relation to that which is writ in the Gospel which I take to be no more than this That the Divineness of Jesus his Doctrine the purity and Heavenly strain of his discourses his preaching as if he had heard and seen the Father and knew the state of things above his speaking the Words of God not as anothers like the Prophets before him but as his own was a great testimony to him that he was sent of God in that quality that he pretended So that they who received him did but rely upon the Truth of God and give up their faith to him who hereby as well as other ways perswaded them that this was his Son 2. But then that which I mainly insist upon is this second consideration That his pure most holy Doctrine and Life was a great argument of his Divinity because this was part of his Doctrine that he was the Son of God For who can think that a person of his vertue who taught men both by word and deed such reverence to God and such justice and charity to men could be guilty of putting such an open affront upon the one and such an abuse upon the other as to challenge this title and propound himself to be received in this quality if he had not a just and undoubted right to it He that came with so much sanctity and holiness in all his other words and all his other actions one cannot but conclude was as holy and free from sin in this as much as in any thing else that he said he was the Christ and perswaded the people to believe he was the Son of the blessed This is certain He affirmed himself to be the Christ the Son of God first to his Disciples And that both before his sufferings xvi Matth. 16 17. ix Mark 41. and also after his resurrection xxiv Luke 46. And then to others also who were as yet none of them as 1. to the woman of Samaria iv John 26. Then 2. to the blind man whose eyes he opened ix John 35 36 37. And lastly he asserted it when he was brought before his Judges as you have heard already and this very matter was brought in question yea when they adjured him by the true God and as he bare any respect to him to tell them the very truth in this thing Now who is there that would not infer from hence that all the rest of his Doctrine being so opposite to all lying and every other vice and his whole life giving such a proof of his perfect vertue that they had nothing to ground a charge upon against him but merely this profession of his own wherein if he had pleased he might have been silent it is not in the least credible that a person of his integrity should after so long speaking truth now at the last be guilty of speaking a lye And 2. a lye of such a dangerous consequence as this by which if it were one he and a world of Souls must be undone Yea 3. that he should tell it so often to so many persons And that 4. before the Magistrates who are Gods in this world And that 5. when they were desirous and very importunate to know the truth Yea 6. before God himself by whose name he was solemnly adjured to speak nothing but the truth How is it possible that such a man as he should be so void of all fear of God as to offend him in so high a manner There are none sure whose unstandings are sound or whose consciences are not crackt who can so much as fancy much less perswade themselves to believe that a person whose innocence was so great that all the false witnesses they could find men who cared not for their own lives could not be masters of his should now in such a serious manner when he was going out of the world put such an horrid cheat upon it and with the loss of his life too upon a shameful gibbet as
we understand thereby their holy preaching and living For it is said ver 3. that they had power to prophesie which signifies that they were endowed with extraordinary gifts for Prophets were next to Apostles in the Church to interpret and expound the holy writings and prove out of Moses and the Prophets as our Saviour did xxiv Luke 27. all things that concerned him both his sufferings and his glory And this they did cloathed in sackcloth that is in the habit of mourners for the abominations I suppose which they saw committed and the provoking infidelity of those to whom they preached Which was a notable mark of their great piety and charity as you may learn from ix Ezek. 4. and v. Matth. 4. They are said also to be the two Olive-trees ver 4. that is like Zerubbabel and Joshua two famous persons among the Jews after the captivity who were represented by this Emblem iv Zach. 3. King and Priests unto God men endowed with great authority and illumination from above and with as great purity For they had so much of the oil of gladness that they imparted it to others to the Candlesticks that is the Churches wherein they shined For so S. John teaches us in the beginning of this Book to interpret Candlesticks which is a great argument of the excellency of these men who by the witness of their life and doctrine made all those who were under their care to testifie some way or other to the same truth that they did At least by their lives for they are said to stand before the God of the Earth Which is an Hebrew phrase signifying to minister unto God to be imployed in his worship and service as the Priests and People were at the Temple and therefore sets forth the piety and devotion of these persons whose business it was to serve God even then when it was most dangerous so to do And as by Water so by Bloud also they bare witness of him For they had war made against them and in the fight since they would not yield they were killed ver 7. Nay it was notorious to all that their persecutors had not only drawn the sword against them but that they had resisted unto bloud for their dead bodies lay in the street of the great City ver 8. and they would not suffer them to be put in graves ver 9. which shows the enraged malice which they bare to these zealous WITNESSES who had tormented them ver 10. by the sharpness of their arguments and by their constant reproofs of their infidelity and wickedness Nor was the Witness of the SPIRIT wanting for they approved themselves as Ministers of God to speak in S. Paul's language and Witnesses of Christ by wonders and miracles so great that they might be compared to the two great Prophets Moses and Elias who appeared with our Saviour on the holy Mount For they sent fire out of their mouths ver 5. and had power to shut up Heaven that it should not rain ver 6. both which were the known works of Elias They had power likewise over the Waters to turn them to bloud and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they pleased ver 6. which is the plain description of men like to Moses who brought such plagues on the Egyptians as these had power to do upon those who were like them both in hardness of heart and in oppression of the faithful servants of God And therefore I suppose they are described with a power to hurt and destroy rather than with that healing and saving vertue wherewith the first Witnesses of Christ principally came to signifie that their rebellious enemies should be punished for their rejecting Jesus and doing despight to the SPIRIT of grace which once came to them in a more healthful and salutary manner casting out Devils turning Water into Wine healing all manner of Plagues and Diseases and that as often as they themselves pleased to desire And more than this you read ver 11. that after the time appointed by God for it he restored these Prophets to life again and thereby made their testimony something like that of his Son 's That is men animated with the very same spirit stood up in their place to the amazement of all their opposers Who were so far from being able to hurt them that they were as safe as if they had been in Heaven The presence of God was with them as in the cloud which preserved the Israelites from all danger And he advanced them to great honour by the Heavenly gifts wherewith they were adorned As Elias is said to come though he did not appear in person but another in his spirit and power and David is said to be raised up to reign over the Jews xxx Jer. 9. because his Son that is Christ was set upon his Throne so did the Spirit of life from God enter into these witnesses and they stood upon their feet when he raised up other Apostolical persons in their stead who were not less eminent than those who were dead but full of the same spirit of wisdom holiness burning zeal and might and power also from God This frighted all their enemies as well it might when they saw the Christian Cause would not die do what they could But if they killed some others started up in their room to witness unto Jesus and assert the same truth by wonders by their admirable preaching by their holy life and by death it self if nothing else would satisfie them For thus all the MARTYRS testified to him Whose BLOUD witnessed not only that they believed his Religion and that they valued the favour of Jesus more than their lives but that they had very good reason so to do or else men of such wisdom would not have endured such torments as they freely exposed themselves unto with so much chearfulness as we find they did For as S. Hilary tells us Some gloried in the chains which they wore in prison others being beaten till they died did nothing but give thanks others readily laid down their necks to be cut off and more ran to those piles which they saw built to burn them and with a devout haste leapt into those fires at which the ministers of their torments trembled and there were those who were thrown into the Sea not as if they were to be drown'd but went to partake of the refreshment of eternal bliss So he writes upon those words of the Psalmist lxv 10 12. Thou hast tried us as silver is tried we went through fire and water c. The fruit of which was that thereby many were converted unto Christ Their death gave life to others who seeing their zeal their constancy their meekness their patience and their charity became Proselytes to that faith for which they suffered A new race of illustrious Martyrs rose up in their stead in whom they yet lived For there was no other cause as that Father adds upon the following
Verse why they gave themselves as whole burnt offerings to Christ but that by the example of their Faith and Martyrdom they might instruct many more to be Martyrs Nay their BLOUD did not only water many young plants and made them grow to their perfection but He tells us a little after in his exposition of the same Psalm Plures scimus c. We know many who were wholly ignorant of the Divine Sacraments i. e. the Christian Religion that by the example of the Martyrs run to Martyrdom No wonder then that these above all others have been called the WITNESSES of Jesus for that 's the interpretation of the word MARTYR and that Christians were forward even to kiss their wounds and to embrace their dead bodies as the remains of those who had done most eminent service to our Lord. Who himself therefore witnessed to them after they were dead and declared that their bloud was very dear and precious in his sight and that it had sealed nothing but the truth For there can no other reason be given but this why at the Monuments of these MARTYRS or WITNESSES our Saviour was pleased to have so many miracles wrought afterward and before such a number of people that Porphyry himself as we learn both from S. Cyril and S. Hierom though an avowed enemy of our Religion could not but acknowledge them They still spake and bare Witness to Jesus by these wonderful works when they were dead or rather Jesus spake for them as I said and declared from Heaven that these were his faithful Witnesses whose word ought to be believed whereby they had declared him to be the Lord. A PRAYER WHO would not believe on thee O Lord who would not magnifie thy Name For great and marvellous are thy works just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints All Nations ought to come and worship before thee whose Majesty and Glory is so many ways made manifest Thou hast raised poor and ignorant men to be mighty Ministers of thy Grace and Witnesses of thy Resurrection and co-workers with thee for the illumination and conversion of the world Blessed be thy name for all the glorious Lights which have been in thy Church in every Age by whom thy holy Faith hath been preserved and propagated to our days Blessed be thy name for all the Martyrs who sealed it with their Bloud and for all the Confessors who freely acknowledged thee with the danger of their lives Great was thy glory which shone in their most exemplary holiness fortitude patience love unseigned both to friends and enemies and in that mighty power whereby they approved themselves as the Ministers of God Thanks be to thee O God the Lord of Heaven and Earth for the comfort of thy holy Scriptures wherein we read the story of our Saviours wondrous love and of that most miraculous power which appeared in him to testifie unto him and at last raised him from the dead and advanced him to the throne of Glory From whence he sent the Holy Ghost to endue his Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers with power from on high that they might be his Witnesses and commit that which they had received to faithful men who should be able to teach others also O God I cannot but again adore thy incomprehensible love which can never be sufficiently praised Who can understand the exceeding riches of thy grace that thou whose naked glory is too bright for our weak minds to fix their eyes upon wouldest be pleased in most admirable condescending love to manifest thy self and visit us in our flesh Thou art infinitely above the greatest of us who are far less worthy to approach thee than the lowest creature in this world is fit for our friendship and society So much the more marvellous is thy unheard of love that thou wouldest admit us to such a near relation unto thee So much the greater is our happiness that in Christ Jesus thou hast made thy self our portion and designed us to be eternally blessed with thee Great was his care and kindness all the days of his flesh towards the most miserable wretches who received the greatest tokens of his love I rejoyce now to think with what tenderness he received the poor fed the hungry visited the sick cured the diseased and when he had left the world communicated the same power unto others that they might exercise the same charity that he had done I see both the power and goodness of our Lord in all those works of wonder which he did I see that his mercy endureth for ever which hath preserved a faithful record of these things that we through patience and comfort of the holy Scriptures might have hope Now the God of all grace inspire me and all other Christian Souls with the same faith love and ardent zeal which was in those burning and shining Lights the Witnesses of Christ. That we may be followers of them as they were of him and acknowledging the same Lord being members of the same body partaking of the same Sacraments and living upon the same Heavenly food we may lead the same holy lives in hope to shine one day with them in the same celestial glory Help us to continue in the things which we have learnt and have been assured of knowing of whom we have learnt them that we may not at any time let them slip For how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him thou O God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to thine own will May we always carefully lay up and preserve these sacred truths in our heart which were in so glorious a manner delivered to us May they work there perpetually with great power and be reverenced as the holy Oracles of God! May they be the spring of all our motions throughout the whole course of our life That with an even steddy pace whatsoever dangers come in our way we may walk on towards that happy place where those holy ones rejoyce for ever with our Lord. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be given by us and by those glorified Spirits and by all the Angels in Heaven everlasting Praises Amen CHAP. IX The Vse we are to make of their Testimony IT is time now to bring this Discourse to an issue and having examined all these Divine Witnesses taken their proofs and depositions and found their testimony upon due enquiry to be good and legal to consider with our selves what we have to do and what judgment we will pass now that we have heard their evidence God the Father of all says that Jesus is his Son the Word himself appeared oft to justifie this Truth the Holy Ghost came down from Heaven to attest it the Prophet of the Highest proclaimed it the holy life of our
to lurk in the dark and put off their stuff when no body can see what it is who know it is deceitfully wrought and will not abide the light They do wisely and as cunning Merchants who make up in words and great assurances of their honesty what is wanting in the goodness of their wares But why we should have so little wit as to take their words who can tell We must answer for this folly no doubt to Almighty God who hath given us more understanding if we would use it and taught us by himself to call for good witnesses of that which is offered to us for a truth And the more strictly we examine these which S. John here alledges the better we shall be satisfied that they intend not to deceive us Which is a mark we should always have much in our eye when we are enquiring after Truth If the more we search consider and ponder the proofs which are brought the better they appear and the clearer they grow it is a very good sign there is nothing wanting to make it fully entertain'd but only longer thoughts and greater and more serious consideration As on the other hand we have great reason to suspect and turn away from that which the longer we weigh its proofs the lighter they seem and the propounders of them also begin to shift and shuffle till they have put all into a mist in which we can see nothing but that they are at a loss and are fain to puzzle us because they cannot clear that which they were about Thanks be to God there is nothing of this in the evidences we give for the true Christian Religion They are plain and perspicuous and show themselves in a greater brightness the more we look upon them and the better we are acquainted with them Search and try what has been said and the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ will shine with greater lustre in your eyes and you will confess with S. Peter 2 i. 3. that he hath called us to the knowledge of him by glory and vertue that is by a most amazing power of God which declared him to be his only Son our Lord. II. Let us therefore in the next place consider seriously how excellent and perfectly rational the Faith of Christians is There is nothing founded upon such Authority as our most holy Religion It is no childish silly thing to be a believer A man doth not betray his weakness and easie credulity when upon examination and search he suffers his Soul to be planted with these new Principles but demonstrates the strength the nobleness and ingenuity of his mind which can discern and judge aright for nothing can pretend to so much reason as they There are a vast heap of things which I could here accumulate beside those which I have treated of to make good this assertion But because the method of the Apostle which I have followed is so clear and easie and the Witnesses so full and pregnant that every one of them affords us many evidences I will content my self with a brief review of what hath been said Which will be sufficient to convince us that our Faith is the highest improvement of our Reason and doth not debase but clevate and raise our understanding upon the surest grounds of Divine demonstration For if you consider what Testimonials they brought along with them who have pretended to speak in God's name you will find there is nothing comparable to the Witness which God hath given of his Son No not in that Religion which was really founded by his Authority much less in that where there was only the Name of God pretended without any Power I. Mahomet I mean to begin first with the latter of these took upon him to be the Apostle and the Prophet of God greater not only than Moses but than Jesus himself And such was his confident brags of Revelations from God that among a company of wild Arabians whom Algazel acknowledges to have approached the nearest to Beasts of all other men He made some proselytes to his belief But what proof did he give that he was divinely sent Was it ever heard that God spake to him so much as once as he did often to our Saviour At what time or in what place and in whose audience did God say to him Thou art my Prophet When did a voice from Heaven come to any three or but one man and say This is the Apostle of God hear him It is a marvellous Providence of God that this Impostor who wanted no confidence should never adventure in all the relations he hath made of himself quite contrary to our Lord who wrote nothing of his own life but left all to his Disciples to tell any such story as this for his greater credit and glory among his followers We read indeed of some idle tales which he reports of an Angel speaking to him and of his ascension into Heaven I know not how many millions of miles But what witness was there of these things what was his name who saw the Angel appear to him or who stood by when he was transported and carried out of sight as he dreamed Or when and to whom did Moses or any one else appear and verifie it that he had been with them in glory If we must take his own word which is all we can hear of to vouch it then we must not refuse to believe every foolish fellow who has impudence enough to pretend to prophesie But what then will become of the faith of Mahomet himself if the sword were out of his hand Let us hear such a man as John the Baptist whose piety and vertue is attested by those who were no Friends of our Religion affirm that he heard and saw such things as he reports and we will be content to abate them the Apostles and such a multitude of people as heard God say he would Glorifie his Name in our Saviour And in what Glory hath that false Prophet appeared since he left the World Whose eyes hath he struck out with the brightness of his countenance Nay by whom hath he been so much as seen since he was buried I need not put the question about his Resurrection for they never pretended it Only the sottish people would not believe when he died that he was really dead but said he was taken up to Heaven as Jesus was And Omar one of his successors threatned death to them that should say he was dead for he was only gone away as Moses did into the Mount and would return again From whence perhaps arose that vulgar error among us that the Mahumedans expect the return of their Prophet * See Poceek in Gregor Abul Phar. p. 180. 264. But Abu Becri proved to them out of the Alcoran that He was to die as other Prophets before him and so appeased Omar and the multitude And was it ever heard that the Holy Ghost sell down upon him in a
when the Israelites bade him prove it But our Lord needed not to call for any Witness John the Baptist a great Prophet as they themselves allowed was ready of himself for it was his office to declare openly that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and abiding on him He saw and bare record that this is the Son of God as the Voice from Heaven in his audience also pronounced him Which a great many People if need were could afterward certifie who concluded that an Angel spake to him as you have heard from S. John's testimony .xii. 29. 2. Now if you proceed further and ask for some Witness of Moses his authority like to that of the WORD the second Witness to our Saviour who can hear any thing of it Do we ever read a word of Moses his appearing in such a Glory as our Lord Jesus did to his first Martyr S. Steven and to S. Paul and to his beloved Disciple Nay where are the Witnesses that say he was so much as transfigured when he was upon the Mount or doth he himself ever affirm it When was his Rayment made as white as Snow or where as I shall examine more hereafter was the bright cloud covering the Mount which was all cloathed with darkness we read indeed that when he came down his face shone but not in so bright and glorious a manner as our Saviour's did when he went up into the Holy Mount and especially after he ascended into Heaven Then S. Steven as I have said saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand an honour never given to any Angel in Heaven And the Apostle of the Gentiles saw him again in a light greater than that of the Sun at Noon-day And to S. John he appeared as the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS in such a Majesty as he was not able to bear but made him fall at his feet as dead He that weighs such things as these will see that all the glory of Moses to use S. Paul's words 2 Cor. iii. 10. was no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 3. Then if you look for the Testimony of the HOLY-GHOST I have already noted that it never came down upon him as it did upon the Founder of our Religion Much less did he send it upon some select Men after he was dead who should do as great wonders as himself And still much less did he bestow it upon all the People as our Lord did for a while upon all Believers There is not the smallest foot-step of any such Honour or Power that he had For He did not communicate a portion of his Spirit to the LXX Elders who were chosen to be his Assistants but the Lord said to him I will come down and take of the Spirit which is upon thee and put it upon them xi Num. 17. which words do not signifie it is true that he had less but only that they had more of the Spirit than before yet He did not so much as lay his hands upon them that they might receive it but God took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the LXX Elders even to those two who were not there present at the Tabernacle but remained still in the camp ver 25 26. 4. If you go therefore next to the Testimony of WATER how transparent is the Purity of our Saviours Doctrine above that of Moses Whose Laws though they contained nothing dishonest yet burdened the people to prevent a greater mischief of their running into Idolatry with a number of precepts which in themselves had no goodness at all to commend them Nay the Letter of the very moral Law laid restraints only upon the outward man so that they who were subject to it little regarded the purifying of their spirits from those irregular passions and naughty affections which our Lord expresly prohibits There were many things also indulged in those days which our Lord doth not allow Whose design was not only to purge the heart and make the spirit of men much better by all his precepts but to advance them to the noblest degree of purity and goodness Where do you read in the Books of Moses such precepts of meekness of mortifying fleshly lusts of kindness to all and tender compassion of trust in God of contentedness with the present and hope of his mercy in another world as are frequent and obvious in the Gospel of Christ Nay in what place of the Law do you find so much as one command or exhortation to Pray much less to Pray without ceasing and to Pray not for riches and victory over enemies and long life but for the Divine Grace and favour for the Holy Spirit for remission of sins and for Eternal Life And now I mention that word I cannot but desire you to consider how low and poor the Promises of Moses were compared with those of our Saviour who hath brought in a better Hope Of which they could see so little so dim was the light in the Law of Moses that a whole Sect of men who believed in him and received his Law cast away all hope of obtaining good things in another life and denied the Resurrection of the Dead And we must add to all this that Moses was but the Light of that one Nation whereas our Lord says more than once I am the Light of the WORLD viii John 12. ix 5. Moses washed the Bodies of the Jews but now the hearts of the unclean Gentiles are purified by Faith xv Acts 9. And if you enquire further into the purity of Moses his life you will find it was not without flaws and blemishes for he spake unadvisedly with his lips and could not bring the people to their rest But our Lord was perfectly free from all spot the Lamb of God without blemish who never spake the least word amiss no not in the midst of such torments as Moses never endured 5. For if you pass on to consider what sufferings and BLOUD testifie Alas what is the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats to the precious Bloud of Jesus Did Moses seal that Covenant of which he was the Minister or did he sprinkle the Book of the Covenant with his own bloud Did he purge away the sins of the people by himself as our Saviour we read did 1. Hebr. 3. or sanctifie them by the offering of his own body once for all as it is x. Hebr. 10 Did he die to bear Witness to the Truth or witness such a good confession before Pharaoh as Jesus before Pontius Pilate Was it ever heard that by the enduring of a shameful and cruel death he declared to all the certainty of his Prophecy Upon what Altar was he offered And for what cause did he become a sacrifice This was peculiar to Jesus to suffer such things as no man ever did and for this very cause because he said He was the Son of God 6.
to think their offences have made their enemy is a thing that can never be certainly resolved without a Revelation Without which also we can have little security of the immortality of our Souls and of the life to come Which hath inclined all Mankind to listen after a Revelation and to catch at any thing which pretends to come from God to them For as Plato acknowledges when he ordains there should be no alterations made in the ancient Customes about Sacrifices because it is not possible for mortal nature to know any thing of these matters without it No says he not long after in the same Book * In Epinom as no body shall ever perswade me that there is any greater Piety than true Vertue and as there is nothing more excellent can be taught than how those that honour Vertue should rightly worship God with Sacrifices and other rites of purifying So none can teach this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless God show him the way and be his Guide and Leader in so excellent a work But if we search into all the records that are in the World what is there that can stand in competition with the Christian way of worshipping God or pretend to come with such authority from him I have examined those that have most to say for themselves and they can produce no such WITNESSES as Christianity doth No not that ancient Revelation made by God to Moses As for the old Pagan ways which were very various I am ashamed to mention them It is manifest they suffered themselves to be cheated by impure Spirits and took the answers of Daemons for the Oracles of God But ask now of the days that are past which were before us since the day that God created Man upon the Earth and ask from the one side of Heaven unto the other whether there hath been any such thing as this great thing is or hath been heard like it that God indeed appeared among Men and was manifest in the flesh as is evident by all the signs and wonders and mighty deeds by voices from Heaven by his Resurrection from the dead and all the other Witnesses which have testified this truth to the world Ask again hath God ever assured Men of any thing by so many and such evident testimonies as those which I have produced Unto us it was shown that we might know that Jesus is the Lord and beside him there is no other if I may again allude to the words of Moses iv Deut. 34 35. out of Heaven he hath made us hear his voice that he might instruct us and upon Earth he hath shown us his great wonders that every tongue might confess Jesus is the Lord to the Glory of God the Father III. That now is the next thing I am to press as a necessary consequence of what hath been said in the foregoing Treatise Though there were such slender proofs in comparison with ours that God spake to Moses and though others as I said were drawn away by the subtilties of evil Angels yet they all believed and gave great reverence to that which was delivered to them Every Nation gladly received and held fast that which did but pretend to come from Heaven Which must needs extremely reproach us and put us to eternal shame if we having better evidences should not only be Believers but have a stronger faith in Jesus That which Plato thought was to be wisht for is now come to pass God is come to be our Guide and Director The very wisdome of the Father hath appeared to teach us He that made all the World is come down hither to reform us The WORD IS MADE FLESH that as he had Principalum in coelis to use the words of Irenaeus * L. 4. cap. 37. the Lordship in Heaven so he might have Principatum in terra the same Soveraignty upon Earth He hath appeared also in wonderful and astonisht brightness to convince us of his authority and to make us know assuredly that he is God blessed for ever Shall we not then hear his words shall we not deliver up our selves to receive his Heavenly instruction which came with such powerful demonstration God forbid that any of us should be so perverse as hearing such WITNESSES speak unto us for the Lord Jesus we should give no credit to them I cannot but believe as S. Austin * L. de vera Relig. cap. 3. excellently discourses that if Plato now lived and would vouchsafe to answer my Questions or rather if any Scholar of his being perswaded that truth is not to be seen with corporeal eyes but by a pure mind and that nothing hinders the sight more than a life addicted to lust and false Images of sensible things which impressed on us beget various errors and that therefore the mind is to be purified that it may behold that unchangeable beauty which is always the same and always like it self If I say a Scholar of his thus taught by him should ask him whether in case there should be a Man Great and Divine that should perswade the People at least to believe such things though they could not perceive them or if they did perceive them were so ingaged in vulgar errors that they durst not or could not oppose them He would not judge him worthy of Divine honour I believe he would Answer that this could not be done by Man unless perhaps the very power and wisdome of God should honour some person who was not taught of men but from the Cradle illuminated by the most intimate knowledge of things with so great a grace and strengthen him with such resolution and bear him up with such a majesty that contemning all things that evil Men desire and induring all things that they dread and doing all things that they admire he should convert Mankind with equal kindness and authority to so wholesome a Faith And he would add that it was to no purpose to ask him what the Honours are which ought to be given to such a person when it is easie to be discerned what honour is due to the wisdome of God by the guidance and governance of which he would singularly deserve of Mankind and do some thing for their Salvation proper only to himself and which was above Men to do Now if these things which I have supposed be really done if there be good records of them if from a Country in which alone One God was worshipped and where such a person was to be born there came chosen men who by their Vertues and their Sermons have kindled in Mens breasts the flame of the Divine love and have left the inlightned Earth under a most wholesome Discipline if every where it is preached that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God if to the perceiving and embracing this that the Soul may be cured and recover strength to entertain so great a light the covetous hear such
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
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
The testimony of worthy men as the Apostle here observes is readily received by us and therefore we ought to be afraid of being so rudely prophane as to reject the testimony of God which is of far greater weight then theirs and hath been solemnly given you see more then once for the confirmation of our Faith But God the Father willing more abundantly to shew if I may borrow those words in vi Heb. 17. unto the heirs of this promise the immutability of his counsel hath graciously vouchsafed us farther assurance and by his WORD hath told us as much as He himself declared by those voices from heaven What we are to understand by the WORD in this place I have shewn in the Former Treatise viz. the Lord Jesus himself God Man or God the WORD made flesh Orat. contra Gentes p. 49. who as St. Athanasius speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter and Embassadour of his own Father For as by the word a man speaks we understand his Mind which is the fountain from whence it comes so but by a more lively representation and after an incomparably more excellent manner we beholding the power of the WORD come to the knowledge of his Father as our Saviour himself saith xiv Joh. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also From him this Eternall WORD came down and was incarnate not onely to reveal his will but to die for our Sins and to seal what he had preached with his Bloud After which God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavens from whence he testified as loudly that he hath in him ETERNALL LIFE for us as he did that he is the SON OF GOD. This Witness therefore let us now examine and look over again the old Evidences which we formerly searched wherein I doubt not we shall find this Truth most clearly contained And the Testimony of the WORD you know as well as that of the FATHER was threefold once to St. Stephen a second time to St. Paul and a third to this beloved Disciple St. John I. For the First of these it stands upon record in so many words that St. Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up stedfastly to heaven saw the heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand vii Act. 55 56. Thus he declares not to some simple people who perhaps might believe him for his confidence but to the great Councill of Jerusalem who he knew were very much disaffected nay perfectly opposite to this truth To them he protests in open Court when he was upon his triall and bids them mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold take notice of what I now tell you I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And he said it though he knew he stood in certain perill of his life for this declaration It was for no other reason that Jesus himself was put to death but because he said He was the Son of God and that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven And therefore for him to confirm so peremptorily this odious Truth after they had killed Him and thereby make them guilty of innocent bloud yea of the bloud of their great King was a Crime he might well expect they would punish with as great severity as was in their power to express which we may be confident he would never have provoked had he not been so sure of the Glory of our Saviour that he could not hold his peace For who is there so frantick as to expose himself to death for such an unprofitable lie It is not in the nature of man to suffer so shamefully as he did in his own person merely to bring a little false honour to another To fansy a person of his Wisedom guilty of such madness is a kind of distraction in him that supposes it who were he sober would be taught otherwise by the abhorrence he feels in himself to throw away his life for a trifle Since there is not the least reason then to question but that this Holy man beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand i. e. the gates of Heaven being set open that he might have the favour to look into the celestiall palace the Majesty of God was there represented to him sitting on a Throne as it used to be in the propheticall Visions and he beheld the Lord Jesus the very next person to the Divine Majesty we may clearly see in this Vision both the things that St. John here asserts viz. that Eternall Life is in Jesus the Son of God to give to those that effectually believe on his Name I. As for the first the power wherewith he is invested to give Eternall LIFE it is visible from his standing at God's right hand which denotes his Omnipotent Virtue to effect what he pleases For by the right hand of God Jesus himself was exalted to the right hand of power as you reade ii Act. 33. v. 31. and therefore being placed there it signifies that he can doe for us what God hath done for him that is exalt us to the like glory in the heavens where he is And as this is a clear proof of one of the things here recorded that LIFE is in him so the other II. That God hath given the faithfull a right to this Eternall LIFE with him and that he will bestow it on us is no less evident from the very End of this Vision For we can see no other reason of this glorious appearance of our Saviour to him but to incourage him in his preaching and incite him to witness a good confession as he himself had done before this great Councill and before Pontius Pilate in hope that if it cost him his life as it had done our Saviour he should live and reign with him in that glorious place where he now beheld him This was the purpose of the heavenly WORD 's coming now to him that he might not doubt of his promises nor shrink in the least from what he had preached though he should die for it which would doe him no greater harm then to dispatch him presently to the celestiall habitations In the very beginning of his history we reade that he had no sooner heard the Indictment read which they had drawn up against him but before he spake a word for himself the whole Council behold his face as it had been the face of an Angel vi Act. 15. There appeared that is such a bright and sweet Majesty in his countenance as made him look like one of the celestial inhabitants who had already prevented the glorious state to which he was going And his Answer to their charge being ended their barbarous rage was not more apparent then it was that the heavens opened to receive his Spirit
us for arrant fools Do you think we are mere Mushromes that our brains are made of a sponge or our heads stuft with wet straw What do you make of us or what have we done that argues us to be such blocks and trunks as you suppose us And yet such was the constant preaching of our ever-Blessed Saviour that if he had not made his promises as plain and certain as his commands he would have been liable to such language For he calls men as you reade in that Parable xx Matth. to a laborious life of piety From the beginning of his preaching to the end of it he had no other design Early in the morning vers 1. when he first appeared in the world he went out and what was it to doe but to hire labourers into his vineyard At the third hour he went out again and said to those whom he found idle Go ye also into the vineyard vers 4. At the sixth and the ninth hour of his life he still followed the same business At the eleventh also vers 6. he finds other loiterers and says to them also Why stand you here all the day idle Would they have moved from their place think you if he had not agreed with them to pay them for their pains Would they have returned no other answer but that No man hath hired us and not have also added What will you give us what shall we gain by our labour had he not satisfied them about that matter If there had been no wages to be expected they had better have stood idle still or have staid for some other Master Had it not been evident that the Lord of the vineyard was a wealthy person able to give every man his peny i. e. a reward for his service he might have called long enough and seen his ground all overrun with briars and thorns before he had procured any labourers to go into it Certainly if we will but allow our Saviour to have been a person of ordinary reason and common capacity we cannot imagine he would have endured so long toil and travell and walkt all the countrey of Judaea over to win proselytes to him if he had not made it as visible that he would bring men to the blessed sight of God in eternall rest and peace as it was that he called them to a God-like life of piety righteousness and true holiness during their stay in this present world We must depress him into the rank of the most witless men or else believe that He who required so much work from his servants demonstrated he was a good Master rich and furnished with the most ample rewards And therefore 3. we may well believe that He came with such Testimonies from above from the Father and from the Holy Ghost and intended Himself to appear from heaven as the Authour of Eternall Life without which he could not have gone about to establish such a Doctrine or if he had would not have succeeded One of these Witnesses exceedingly justify the other and are not to be divided We have reason to think a person of his Understanding who spake as never man spake his very enemies being judges would not have attempted the settlement of such a strict rule of life as his Doctrine contains without such countenance from Heaven as I have mentioned to perswade the world that he would lead them thither Though I must add 4. that the strict purity and holiness of his Doctrine singly considered is of great weight and moment to perswade us that ETERNALL LIFE is in him because this is a part nay a principall part of his Doctrine Which He who in all other things that he said was unreprovable would not have affirmed so expresly and constantly if he had not been fully assured it was true Do but observe how this Doctrine is constantly intermixed with all his Sermons It is the very strain of his Preaching that if any man would follow him and doe as he did he should find rest for his Soul and that God the Father of all would honour those who did him service xii Joh. 26. This he proclaims in the plainest terms and the clearest manner viii Joh. 12. I am the Light of the World Illuminator Deductor humani generis as Tertullian excellently expresses it * Apolog. cap. xxi the Inlightner and the Conducter or guide of mankind He that follows me shall have the light of life the wisedom that is which shall lead him to immortall blifs And to make this more manifest let it be noted 1. how he proclaims this to every man iii. Joh. 15 16. that the Son of man must die that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life For God so loved the world that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And 2. he asserts it with the greatest earnestness with the strongest and most vehement asseverations vi Joh. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life He tells them also 3. with the same assurance that God had sealed him for this purpose or set a plain mark upon him whereby all might see that he was to be the Authour of everlasting life vi Joh. 27. And observe 4. that having told them it was visible if they pleased to open their eyes that God the Father had designed him to give them immortall satisfaction he repeats this Doctrine a great many times in that Chapter vers 33 35 39 40 47 48 51 54 57. Insomuch that St. Peter concludes at the latter end of that Sermon there was no Master comparable to him who had the words of eternall life ver 68. And it is farther observable that he affirms 5. he came to bring his followers to the greatest happiness x. Joh. 10. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly And 6. that he tells them again he came to publish this glad tidings by the appointment of the Father xii Joh. 50. I know that his commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 7. that he affirms he hath power to make good what he promises x. Joh. 28. And I give unto them eternall life and they shall not perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand xvii 1 2. Glorify thy Son as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him And lastly he tells them that he was such a person as might well be credited in all this since he came down from heaven and was at that moment in heaven iii. Joh. 13. Which he repeats again viii 23. I am from above I am not of this world and ver 38. I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ver 42. I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of
my self but he sent me For which reason he doth not discourse of immortall life as a Philosopher going about to prove it by reasons and arguments but onely asserts it as one that had Divine Authority for which he was to be believed and could himself make men eternally happy This was the onely thing that could be disputed and needed proof that he came from heaven to illuminate the world by his instructions And this he did not desire they should take upon his bare word but abundantly demonstrated it and told them ver 28. that after his death they should still see it made more evident that he did nothing of himself but as the Father had taught him he spake these things For then as you shall see in due place God the Father declared all these words to be true by raising him from the dead These things he said so often so openly so confidently and with such appeals to God who bare him witness as you have heard and never in the least contradicted what he said that we have great reason to believe he did not forge all this but delivered the mind and will of God as sincerely when he said he would give men Eternall Life as he did when he charged them to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Certain it is that He himself believed what he preached and had no doubt but a perfect assurance of it as will appear if we pass to the Second thing which we are briefly to consider II. His own most holy Life in the strictest obedience to God the Father This Abarbinell in his discourse upon xi Isa which I have so often mentioned makes one of the marks of the Messiah the perfect temper of his desires and affections and the direction of them according to the measures of the Divine Law Which he thinks is the meaning of those words ver 3. He shall be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. This was so remarkable in Jesus who was so truly so compleatly and constantly pious that there never was any person so qualified to lay claim to this Dignity as he was His Life was so free from all blame such a perfect abstinence from all the pleasures of this world such a contempt of all that which we think most worthy of our indefatigable labours that it hath a strong force in it to perswade us that he indeed sought Eternall Glory and was fully assured he should be possessed of it for Himself and for all His. Who but a man so perswaded of his Doctrine would have lived in poverty when he might no question by the multitude and devotion of his followers have made himself incredibly rich What should incline him to remain all his days without an house so big as a fox or the smallest bird is owner of but an expectation of that house which is eternall in the heavens Could any thing move him to give away to the poor all that was given him but a certain knowledge of great treasures above We cannot conceive what should make him refuse the dignity of a King when the people intended to proclaim him if it were not this undoubted perswasion that he was the King of Heaven and should sit down at the right hand of the Throne of God Would any of those that doubt this labour as he did night and day for nothing Would any poor man cure multitudes of all diseases and take not a farthing for his pains Would any body live if he could help it and not know where he should eat the next meal's meat And who is he that can find in his heart to endure the hatred of the chiefest of the people and to be in perpetuall danger of snares and treacherous designs for the taking away his life without any hope to be a gainer by it Is there any likelihood that our Lord would have laboured in such sort as not to have leisure so much as to eat and after all that kind pains be content to be called Deceiver and Devill and to run the hazzard of being stoned and killed and yet have no assured expectation to reap some fruit hereafter from all his toil and trouble Let him believe it that loves to sting his fingers with nettles or to roll his naked body in snow we that have a more tender sense of our own pleasure must have leave to be of another mind Let any man try to perswade himself to lead such a life and by his unwillingness he will easily be convinced that our Lord who could look for nothing in this world from what he did and suffered would never have so chearfully freely and without any regret followed such a course had he not known as surely that he should be made glorious thereby hereafter as he knew that he must be made miserable by it here Ask his Poverty then and that will bear witness that he laid up treasures in the heavens Ask his Humility and that will tell you that he sought for the Glory of God onely Inquire of his Charity and Bounty his wonderfull bounty to all men and that will bear Record both that all fulness is in him and that he will not envy any thing he hath to his followers Let his Contentedness speak and that will assure you he was possessed of something greater then all worldly goods which he could tell better how to live without then others to live comfortably withall Examine his Labours and pains his travells and journeys trace his steps over sea and land and they will all confess that he sought a better Country which is an heavenly Ask him what he meant by his Patience his willing endurance of all reproaches calumnies hatreds persecutions and they will likewise conclude in the same testimony that he had a joy set before him which made him despise them all In short consult his Fasting forty days his enduring so many temptations of the Devill slighting his offers rejecting his counsels and you can have no account of them but this that he had indeed the meat that endures to everlasting life that he verily believed the voice from heaven which said he was the Son of God and that he knew he had a greater Glory then all the Kingdoms of the world which the Devill offered him And after all this I suppose there is no considering man but will think the unquestionable belief of such a person as he was to be of very great moment to settle ours in this weighty business It is safest for us without all dispute to follow the judgment of one so well able to discern truth from falshood that he was of as quick understanding in all things else as he was in the fear of the Lord. We have great reason to think that he was in the right and was no more deluded himself then he intended to delude others There was not the least flaw as I shewed in the former Treatise that appeared in his Understanding nor could
5. is most lively represented there But this is not all that is intended by it for even those * Arias Montanus who in that sense were already mortified and renewed by receiving the Holy Ghost before their baptism as Cornelius and his family proceeded notwithstanding to receive that holy washing and by their submersion took upon them the likeness of the dead and by their emersion appeared as men risen again from the dead If there were no other death to be escaped but that in sin and no other resurrection to be expected but that to newness of life why were they who had attained these baptized as dead men and being already dead to sin why again sustained they the image of death out of which they believed and professed they should come This very action of theirs proves that they lookt for another resurrection after death which is the resurrection of the body And this profession of theirs was so much the more weighty as they were the more learned and instructed being already taught by the Holy Ghost By whose power they were already dead to sin and made alive to God and by whose instruction they professed to believe that as there is another death viz. that of the body so they should overcome it by the mighty power of Christ raising their very bodies from the dead There are severall other interpretations of this place as that of Epiphanius * Haeresi 38. who expounds it of those who received Baptism at the point of death but I shall not trouble the Reader with them because they all conclude the same thing that Baptism was a publick profession of the hope of immortality and a Seal also of the promises of God not onely to that particular person who at any time received it but to the whole Church both to the living and the dead Who as oft as Baptism was repeated had an open assurance given them from God by whose authority it was administred that they should rise again to everlasting life And so I shall dismiss this First Witness on Earth which is the more to be regarded because though it be not so great in it self as those which speak from heaven yet to us it is very considerable and cannot be denied by those who cavill at some of the other For all men acknowledge the Life and Doctrine of our Saviour to be incomparably excellent and John the Baptist stands upon record in Josephus for a person of severe and strict sanctity and the whole Christian Church who were not so childish as to build their hope on a sandy foundation but stood immovable as you shall hear like a house upon a rock when all the world storm'd and made the most furious assaults upon them believed thus from the beginning as appears by their holy profession which they made when they entred into the gates of the Church by Baptism The mighty power of which WATER OF LIFE they have thus celebrated with their praises Greg. Naz. Orat. xl Baptism is the Splendour of the Soul the Change of the life the Answer of the Conscience towards God It is the help of our weakness the putting off the flesh the attainment of the Spirit the Communion of the Word the Reformation of God's workmanship the drowning of Sin the participation of light and the destruction of darkness It is the Chariot which carries us to God our fellow-travelling with Christ the establishment of our faith the perfecting of our minds the key of the Kingdom of heaven the foundation of a second life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. xi At this the heavens rejoyce this the Angels magnify as of kin to their brightness this is the Image of their blessedness We would willingly praise this if we could say any thing worthy of it Let us never cease however to give him thanks who is the Authour of such a gift Greg. Nyssen L. de Baptismo Christi returning him the small tribute of a chearfull voice for such great things as he hath bestowed on us For thou truly O Lord art the pure and perpetuall fountain of Goodness who wast justly offended at us but hast in much love had mercy on us who hatedst us but art reconciled to us who pronouncedst a curse upon us but hast given us thy blessing who didst expell us from Paradise but hast called us back again unto it Thou hast taken away the fig-leaf covering of our nakedness and cloathed us with a most precious garment Thou hast opened the prison-doors and dismissed those that stood condemned Thou hast sprinkled us with pure water and cleansed us from all our filthiness Adam if thou callest him will be no longer ashamed he will not hide himself nor run away from thee The flaming sword doth not now incircle Paradise making it inaccessible to those that approach it but all things are turned into joy to us who were heirs of sin and death Paradise and Heaven it self is now open to mankind The Creation both here and above consents to be friends after a long enmity Men and Angels are piously agreed in the same Theology For all which Blessings let us unanimously sing that Hymn of joy which the inspired mouth in ancient times loudly prophesied I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyfull in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness he hath decked me with ornaments as a bridegroom and as a bride adorned me with jewels lxi Isa 10. This adorner of the Bride is Christ who is and who was before and who will be blessed both now and for ever Amen CHAP. X. Concerning the Testimony of the BLOVD the Second Witness on Earth THE next Witness which comes in order to be examined is the BLOUD by which I told you we are to understand the Crucifixion and Death of the Lord Jesus with all the attendants of it This is a Witness which the greatest enemies of Christianity cannot but confess was heard to speak in his behalf The stubborn Jews who will be loth to grant that a voice from heaven declared him the Son of God cannot deny that their forefathers imbrued their hands in his bloud For in the Babylonian Talmud * Vid. Horae Hebr. in Matt. p. 3â—9 Tzemach David ad an 3761. it is delivered as a tradition among them that they hanged Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Passeover and that a Crier went before him forty days saying He is to be carried forth to be stoned for conjuring and drawing Israel to Apostasy If any one can speak any thing for him to prove him innocent let him appear It is an hard matter to have any truth from these fabulous people without the mixture of a tale together with it When they cannot gainsay what we believe that their Nation were the great Instruments of his death they endeavour to find false reasons
from the Messiah should begin to raise the dead when he went to take possession of his throne A plain sign that he is the Resurrection and the Life from whom we may confidently look for bodies not onely bright as the Moon but that shall shine according to his faithfull promise like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father Concerning which things if the Apostles had written false and there had not been many able to bear record of the rising of these holy persons and coming into Jerusalem as well as of the rising of Lazarus there would have been pens enough in those days imployed to confute them and proclaim the forgery And these Jews would have been as carefull preservers of such confutations as of any their most beloved Traditions which can never doe them so much service as those volumes would have done VI. Nor is there the least shadow of reason to question the Testimony of those who saw him ascend into heaven and as a token of his being inthroned there received from him ten days after the gift of the Holy Ghost Which compleated the demonstration of his power and purpose to give Eternall Life to all his followers For 1. His very Ascension into heaven as it breeds in us a belief of a glorious state in the other World so it evidently shews that it is possible such as we may be translated thither And though our Bodies now be but lumps of living clay yet they may one day be snatched as he was from this dull globe to shine among the Stars And the Angels also appearing both at his resurrection and ascension and waiting upon him unto heaven shew that its gates are no longer barred against us but set open again to give us a free admission into it For they who were set to watch the way to Paradise and guard it so that none should enter voluntarily lent their assistence to transport Him thither after they had brought the joyfull news of his being risen from the dead 2. But this is the least comfort we receive from thence for his glorification at God's right hand when he came thither advances our hope to a greater height and shews that it is not onely possible but certain we shall be taken up above to be with him His Kingdom it is apparent now by his sending the Holy Ghost is supereminent over all and nothing can be out of the reach of his power For it is a power over all Creatures in heaven and earth and under the earth who doe obeisance to him and cannot resist him ii Phil. 10. 1 Pet. iii. ult And a power to doe all things for God hath put all things under his feet 1 Cor. xv 27. A power of conferring all dignities and honours iii. Phil. 21. and of removing all impediments to our preferment He having the keys of hell and death i. Rev. 18. In short a perfect power to doe all things to make us glorious For in that he put all in subjection under him he left nothing that is not put under him as the Apostle argues ii Heb. 8. And though he hath not yet exercised his whole unlimited power as it there follows yet we are sure he hath it because we see by manifest arguments Jesus crowned with glory and honour for the suffering of death By which the all-wise God thought fit to consecrate this Captain of Salvation who he designed should bring many Sons unto glory together with himself 3. Which He will not fail to doe we may be sure being thus perfected and compleatly furnished for the very purpose because this Royall power wherewith he is invested is a kind of Trust and he hath received it as St. Paul plainly supposes 1 Cor. xv 24 25 c. where he speaks of his Kingdom not onely for himself but for the good of all those whom he rules and governs For the Apostle concludes that he having a Kingdom which must at last be resigned into the hands of God the Father will first put down all rule all authority and power and leave no enemy unconquered no not Death which will onely be the last that shall be subdued but subdued and destroyed it must be ver 26 27. Nay our Lord himself acknowledges his Kingdome to be a trust when he says xvii Joh. 2. Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him Whence it is that he often protests it is his Father's will that of all he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day c. vi Joh. 39 40. For as the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me ver 57. And in express terms he saith as I have shewn before that he went away to prepare a place for us And therefore is bound by his office we may conclude to promote us to that glory and honour in the heavens which it is his Father's will he knows should be bestowed on us 4. And who can doubt at all of his fidelity in this who was so faithfull in all other things most punctually for instance making good his promise of sending the Holy Ghost as an earnest I have often said of this immortall inheritance None can imagine he will now prove negligent in that which by his place he stands ingaged to perform when upon Earth he did the will of him that sent him with such exactness that he rewarded him for it with that high dignity which he now enjoys in the heavens Therefore his greatest care was to assert and prove his power to give Eternall Life Of his will he thought there need not much be said for none could doubt of it after they saw him die for them and then express such love after his resurrection as to send the Holy Ghost upon them 5. This is abundantly sufficient to secure all considering persons of so desirable a Good Which the Apostles began confidently to expect as soon as ever they were satisfied of the resurrection of our Lord from the dead Before he ascended to heaven their thoughts ran thither and they began to see that he was the Lord of life and glory For as soon as St. Thomas was convinced by a palpable demonstration that he was risen he cried out My Lord and my God xx Joh. 28. This is the first time that any of his Apostles gave him the title of their GOD when they were fully satisfied as Grotius observes by his Resurrection that he would give Eternall Life to them And then it was also you may note that he first gave them the title of his Brethren who should share with him in the glory to which he was going xx Joh. 17. xxviii Matth. 10. Go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee c. In which words he alludes as Eusebius observes to those xxii Psal 22. I will declare thy name unto my
godliness Rom. vi Col. iii. which they supposed all Christians had already felt these men fansied there was no other affirming the resurrection was past and none to come If they had onely doubted of it the Apostle it is like would not have so sharply punished them no more then he did the Corinthians But they blasphemed as he expresly tells us of Hymeneus 1 Tim. i. 20. that is reproached this Doctrine as a foolish opinion and reviled it is like the Apostles who were the preachers of it And therefore he inflicted on them the most grievous punishment by delivering them up to Satan which was not so little as merely banishing them the Christian Society but turning them over to the power of the Devill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as unto a publick Executioner to torture and scourge them They are the words of St. Basil * Homil. in princip Proverb p. 439. with whom agree divers others of the ancient Doctours who think the Apostle speaks of surrendring such persons into his hands that he might inflict bodily diseases or pains upon them to humble and bring them down to submit to the Apostolicall doctrine when they felt the miraculous effects of their Authority For that 's the reason this punishment is called delivering up to Satan because it visibly appeared by some plagues on the body that they were faln under his power by being thrown out of the Church He was as a common Galoer and Executioner in a City or Kingdome the Apostles as the Magistrates and Governours as was said before sitting upon thrones to judge and pass sentence on men either by giving the Holy Ghost to those who sincerely believed or by delivering those to be tormented and set on the rack by this Evill spirit who blasphemed the Christian Religion There was then no other power in the Church to correct and punish them for so high a crime and this being done by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ as you reade 1 Cor. v. 4. was a notable testimony of the SPIRIT to the truth of Christianity and bad all men beware how they spake evill of this holy Doctrine especially of this fundamentall part of it that the Lord Jesus will give us everlasting life and raise us up at the last day The terrible execution which they saw done upon those who subverted this foundation of all piety was a great means to confirm all Christian people in the faith and to make them reverence those who had this mighty power either to give men ease or to torment them to restore men to life or to strike them dead to give them as was said before the gifts of the Holy Ghost or to put them into the possession of the Devill There is a great deal of difference it is observed by Tertullian * L. de Pudicitia c. xiii between an Angel of Satan sent to buffet a man and being delivered up or put into the possession of Satan himself To the former St. Paul himself was by the Divine permission obnoxious for his exercise 2 Cor. xii 7. The latter was the punishment of blasphemers and other horrid offenders for their cure But both served to give a testimony to our Saviour and to settle the hope of immortall Life For by the Angel of Satan which buffeted that is disgraced and vexed St. Paul a great many ancient Writers * S. Chrysostom Theodorer Photius apud Oecumen Ambros Theophylact understand those troubles and sore afflictions all sorts of injuries and reproaches which infidels and wicked men by the instinct of some of the Devil's agents tormented the Apostle withall Alexander the Coppersmith saith St. Chrysostom who did St. Paul so much mischief Hymeneus and Philetus all those that set themselves against the Gospell cast him into prison beat him drove him out of their cities were Ministers of Satan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they did Satan's business who by such instruments laboured all he could to dishearten the Apostles and hinder the free course of the Gospell Here now appeared the mighty power of Christ which rested as the Apostle speaks or took up its dwelling in them 2 Cor. xii 9. They were never so strong as when they were thus afflicted Then they mightily prevailed and advanced the Kingdom of Christ by whose powerfull grace they endured all hardships and distresses courageously and demonstrated they had a strong and immovable hope of being with him in that blessed place unto which St. Paul was rapt just before this Messenger of Satan as we render it raised such a terrible storm of persecution against him By that glorious sight he was fortified against it and standing as firm as a rock himself confirmed others in that faith which made him so invincible that he gloried and took pleasure in all those infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses which that Angel of Satan stirred up against him ver 9 10. That was all the Devill got by his ill usage of him which onely gave the Apostle matter of glory For when our Saviour pleased not to grant his desire of having this Angel removed but onely told him his grace should be sufficient for him immediately he adds that he would gladly glory more then ever in his afflictions Which plainly shews both what he meant by that Angel of Satan and how much hereby the Christian Religion was promoted and the Souls of believers strengthened in the faith They might easily believe he had been in the third heavens when they saw him so much superiour to all the power on earth and the powers of the air too who conspired to beat him down and oppress him All the art in the world could not so declare the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unutterable words St. Paul heard which the impious Cainites and Gnosticks * Epiphan Haeres xxxviii in a Book of theirs called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning St. Paul's ascent pretended to relate as this inexpressible power of Christ residing in him and supporting him under the greatest miseries which declared those words remained still imprinted in his Mind And that other power of Christ whereby the Apostle delivered up high offenders to Satan that he might inflict plagues and diseases or aches and pains on their bodies as evidently shewed what a great Minister he was in Christ's Kingdom and how credible the Doctrine was which he preached to them For he was ready to revenge all disobedience with remarkable punishments and alledges this power as a proof of his authority in the next Chapter 2 Cor. xiii 2 3 4. If I come again I will not spare since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me He is not weak indeed towards you but is mighty in you having given by me exceeding great demonstrations of his power and my Apostleship xii 12. Yet since you are not convinced it seems by what you have seen already and desire a farther proof that Christ speaks in me you shall
in heaven binding whom it would and loosing there according to the power given him As a lion let loose among a company of foxes so did he fall upon the societies of Daemons and Philosophers and like a thunderbolt struck through all the armies of the Devill who was so afraid of him that he trembled at his shadow and ran away if he did but hear his voice He delivered the incestuous Corinthian to him being far distant from the place and again he snatcht him out of his hands being perfectly acquainted with his devices And in like manner he taught others by the same severity not to blaspheme But let us not content our selves merely to admire him let us not onely be astonisht at him let us imitate and follow him What though we cannot doe such miracles as the Apostles did and there is no hunger and other miseries to be endured the times being peaceable and quiet God be blessed yet there is their piety and the holiness of their life to be transcribed which was no less admirable And this is the noblest conflict this is the syllogism which cannot be contradicted this by our Works Should we discourse never so excellently but live no better then others we gain nothing For unbelievers do not mind what we say but what we doe saying Do thou first of all follow thine own words and then perswade others For if thou tellest us of millions of good things in the other world but art so intent upon the things of this as if there were no other we believe thy works rather then thy words For when we see thee greedy to snatch other mens goods bitterly bewailing thy friends deceased and in many other things offending how shall we believe thee that there is a Resurrection Thus unbelievers are hindred from being Christians And therefore having seen how glorious our Saviour is Id. Homil. xii in Johan being instructed in his Religion and made partakers of so great a gift let us lead a life agreeable to our principles that so we may injoy those good things which Christ hath promised For He therefore appeared not onely that his Disciples might behold his glory in this world as they say they did i. Joh. 14. but also in the world to come For I will saith he that where I am they may be and see my glory And if he appeared so illustriously here what shall we say of his glory there O happy thrice happy they more happy then can be expressed who shall be thought worthy of that glory Which if we should be so unhappy as not to see better had it been for us if we never had been born To what purpose do we live and breath what are we if we miss of that Light if we may not be permitted then to see our Lord and Master If those who enjoy not the light of the Sun lead a life more bitter then death how miserable will their condition be who are deprived of that light This loss will be punishment sufficient though this is not all they must expect For being banished from this Light they shall not onely be cast into outer darkness but there burn perpetually and miserably consume and gnash their teeth and suffer a thousand other miseries Let us awake therefore let us look about us let us use our utmost endeavours that we may enjoy the happiness Christ designs for us and be far remote from the river of fire which runs with great noise before the dreadful tribunall Into that if we fall there is no redemption And therefore let us purify our life let us make it bright and shining so that we may have boldness of access to the blessed sight of our Lord and obtain the promised good things through the grace and loving-kindness of Christ Jesus by whom and with whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory world without end Amen CHAP. XIII The Vse we are to make of this RECORD I. AND in the very entrance of so pious a design to improve the great grace which Heaven hath bestowed on us it becomes us to stand amazed at the transcendent love of God our Saviour who not contenting himself to have thoughts and intentions of good towards such wretched Sinners hath been pleased to make us a gracious promise that he will bless us and to acquaint us by no less Messenger then his own Eternall Son appearing from heaven in our flesh with the secret purposes of his heart to give us the greatest Blessedness There is nothing so astonishing as this whether we consider the incomparable excellency of the Good he designs us or the favour he hath done us in revealing it to us or the glory of that person by whom he reveals it or the certainty we have that this is a true report that God hath given to us Eternall Life and this Life is in his Son O most joyfull news shall we poor mortalls live for ever and live there where Jesus is May such as we presume to expect such glory honour and immortality as he hath brought to light by his Gospell O wonderfull love which might have concealed its kindness and yet eternally obliged us It had been enough if we had got to heaven without knowing before-hand we should be so happy Why should such offenders injoy the comfort of hoping for so great a Happiness while we are here in these earthly prisons Might we not have been well contented to creep upon our hands and knees to so high a glory Had we not been fairly used if with our heads hanging down and not daring so much as to lift up our eyes to that holy place we had travelled through this world and at last found our selves beyond all expectation at rest with Jesus But O the love of God which hath bid us hold up our heads and look above and behold our Lord in his glory and hope well yea be confident that he hath seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus We are indebted to him beyond all thoughts for promising us so freely out of his exceeding great love and giving us so evident a right to such glory and honour as our own unworthiness and guilt forbad us to promise our selves or to have the least expectance of And what is it that he hath so freely promised To look into that high and holy place where he is at some distance to behold his glory to have an Angel come sometimes to visit us and bring us some message from him in some of the suburbs of heaven And a great favour too I assure you A very singular kindness it ought to be esteemed if we vile wretches may be permitted to be so happy as but to come near the gates of the celestiall palace Well would it be for us to come but within the sound of those melodious hymns which the heavenly host continually sing or to live but in some of the most remote corners of that heavenly countrey and there enjoy for
in the city and Gabriel to Mary and Elizabeth and Anna and Symeon to those in the Temple Nor were men and women onely transported with the pleasure but an infant that had not seen the light leapt in its mother's womb and all were strangely lifted up in hopes of what was a-coming These things all fell out straightway after his birth But when he appeared in the World there were more Miracles and greater then the former appeared again For not so little as a Star and the Heavens not Angels or Archangels not Gabriel or Michael but the Father himself proclaimed him from heaven and with the Father the Comforter came down with a voice and remained on him And therefore well might the Apostle say We have seen his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father And not by these things alone but by those which followed after For now not merely Shepherds and an aged Prophetess and reverend men published the glad tidings of the Gospell but the voice it self of the things he did louder then the sound of any trumpet which was heard presently every-where For the fame of him saith the Evangelist went into all Syria and revealed him to all and cried every-where that the King of heaven was come to men For Daemons every-where fled and got away and the Devill departed and Death began to give place and not long after quite vanished and all manner of infirmities were loosed and the tombs dismissed the dead the Daemons left those that were mad and Diseases those that were sick Wonderfull and strange things were to be seen which the Prophets desired to see and did not For one might have seen eyes new made paralytick lims strengthened motion given to withered hands and lame feet ears that were stopt up opened and the tongues of the dumb loosed In one word like an excellent workman that comes into an house which is decayed and rotten by time he repaired or re-built rather humane Nature For who can tell how he made the Souls of men new which is a greater wonder then all the rest For the wills of men oppose their cure which the body doth not They will not yield we see no not to God himself And yet these were reformed by him and all kind of wickedness expelled Nor were they onely freed from Sin but like the bodies to which he gave the best habit after he had cured their diseases they were advanced to the highest degree of vertue A Publican became an Apostle A persecutour a blasphemer a reproacher of Christianity turned the Preacher of the Word A thief was made a Citizen of Paradise and a strumpet became illustrious by a great faith And abundance of others worse then these were listed in the number of the Disciples till whole cities and countries were strangely reformed by the Gospell Who is able to declare the wisedom of his Precepts the vertue of his heavenly Laws the excellent order of his Angelicall Conversation For he hath taught us such a life he hath given us such laws and instituted such a polity that they who use them though before the worst of men straightway become Angels and like to God according to our power The Evangelist therefore recollecting all these things the Miracles he wrought upon mens bodies upon their Souls and upon the elements the Precepts the secret Gifts the Laws the Polity the power of perswasion the future Promises his Sufferings he pronounced this wonderfull lofty voice We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth For they did not admire him onely for his Miracles but for his Sufferings As for example because he was nailed to a Cross and scourged because he was beaten because he was spit upon because those buffeted him to whom he had been a benefactour upon the account even of these which seem most shamefull that voice is worthy to be repeated again because he himself hath called this a Glory For then Death was destroyed the Curse was dissolved Daemons were put to shame and he triumphed over them openly and the hand-writing of sins or obligation to punishment was nailed to the Cross and cancelled And besides these wonders which were invisible there were others apparent unto all which shewed he was the onely-begotten Son of God and the Lord of all the Creation For while his blessed body yet hung upon the Cross the Sun withdrew its beams the earth was astonished and wrapt in darkness the ground shook the tombs were broke open a great many dead people walkt out of their graves and went into the City the stone upon his grave was rolled away and he arose He that was crucified he that was fastned with nails to the cross he that was dead arose and filling his Apostles with great power sent them to all the World as the common physicians of humane Nature the rectifiers of mens lives the sowers of the knowledge of heavenly Doctrine the loosers of the Devill 's tyranny the teachers of the great and hidden Goods the preachers of the glad tidings of the immortality of the Soul the Eternall life of the body and the rewards which as they pass all understanding so never have any end These and many more such like this blessed man beholding which he knew but was not able to write because the world could not have contained the Books he cried out We beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth Who is now as able I may adde to give us new bodies and inconceivably-improved Souls and then to perpetuate the happiness of both in heaven as he was to cure diseases and raise dead bodies and purify mens minds when he was here on earth Let our conclusion therefore as he says elsewhere be sutable to our discourse Hom. xiii p. 607. 5. And what 's so sutable as Doxologies and giving glory to God in such manner as is worthy of him Not by our words onely that is but much more by our deeds So our Saviour himself exhorts us saying Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven For there is nothing more bright and shining then an excellent conversation as one of the wise men hath said The ways of the just shine like the light And they shine not onely to those that light their lamps by their works but to all that are near unto them Therefore let us pour oyl continually into these lamps that the flame may rise higher and the light shine more abundantly Having received such grace and truth by Jesus Christ Id. p. 611. let us not grow the lazier by the greatness of the gift For the greater honour hath been done us the more we are bound to excell in vertue Let that therefore be our business to purify our selves so throughly that being thought worthy to see Christ we may not at that Day
phrase so known and the translation of the word to this use saith * More Nev. par 1. c. 42. Maimonides is so frequent that all good and wholsome Doctrine is called Chajah that is LIFE and thence our Masters say The just are called LIVING even in their death and the wicked are called DEAD even while they are alive because the one were happy and the other miserable in those contrary conditions The true reason of which dialect or manner of speech I take to be this that LIFE being the foundation upon which all felicity is built the root out of which it grows it being impossible to enjoy any thing unless we be alive and it abiding and continuing also when the pleasures and other circumstances of life are often interrupted it was thought the aptest thing to express that felicity which we partake of in life yea the fullest felicity the fruition of the compleatest Good when life shall be made eternal And if this be not sufficient to demonstrate that the Holy Writers intend by Eternal Life all the good we are or shall be capable to enjoy you may farther observe that they describe it by all things that are excellent and desirable having borrowed from the glory of the whole World whatsoever is lovely and illustrious to help to represent it to us Shall I put together the severall lines whereby it is described in as handsome an order and composure as I can and so leave every one to judge of the rare beauty of this Life when it shall have all its fillings up which in its ruder draught appears so amiable in our eyes This LIFE then that it may be understood to be the enjoyment of a fuller good then we can conceive a good beyond the bold desires of the most inlarged and luxurious appetite is expressed by the hugest heaps of Treasures such as the Heavens onely are great enough to contain by the possession of an immortall Inheritance reserved there for us and by Pearls and Jewels of a price so invaluable that he is stupid who sells not all he hath if they are not to be had at a lower rate to make a purchace of them These expressions and the rest that follow are so well known that I need not stay to set down the particular places of Holy Scripture where they may be found but proceed to tell you that this Life is there also set forth by feeding upon the delight of the most exquisite pleasures and being entertained without any satiety and in the most noble company at the most sumptuous Feast by exaltation withall to the sublimest pitch of Honour such as the power of Kings the majesty of Thrones and the glory of Crowns which Holy men call in to their assistence that they may serve to lift up our minds to conceive the height of this happy Life and make it seem the more royal and magnificent To which you may adde that they make use of the names of Rest and Refreshment and Peace and Joy or Contentment For as we reade of entring into Life so we do of entring into Rest and into the Joy of our Lord and dwelling in Peace because these are the onely things on earth which can compleat and perfect the happiness of those who enjoy Princely dignity and power But then when the Earth can afford no more colours for the drawing a picture of this most excellent Life or supreme Felicity those Holy men ascend up to Heaven and fetch from thence not onely some rays of light but the very Sun it self and that in the top of its glory to illustrate by its brightness the incomparable beauty of it For it is called the Inheritance of the Saints in light and our Blessed Lord is called the Light of the world who promises the Just that they shall have the Light of life and shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father But alas it is not in the power of such words as these to express its excellence And therefore when all things that fall under our eyes and our taste are spent in the description of it we reade then of melodious Songs and Thanksgivings and the joyfull voice of those who triumph continually Nay the whole World as big as it is is introduced as a small resemblance of this Happiness wherein victorious Souls are said to inherit all things and to be made equal to the Angels who joyn in consort with them and bear their part in those heavenly Anthems and Hymns wherewith they bless and praise the Great Lord of all But if all the goodly things that are or ever have been in the whole world should meet together and falling down at the feet of one man should with a joynt consent conspire to make him happy they could never advance him near the height of this celestial Bliss whose incomparable excellence cannot be expressed without the assistence of words called down from the highest Heavens the place of God's Habitation And therefore nothing below the Kingdom of Heaven a Mansion in our heavenly Father's House a Building of God in the Heavens is made the portion of such happy Souls And as if the Heavens yea the Heaven of Heavens could afford nothing great enough to represent this Blessedness Holy men lead us at last to God himself whom they bid us behold in the High and Holy place as in his Chamber of Presence And this LIFE is called Seeing GOD and beholding his Glory and being with our LORD which are names of such transcendent greatness that we had need enjoy this Happiness to understand them But thus the Men of God from things sensible lead us by the hand to those that are spirituall and invisible And now that they have placed our thoughts in the presence of God there they leave them to take as full a view as they can of him and to spread themselves in the largest contemplations of his Perfections For they were not able to go any farther then onely to tell us that we shall be made like to him whose Perfections shine so gloriously in our eyes This is the highest pitch to which they carry our meditations Here they bid us rest our thoughts and now that they have advanced them above the Earth and Heavens to consider with our selves what it is to See God till we resemble him and be perfectly transform'd into his most blessed Nature and Life All they can doe more for us is onely to tell us what GOD is the enjoyment of whom is our Happiness and who we are to understand will be infinitely far more to our whole man then Kingdoms and Thrones then Crowns and Jewels then Feasts and Songs then the Sun it self and all the sweet influences of Heaven with the rest of the things forementioned could be were they all united in one design to make us happy The wisest of the Jews as blind as that Nation is are sensible of this how disproportionable all the words which even divinely-inspired
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