was a type of his lying in the Grave and Resurrection Moses in his Prophetical David in his Kingly Office praefigur'd him The Priestly Office being the Foundation of the other two and that upon which our Salvation principally depends was illustrated by two Glorious types Melchisedec and Aaron The one the high Priest in ordinary the other the Priest of God by extraordinary designation I will briefly touch upon the resemblance between him and Christ. Although Sacrifices were offer'd from the Beginning yet he is the first to whom that Title is given as called to that office in a special manner The Divinity of Christs Person the Eternity of his Office and the Infinite Value of his Oblation were shadowed forth by him Melchisedec is introduc'd into the Sacred story as one descending from Heaven and ascending thither without any account of his Birth or Death The silence of the Scripture is Mysterious for the Spirit conducted Holy Men in their Writings The Levitical Priests descended by Natural Generation from their predecessours and had successours in their Office which was annext to the race of Levi. But Melchisedec is represented without Father and Mother without Beginning and End of Days whose Priesthood was permanent in himself For things and Persons have a double being real in themselves and notional as they exist in the mind so that no mention being made of his coming into the World or leaving it the silence of the Scripture is equivalent to his continual duration Now in this was an adumbration of Christ who was the Eternal Son of God and really came from Heaven to execute his office and ascended thither And although his oblation was finisht on the Earth and his intercession shall cease in Heaven yet the effects of it shall be Eternal in his People and the Glory of it in himself The Apostle observes an other resemblance between the Supreme Quality of Melchisedec King of Salem and Jesus Christ He was King of Righteousness and Peace He Govern'd his Subjects in Righteousness and never stain'd those hands with humane Blood that were employed in the Sacred office of the Priesthood And by those Glorious Titles are signified the benefits our Saviour conveys to his People He is the true King of Righteousness By which is not intended the Righteousness that justifies before God in which respect he is call'd the Lord our Righteousness and is said to have brought in Eternal Righteousness for that respects his Priestly office in that quality he acquir'd it But that Title signifies his giving most Righteous Laws for the Government of the Church and his dispensing Righteous Rewards and Punishments Eternal Life and Death by which he preserves the Majesty of his Laws and secures the obedience of his Subjects And he is King of Peace by which we are not to understand his temper and disposition nor our peace with God for reconciliation is grounded on his Sacrifice nor peace with Conscience the effect of the other but that which depends on his Royalty As the King of Peace he keeps his Subjects in a calm and quiet Obedience all their Thoughts and Passions are regulated by his Will The Laws of secular Kings are only exposed to the eyes or proclaimed to the ears of their Subjects but His are engraven in their hearts By the inward and Almighty efficacy of his Spirit he inclines them to their Universal Duty and will bring them to Eternal Peace in his Glorious Kingdom First From hence we have an irrefragable Argument of the Truth and Divinity of the Gospel For 't is evident by comparing the antient Figures with the present Truth the Copies with the Original the Pictures with the Life that Eternal Wisdom contrived them For no created Understanding could frame so various Represenâ—ations of Christ and all exactly agreeing with him at such a distance before His appearance And if we compare the Predictions with the Events 't is most clear that only the Divine Knowledg could reveal them For otherwise how was it possible that the Prophets so many Ages before the Coming of Christ should predict those things concerning Him that exceeded the foresight of all the Angels of Light What Intelligence could there be between Moses and David and Isaiah that lived such a distance of time from one another to deliver such things as meet in him as their Centre And these Prophecies are conveyed to us by the Jews the most obstinate Enemies of Christianity who although they reverence the Letter yet abhor the accomplishment of them So that there can be no possible suspicion that they are feigned and of a later Date than their titles declare Their successive fulfilling is a perpetual Miracle to justifie the truth of our Religion Our Saviour used this Method for the instruction of his Disciples These are the words which I spake unto you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me And St. Paul fram'd a powerful Demonstration from the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ. In his Writings he deciphers the riddles of the Law and removes the Veil to discover the Face of Christ engraven by the Divine Artificer Briefly by shewing the consent between the two Testaments he illuminates the Old by the New and confirms the New by the Old Now what Religion is there in the World whose Mysteries were foretold by the Oracles of God and figured by his Institutions above two thousand Years before 't was exhibited Whose Doctrine perfectly accords with the most antient venerable and Divine Writings Can that Religion be any other than Divine which God did so expresly predict and pourtray in such various manner for the receiving whereof He made such early Preparations in the World Certainly without offering the greatest violence to our rational Faculties none can disbelieve it He degrades himself from the dignity of being a Man that refuses to be a Christian. 2. From hence we may understand the incomparable Happiness of Christians not only above the Heathens who by Divine Desertion were wholly Strangers to the Covenants of Mercy but above God's peculiar People The Messiah was the expectation and desire of Heaven and Earth Before his coming the Saints had some glimmerings of Light which made them inwardly languish after the blessed Manifestation of it But that was reserved for Believers in the last Ages of the World That antient Promise the Morning Blush of the gospel-Gospel-Day That the Seed of the Woman should break the head of the Serpent and the Serpent bruise his heel signified the bloody Victory the Messiah should obtain over Satan but how little of it was understood One may as well from the sight of the Root foretel the dimensions of a Tree the colour figure and taste of its Fruits as from that Prediction have discover'd all the parts of our Mediator's Office and the excellent benefits resulting from it The Incarnation Crucifixion Resurrection and
manifested towards Man in that 1. considered in himself he is altogether unworthy of it 2. As compared with the fallen Angels who are left under perfect irremediable Misery First Man considered in himself is unworthy of the Favour of God The usual Motives of Love are 1. The Goodnels of things or persons This is the proper allective of the Rational Appetite There is such a ravishing Beauty in it that it powerfully calls forth Affection When there is an union of amiable qualities in a Person every one finds an attractive 2. A Conformity in Disposition hath a mighty force to beget Love Resemblance is the common Principle of Union in Nature Social Plants thrive best when near together Sensitive Creatures associate with those of their kind And Love which is an affectionate Union and a voluntary Band is best caused by a Similitude in inclinations The Harmony of Tempers is the strongest and sweetest tye of Friendship 3. Love is an innocent and powerful charm to produce Love 't is of universal Virtue and known by all the World None are of such an unnatural Hardness but they are softned and receive impression from it Now there are none of these inducements to encline God to love Man The first quality he was utterly destitute of Nothing excellent or amiable was in him Nothing but Deformity and Defilements The Love of God makes us amiable but did not find us so Redemption is a free Favour not excited by the worth of him that receives it but the grace of him that dispenses it Herein God commended his Love to us that while we were Sinners Christ died for us Our goodness was not the Motive of his Love but his Love the original of our goodness 2. There is a fixed Contrariety in the corrupted nature of Man to the Holy Nature and Will of God For which he is not only unworthy of his Love but worthy of his wrath We are opposite to Him in our Minds Affections and Actions A strong Antipathy is seated in all our Faculties How unqualified were we for his Love There is infinite Holiness in Him whereby He is eternally opposite to all Sin yet He exprest infinite Love to Sinners in saving them from Misery 3. There was not the least spark of Love in Man to God notwithstanding his infinite Beauty and Bounty to us yet we renewed acts of hostility against Him every day And it was the worst kind of hostility arising from the hatred of God and that for his Holiness his most amiable Perfection yet then in his Love He pitied us The same favour bestowed on an Enemy is morally more valuable than given to a Friend For 't is Love that puts a price on Benefits and the more undeserved they are the more they are endeared by the Affection that gives them Here is Love not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be a Propitiation for our Sins We were Rebels against God and at enmity with the Prince of Life yet then He gave Himself for us It will further appear that our Salvation comes from pure favour if we consider Man not only as a rebellious enemy to God but impotent and obstinate without power to resist Justice and without affection to desire Mercy Sometimes the interest of a Prince may induce him to spare the guilty he may be compell'd to pardon whom he cannot punish The multitude is the greatest Potentate The Sons of Zerviah were too strong for David and then 't is not pity but policy to suspend the judgment But our condition is described by the Apostle that when we were sinners and without strength then Christ dyed for us Man is a despicable Creature so weak that he trembles at the appearance of a worm and yet so wicked that he lifts up his head against Heaven How unable is he to encounter with offended Omnipotence How easily can God destroy him when by his sole Word he made him if he unclasps his hand that suports all things they will presently relasp into their first confusion The whole world of sinners was shut up utterly unable to repel or avoid his displeasure And what amazing Love is it to spare Rebels that were under his feet When a man finds his enemy will he let him go well away but God when we were all at his Mercy spar'd and sav'd us Besides Rebels sometimes sollicit the favour of their Prince by their Acknowledgments their Tears and Supplications the testimonies of their Repentance but Man persisted in his fierce enmity and had the weapons of defiance in his hands against his Creator he trampled on his Laws and despised his Deity yet then the Lord of Host became the God of peace In short there was nothing to call forth the Divine Compassion but our misery The Breach began on Man's part but Reconciliation on God's Mercy open'd his melting Eye and prevented not only our desert but our expectation and desires The design was laid from Eternity God foresaw our sin and our misery and appointed a Saviour before the foundation of the World 'T was the most early and pure Love to provide a ransom for us before we had a being therefore we could not be deserving nor desirous of it and after we were made we deservâ—d nothing but Damnation 2. The Grace of God eminently appears in Mans recovery by comparing his state with that of the fallen Angels who are left under misery this is a special circumstance that magnifies the favour and to make it more sensible to us it will be convenient briefly to consider the first state of the Angels their fall and their punishment God in creating the World formed two natures capable of his Image and Favour to glorifie and enjoy him Angels and Men and plac'd them in the principal parts of the universe Heaven and Earth The Angels were the eldest Off-spring of his Love the purest productions of that supreme Light Man in his best state was inferiour to them A great number of them kept not their first state of integrity and felicity Their sin is intimated in Scripture Ordain not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devil that is lest he become guilty of that sin which brought a severe sentence on the Devil The Prince of darkness was blinded with the lustre of his own excellencies and attempted upon the Regalia of Heaven affecting an independent state He disavoued his Benefactor inricht with his benefits And in the same moment he with his companions in rebellion were banished from Heaven God spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserv'd unto Judgment Mercy did not interpose to avert or suspend their Judgment but immediately they were expell'd from the Divine Preâ—ence A solemn triumph in Heaven followed a voice came out of the Throne saying Praise our God all
made in the likeness of Man this is a lower degree of condescension than the assuming the naked humane nature A Servant is not simply a Man there being many Men of higher quality but a Man in a low State Now he that was in the form of God lessened himself into the form of a servant that is took the humane nature without honour attended with its infirmities So that by the visible condition of his life he was judged to be an ordinary person and not that under that meanness the Lord of Angels had been concealed This will more distinctly be understood if we consider the lowness of his extraction the poverty of his birth and the tenor of his life whilst he converst with Men. What Nation was more despicable in the esteem of the World than the Jews and Christ came of their stock and among the Jews none were more vilified than the Galileans and in Galilee-Nazareth was a contemptible village and in Nazareth the Family of Joseph was very obscure and to him our Saviour was nearly allied His reputed Father was a Carpenter and his Mother a poor Virgin that offered two Pigeons for her purification He first breathed in a Stable and was covered with poor swadling-cloaths who was Master of Heaven and Earth and adorns all creatures with their glory But Love made him who is Heir of all things renounce the priviledge of his supernatural Sonship Incredible condesension Therefore an Angel was dispatcht from Heaven who appeared with a surprizing miraculous light the visible character of his dignity to prevent the scandal which might arise from the meanness of his condition and to assure the Shepherds that the Babe which lay in the Manger was the Redeemer of the World The course of his Life was a preface and preparative for the Death of the Cross. He had a just right to all that Glory which a created Nature personally united to the Deity could receive An eminent instance of it there is in his Transfiguration when Glory descended from Heaven to encompass him that which was so short should have been continual but he presently returned to the lowness of his former condition The fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily yet in his humble state he was voluntarily deprived of those admirable effects which should proceed from that union Strange separation between the Deity and the Glory that results from it God is light and the Son is the brightness of his Fathers Glory yet in his Pilgrimage upon the Earth he was alwayes under a cloud Astonishing Miracle transcending all those in the course of Nature yet the power of Love effected it He was made not only lower than the Angels but less than all Men joyning Oh amazing abasement the Majesty of God with the meanness of a Worm The High and Lofty-One whom the Prophet saw Exalted on a High Throne and all the Powers of Heaven in a posture of Reverence about Him was despised and rejected of Men they turned their eyes from him not for the lustre of his Countenance but for shame If the Lord had assumed our Nature in its most honourable Condition and appeared in its Beauty the condescension were infinite For although Men are distinguish'd among themselves by Titles of Honour yet as two Gloworms that shine with an unequal brightness in the Night are equally obscured by the light of the Sun So all men those that are advanc'd to the most eminent degree as well as the most abject and wretehed are in the same distance from God But He emptied himself of all his Glory he grew up as a tender Plant and as a Root out of a dry ground there was no Form or Comliness in him From his Birth to the time of his Preaching he lived so privately as only known under the quality of the Carpenters Son There was a continual repression of that inconceivable Glory that was due to him the first moment of his appearing among Men. In short His despised Condition was an abasement not only of his Divinity but his Humanity And how conspicuous was his Love in this darkning Condescension We know the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich he became poor for our sakes He did not assume that which was due to the excellency of his Nature but what was convenient for our Redepmtion which was to be accomplisht by Sufferings Where can be found an Example of such Love Some have favourable Inclinations to help the distressed and will express so much Compassion as is consistent with their state and quality But if in order to the relieving of the miserable one must submit to what is shameful who hath an affection so strong and vehement as to purchase his Brothers Redemption at the loss of his own Honour Yet the Son of God descended from his Throne and put on our vile Mortality He parted with his Glory that He might be qualified to part with his Life for our Salvation How doth this exalt his Compassion to us And further He took our Nature after it had lost its Primitive Innocency The natural distance between God and the creature is infinite the moral between God and the sinful creature if possible is more than infinite Yet the Mercy of our Redeemer overcame this distance What an extasie of Love transported the Son of God so far as to espouse our Nature after it was defiled and debased with Sin He was essential Innocence and Purity yet He came in the similitude of sinful flesh which to outward view was not different from what was really sinful He was the Holy Lawgiver yet He submitted to that Law which made Him appear under the character and disreputation of a Sinner He paid the bloody Tribute of the Children of wrath being circumcised as guilty of Adam's Sin and he was baptised as guilty of his own 2. The most evident and sensible proof of the greatness of Gods Love to Mankind is in the Sufferings of our Redeemer to obtain our Pardon He is called in Scripture A man of Sorrows the title signifies their number and quality His whole Life was a continual Passion He suffered the contradiction of Sinners who by their malicious Calumnies obscur'd the lustre of his Miracles and most innocent Actions He endured the Temptations of Satan in the Desert He was often in danger of his Life But all these were nothing in comparison of his last Sufferings 'T is therefore said that at the bare apprehension of them He began to be sorrowful as if He had never felt any Grief till then His former Afflictions were like scatter'd drops of Rain But as in the Deluge All the Fountains beneath and all the Windows of Heaven above were opened So in our Saviours last Sufferings the Anger of God the Cruelty of Men the Fury of Devils broke out together against him And that the degrees of his Love may be measured by those of his Sufferings it
Covenant For it was easier for Man to understand the quality of the punishment that attended sin than to conceive of Celestial Happiness of which he was incapable in his animal state 'T is true God might have bestowed Heaven as an absolute gift upon Man after a course of obedience but 't was not due by the condition of the first Covenant A natural work can give no title to a supernatural reward Mans perseverance in his duty according to the Original Treaty had been attended with Immortal Happiness upon the Earth but the blessed Hope is only promised in the Gospel and unspeakably transcends the felicity of Nature in its consummat state This Reward is answerable to the unvaluable treasure which was laid down for it The Blood of the Son of God as 't is a Ransom to redeem us from misery so 't is a Price to purchase glory for Believers 'T is called the Blood of the New-Testament because it conveys a title to the Heavenly Inheritance Our impunity is the effect of his Satisfaction our positive happiness of his redundant merit God was so well pleased with his perfect Obedience which infinitely surpasses that of any meer creature that he promised to confer upon those who believe in him all the glorious qualities becoming the Sons of God and to make them associates with him in his Eternal Kingdom The compleat happiness of the Redeemed is the Redeemers recompence in which he is fully satisfied for all his sufferings Now the transcendent excellency of this above the first state of Man will more distinctly appear by considering I. The place where 't is enjoyed and that is the Heaven of Heavens Adam was put into the Terrestrial Paradise a place sutable to his natural being and abounding with all pleasing objects but they were such as creatures of a lower kind enjoyed with him But Heaven is the Element of Angels their native seat who are the most noble part of the Creation 'T is the true Palace of God intirely separated from the impurities and imperfections the alterations and changes of the lower World where he reigns in Eternal Peace 'T is the Temple of the Divine Majesty where his exellent Glory is revealed in the most conspicuous manner 'T is the habitation of his holiness the place where his honour dwells 'T is the sacred Mansion of Light and Joy and Glory Paradise with all its pleasures was but a shadow of it II. The Life of Adam was attended with innocent infirmities For the body being composed of the same principles with other sensitive creatures 't was liable to hunger and thirst and weariness and was to be repaired by food and sleep Adam was made a living Soul therefore subject to those inclinations and necessities which are purely animal And although whilst innocent no disease could seize on him yet he was capable of hurtful impressions though he should have been preserved from death yet he was perishable His life was in a perpetual flux 't was Immortal not meerly from the temperament of his Body but to be sustained by the power of God in the use of means From hence it follows that Adam in his natural state was not capable of the vision of God Heaven is too pure an Air for him to have lived in The Glory of it is inconsistent with such a temper'd Body Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven The faculties would be confounded with its overcoming brightness Till the sensitive powers are refin'd and exalted to that degree that they become spiritual they cannot converse with glorified objects Now the bodies of the Saints shall be invested with Celestial qualities The Natural shall be changed into a Spiritual body and be preserved as the Angels by the sole vertue of the quickning Spirit The life above shall flourish in its ful vigour without any other support than the Divine power that first created it And as the body shall be spiritual so truely immortal and free from all corruptive change as the Sun which for so many ages hath shined with an equal brightness to the World and hath a dureable fulness of light in it In this respect the Children of the Resurrection are equal to the Angels who being pure Spirits do not marry to perpetuate their kind for they never die And the glorified body shall be cloathed with a more Divine beauty in the Resurrection than Adam had in the Creation The glory of the second Temple shall excel that of the first In short the first Man was of the Earth earthy and could derive but an earthy condition to his descendents But the Lord Christ is from Heaven and is the principle of an Heavenly and Glorious life to all that are united to him III. The felicity of Heaven exceeds the first in the manner and degrees of the fruition and the continuance of it 1. The Vision of God in Heaven is immediate Adam was a spectator of God's Works and his understanding being full of Light he clearly discover'd the Divine Attributes in their effects The stroaks of the Creators Hand are engraven in all the parts of the Universe The Heavens and Earth and all things in them are evident testimonies of the excellency of their Author The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen And the knowledg that shined in his soul produced a transcendent esteem of the Deity in whom Wisdom and Power are united in their supreme degree and a superlative love and delight in him for his goodness Yet his sight of God was but through a Glass an eclipsing medium For inferior beings are so imperfect that they can give but a weak resemblance of his infinite perfections But the sight of God in Heaven is called the seeing of him as he is and signifies the most clear and compleat knowledge which the rational soul when purified and raised to its most perfect state can receive and out-shines all the discoveries of God in the lower World Adam had a visible copy of his invisible beauty but the Saints in Heaven see the glorious Original He saw God in the reflection of the Creature but the Saints are under the direct beams of Glory and see him face to face All the Attributes appear in their full and brightest lustre to them Wisdom Love Justice Holiness Power are manifested in their exaltation And the glorified Soul to qualify it for converse with God in this intimate manner hath a more excellent constitution then was given to it in the Creation A new edge is put upon the faculties whereby they are fitted for those objects which are peculiar to Heaven The intellectual eye is fortified for the immediate intuition of God Adam in Paradise was absent from the Lord in comparison of the Saints who encompass his Throne are in the presence of his Glory Besides 'T is the peculiar excellency of the Heavenly Life that the Saints every moment enjoy it without
derived their guilt to them but they had no vertue by them in coming from it The Sinner conveyed death to the Sacrifice but did not receive life from it But Christ the Lamb of God was not swallowed up in his Offering to Divine Justice 'T is his peculiar Glory that He hath compleatly made Satisfaction We may feed upon the flesh of this precious Victim and drink his Blood As He enter'd into communion of Death with us so we are partakers of Life by Him 2. The Compleatness of his Satisfaction is grounded on the degrees of his Sufferings There was no defect in the payment He made We owed a debt of Blood to the Law and his Life was offer'd up as a Sacrifice otherwise the Law had remained in its full vigour and Justice had been unsatisfied That a Divine Person hath suffered our Punishment is properly the reason of our Redemption As 't is not the quality of the Surety that releases the Debtor from Prison but the payment which he makes in his name The Blood of Christ shed poured forth from his Veins and offered up to God in that precise consideration ratifies the New Testament The sum is Our Saviour by his Death suffer'd the malediction of the Law and his Divine Nature gave a full value to his Sufferings so that the satisfaction proceeding from them was not meerly ex pacto as Brass Money is currant by composition but ex merito as pure Gold hath an intrinsick worth and God who was infinitly provokt is infinitely pleased 2. The effects and evidences of his compleat Satisfaction are First His Resurrection from the Grave For if we consider the Lord Christ in the quality of our Surety He satisfied the Law in his Death and having made compleat payment of our debt He received the acquittance in his Resurrection His Death appeased God His Resurrection assures Men. As he rose himself so in one concurrent action God is said to raise him He was releast from the Grave as from Prison by publick sentence which is an indubitable argument of the validity and acceptance of the payment made by him in our name For being under such bonds as the Justice and Power of God he could never have loosed the pains of Death if his Sufferings had not fully been fully Satisfactory and received by him for our discharge And 't is observable that the raising of Chiist is ascribed to God as reconciled Now the God of peace who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Blood of the everlasting Covenant The Divine Power was not put forth till God was pacified Justice incensed exposed him to Death and Justice appeased freed Him from the dead And his Resurrection is attributed to his Blood that being the full price of his and our liberty In short when inflexible Justice ceases to punish there is the strongest proof 't is satisfied Secondly His Ascent into Heaven and Intercession for us prove the compleatness and alsufficiency of his Sacrifice If He had been excluded from the Divine Presence there had been just cause to suspect that anger had been still remaining in God's Breast but His admission into Heaven is an infallible testimony that God is reconciled This our Saviour produces as the Argument by which the Holy Ghost will overcome the guilty fears of Men. He shall convince the World of Righteousnss because I go to my Father Christ in his Sufferings was numbred among transgressors He dyed as a guilty person not only in respect of the calumnies of Men but the curse of the Law and the Wrath of God which then appeared inexorable against sin But having overcome Death and broke through the weight of the Law and retired to his Father he made apparent the innocency of his righteous Person and that a compleat Righteousness is acquired by his Sufferings sufficient to justifie all that shall truly accept of it This will be more evident by considering his entry into Heaven as the true High Priest who carried the Blood of the New-Covenant into the Celestial Sanctuary For the opening this we are to consider there are two parts of the Priestly Office 1. To offer Sacrifice 2. To make intercession for the People by vertue of the Sacrifice This was performed by the High-Priest in the Feast of Atonement which was celebrated in the month Tisri The oblation of the Sacrifices was without at the Altar the Intercession was made in the Holy of Holies into which none might enter but the High-Priest once a year And first he must expiate his own sins and the sins of the people by Sacrifices before he could remove the Vail and enter into that sacred and venerable place where no sinner had right to appear Then he was to present the precious Incense and the Blood of the Sacrifices to render God favourable to them Now these were shadows of what Christ was to perform The Holy of Holies was the type of the third-Heaven in its Situation Quality and Furniture For it was the most secret part of the Tabernacle separated by a double Vail by that which was between it and the first Sanctuary and by another that distinguisht the first from the outward Court Thus the Heaven of Heavens is the most distant part of the Universe and separated from the lower World by the Starry Heaven and by the Airy Region which reaches down to the Earth Besides the most Holy part of the Tabernacle was inaccessible to sinners as Heaven is stiled by the Apostle the place of inaccessible light And it was the Throne of God where he reigned according to the Language of the Psalmist He dwelt between the Cherubims The figures of the Cherubims represented the Myriads of holy Angels that adore the incomprehensible Deity and are always ready to execute his commands The Tables of the Law were a Symbol of that infinite Wisdom and Holiness which ordained them and the High-Priests entering with the Blood of the Sacrifice and carrying with him all the Tribes of Israel upon his Breast signified that Jesus Christ the true High-Priest after he had really expiated sin by his Divine Sacrifice in the lower World should enter into the Eternal Sanctuary with his own Blood and introduce with him all his People Of this there was a marvellous sign given for in the same moment that Christ expired the Vail of the Temple that separated the Oracle from the first part was rent from the top to the bottom to signifie that the true High-Priest had Authority and Right to enter into Heaven itself And the special end of his ascending is exprest by the Apostle For Christ is not entered into the Holy places made with hands which are the Figures of the true but into Heaven its self now to appear in the presence of God for us As the High-Priest might not enter into that sacred and terrible place neither could he propitiate God without sprinkling the
are more then Conquerours through Christ that loves them They are always in an ascendent State and believing rejoyce with an unspeakable and glorified Joy Death it self is not only disarmed but made subservient to their everlasting good Briefly Christian Patience endures all things as well as Charity because it expects a blessed issue It draws from present miseries the assurance of future Happinss A Believer while he possesses nothing but the Cross sees by Faith the Crown of the Eternal Kingdom hanging over his head and the lively hope of it makes him not only patient but thankful and joyful This sweetens the loss of all temporal goods and the presence of all temporal evils St. Paul in his Chains was infinitely more contented than Caesar or Seneca than all the Princes and Philosophers in the World I will conclude this Argument by a short reflection on the immoral maxims of several Sects of Philosophers The Cynicks assert that all natural actions may be done in the face of the Sun that 't is worthy of a Philosopher to do those things in the presence of all which would make impudence it self to blush A maxime contrary to all the rules of decency and corruptive of good manners For as the despising of Vertue produces the slighting of reputation So the contempt of reputation causes the neglect of Vertue Yet the Stoicks with all their gravity were not far from this advice Besides among other unreasonable Paradoxes they assert all sins are equal that the killing a Bird is of the same guilt with the murdering a Parent a Principle that breaks the restraints of fear and shame and opens a passage to all licentiousness They commended Self-Murder in several cases which unnatural fury is culpable in many respects of rebellion against God injustice to others and cruelty to ones self Zeno the founder of that Sect practised his own Doctrine For falling to the ground he interpreted it to be a Summons to appear in another World and strangled himself Aristotle allows the appetite of revenging injuries to be as natural as the inclination to gratitude judging according to the common rule that one contrary is the measure of another Nay he condemns the putting up an injury as degenerous and servile He makes indignation at the prosperity of unworthy Men a Vertue and to prove it tells us the Grecians attributed it to their Gods as a passion becoming the excellency of their natures But if we consider the Supreme Disposer of all things may do what he pleases with his own that he is infinitely Wise and in the next World will dispense Eternal recompences there is not the least cause of irritation for that seeming disorder He also allows pride to be a noble temper that proceeds from a sublime Spirit He represents his Hero by this among other characters that he is displeased with those who mention to him the benefits he hath received which make him inferiour to those that gave them as if humility and gratitude were qualities contrary to magnaminity He condemns Envy as a vice that would bring down others to our meanness but commends Emulation which urges to ascend to the height of them that are above us But this is no real Vertue for it doth not excite us by the worth of moral good but from the vain desire of equality or preheminence And Plato himself though stiled Divine yet delivers many things that are destructive of moral honesty He dissolves the most sacred band of humane society ordaining in his Common-wealth a Community of Wives He allows an honest man to lie in some occasions whereas the rule is Eternal We must not do evil that good may come thereby In short a considering Eye will discover many spots as well as beauties in their most admired institutions They commend those things as Virtues which are Vices and leave out those Vertues which are necessary for the perfection of our nature and the Vertues they commend are defective in those qualities that are requisit to make them sincere If Philosophy were Incarnate and had exprest the Purity and Efficacy of all its Precepts in real actions yet it had abundantly fallen short of that Supernatural Angelical Divine Holiness which the Gospel requires Till the Wisdom of God remov'd his Chair from Heaven to Earth to instruct the World not only the depravation of the lower faculties but the darkness of the humane understanding hindred Men from performing their universal duty The Gospel alone brings light to the Mind Peace to the Conscience Purity to the Affections and rectitude to the Life CHAP. XVIII Examples have a special Efficacy above Precepts to form us to Holiness The Example of Christ is most proper to that end being absolutely perfect and accommodate to our present state Some Vertues are necessary to our condition as Creatures or to our condition in the world of which the Deity is uncapable and these eminently appear in the Life of Christ. They are Humility Obedience and Love in suffering for us His Life contains all our Duties or Motives to perform them Jesus Christ purchased the Spirit of Holiness by his sufferings and confers it since his Exaltation The Sanctifying Spirit is the only Concomitant of Evangelical Mercy The Declaration of the Law on Mount Sinai was not accompanied with the renewing Efficacy of the Spirit nor the natural Discovery of the Divine Goodness in the Works of Creation Providence The lower Operations of the Spirit were only in the Heathens The Philosophical change differs from the Spiritual and Divine Socrates and Seneca consider'd Our Saviour presents the strongest Inducements to perswade us to be holy They are proper to work upon Fear Hope and Love The greatness of those Objects and their Truth are clearly manifested in the Gospel THe Second Means by which our Redeemer restores us to Holiness is by exhibiting a compleat Pattern of it in his Life upon Earth For the discovery how influential this is upon us we must consider That in all the most noble works the principal Cause is an exact Idea in the mind of the Agent and Examples are the same He that desires to excel in Painting or Sculpture must view the most accomplisht Pieces of those Arts. Thus in Morality the consideration of Eminent Actions performed by others is of admirable efficacy to raise us to perfection That Examples have a peculiar Power above the naked Precept to dispose us to the practice of Holiness appears by considering 1. That they most clearly express to us the Nature of our Duties in their Subjects and sensible Effects General Precepts form abstract Idea's of Vertue but in Examples Vertues are made visible in all their Circumstances 2. Precepts instruct us what things are our Duty but Examples assure us that they are possible They resemble a clear Stream wherein we may not only discover our Spots but wash them off When we see Men like our selves who are united to frail flesh and in the
a Dream is slight and vanishing so the uncertain expectation of felicity did but lightly touch their Spirits Briefly they had no true Knowledge nor firm Belief of Eternal Blessedness in the Vision of God nor of the endless Torments in Hell and wanting those great Principles from whence the Rules and Power to live in a holy manner are derived they fell short of that Purity which is a necessary qualification to prepare Men for Heaven They were in a confused labyrinth without true Light or Guide intangled with miserable Errours and stumbled every step whilst they sought after Happiness But the Lord Christ hath instructed the World concerning those invisible future Recompences He hath expresly threaten'd what-ever is to be feared by Man as a rational or sensible Creature the Worm that never dies and the Fire that shall never be quencht in case of Disobedience and he hath promised what-ever is to be hoped for in case of Obedience The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven in the Gospel against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. And our Saviour hath brought Light and Immortality to light He hath declared the nature and quality of Eternal Life that it consists in the most perfect acts of our raised and most receptive Faculties upon the most excellent objects That it contains perfect Holiness and pure Felicity being for ever distant from the infirmities and defilements of our mortal state He hath revealed as the quality so the extent of it relating to the Body as well as the Soul Whereas the Philosophers of all sorts the Academicks Stoicks Peripateticks Epicureans labouring with all the force of their understanding formed a Felicity according to their Fancies which was either wholly Sensual or else but for half of man For of the Resurrection and consequently the Immortality of the Body not the least notice for many Ages ever arrived to them Our Saviour who alone had the words of eternal life hath promised a Happiness that respects entire man The Soul and the Body which are his essential parts shall be united and endued with all the glorious qualities becoming the Sons of God And of all this he hath given to the world the highest assurance For he verified his Doctrine by his own Example rising from the Grave and appearing to his Apostles crown'd with Immortality and visibly ascending before them to Heaven Since there is no greater Paradox to Reason than the Resurrection which seem'd utterly incredible to men and not to be the object of a rational desire God by raising him from the Grave hath given the most convincing Argument that our Redeemer was sent from him to acquaint the World with the future state Thus the Apostle speaks to the Athenians The times of ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men eve ry where to repent because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judg the World in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead Jesus Christ who was attested from Heaven to be the Son of God by that great and powerful Act declared the Recompences that shall attend Men after Death Therefore a full and perfect assent is due to his Testimony Hell with all its Dread and Terror is not a Picture drawn by fancy to affright the World but is reveal'd by him whose Words shall remain when Heaven and Earth shall pass away The Heavenly Glories are not the Visions of a contemplative person that have no existence but are great Realities promised by him who as he died to purchase so he rose to witness the Truth of them And to bring these Great Things that are separate and distant from this present state nearer to us He sometimes causes Hell to rise up from beneath and flash in the face of secure sinners that they may break off their Sins by Repentance and sometimes he opens Heaven from above the Paradise of true delights and sends down of the precious fruits of the Sun of the precious things of the lasting Hills that by the sight of their Beauty and the taste of their sweetness we may for ever abhor the pleasures of Sin By the frequent and sensible experience of the truth of the Gospel in its Threatnings and Promises innumerable persons have been converted from Sin to Holiness from Earth to Heaven from Vanity to Eternity 3. Love is a prevalent affection stronger than Death and Kindness is the greatest endearment of Love Now the Lord Jesus exprest such admirable Love to us that being duly considered it cannot but inspire us with Love to him again and with a grateful desire to please him in all things He descended from Heaven to Earth and delivered himself to a shameful Death that He might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works And what Argument is more powerful to cause in us a serious hatred of Sin than the Consideration of what Christ hath suffer'd to free us from the punishment and power of it If a Man for his Crimes were condemned to the Gallyes and a Friend of his who had been extremely injur'd by him should ransom him by a great sum when the guilty person is restor'd to liberty will he not blush for shame at the memory of what he hath done But how much more if his Friend would suffer for him the pains and infamy of his slavery if any spark of Humanity remain in him can he ever delight himself in those Actions which made such a benefit necessary to him And is it possible for a Christian to live in those Sins for which Christ died Will not Love cause an humble Fear lest he should frustrate the great Design and make void the most blessed effect of his terrible Sufferings why did he Redeem us with so excellent a price from our cruel Bondage but to restore us to his free service why did he vindicate us from the power of the Usurper to whom we were captives but to make us Subjects to our Natural Prince Why did he purifie us with his most precious Blood from our deadly Defilements but that we might be intirely consecrated to his Glory and be fervent in good works What can work upon an ingenious Person more than sense of Kindness What can oblige more strongly to duty than Gratieude What more powerful attractive to Obedinnce than Love This pure Love confirms the Glorified Saints for ever in Holiness For they are not Holy to obtain Heaven because they are possest of it nor to preserve their Blessedness because they are past all hazard of losing it but from the most lively and permanent sense of their Obligations because they have obtained that incomparable Felicity by a Gift never to be reverst and by a Mercy transcendently great And the same Love to God that is in the Saints above in the highest degree of perfection and makes them for
the Church from all these will be the last Glorious Act of Christs Regal Office And 't is observeable the Day of Judgment is call'd the Day of Redemption with respect to the final accomplishment of our Felicity that was purchas'd by the infinite Price of his Sufferings The day of Christs Death was the Day of Redemption as to our Right and Title for then our Ransom was fully paid and 't is by the Immortal efficacy of his Blood that we partake of the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God but the Actual enjoyment of it shall be at the last day Therefore the perfection of all our Spiritual Priviledges is refer'd to that time when Death our Lâ—st Enemy shall be overcome The Apostle saith and not only they but our selves also which have the first Fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Bodies During the present Life we are taken into Gods Family in the quality of his Children but the most Solemn Act of our Adoption shall be at the last Day In this there is a similitude between Christ and his Members for although he was the Son of God by his marvelous Conception and own'd by him while he perform'd his Ministry upon the Earth yet all the Testimonies of Gods Favour to him were not comparable to the Declaration of it in raising him from the Grave Then in the face of Heaven and Earth He said Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee So in this Life God acknowledges and treats us as his Children he cloaths us with the Righteousness of his Son feeds us with his Word defends us from our Spiritual Enemies but the most Publick Declaration of his favour shall be in the next Life when all the Children of the Resurrection shall be born in a Day Add further although the Souls of Believers immediately upon their Separation are receiv'd into Heaven and during the sleep of Death enjoy admirable Visions of Glory yet their Blessedness is imperfect in comparison of that excellent degree which shall be enjoyed at the Resurrection As the Roman Generals after a compleat Conquest first enter'd the City privately and after having obtain'd License of the Senate made their Triumphant entry with all the magnificence splendour becoming the Greatness of their Victories So after a Faithful Christian hath fought the good fight and is come off more than a Conquerour he enters privately into the Coelestial City but when the body is rais'd to Immortality he shall then in the company and with the acclamations of the Holy Angels have a Glorious entry into it I will briefly consider why the Bodies of the Saints shall be rais'd and how the Divine Power will be manifested in that last Act. 1. The General reason is from Gods Justice As the Oeconomy of Divine Providence requires there must be a Future State when God shall sit upon a judicial Throne to weigh the Actions of all Men and render to every one according to their quality so 't is as necessary that the Person be Judged and not one Part alone The Law Commands the entire Man compos'd of his Essential Parts the Soul and Body And 't is obeyed or violated by both of them Although the Guilt or Moral Goodness of Actions is chiefly Attributed to the Soul because 't is the Principle of them yet the Actions are imputed to the whole Man The Soul is the Guide the Body the Instrument 't is reasonable therefore that both should receive their recompence We see the Example of this in Humane Justice which is a copy of the Divine The whole Man is punisht or rewarded The Soul is punisht with Disgrace and Infamy the Body with Pains the Soul is rewarded with Esteem and Honour the Body with External marks of Dignity Thus the Divine Justice will render to every one according to things done in the Body whether Good or Evill 2. The special reason of the Saints Resurrection is their Union with Christ for he is not only our Redeemer and Prince but our second Adam the same in Grace as the first was in Nature Now as from the first the Soul was destroyed by Sin and the Body by Death so the second restores them both to their Primitive state the one by Grace the other by a Glorious Resurrection Accordingly the Apostle saith that by Man came Death and by Man came the Resurrection from the Dead Christ removed the Moral and Natural impossibility of our Glorious Resurrection the Moral by the infinite merit of his Death whereby Divine Justice is satisfied that otherwise would not permit the Guilty to be restor'd to Eternal Life and the Natural by his rising from the Grave to a Glorious Imortality For his Infinite Power can do the same in all Believers 'T is observable the Apostle infers the Resurrection of Believers from that of Christ not only as the Cause but the Original Example For the Members must be conform'd to the Head the Children to their Father the younger to the elder Brother Therefore he is call'd the first-fruits of them that sleep and the first begotten of the Dead In Christ's Resurrection ours is so fully assur'd that the event is infallible Now no less than Infinite Power is requisite to raise the Bodies of the Saints from the dust and to transform them into the similitude of Christs 1. To raise them Nothing is more astonishing to Nature than that the Bodies which after so many Ages in the perpetual circulation of the Elements have past into a thousand different Forms one part of them being resolved into Water another evaporated into Air another turn'd into Dust should be restor'd to their first State What Wisdom is requisite to separate the Parts so mixt and confounded what Power to recompose them what Vertue to reinspire them with new Life It may seem more difficult than to revive a Dead Body whose Organs and matter is not chang'd of which we have Examples in the Scripture When the Spirit of the Lord plac't Ezekiel in the midst of a Valley cover'd with bones and caused him to consider attentively their Number which was very great and their extream dryness he askt him whether these bones could live upon which as one divided and ballanc't between the seeming Impossibility of the thing in it self and the consideration of the Divine Power to which nothing is impossible he answered Lord thou knowest Upon this God commanded him to Prophesie upon those bones and speak to them as if they had been endued with Sense and Understanding O ye dry Bones hear the Word of the Lord Thus saith the Lord God unto these Bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring in flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put Breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am
make some short reflections upon the Types of the Law to show how they are compleated in Christ. The Mosaic Dispensation was so contriv'd as to bear a resemblance of the Messiah in all its parts The Law had a shadow of good things to come Christ was the end of the Law the substance of those shadows The main design of the Epistle to the Hebrews is to shew that in the antient Tabernacle there were models of the Heavenly things reveal'd in the Gospel The great number of Types declares the variety of the Divine Wisdom and the admirable fulness of Christ in whom they are verified Three sorts were instituted 1. Some were things without Life whose qualities and effects shadowed forth his Vertues and Benefits 2. Things endued with Life and Sence 3. Reasonable Persons that either in their offices actions or the memorable accidents that befel them represented the Messiah Of the first sort I will briefly consider the Manna that miraculously fell from Heaven the Rock that by its stream refresht the Israelites in their Journey to Canaan and the Brasen Serpent premising two things 1. That in comparing them with the Truth we are to observe the design of God and not to seek for Mysteries in every thing As in Pictures some strokes of the Pencil are only for ornament others for signification Besides when Superlative things are spoken of them exceeding their Nature and that cannot be applied to them without a violent figure the full and entire Truth is only found in Jesus Christ. 1. Manna was an eminent Type of him Accordingly the Apostle declares of the Israelites they did all eat the same Spiritual meat not in respect of its Material but Symbolical Nature The express Analogy between Manna and Christ is visible in respect of its marvelous production The Mosaical Manna was not the fruit of the Earth procur'd by humane industry but form'd by the Divine Power and rain'd down upon them therefore 't is called the Corn of Heaven This typified the celestial original of our Redeemer He is the true bread from Heaven given by the Father He is call'd the gift of God eminently being the richest and freest without any merit or indeavour of Men to procure it And we may observe the truth infinitely exceeded the Type for Manna descended only from the Clouds therefore our Saviour tells the Jews Moses gave ye not that bread from Heaven But he really came from Heaven where the great and Glorious Presence of God is manifested and appear'd under a visible form in the World Manna was only stil'd the Bread of Angels to signify its excellency above common food but the bread of God is he which cometh down from Heaven 2. Manna was dispenst to all the Israelites equally not as the delicious fruits of the Earth that are the portion of a few but as the light and influences of the Heavens that are common to all and herein 't was a representation of Christ who is offer'd to all without distinction of Nations to the Jews and Gentiles to the Graecians and Barbarians and without the distinction of quality to the Honourable and Mean the Rich and the Poor the Learned and Ignorant And here we may observe the excellency of the Spiritual Manna above the Mosaical for that â—ed but one nation but the bread of God gives life to the World his infinite merit is sufficient for the Salvation of all 3. Manna was a delicious food the Taste of it is described to be like wafers mixt with honey that have a pure chast sweetness this typified the Love of Christ shed abroad in the hearts of Believers Such an exalted ravishing pleasure proceeds from it that the Psalmist breaks forth in an extasy Taste and see how Good the Lord is 4. Manna was their only support in the Wilderness strengthning them to vanquish their Enemies and endure the hardships to which they were incident in their passage to Canaan In this regard 't was a lively image of Christ who is our Spiritual food whâ—e we are in the desert of the lower World the place of our trial exposed to dangers By him alone we shall be finally victorious over the Enemies of our Salvation And in this also the Truth is infinitely above the Type that prefigured it For Manna could only preserve the Natural Life for a time As our Saviour tells the Jews your Fathers eat Manna in the Wilderness and are dead But Jesus Christ is the living bread that came down from Heaven and hath a Supernatural Vertue to convey a Life incomparably more noble and answerable to the quality of his Original 'T is incorruptible as Heaven from whence He came If any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever Death is so far from extinguishing that it advances the Spiritual Life to its perfection 2. The Apostle testifies that the Israelites drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. That the Miracle was mysterious is evident from the circumstances related of it When the Israelites were in great distress for water The Lord said to Moses I will stand before thee there upon the Rock in Horeb and thou shalt smite the Rock and there shall come water out of it that the People may drink If there had been no other design but the relieving their necessity that might have been supplied by rain from Heaven or if only to give a visible effect of the Divine Power that had been discovered in causing new Springs to rise from the Earth or the Command of God had been sufficient to strike the Rock But he went to it to signifie the respect it had to himself He was the Son of God that spake to Moses and conducted the People For this reason He is stiled the Angel of Gods presence not with respect to his Nature but Offices I will briefly observe the parallel between the Rock and Christ. 1. A Rock is the ordinary Title of God in Scripture to represent his unchangeable Nature and infinite Power whereby He upholds the World And in a special manner it resembles the Messiah He is called The Stone which the builders refused that was made the head of the corner He is the Rock upon which the Church is built and secur'd against the violence of Hell Now Israel was not supplied from the Clouds or the Valleys but the Rock to shew that the mystical Rock the Son of God can only refresh the Spiritual Israel with living Water 2. The quality of the Rock hath a proper Signification For although it had in its Veins a rich abundance of Waters yet to appearance nothing was more dry and hard In this it was a Figure of the Spiritual Rock The effects have discovered in him unfathomable depths of Righteousness Grace and Salvation yet at the first view we had no hopes For if we consider Him as God He is infinitely Holy and Just encompast with everlasting flames against Sin and
was so fram'd as to make a visible discovery of the Prerogatives of his Creation And when he reflected upon his Soul that animated his dust its excellent endowments wherein 't is comparable to the Angels its capacity of enjoying God himself for ever he had an internal and most clear testimony of the glorious perfections of his Creator For Man who alone admires the works of God is the most admirable of all 2. The Image of God was resplendent in mans Conscience the seat of practical Knowledg and Treasury of moral Principles The directive faculty was sincere and incorrupt not infected with any disguising tincture 't was clear from all prejudices which might render it an incompetent Judg of good and evil It instructed Man in all the parts of his relative Obligations to God and the Creatures 'T was not fetter'd and confin'd fearfully restraining from what is Lawful nor licentious and indulgent in what is forbidden Briefly Conscience in Adam upright was a subordinate God that gave Laws and exacted obedience to that glorious Being who is its Superior 3. There was a Divine Impression on the Will Spiritual Reason kept the Throne and the inferiour Faculties observed an easy and regular subordination to its dictates The Affections were exercis'd with proportion to the quality of their Objects Reason was their inviolable Rule Love the most noble and Master-affection which gives being and goodness to all the rest even to hatred it self for so much we hate an object as it hinders our enjoyment of the good we love this precious Incense was offer'd up to the excellent and supreme Being which was the Author of his Life Adam fully obeyed the first and great Command of loving the Lord with all his heart soul and strength His love to other things was regulated by his love to God There was a perfect accord between flesh and spirit in him They both joyn'd in the service of God and were naturally mov'd to their happiness In short the image of God in Adam was a living powerful Principle and had the same relation to the Soul which the Soul hath to the Body to animate and order all its Faculties in their Offices and Operations according to the Will of his Creator 2. The Image of God consisted though in an inferiour degree in the happy state of man Herein he resembled that infinitly Blessed Being This happiness had relation to the two Natures which enter into Mans Composition 1. To the Animal and Sensitive and this consisted in two things 1. In the excellent disposition of his Organs 2. In the enjoyment of convenient Objects 1. In the excellent disposition of the Organs His body was form'd immediately by God and so not liable to those defects which proceed from the weakness of second causes No blemish or disease which are the effects and footsteps of sin were to be found in him His health was not a frail inconstant disposition easily ruin'd by the jarring elements but firm and stable The humours were in a just temperament to prevent any destemper which might tend to the dissolution of that excellent frame Briefly all rhe senses were quick and lively able to perform with facility vigour and delight their operations 2. There were convenient Objects to entertain his sensitive faculties He enjoyed Nature in its original Purity crown'd with the benediction of God before 't was blasted with the curse The World was all Harmony and Beauty becoming the goodness of the Creator and not as 't is since the Fall disorder'd and deform'd in many parts the effect of his Justice The Earth was liberal to Adam of all its Treasures the Heavens of their Light and sweetest Influences He was seated in Eden a place of so great beauty and delight that it represented the Celestial Paradise which is refresht with Rivers of Pleasure And as the ultimate End of the Creatures was to raise his mind and inflame his heart with the love of his great Benefactor So their first and natural use was the satisfaction of the Senses from whence the felicity of the Animal Life did proceed 2. His supreme Happiness consisted in the exercise of his most noble Faculties on their proper Objects This will appear by considering that as the spiritual Faculties have objects which infinitely excel those of the sensitive So their capacity is more inlarged their union with objects is more intimate and their perception is with more quickness and vivacity and thereby are the greatest instruments of pleasure to the rational being Now the highest Faculties in Man are the Understanding and Will and their happiness consists in union with God by Knowledg and Love 1. In the Knowledg of God As the desire of Knowledg is the most natural to the humane Soul so the obtaining of it produces the most noble and sweetest pleasure And proportionably to the degrees of excellency that are in objects so much of rational Perfection and Satisfaction accrues to the mind by the knowledg of them The discovery of the Works of God greatly affected Man yet the excellencies scatter'd among them are but an imperfect and mutable shadow of God's infinite and unchangable Perfections How much more delightful was it to his pure understanding tracing the footsteps and impressions of God in Natural things to ascend to him who is the glorious Original of all Perfections And although his finite understanding could not comprehend the Divine excellencies yet his knowledg was answerable to the degrees of Revelation wherein God was manifested He saw the admirable Beauty of the Creator through the transparent vail of the creatures And from hence there arose in the Soul a pleasure pure solid and satisfying a pleasure divine for God takes infinit contentment in the contemplation of Himself 2. The Happiness of Man consisted in the Love of God 'T was not the naked speculation of the Deity that made him happy but such a knowledg as ravisht his Affections For happiness results from the fruitions of all the Faculties 'T is true that by the mediation of the understanding the other Faculties have access to an object the Will and Affections can't be enclin'd to any thing but by vertue of an act of the mind which propounds it as worthy of them It follows therefore that when by the discovery of the transcendent excellencies in God the Soul is excited to love and to delight in Him as its Supreme Good 't is then really and perfectly happy Now as Adam had a perfect knowledg of God so the height of his love was answerable to his knowledg and the compleatness of his enjoyment was according to his Love All the Divine Excellencies were amiable to him The Majesty Purity Justice and Power of God which are the terrour of guilty creatures secur'd his happiness whilst he continued in his Obedience His Conscience was clear and calm no unquiet fears discompos'd its Tranquillity 't was the seat of Innocence and Peace Briefly His love to God was perfect without any
the Eternal Son who was in the form of God who was equal to Him in Majesty and Authority without Sacriledg or Usurpation he emptied himself by assuming the Humane Nature in its servile state The Word was made Flesh the meanest part is specified to signifie the greatness of his abasement There is such an infinite distance between God and flesh that the condescension is as admirable as the contrivance So great was the malignity of our Pride for the cure of which such a profound Humility was requisite By this he destroyed the first work of the Devil 6. The Wisdom of God appears in ordaining such contemptible and in appearance opposite means to accomplish such glorious effects The Way is as wonderful as the Work That Christ by dying on the Cross a reputed Malefactor should be made our eternal Righteousness that descending to the grave He should bring up the lost World to Life and Immortality is so incredible to our narrow Understandings that He saves us and astonishes us at once And in nothing 'tis more visible That the Thoughts of God are as far above our thoughts and his ways above our ways as Heaven is above the Earth 'T is a secret in Physick to compound the most noble Remedies of things destructive to Nature and thereby make one Death victorious over another But that Eternal Life should spring from Death Glory from Ignominy Blessedness from a Curse is so repugnant to Humane Sense that to render the belief of it easie 't was foretold by many Prophesies that when it came to pass it might be lookt on as the effect of God's eternal Counsel The Apostle tels us that Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness The grand Sophies of the world esteemed it absurd and unreasonable to believe that He who was exposed to Sufferings could save others but those who are Called discover that the Doctrine of Salvation by the Cross of Christ which the world counted folly is the great Wisdome of God and most convenient for his end A double reason is given of this method 1. Because the Heathen world did not find and own God in the way of Nature For after That in the Wisdome of God the World by Wisdome knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe The frame of the World is called the Wisdom of God the name of the Cause is given to the Effect in regard the Divine Wisdom is so clearly discovered there as if it had taken a visible form and had presented it self to the view of Men. But those who professed themselves wise did not acknowledg the Creator For some conceited the World to be eternal others that it was the product of chance and became guilty of the most absolute contradiction to Reason For who can believe that one who is blind from his birth and by consequence perfectly ignorant of all Colours and of the Art of Painting should take a bundle of Pencils into his Hand and dipping them in Colours mixt and corrupted paint a great Battel with that perfection in the design propriety in the colours distinction in the habits and countenances as if it were not represented but present to the Spectators Who ever saw a Temple or Pallace or any regular Building spring from the stony bowels of a Mountain Yet some famous Philosophers became thus vain in their imaginations fancying that the World proceeded from the casual concourse of Atomes And the rest of them neglected to know God so far as they might and to honour him so far as they knew They debased the Deity by unworthy conceptions of his Nature and by performing such acts of Worship as were not fit for a rational Spirit to offer nor for the pure Majesty of Heaven to receive Besides they ascribed his Name Attributes and Honour to Creatures not only the Lights of Heaven and the secret Powers which they supposed did govern them not only Kings and Great Men who were by their Authority raised above others but the most despicable things in nature Beasts and Birds were the objects of their Adoration They changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to a corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things A Sin so foul that it betrayed them to brutish Blindness and to the most infamous Lusts natural and unnatural Now since the most clear and open discovery of Gods Wisdom was ineffectual to reclaim the World He was pleased to change his method They neglected Him appearing in his Majesty and he now comes cloathed with Infirmities And since by natural light they would not see God the Creator He is imperceptible to the light of Nature as Redeemer The discovery of Him depends on revelation The Wisdom of God in making the World is evident to every Eye but in the Gospel 't is Wisdome in a Mystery The Deity was conspicuous in the Creation but conceal'd under a vail of Flesh when he wrought our Redemption He was more easily discoverd when invisible than when visible He created the World by Power but restor'd it by Sufferings 2. That the Honour of all might solely redound to him God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and the weak things of the World to confound the things that are mighty and base things of the World and things which are despised God hath chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence Thus Moses the Redeemer of Israel was an Infant exposed to the mercy of the Waters drawn forth from an Ark of Bul-rushes and not employed whilst he lived in the splendour of the Court but when Banisht as a Criminal and depriv'd of all power And our Redeemer took not on him the Nature of Angels equal to Satan in power but took part of flesh and blood the more signally to triumph over that proud Spirit in the Humane Nature which was inferiour to his and had been vanquisht by him in Paradise Therefore he did not immediately exercise Omnipotent power to destroy him but manag'd our weakness and infirmity to foil the roaring Lyon He did not enter into the Combat in the glory of his Deity but disguis'd under the Humane Nature which was subject to Mortality And thus the Devil is overcome in the same manner as he first got the Victory for as the whole race of Man was Captivated by him in Adam their Representative so Believers are victorious over him as the Tempter and Tormentor by the Conquest that Christ their Representative obtain'd in the Wilderness and on the Cross. And as our ruine was effected by the subtilty of Satan so our recovery is wrought by the wisdom of God who takes the wise in their own craftiness The Devil excited Judas by avarice the Jews by malice and
that are made he hath upon the compleating our Redemtion by the rising of Christ from the Dead made the First-Day Sacred for his Service and Praise there being the clearest illustration of his Perfections in that Blessed Work God is more pleased in the contemplation of the new World than of the old The latter by its extraordinary Magnificence hath lessen'd the dignity of the former as the greater Light obscures the less Therefore the Sabbath is changed into the Lords-Day And what a just reproach is it to Man that he should be inobservant and unaffected with this glorious Mercy wherein he may alwaies find new cause of Admiration O Lord how great are thy Works and thy Thoughts how deep a brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this The admiring of any other thing in comparison of this Mystery is the effect of Inconsideration or Infidelity 2. It produces the most sincere and lasting pleasure As the taste is to meat to allure us to feed for the support of our bodies that is delight to Knowledge to excite the mind to seek after it But it s vast capacity can never be satisfied with the knowledge of inferior things The pleasure is more in the acquisition than in the possession of it For the mind is diverted in the search but having attained to that knowledge which cannot fill the rational appetite 't is disgusted with the fruits of its travel and seeks some other object to relieve its langour From hence it is that variety is the spring of delight and pleasure is the product of novelty We find the pleasure of the first taste in learning something new is alwayes most sensible The most elegant compositions and excellent discourses which ravisht at the first reading yet repeated often are nauseous and irksome The exercise of the mind on an object fully known is unprofitable and therefore tedious whereas by turning the thoughts on something else it may acquire new knowledge But the Apostle tells us that the Mystery of our Redemption contains all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge to intimate their excellence and abundance the unsearchable riches of Grace are laid up in it There is infinite variety and perpetual matter for the inquiry of the most excellent understanding no created reason is able to reach its height or sound its depths by the continual study and increase in the knowledge of it the mind enjoys a persevering pleasure that far exceeds the short vehemence of sensual delights 2. It excels other Sciences in the certainty of its Principle which is divine Revelation Humane Sciences are built upon uncertain maximes which being admitted with precipitation and not confirm'd by sufficient Experiments the Mind can never fully acquiesce in them Those Doctrines which were esteemed in one Age the vanity of them is discovered in another Modern Philosophy discards the Antient. But the Doctrine of Salvation is the Word of Truth its original is from Heaven it bears the characters and marks of its Divine descent 'T is confirmed by the Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power 'T is alwaies the same unchangeable as God the Author and Christ the Object of it who is the same yesterday to day and for ever And the knowledg which the sincere and enlightned Mind hath of it is not uncertain opinion but a clear solid and firm apprehension 'T is a Contemplation of the Glory of God with open face This appears by the effects it produces in those that have received the true tincture of it in their Souls they despise all things which carnal Men admire in comparison of this inestimable Treasure 2. The Doctrine of the Gospel exceeds all practic Sciences in the excellency of its end and the efficacy of the means to obtain it The end of it is The Supreme Happiness of Man the restoring of him to the Innocence and Excellency of his first state And the means are appointed by infinite Wisdom so that the most insuperable obstacles are removed and these are the Justice of God that condemns the guilty and that strong and obstinate aversion which is in corrupted man from true Felicity Here is a Mediator reveal'd who is able to save to the uttermost who hath quencht the Wrath of God by the Blood of his Divine Sacrifice who hath expiated Sin by the value of his Death and purifies the Soul by the vertue of his Life that it may consent to its own Salvation No less than a Divine Power could perform this work From hence the superlative excellency of Evangelical Knowledg doth arise all other Knowledg is unprofitable without it and that alone can make us perfectly blessed This is Life eternal to know thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent I will briefly consider how ineffectual all other Knowledge is whether Natural Political or Moral to recover us from our Misery The most exact insight into Natural things leaves the Mind blind and poor ignorant of Happiness and the way to it Solomon who had an extraordinary measure of Natural Knowledg and was able to set a just price upon it tels us that the increase of knowledg was attended with proportionable degrees of sorrow For the more a man knows the more he discerns the insufficiency of that knowledg to supply his defects and satisfie his desires He was therefore weary of his Wisdom as well as of his Folly The Devils know more than the profoundest Philosophers yet their Knowledge doth not alleviate their Torments 'T is so far from directing how to escape misery that it will more expose to it by enlarging the Faculties and making them more capable of Torment 'T is the observation of St. Ambrose that when God discovered the Creation of the World to Moses He did not inform him of the greatness of the Heavens the number of the Stars their Aspects and Influences whether they derive their light from the Sun or have it inherent in their own bodies from whence Eclipses are caused how the Rainbow is painted how the Winds fly in the Air or the causes of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea but so much as might be a foundation of Faith and Obedience and left the rest Quasi marcescentis sapientiae vanitates as the vanities of perishing wisdom The most knowing Philosopher though encompast with these sparks yet if ignorant of the Redeemer shall lie down in sorrow for ever And as natural so political Knowledge in order to the governing of Kingdoms and States hath no power to confer happiness upon man It concerns not his main interest 't is terminated within the compass of this short life and provides not for Death and Eternity The Wisdom of the World is folly in a disguise a specious Ignorance which although it may secure the temporal state yet it leaves us naked and exposed to Spiritual enemies which war against the Soul And all the moral knowledg which is treasur'd up in the Books of the Heathens
our eyes from it to vanity Here the complaint is more just Ad sapientiam quis accedit quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit we content our selves with slight and transient glances but do not seriously and fixedly consider this blessed design of God upon which the beginning of our happiness in this and the perfection of it in the next life is built Let us provoke our selves by the example of the Angels who are not concern'd in this Redemption as man is for they continued in their fidelity to their Creator and were alwayes happy in his favour and where there is no alienation between parties reconcilement is unnecessary yet they are Students with us in the same Book and unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery they are represented stooping to pry into these secrets to signifie their delight in what they know and their desire to advance in the knowledge of them With what intention then should we study the Gospel who are the Subject and end of it CHAP. VII The simple Speculation of the Gospel not sufficient without a real Belief and Cordial Acceptance The Reasons why the Jews and Gentiles conspir'd in the contempt of it How just it is to resign up the Understanding to Revelation God knows his own Nature and Will and cannot deceive us We must believe the things that are clearly revealed though we do not understand the manner of their existence Although they are attended with seeming contradictions No Article of Faith is really repugnant to Reason We must distinguish between things incomprehensible and inconceivable Between corrupt and right Reason How Reason is subservient to Faith Humility and Holiness qualifie for the belief of the Gospel-mysteries A naked belief of Supernatural Truths is unprofitable for Salvation An effectual Assent that prevails upon the Will and renders the whole Man obsequious is due to the quality of the Gospel-Revelation THe simple Speculation of this glorious Mystery will be of no profit without a real belief of it and a cordial acceptance of Salvation upon the terms which the Divine Wisdom prescribes The Gospel requires the Obedience of the Understanding and of the Will unless it obtains a full possession of the Soul there is no saving efficacy derived from it And such is the sublimity and purity of the Object that till Reason is sanctified and subdued it cannot sincerely entertain it I will therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal Reason hath made against it and shew how just it is that the Humane Understanding should with reverence yield up it self to the Word of God that reveals this great Mystery to us The Apostle tells us that Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of the Gospel Reason cannot hear without great astonishment for the appearing contradiction between the terms that God should be made Man and the Eternal die The Jews esteem'd it an intolerable Blasphemy and without any Process of Law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus That being a man he should make himself equal with God And they upbraided him in his Sufferings that he could not save himself If he be the King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe on him The Gentiles despised the Gospel as an absurd ill-contrived Fable For what in appearance is more unbecoming God and injurious to his Perfections than to take the frail garment of Flesh to be torn and trampled on Their natural Knowledg of the Deity enclin'd them to think the Incarnation impossible There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of Nature For natural Union supposes the parts incompleat and capable of Perfection by their joyning together But that a Being infinitly perfect should assume by personal Union a nature inferiour to it self the Heathens lookt on it as a Fable forg'd according to the model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope And the Doctrine of our Saviours Death on the Cross they rejected as an impiety contumelious to God They judged it inconsistent with the Majesty and Happiness of the Deity to ascribe to Him that which is the punishment of the most guilty and miserable In the account of carnal Reason they thought more worthily of God by denying that of Him which is only due to the worst of men Celsus who with as much Subtilty as Malice urges all that with any appearance could be objected against our Saviour principally insists on his Poverty and Sufferings the Meanness and Misery of his condition in the world 'T was fit saith he that the Son of God should appear as the Sun which renders it self conspicuous by its own light But the Gospel having declared the Word to be the Son of God relates that he was a man of Sorrows that had no power to defend himself and was deserted by his Father and Followers scourged with Rods and shamefully executed He could not reconcile so many things that seem'd utterly incompatible as Sovereignty and Servitude Innocence and Punishment the lowest of humane Miseries Death with the highest of divine Honours Adoration Briefly Nothing was more contrary to Flesh and Blood than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the World who did not rescue himself from his Enemies and to expect Immortality from him that was overcome by Death Now the Causes of this Infidelity are 1. The Darkness of the Mind which is so corrupted by Original Pravity that it cannot behold Heavenly Mysteries in their proper light so as to acquiesce in the truth of them The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned There is no proportion between the Natural Understanding and Supernatural Truths For although the rational Soul is a Spirit as 't is distinguisht from corporeal Beings yet till 't is purged from Errour and vitious Affections it can never discover the Divinity of things Spiritual so as to embrace them with certainty and delight As there must be a Spirit of Revelation to unvail the object so of Wisdom to enlighten the eye that it may be prepar'd for the reception of it As Heaven is only seen by its own Light So Christ is by his own Spirit Divine Objects and Faith that discerns them are of the same original and of the same quality The natural Understanding as the effects declare is like the Funeral Lamps which by the Antients were put into Sepulchers to guard the ashes of their dead Friends which shine so long as they are kept close a thick moist vapour feeding them and repairing what was consum'd but in opening the Sepulchres and exposing them to the free air they presently faint and expire Thus natural Reason whilst conversant in things below and watching with the dead that is in the Phrase of the Antients studying the Books of Men who have left the world it discovers
any allay in the highest degree of its Perfection The Life of Adam was alwaies in a circle of low and mean functions of the Animal Nature which being common to him and Beasts the acts of it are not strictly Humane But the Spiritual Life in Heaven is entirely freed from those servile necessities and is spent in the eternal performance of the most noble actions of which the intelligent Nature is capable The Saints do alwaies contemplate admire love enjoy and praise their everlasting Benefactor God is to them all in all In short That which prefers the Glory of Heaven infinitely before the first state of Man is the continuance of it for ever 'T is an unwithering and never-fading Glory Adam was liable to Temptations and capable of Change he fell in the Garden of Eden and was sentenc'd to die But Heaven is the Sanctuary of Life and Immortality 't is inaccessible to any evil The Serpent that corrupted Paradise with its Poison can't enter there As there is no seed of Corruption within so no cause of it without Our Redeemer offer'd Himself by the Eternal Spirit and purchased an eternal Inheritance for his People Their Felicity is full and perpetual without encrease for in the first moment 't is perfect and shall continue without declination The Day of Judgment is called the Last Day For Daies and Weeks and Months and Years the Revolutions which now measure Time shall then be swallowed up in an unchangeable Eternity The Saints shall be for ever with the Lord. And in all these respects the Glory of the Redeemed as far exceeds the Felicity of Man in the Creation as Heaven the bright Seat of it is above the fading beauty of the terrestrial Paradise CHAP. XI Redeeming Love deserves our highest Admiration and humble Acknowledgments The illustration of it by several Considerations God is infinitely amiable in Himself yet his Love is transient to the Creature 'T is admirable in Creating and Preserving Man more in Redeeming him and by the Death of his Son The discovery of God's Love in our Redemption is the strongest persuasiue to Repentance The Law is ineffectual to produce real Repentance The common benefits of Providence are insuffâ—cient to cause Faith and Repentance in the guilty Creature The clear discovery of pardoning Mercy in the Gospel can only remove our Fears and induce us to return to God The transcendent Love of God should kindle in us a reciprocal Love to Him His Excellency and His ordinary Bounty to Mankind cannot prevail upon us to love Him His Love to us in Christ only conquers our Hatred Our Love to Him must be sincere and superlative The despising of Saving Mercy is the highest Provocation It makes the Condemnation of Men most just certain and heavy 1. ' THis Redeeming Love deserves our highest Admiration and most humble acknowledgments If we consider God aright it may raise our wonder that He is pleased to bestow kindness upon any created being For in Him is all that is excellent and amiable and 't is essential to the Deity to have the perfect knowledg of Himself and perfect Love to Himself His Love being proportioned to his Excellencies the act is infinite as the object And the perfections of the Divine Nature being equal to his Love 't is a just cause of admiration that 't is not confined to himself but is transient and goes forth to the Creature When David looked up to the Heavens and saw the Majesty of God written in Characters of light he admires that Love which first made Man a litle lower then the Angels and Crowned him with Glory and Honour and that providential care which is mindful of him and visits him every moment Such an inconceivable distance there is between God and Man that 't is wonderful God will spend a thought upon us Lord what is Man that thou takest knowledge of him or the Son of Man that thou makest account of him Man is like to vanity his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away His being in this world hath nothing firm or solid 't is like a shadow that depends upon a cause that is in perpetual motion the light of the Sun and is alwayes changing till it vanishes in the darkness of the night But if we consider Man in the quality of a sinner and what God hath wrought for his recovery we are overcome with amazement All temporal favours are but foils to this miraculous Mercy and unspeakably below the least instance of it without it all the priviledges we enjoy above inferior Creatures in this life will prove aggravations of our future misery God saw us in our degenerate state destroyed by our selves and yet O Goodness truly Divine he loved us so far as to make the way for our recovery High Mountains were to be levelled and great depths to be filled up before we could arrive at blessedness all this God hath done He hath brought the Curse of the guilty upon the innocent and exposed his beloved Son to the Sword of his Justice to turn the blow from us What astonishing goodness is it that God who is the Author and end of all things should become the means of our Salvation And by the lowest abasement What is so worthy of admiration as that the Eternal should become mortal that being in the form of God he should take on him the form of a Servant that the Judge of the World should be condemned by the guilty that he should leave his Throne in Heaven to be nailed to the Cross that the Prince of Life should taste of Death These are the great Wonders which the Lord of Love hath performed and all for sinful miserable and unworthy Man who deserved not the least drop of that Sweat and Blood he spent for him and without any advantage to himself for what content can be added to his felicity by a cursed Creature Infinite Love that is as admirable as saving Love that passeth Knowledge and is as much above our comprehension as desert In natural things admiration is the effect of ignorance but here 't is increased by Knowledg For the more we understand the excellent Greatness of God and the vileness of Man the more we shall admire saving Mercy And the most humble acknowledgments are due for it When David told Mephibosheth that he should eat bread with him at his Tâ—ble continually he bowed himself and said What is thy Servant that thou shouldest look on such a dead Dog as I am A speech ful of gratitude and humility yet he was of a Royal extraction though at that time in a low condition With a far greater sense of our unworthiness we should reflect upon that condescending Love that provides the Bread of God for the food of our Souls without which we had perisht for want David in that divine thanksgiving recorded in the Scripture reflects upon his own meanness and from that magnifies the favour of God towards him Who am I
some temptations wherein the Flesh assaults the Spirit with that violence that Love it self is obliged to call in Fear to its assistance as being more proper to repress its inordinate motions 'T is only in Heaven that perfect Love will consume all concupiscence and cast out fear of Judgment but whilst we are encompast with temptations we must not think under the pretext of a more raised Spirituality that the fear of Hell is either unbecoming or unnecessary 'T is not unworthy a Child of God to employ all the Motives of the Gospel We are commanded to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling But the opening of Hell to our view is not sufficient alone to make us Holy For the strongest terrors although they restrain from the outward forbidden act yet they do not change the Heart According to that of St. Austin Inaniter se victorem putat esse peccati qui poenae timore non peccat quia etsi non impletur foris negotium malae cupiditatis ipsa tamen cupiditas intus est hostis That is the fear of Punishment can never make us truly victorious over sin because although we do not actually accomplish the desires of the corrupt Will yet the corrupt Will is still an enemy that lives within and is only destroyed by the love of Holiness which allures us by the excellent Reward that is promised to it Besides Fear is a violent Passion to which Nature is repugnant so that although its power is great yet not constant how strong soever the force is by which a stone is thrown upwards yet 't is weakned by degrees and overcome by the natural weight of the Stone whereby it falls to the Centre So the Humane Nature resists Fear and lessens its impetuousness so far that frequently it returns to sensual Lusts. Therefore that the Law of the Spirit may be perfect and stable it must be confirmed by the hopes of Heaven As the Natural so the Spiritual Life must be nourisht by grateful food 't is not preserv'd with Aloes or Worm-wood For this reason our Saviour 2. To encourage and raise our Hopes offers to us a Reward infinitely valuable for as God is Infinite such is the Happiness he bestows on his favourites 'T is described to us in Scripture under the most enamouring representations as a state of Peace and Love of Joy and Glory The Prince of Peace reigns in the Holy Jerusalem that is above and preserves an everlasting serenity and calmness The mutinous Spirits that rebell'd were presently chased from thence into this lower Region where they brought trouble and disorder He maketh Peace in his high Places The Peace of Heaven is like the Chrystal Sea before the Throne of the Lamb which no unquiet agitation ever troubles or disturbs An inviolable Love unites all his Subjects no division or jealousie discomposes their Concord They enjoy without envy for infinite Blessedness is not diminished by the number of the possessours The Inheritance in light is communicated to all Although the Angels are distinguish'd by their several Orders and Ministrations as Seraphims and Cherubims Thrones and Powers yet a Chain of Holy Love binds all their affections together And the Saints although they shine with different degrees of Glory yet as in a Chorus of Musick although the voices are different they make but one intire harmony So Love that ever continues unites their wills in a delightful harmonious Agreement Although there are millions of the Celestial Inhabitants yet they all make but one Society Love mixing in one mass of Light and Glory all their understandings and wills And since all true Joy and Sweetness springs from Love 't is impossible but they must feel unspeakable complacency in the reciprocal exercise of so Holy and Pure an Affection But principally their Joy arises from the possession of God himself by the clearest Knowledg and purest Love of his Excellencies They see him as he is Sight is the most Spiritual and noble Sense that gives the most distinct and evident discovery of its objects The Soul in its exalted state sees the King in his Beauty all the perfections of that infinitely Glorious and Blessed Nature in their brightness and purity And this Sight causes the most ardent Love by which there is an intimate and vital union between the soul and its happiness and from hence springs perfect delight In thy presence is fulness of Joy It expels all evil that would imbitter and lessen our felicity And this is an admirable priviledge for the Humane Nature that is so sensible of trouble All complaints and cries all sighings and sorrows are for ever banisht from Heaven If the Light of the Sun be so pleasant that every morning revives the World and renders it new to us which was buried in the darkness of the night how infinitely pleasant will the Light of Glory be that discovers the absolute and universal Excellency of the Deity the beauty of his Holiness the perfection of his Wisdom the greatness of his Power and the riches of his Mercy How inexpressibly great is the Happiness that proceeds from the illumination of a purified Soul when such is the amiableness of God that his infinite and eternal Felicity arises from the fruition of himself The Joy of Heaven is so full and satisfying that a thousand years there are but as one day Inferiour earthly goods presently lose the flower of novelty and languish in our enjoyment of them Variety is necessary to put an edge upon our appetites and quicken our delights because they are imperfect and fall short of our expectation But the object of our Blessedness is infinitely great and produces the same pure and perfect Joy for ever After the longest fruition it never cloys or satiates but is as fresh and new as the first moment And that which is the peculiar Pleasure of the Redeemed is that they shall be with Christ and see his Glory What a marvellous joy will fill our hearts to see our Blessed Saviour who suffer'd so much for us on Earth to reign in Heaven Here He was in his enemies hands there he hath them under his feet Here He was in the form of a Servant there He appears in the form of God adorn'd with all the marks of Majesty Here He was under the cloud of his Fathers displeasure there He appears as the Brightness of his Glory Here He was ignominiously Crucified there He is crown'd with Immortal Honour Now considering the ardent Affections which the Saints have to their Redeemer the contemplation of him in this glorious state must infinitely ravish their hearts Especially if we consider that the exaltation of Christ is theirs The Members triumph when the Head is crown'd His excellent Glory reflects a lustre upon them and by the sight of it they are chang'd into his Likeness If the imperfect and dim sight of his Divine Vertues in the Gospel hath a power to change Believers into his
Image from glory to glory how much more the Vision of his unveiled Face Our Graces here are but as the rude draught and first colours of the Divine Image that shall then be in its perfection We know that when he appears we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The similitude between the Saints above and Christ is so exact that if one should enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and were not directed by the Light of that place he would be apt to think every glorified Saint he meets to be more than a creature St. John the beloved of Christ and as clear-sighted as any of the Apostles mistook an Angel for God and would have adored him although he did not appear in his full glory The Kingdoms of the world with all their splendour are no more in compare to it than a dead spark to the Sun in its brightness The very Bodies of the Saints shall be raised from the Grave and beautified with eternal Ornaments They shall be Companions with the Angels and conformed to the glorious Body of Christ. Briefly In the present state we are not capable to receive the full knowledg of Heaven What we understand is infinitely desirable but the most glorious part is still undiscovered The Apostle tells us Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it enter'd into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for those that love him All that is beautiful or sweet here is but a shadow of that Glory a drop of that vast Ocean of delights For all that is desirable in the Creatures and is disperst among them is united in God as the Original in an infinite and indeficient manner with all the Prerogatives that the Creatures have not Celestial Blessedness as much exceeds our most raised thoughts as God is more glorious in himself than in any representations made of him by the shadows of our earthly Imaginations There is a greater disproportion between the condition of a Saint on Earth and in Heaven than between the Life of an Infant in the Womb and of the same person when advanc'd to the Throne and attended with the Nobility of a Nation St. John declares Now we are the Sons of God but it doth not appear what we shall be Who knows the full signification of being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ of partaking in that glorious Reward which is given to him for his great Services to the Crown of Heaven Who can tell the weight the number and measure of that Blessedness To him that overcomes saith our Redeemer will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne We have reason to break forth in the Language of the Psalmist How great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for those that fear thee and supply the defects of our understanding with a Holy admiration that is the only measure of those things that are above our measure Besides the Reward as in excellency 't is Divine so in duration 't is perpetual Heaven is an inheritance as safe as great Here we are subject to time that carries us and all our goods down its swift stream but there Eternity that is fixt and unchangeable embraces us in its bosome We shall be secure and at Rest for no Person shall take away our Crown we shall reign for ever and ever At Godâ—s right hand are pleasures for evermore that can never abate or end As his Liberal Hand bestows so his Powerful preserves our Happiness The Blessed shall sing Everlasting Hymns of Glory and Songs of thanksgiving to the Great Creatour Redeemer and Sanctifier who hath prepared and purchased that felicity for them and hath brought them to the secure possession of it Now can there be a more powerful motive to Obedience than Infinite and Eternal Blessedness what can pretend to our Affections in competition with it Carnal pleasures only gratifie our viler part the Body in its vilest state but the Joys of Heaven are Spiritual and Sublime and proportioned to our noblest and most capacious Faculties Earthly delights cannot satisfie our senses but the Peace of God passes understanding One hours enjoyment of it is better than an Eternity spent in the pleasures of sin What inexcusable madness is it to prefer painted trifles before that inestimable Treasure Who can truely believe there is such an excellent Glory but he must love it and vigorously endeavour to obtain it Who would not go to the Celestial Canaan though the way lies through a Wilderness where no Flower or Fruit grows All temporal evils are not only to be endured but chearfully embraced in order to the possessing of it The Apostle tells us I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not comparable with the Glory that shall be revealed in us And he was the most fit person to make the comparison having made tryal of both States For he was a Man of Sorrows that had past through affliâ—ctions of all kinds and he was ravisht up to Paradise where he heard those things that exceed all expressions of Humane Words Now after a serious estimate he declares that the Eternal weight of Glory infinitely outballances the Light and momentany troubles of this Life Thus from what hath been said concerning the greatness of the recompences hereafter we may understand how powerful they are to deter Men from Sin and to allure them to Holiness 2. That these objects may be effectual our Saviour hath clearly revealed them and given us convincing evidence and assurance of their reality The Heathens had only some glimmerings and suspicions of a future state They were under doubts concerning the Nature of the Soul whether mortal or incorruptible wavering between the assent and denial and inclining to this or that part as Sense perswaded them to believe themselves only as Bruits or Reason to acknowledge themselves Men. Socrates before his Judges speaks as one that desired Immortality and in his last Discourses to his Friends he endeavours to perswade them but could not conquer his own doubts nor assure himself All his discourses end in Conjectures and uncertain guesses Besides the Hell which they fancyed was made up of such ridiculous and senseless terrours that could only affect Children who were not arrived to the perfect use of Reason And their apprehensions of Happiness in the next Life were so extravagant that what the Philosopher said in general of Hope that 't is the Dream of waking Men is more justly applicable to the Hope of the Heathens in respect of the future reward For as the illusions of a Dream have many times a real Subject but environ'd with so many fantastick Imaginations as spoils all the proportions of it so their Opinion had a foundation in Truth but was mixt with many Errours inconsistent with perfect felicity And as the pleasure of
the Word And accordingly all the Promises of Pardon and Salvation are conditional The holy Mercy of the Gospel offers Forgiveness only to Penitent Believers that return from Sin to Obedience We are commanded to repent and be converted that our sins may be blotted out in the time of refreshment from the presence of the Lord. And Heaven is the reward of persevering Obedience To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life There cannot be the least ground of a rational just Hope in any person without Holiness Whoever hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure By which it appears that the genuine and proper use we are to make of the exceeding great and precious Promises is That by them we may be partakers of the Divine Nature and escape the pollution that is in the world through lust Yet the corrupt hearts of men are so strongly enclined to their lusts that they turn the Grace of God into wantonness and make an advantage of Mercy to assist their Security presuming to sin with less fear and more licence upon the account of the glorious Revelation of it by our Redeemer The most live as if they might be saved without being Saints and enjoy the Paradise of the Flesh here and not be excluded from that of the Spirit hereafter But Grace doth not in the least degree authorize and favour their Lusts nor relax the Sinews of Obedience 't is perfectly innocent of their unnatural abuse of it The Poison is not in the Flower but the Spider Therefore the Apostle propounds it with indignation Shall we sin that Grace may abound God forbid He uses this form of Speech to express an extreme abhorrency of a thing that is either impious and dishonourable to God or pernicious and destructive to Men. As when he puts the question Is God unjust who taketh vengeance God forbid And is there iniquity in God God forbid He rejects the mention of it with infinite aversation Indeed what greater disparagement can there be of the Divine Purity than to indulge our selves in Sin upon confidence of an easie Forgiveness As if the Son of God had been consecrated by such terrible Sufferings to purchase and prepare a Pardon for those who sin securely What an unexpressible indignity is it to make a monstrous alliance between Christ and Belial And this abuse of Grace is pernicious to men if the Antidote be turn'd into Poison and the Remedy cherish the Disease the cause is desperate The Apostle tells us Those that do evil that good may come thereby their damnation is just Suppose a presuming Sinner were assured that after he had gratified his carnal vile desires he should repent and be pardon'd yet 't were an unreasonable defect of Self-love to do so What Israelite was so fool-hardy as to provoke a fiery Serpent to bite him though he knew he should be healed by the brazen Serpent But 't is a degree beyond madness for Men to live in a course of Sin upon the hopes of Salvation making the Mercy of God to be his bondage as if he could not be happy without them An unrenewed Sinner may be the object of Gods Compassion but while he remains so he is uncapable of Communion with him here much less hereafter Under the Law the Lepers were excluded the Camp of Israel where the presence of God was in a special manner much more shall those who are cover'd with moral Pollutions be kept out from the habitation of his Holiness 'T is a mortal Delusion for any to pretend that electing Mercy will bring them to Glory or that the all-sufficient Sacrifice of Christ will atone God's displeasure towards them although they indulge themselves in a course of Sin The Book of Life is secret only the Lamb with whose Blood the names of the Elect are written there can open the seals of it But the Gospel that is a lower Book of Life tells us the qualifications of those who are vessels of Mercy they are by Grace prepar'd for Glory and that there can be no benefit by the Death of Christ without conformity to his Life Those who abuse Mercy now shall have Justice for ever 3. From hence we may discover the peculiar excellency of the Christian Religion above all other Institutions and that in respect of its Design and effect The whole Design of the Gospel is exprest in the words of Christ from Heaven to Paul when he sent him to the Gentiles To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith in Christ. One great End of it is to take away all the filthiness and malignity wherewith Sin hath infected the world and to cause in men a real conformity to Gods Holiness according to their capacity As the Reward it promises is not an earthly Happiness such as we enjoy here but Celestial so the Holiness it requires is not an ordinary natural Perfection which Men honour with the title of Vertue but an Angelical Divine quality that sanctifies us throughout in Spirit Soul and Body that cleanses the Thoughts and Affections and expresses itself in a course of universal Obedience to Gods Will. Indeed there are other things that commend the Gospel to any that with judgment compares it with other Religions The heigth of its Mysteries which are so sacred and venerable that upon the discovery they affect with reverence and admiration Whereas the Religion of the Gentiles was built on Follies and Fables Their most solemn Mysteries to which they were admitted after so long a circuit of Ceremonies and great preparations contain'd nothing but a prodigious mixture of Vanity and Impiety worthy to be conceal'd in everlasting darkness Besides the confirmation of the Gospel by Miracles doth authorize it above all humane Institutions And the glorious eternal Reward of it infinitely exceeds whatever is propounded by them But that which gives it the most visible preheminence is That it is a Doctrine according to godliness The End is the character of its nature The whole contexture and harmony of its Doctrines Precepts Promises Threatnings is for the exaltation of Godliness The objects of Faith revealed are not meerly speculative to be conceived and believed only as true or to be gaz'd on in an Extasie of Wonder but are Mysteries of Godliness that have a powerful influence upon practice The Design of God in the publication of them is not only to enlighten the Mind but to warm the Heart and purifie the Affections God discovers his Nature that we may imitate Him and his Works that we may glorifie Him All the Precepts of the Gospel are to embrace Christ by a lively Faith to seek for Righteousness and Holiness in Him to live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this present
as to violate the Fidelity of Marriage without the wounding of Chastity or to poison a Parent without failing in the duty that is owing to them And to express his indignation he tells them Sic ergo ipsi salva venia in Gehennam detruduntur dum salvo metu peccant Let them expect that God will cast them into Hell without prejudice to their Pardon as they pretend to Sin without prejudice to the respect they bear him To sum up all Jesus Christ as by his Doctrine and Life he clearly discover'd our Duty so he offers to us the Aid of his Spirit for our assistance by which the Commands of the Gospel are not only possible but easy And to enforce our obligations he hath threatned such Vengeance to the rebellious and promised such a Reward to those that obey the Gospel that it is impossible we should not be deeply affected with them if we seriously believe them and He hath given such evidence of their truth that 't is impossible we should not believe them unless the God of this world hath blinded our minds 'T is matter therefore of just astonishment that Christians should not express the efficacy of the Gospel in their actions How can a reasonable Creature believe that eternal Damnation shall be the Punishment of Sin and yet live in the wilful practice of it The Historian speaking of Mushroms that somtimes prov'd deadly to whole Families asks with wonder What pleasure could allure them to eat such doubtful Meat Yet they may be so corrected as to become innocent But when 't is certain that the Pleasures of Sin are mortal Can any one be tempted by those attractives to venture on that which will undoubtedly bring Death to the Soul Let Sense itself be Judg and make the comparison between whatsoever the present Life can afford for delight in Sin and what the future Death will bring to torment it Let the Flesh see into what torments all its delights shall be changed and with what other fire than of impure Lust it shall burn for ever Besides We are encouraged to our Duty with the assurance of a Happiness so excellent that not only the enjoyment of it in the next World but the just expectation of it here makes us truly blessed If the Reward were small or the Promise uncertain there might be some pretence for our not performing the Conditions to obtain it but when the one is infinitely great and the other as true as the God of truth what more powerful motive can be conceiv'd to make us holy 'T is the Apostles chosen Argument that We should walk worthy of him who hath call'd us to his Kingdom and Glory The Heathens were in a great measure strangers to the Secrets of another World they had but a shadow of probability we have the Light of Truth brought down from Heaven by the Son of God that reveals to us a Blessedness that deserves our most ardent active Affections But if Men are not wrought on by natural Reason nor divine Faith if neither the Terrours of the Lord nor the blessed Hope can perswade them from Sin to Holiness their condition is irrecoverable In this the Rules of Natural and Spiritual Healing agree Where neither Corrosives nor Lenitives are successful we must use the Knife if cutting off be unprofitable we must fear the part if the Fire is ineffectual the Ulcer is incurable If the threatning of Hell-fire through Unbelief and Carelesness is not fear'd and hath no efficacy to correct and change Sinners what remains but to make a presage of eternal Death that will unavoidably and speedily seize on them And if so clear a discovery of the Heavenly Glory doth not produce in men a living Faith that works by Love and a lively Hope that purifies the Heart and Conversation what can be concluded but that they are wholly sensual and senseless and shall be for ever deprived of that Blessedness they now despise and neglect CHAP. XX. The Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World in respect of the greatness of the effect and the manner of its production T is as evident in our Redemption The Principal Effects of it are considered The Incarnation of the Son of God is a work fully responsible to Omnipotence Our Redeemers Supernatural Conception by the Holy Ghost The Divine Power was eminently declared in the Miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the course of his Ministry His Miracles were the evidence of His Celestial Calling they were necessary for the conviction of the World their Nature considered The Divine Power was Glorified in making the Death of Christ Victorious over all our Spiritual Enemies The Resurrection of Christ the effect of Glorious Power The Reasons of it from the quality of his Person and the nature of his Office that he might dispense the Blessings he had purchased for Believers His Resurrection is the foundation of Faith It hath a threefold reference to his Person as the Son of God to his Death as an Alsufficient Sacrifice to his Promise of raising Believers at the last day THE Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World not only in regard of the greatness of the Effect that comprehends the Heavens and Earth and all things in them but in regard of the marvelous way of its Production for He made the great Universe without the concurrence of any material cause from nothing For this reason the raising this glorious Fabrick is producâ—d as the distinctive character of the Deity from the troop of false gods The Psalmist declares The Lord is to be fearâ—d above all gods for all the gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made the Heavens And as He began the Creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence so in forming the other parts He drew them from infirm and indisposed matter as from a second nothing that all his Creatures might bear the real testimonies of Infinite Power Thus He commanded Light to arise out of Darkness and sensible Creatures from an insensible Element He created Man the accomplishment of all his Works from the lowest and grossest Element the Earth Now although at the first view we might conceive that the visible World is the greatest Miracle that ever God performed yet upon serious reflection we shall discover that the works of Grace are as wonderful as the works of Nature and that the Power of God is as evidently exprest in our Redemption as in the Creation For the fuller understanding of this I will consider some of the principal Effects of the Divine Power in order to our blessed Recovery 1. The Incarnation of the Son of God in accomplishing whereof such Power was exercis'd as no limited Understanding is able to comprehend The Word was made Flesh. This signifies the real Union between the Humane Nature and the Divine in our Redeemer Before his Incarnation he appeared in an humane form to the Patriarchs and
the Lord. And immediately there was a general commotion among them they joyn'd together the sinews and flesh came upon them and the skin cover'd them And upon a second Prophesy they were all inspir'd with the Breath of Life and stood up an exceeding great Army Now whether this was really represented to his outward senses or only by the efficacy of the Spirit to his imagination no doubt so strange a Spectacle vehemently affected him as with Joy in hope of the miraculous Restoration of Israel which that Vision foretold so with admiration of the Divine Power But when the Trumpet of the Arch-Angel shall sound the Universal Jubilee and call forth the Dead from all their Receptacles when the Elements as Faithful Depositaries shall effectively restore what was committed to them How Admirable will the Power of God appear 2. No less than Infinite Power is able to change the raised Bodies into the likenesse of Christs The Apostle speaks with an exaggeration of it For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our Vile Bodies that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself This resemblance will be only in the Person of Believers All Men shall rise to be judged but not all to be transform'd There is a Resurrection to Death as well as to Life Unhappy Resurrection Which only serves to make the Body the Food of Eternal Death But the Saints who endeavoured to be like to Christ in purity shall then have a perfect conformity to him in Glory and Immortality How Glorious the Body of Christ is we may conjecture in part by what the Apostle relates to Agrippa At mid-day O King I saw in the way a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me Which was no other but the Light of the Face of Christ that struck him with Blindnesse One Ray of this reflecting upon the first Martyr Saint Stephen in his Sufferings gave an Angelical Glory to his countenance And Saint John tells us when he appears we shall be like him He alludes to the rising of the Sun but with this difference when the Sun appears in the Morning the Stars are made invisible but the Bodies of the Saints shall be cloathed with a Sun-like lustre and shine in the midst of Christs Glory Omnipotency alone that Subdues all things can raise and refine them from their Dross unto such an admirable Brightness The Angels will be surpris'd with wonder to see Millions of Stars spring out of the Dust. The Lord Jesus Christ will be admir'd in all them that Believe 2. Their Bodies shall be raised to a Glorious Immortality In this the General Resurrection is Different from that which was Particular as of Lazarus by the one Death was overcome and put to flight only for some time for his second life was no more exempt from Death than his first But by the other Death shall be swallowed in Victory and lose its force for ever Then shall our true Joshua be magnified in the sight of the whole World and the Glorious number of Saints shall cast their Crowns at his Feet and sing the Triumphant Song Thou hast Redeem'd us to God by thy Blood and rescued us by thy Power from all our Enemies and art worthy of Honour and Glory and Blessing for ever CHAP. XXII The extraordinary working of the Divine Power is a convincing proof of the Verity of the Christian Religion The internal Excellencies of it are clear marks of its Divinity to the purified Mind The external Operations of God's power were requisite to convince men in their corrupt state that the Doctrine the Gospel came from God The miraculous owning of Christ by the whole Divinity from Heaven The Resurrection of Christ the most important Article of of the Gospel and the demonstration of all the rest How valuable the Testimony of the Apostles is concerning it That 't was impossible they should deceive or be deceived The quality of the Witnesses considered There cannot be the least reasonable suspicion of them 'T is utterly incredible that any humane temporal respects mov'd them to feign the Resurrection of Christ. The nature of the Testimony considered It was of a matter of fact and verified to all their Senses The Uniformity of it secures us there was no corruption in the Witnesses and that it was no illusion They seal'd the truth of it with their Blood The Miracles the Apostles did in the Name of Christ a strong demonstration that he was rais'd to a glorious life That Power was continued in the Church for a time The Conclusion how reasonable it is to give an entire Assent to the truth of Christianity 'T is desperate Infidelity not to believe it and the highest Madness to pretend to believe it and to live in disobedience to it 1 FRom what hath been discours'd concerning the extraordinary working of the Divine Power we have a most convincing proof of the Verity of the Christian Religion For since God hath by so many miraculous Effects the infallible indications of His Favour to the Person of Jesus Christ justified his Doctrine no reasonable doubt can remain concerning it Indeed the internal excellencies of it which are visible to the purged Eye of the Soul are clear marks of its Divinity The Mystery of our Redemption is made up of various parts in the Union of which such an evident Wisdom appears that the rational Mind unless enslaved by prejudice must be ravisht into a compliance Even that which most offends Sense the Meanness of our Saviours condition in the world and the miseries to which He was expos'd do so perfectly correspond with his great design to make Men holy and heavenly that it appears to be the effect of most wise Counsel And such a Beauty of Holiness shines in the Moral part as clearly proves God to be its Authour It denounces war against all Vices and commands every Vertue All that is excellent in humane Institutions it delivers with infinite more authority and efficacy And what natural reason did not reach to it fully describes in order to the Glory of God and the Happiness of Man Now as God the Authour of Nature hath by Tasts and Smells and other sensible qualities distinguish'd things wholsom from noxious even to the lowest living Creatures So He hath much more distinguish'd objects that are saving from deadly that is the true Religion from the false by undoubted evidences to any who will exercise their Spiritual Senses and sincerely desire to know and obey it And that all the wise and holy embraced it in the face of the greatest discouragements is an unanswerable Argument that 't is pleasing to God For how is it possible that the Good God should suffer those to fall into mortal Errour who from an ardent Affection to Him
pretended Hero rather than have given his Life for a Lie Now the Apostles endur'd the most cruel Deaths to confirm the Truth of their Testimony And what could possibly induce them to it if they had not been certain of his Resurrection Could love to their dead Master animate them to suffer for the honour of his Name This is inconceiveable For He promis'd that He would rise the third Day and ascend to Heaven and make them partakers of his Glory So that if He had lain in the rotâ—enness of the Grave What charm what stupidity was able to make them preserve so high a Venâ—ration for a Deceiver Nothing could remain in them but the memory and indignation of his Imposture Now if it be the dictate of natural Reason that the concurrent Testimony of two or three credible Persons not weaken'd by any exception is sufficient to decide any Cause of the greatest moment that respects Life Honour and Estate how much more should the attestation of the Apostles put this great Truth beyond all doubt since they parted with their Lives the most precious possession in this World for it and which is infinitely more if Deceivers they would certainly be deprived of Eternal Life in the next In short Since the Creation never was a Testimony so clear and authentick the Divine Providence so ordering the circumstances that the Evidence should be above all Suspicion Neither did it ever happen that any thing affirm'd by so many and such worthy Persons was ever suspected much less found to be false 'T is the most unreasonable stifness not to yeeld an intire Assent to it For there would be no secure Foundation of determining innumerable weighty Cases if we should doubt of things reported by the most credible circumspect Persons since we can be certified by our own Senses but of a few Objects I shall only add That the Apostles did many and great Miracles in the Name of Christ which was the strongest demonstration that He was rais'd to a glorious Life They were invested by the Spirit with the habits of various Tongues This kind of Miracle was necessary for the universal Preaching of the Gospel For how difficult and obstructive had it been to their Work if they must have return'd to their Infant-state to learn the Signification of forrein Languages to pronounce the words in their original Sound and the Accents proper to their Countrey Therefore the Holy Spirit according to the promise of Christ descended upon them and became their Master and in a moment imprest on their Memories the forms of discoursing and on their Tongues the manner of expressing them Where-ever the Doctrine of Jesus was preach'd God bare them witness both with Signes and Wonders and with divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will When St. Peter pass'd through the streets fill'd with persons diseased and half dead he caused an universal resurrection by touching them with his reviving shadow They tamed Serpents and quencht the malignity of their Poison they commanded Death to leave its prey and Life to return to its mansion that was not habitable for it And that miraculous Power continued in their Successours so long as was requisite for the conviction of the World Justin Martyr Irenaeus Tertullian Origen Cyprian mention divers Miracles perform'd by Christians in those times Tertullian offers to the Emperour to whom he addrest his admirable Apology to compel the Devils that possest Humane Bodies to confess themselves to be evil Spirits to constrain the Prince of darkness to enlighten his own Slaves And Cyprian assures the Governour of Africa that he would force the Devils to come out of the Bodies they tormented lamenting their ejection Now we cannot imagine they would so far discredit their Doctrine and Reputation as to pretend to such a Power without they had it In short To deny the Miracles wrought by the Primitive Christians were as great rashness as to deny that Caesar conquer'd Pompey or that Titus succeeded Vespasian For we have the concurrent Testimony of the gravest and best Men of Understanding and Conscience who were Eye-witnesses and which was not contradicted by those of the same Age. Briefly There are such clear characters of the Divine Hand to render the Gospel authentick that to deny it to be true is to make God a liar The Conclusion is this We see how reasonable it is to give an entire assent to the truth of Christianity The Nature of the Doctrine that is perfecty Divine declares its Original 'T is confirmed by Supernatural Testimonies The Doctrine distinguishes the Miracles from all false wonders the illusions of Satan and the Miracles confirm the Doctrine What doubt can there be after the full deposition of the Spirit in raising Christ from the Grave in qualifying the Apostles who were rude and ignorant with Knowledg Zeal Courage Charity and all Graces requisite for their great enterprise and in converting the World by their Ministry and Miracles If we believe not so clear a Revelation our Infidelity is desperate When our Saviour was upon the Earth the Meanness and Poverty of his appearance lessen'd their Crime who did not acknowledg and honour him in the disguise of a Servant Therefore they were capable of favour Many of his bloody Persecutors were converted and saved by the Preaching of the Apostles But since the Holy Ghost hath convinc'd the World by so strong a Light of Sin Righteousness and Judgment viz. That Jesus whom the Jews most unworthily Crucified was the Son of God that in dying He purchased the Pardon of Sin since He is risen and received to Glory That all power in Heaven and Earth is given to Him the effect of which is most visible For spiritual Wickednesses trembled at his Name were expelled from their Dominions and sent to their old Prison to suffer the Chains and Flames due to them To refuse his Testimony is a degree of Obstinacy not far distant from Malice of of the Devils and puts Men without the reserves of pardoning Mercy And 't is not a slight superficial Belief of this great Truth that is sufficient but that which is powerful in making us universally obedient to our Glorified Redeemer who will distribute Crowns to all his faithful Servants We cannot truly believe his Resurrection without believing his Doctrine nor believe his Doctrine without unfeigned Desires after the eternal Felicity it promises nor desire that Felicity without a sincere compliance to his Commands in order to the obtaining it In short 'T is Infidelity approaching Madness not to believe the Truth of the Gospel but 't is Madness of an higher kind and more prodigious to pretend to believe it and yet to live in disobedience to its Precepts in contempt of its Promises and Threatnings as if it were a meer Fable CHAP. XXII The Honour of God's Truth with respect to the Legal Threatning was preserv'd in the Death of Christ. The Divine Truth with respect to the Promises and
Babylon But at the coming of Christ Judea was a Province of the Roman Empire Herod an Edomite sate on the Throne and as the Tribe of Judah in general so the Family of David in particular was in such a low state that Joseph and Mary that were descended from him were constrain'd to lodg in a stable at Bethlehem And since the blessed Peace-maker hath appear'd on the Earth the Jews have lost all Authority their Civil and Ecclesiastical State is utterly ruin'd and they bear the visible marks of infamous Servitude 2. The Second famous Prediction is by an Angel to Daniel when he was lamenting the ruine of Jerusalem who comforted him with an assurance that the City should be rebuilt And further told him That from the going forth of the Commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two Weeks the streets shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times And after threescore and two weeks shall the Messiah be cut off but not for himself and the People of the Prince that shall come shall destroy the City and Sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with a flood and to the end of the war desolations are determined The clear intent of the Angels Message is That within the space of seventy Prophetical Weeks that is four hundred and ninety years according to the Exposition of the Rabbins themselves after the issuing forth the order for the rebuilding Jerusalem the Messiah should come and be put to Death for he sins of Men which was exactly fulfil'd 3. The time of the manifestation of the Messiah is evidently set down in the Haggai 2.6 7 8 9. I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come and I will fill this house with Glory saith the Lord of hosts The Silver is mine and the Gold is mine saith the Lord of Hosts The Glory of the latter shall be greater than that of the former saith the Lord of Hosts and in this place will I give peace The Prophet to encourage the Jews in building the Temple assur'd them that it should have a surpassing Glory by the presence of the Messiah who is call'd the Desire of all Nations and being the Prince of Peace his coming is described by that blessed effect and in this place will I give Peace saith the Lord of Hosts The second Temple was much inferiour to Solomons as in Magnificence and external Ornaments so especially because defective in those Excellencies that were peculiar to the first They were the Ark of the Covenant and the appearance of Glory between the Cherubims the fire from Heaven to consume the Sacrifices the Urim and Thummim and the Holy Ghost who inspir'd the Prophets But when the Lord came to his Temple and perform'd many of his Miracles there this brought a Glory to it infinitely exceeding that of the former For what comparison is there between the shadowy presence of God between the Cherubims and his real presence in the humane Nature of Christ in whom the fulness of the God-head dwelt bodily How much inferiour were the Priests and Prophets to him who came from Heaven and had the Spirit without measure to reveal the Counsel of God for the Salvation of the World 2. The particular Circumstances foretold concerning the Messiah are all verified in Jesus Christ. It was foretold that the Messiah should have a fore-runner to prepare his way by preaching the Doctrine of Repentance that he should be Born of a Virgin and of the Family of David and in the Town of Bethlehem that he shold go into Egypt be cal'd forth from thence by God that his chief residence should be in Galilee the region of Zebulon and Nephthali that he should be poor and humble and enter into Hierusalem on the Fole of an Ass that he should perform great miracles in restoring the Blind the Lame the Deaf and Dumb that he should suffer many afflictions Contempt Scorn Stripes be Spit on Scourg'd betray'd by his familiar Friend sold for a sordid Price that he should be put to Death that his hands and feet should be bored and his side pierc'd that he should dy between Thieves that in his Passion he should taste vinegar and gall that his garments should be divided and Lots be cast for his Coat that he should be buried and his Body not see corruption but rise again the third day that he should ascend to Heaven and sit at the right hand of God and all these Predictions are exactly fulfil'd in the Lord Christ. 3. The consequents of his Coming are foretold 1. That the Jews should reject him because of the meanness of his appearance They neither understood the Greatness and Majesty nor the Abasement of the Messiah described in their Prophesies not his Greatness that the Son of David was his Lord that he was before Abraham who rejoyced to his Day for they did not believe the Eternity of his Divine Nature They did not understand his humiliation to Death Therefore 't was objected by them that the Messiah remains for ever and this Person saith he shall dy They fancied a carnal Messiah shining with Worldly pomp accompanied with thundring legions to deliver them from Temporal Servitude so that when they saw him without form and comeliness and that no Beauty was in him to make him desireable they hid their Faces from him they despised and esteemed him not Thus by their obstinate refusal of the Messiah they really and visibly fulfil'd the Prophecies concerning him 2. That the Levitical Ceremonies and Sacrifices should cease upon the Death of the Messiah and the Jewish Nation be dissolved Although the legal Service was establisht with great solemnity yet there was alwayes a sufficient indication that it should not be perpetual Moses who delivered the Law told them that God would raise another Prophet whom they must hear And David compos'd a Psalm to be sung in the Temple containing the establishment of a Priest not according to the order of Levi but Melchisedec who should bring in a Worship Spiritual and Divine And we see this accomplisht all the Ceremonies were buried in his grave the Sacrifices for above sixteen hundred years are ceast Besides the destruction of the Holy City and Sanctuary the Jews are scatter'd in all parts and in their dreadful dispersion suffer the just punishment of their Infidelity 3. It was Prophesied that in the time of the Messiah Idols should be ruin'd and Idolaters converted to the knowledg of the true God That he should be a Light to the Gentiles and to him the gathering of the People should be And this is so visibly accomplisht in the conversion of the World to Christianity that not one jot or title of Gods Word hath fail'd so that besides the Glory due to his Power and Mercy we are obliged to honour him as the Fountain of Truth I will now