had built was placed in the Holy of Holys a place iâ—â—cessible a Symbol of the impeâ—â—â—rable Majesty of God and of Heaven forbidden to Men until Jesus Christ had opened them an Entrance into it by the shedding of his â—tood On the Day of the Dedication of the Temple God appeared there in his Majesty He chose that place to establish his Name and his Worship there He forbad them there to Sacrifice in any other place The unity of God was demonstrated of the Unity of his Temple Jerusalem became a holy City the image of the Church 〈◊〉 God was to inhabit as in his true Temple and of Heaven where he will make us eternally happy by the manifestation of his glory After that Solomon had built the Temple he built also the Palace of the Kings the Architecture of which was worthy so great a Prince His Country-house which was called The Forest of Lebanon 1 Kings 7.2 10. was equally magnificent and delicate The Palace which he made for the Queen was a new Ornament to Jerusalem Every thing was great and splendid in those Buildings The Potches the Galleries the Walks the King's Throne and the Tribunal where he sate to judge Cedar was the only Wood he made use of in all those costly Works All things shined there of Gold and rich Stones The Citizens and the Strangers admired the Majesties of the Kings of Israel The rest was correspondent to this Magnificence 1 Kings 10. 2 Chron. 8 9. The Towns the Arsenals the Horses the Chariots the Prince's Guard the Commerce the Navigation and the good Order with a profound Peace had made Jerusalem the richest City of the East The Kingdom was at rest and abounded with all things every thing there represented the heavenly glory In the Wars of David were seen the wearisome Toils by which they were to deserve it and in the reign of Solomon how peaceable and quiet the Enjoyment of it was But the raising of these two great Kings and of the Royal Family was th' effect of a particular Election David himself celebrates the Marvel of it in these words 1 Chron. 28.4 5. The Lord God of Israel chose 〈◊〉 before all the House of my Father to be King over Israel for ever for he hath chosen Judah to be the Ruler and of the House of Judah the House of my Father and among the Sons of my Father he liked me to make me King over all Israel and he said to me Solomon thy Son shall build my House and my Courts for I have chosen hiâ— to be my Son and I will be his Father This Divine Election had a higher object than what at first appeared That Messiah so often promised as the Son of Abraham was also to be the Son of David and of all the Kings of Judah It was upon the prospect of the Messiah and of his Eternal Reign that God promised to David that his Throne should be maintained for ever Solomon chosen to be his Successor was designated to represent the Person of the Messiah Wherefore God saith of him 2 Sam. 7.14 I will be his Father and he shall be my Son a thing which he never said with that energy and force of any King nor of any Man Also in the time of David 1 Chron. 22.10 and under the Kings his Sons the Mystery of the Messiah was declared more than ever by the wonderful Prophecies which were clearer than the Sum at Noon-day David perceived it afar off and sung of it in his Psalms with a grandcur that nothing will ever be equal to it Oft-times he only thought of celebrating the glory of his Son Solomon and of a sudden being transported beyond himself and carried far away Matth. 6.29.12.42 Psal 72.5.11.17 he saw him who was greater than Solomon both in glory and wisdom The Messiah appeared to him sitting upon a Throne more lasting than the Moon He saw at his feet all the Nations overcome and blessed in him agreeable to the Promise made to Abraham He raised his sight higher still and said 〈◊〉 saw him in the light of his Saints Psal 110. and before the Morning coming from all Eternity out of the Bosome of his Father the Eternal High Priest and without a Successor neither succeeding himself to any One created extraordinarily not according to the order of Aâ—râ—â— but after the order of Melchisedâ—â— a new order which the Law knew nothing of He beheld him sitting on the right hand of God and seeing from the highest Heavens his Enemies his Footstool He is astonished at so great and wonderful a Spectacle and ravished with the glory of his Son he calleth him His Lord. He saw him God that God had anointed him to make him over all the Earth Psal 45.3 4 5 6 7 8. c. by his Meekness Truth and Righteousness He was in Spirit assisting to the Council of God and heard from the very Mouth of the Eteâ—nal Father that Word which he addressed to his only Son Psal 2.7 8. This day have I begotten Thee whereto God joyned the Promise of a perpetual Empire Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy Possession Thou shalt break them with a rod of Irâ—n thâ—â— shalt dash them in pieces like a Pâ—tter'â— Vessel Why do the Heathen rage and the People imagine a vain thing the Kings of the Earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying Let us break their Bâ—nds asunder and cast away their Cords from us He that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derisiâ—n for their foolish Projects and in spight of all their ridiculous opposition he will establish the Empire of his Christ Be wise therefore Psal 2.10 O ye Kings be instructed ye Jâ—dges of the Earth He establishes him upon themselves and they must be the first Subjects of that Christ whose Yoke they would have so fain shook off And tho' the Kingdom of that great Messiah be often foretold in the Scriptures under the most pompous and magnificent Idea's yet God did not hide from David the Igonominies of that blessed Fruit of his Loinâ— This Instruction was necessary for the People of God If that People as yet but weak had need of being drawn on by Temporal Promises yet it was not fâ—t to let them only have regard to these Humane things as their utmost and most soveraign Felicity and as their only Recompence wherefore God shews them afar off that Messiah so much promised and so much desired the Model of Perfection the Object of their Complaisances and Delight swallowed up with Grief The Cross appeared to David as the true Throne of that new King He saw his hands and his feet pierced and that all his bones might be told Psal 22.16 17 18 19. they looked and stared upon him being most
easy because he would have his Life as commodious as it should be innocent But Man kept not this Command tho' it was of so easy an Observance he hearkens to the tempting Spirit and he hearkens to himself also instead of fixing his attention on God only So that his Ruine was inevitable But here we must consider it in its original State as well as in its after-circumstances God in the beginning had made his Angels Spirits pure and separate from all matter He that made nothing but what was good had created them all in Holiness and they might have secured their Felicity by giving themselves up voluntarily to their Creator But whatsoever is derived out of nothing is defective One part of these Angels suffered themselves to be seduced by their own self-Love Unhappy Creatures who would be pleased in themselves and not in God They lost in a Moment all that He had given them Strange effect of Sin Those Holy Creatures of Light became Spirits of Darkness They ceased any longer to have any Light in them but what turned it self into malicious Craftiness An Envious Malignity possessed them in the room of their former Lovingness and Charity Their natural Greatness was nothing but Pride Their Felicity was changed into that consolation of getting to themselves Companions in their Misery and their most delightful Exercises were to be miserably imployed in tempting Men. The most perfect of them all who had also been the most proud found himself the greatest evil doer as he was the most miserable Man Psal 8.5 whom God had made but little lower than the Angels in uniting him to a Body became a Spirit so perfect as if he had been an Object of Jealousy he was resolved to ensnare him in his Rebellion afterwards to envelop him in his Ruine We will take notice how he speaks to him and search into the bottom of his Artifices He addresses himself to Eve as to the weaker Vessel but in the person of Eve he speaks to her Husband as well as to her Gen. 3.1 Why hath God made you this severe Prohibition If he hath made you reasonable you ought to know the reason of all things This Fruit is not Poison neither shall you die Gen. 3.4 Thus that revolted Spirit began with her She then argued upon the Command and her Obedienâ—e began to stagger You shall be as Gods free and independent happy in your selves wise by your selves Gen. 3.5 knowing good and evil nothing shall be impenetrable to you By â—hese Artifices of persuasion did this wicked Spirit set up himself against the order of the Creator and made himself superior to the Rule Eve being half brought over wishfully looked upon the Fruit whose Beauty promised a pleasant taste Considering that God had united in-Man Soul and Body she thought that in favour to Man he might also have given to Plants supernatural Vertues and intellectual gifts to sensible Objects After she had eaten of that Fruit which was so pleasant to the Eye and so much to be desired to make one wise v. 6. she presented some of it to her Husband and 't was a very dangerous assault upon him Example and Complaisance fortified the Temptation he was beguiled into the Sentiments of the Tempter being so well seconded a deceitful Curiosity a flattering thought of Pride the secret Pleasure of acting by himself and according to the pulse of his own Inclinations drew him in and miserably was he cheated He resolved to make a dangerous tryal of his Liberty and he tasted with the Fruit forbidden him the fatal Sweetness and Pleasure of contenting his Fancy The Senses too mingled their attractions to this new Charm he follows them he submits himself to them and he who before was the Master of is now become a Captive to them At the same time he finds a change in every thing The Earth no longer smiles upon him as before it will yield nothing but by an industrious Labour The Heaven is without that Serenity of Air the Beasts which were all subject to him even the most odious and most wâ—ld and pleased him with an innocent Divertisement now appear to him in dreadful Forms God who had made all things for his Happiness in a moment turned all things to his miserable punishment He was become a Torment to himself he that before so much loved himself The Rebellion of his Senses makes him see somewhat in himself he knows not what that is very vile and despicable 'T is now no longer that first work of the Creator wherein every thing was beautiful Sin has formed a new work which he would fain conceal if possible Man could no longer support his Shame but wished he had been able to cover it even with his own Eyes But God was still much more unsupportable to him That great God who had made him after his own Image and Likeness and who had indued him with Understanding as a necessary relief to his Mind was pleased to discover himself to him under a sensible Form Ibid. 8. He sought out the most recluse places of the Garden to hide himself from him who before was all his Joy and all his Happiness His Conscience accuses him before ever God speaks a word and his miserable frivolous Excuses do but serve the more absolutely to confound him He must die the remedy of an immortal State is taken away from him and a most dreadful Death which is that of the Soul is typisyed to him by that Corporeal to which he is condemned And behold here was our Sentence pronounced inclusively in his God who had resolved to reward his Obedience in all his descendent Posterity as soon as he had revolted and fell from him condemns him and strikes him not only in his own Person but likewise in all his Seed as in the most quick and tenderest part of himself We were all accursed in our first Parent our Birth is depraved and corrupted in its very Source We shall not here examine those terrible Rules of the divine Justice by which the whole Race of Mankind was accursed in its first Original Let us adore the Judgments of God who regards all men as one single man in him from whom he would have all men to proceed Let us also look upon our selves as degraded in our rebellious Father as for ever made miserable by the Sentence which condemned him as being banished with him and excluded out of Paradise where we might have all been born The Rules of humane Justice may help us a little to enter into the profoundness of the divine Justice whereof they are but a Shadow but they cannot discover to us the depth of that Abyss Let us believe that the Justice as well as the Mercy of God will not be measured by the poor scantling Rules of Men and that the Effects of them both are much more extensive and much more secret But though the Severities of God upon Mankind are dreadful
was clear enough and sufficiently present if we would have been attentive to it was just ready to vanish and be gone Prodigious Fables and such also as were as full of Impiety as Extravagance took their place The time was come where Truth but ill kept in the memory of men could no longer keep it self with being written and God having besides resolved to form his people to Virtue by Laws more express and in a greater number he was pleased at the same time to give them in writing Moses was summoned to this work That great Man recollected the History of past Ages That of Adam that of Noah that of Abraham that of Isaac that of Jacob that of Joseph or rather that of God himself and of his admirable Works He was not to search far for the tradition of his Ancestors He was born a hundred Years after the Death of Jacob. The old Men of his time might have conversed several Years with that Holy Patriarch The memory of Joseph and the Miracles which God had wrought by that great Minister of the Kings of Egypt were yet fresh in their Minds The Lives of three or four Men reached up even to Noah who had seen the Sons of Adam and as I may so say had touched the beginning of time and things Thus the antient traditions of Mankind and those of the Family of Abraham were not hard to be collected the Memory of them was still alive and we need not wonder if Moses in his Genesis speaks of things that happened in the first Ages as things certain whose memorable Monuments are still to be seen both in the neighbouring People and in the Land of Canaan In the time when Abraham Isaac and Jacob inhabited that Land they had in several places erected the monuments of things which had happened to them There is yet shewn there the places where the lived the Wells they had dug and sunk in those dry and sterile Countries to find their Families and their Flocks Water the Mountains whereon they Sacrificed to Almighty God and where he manifested himself to them the Stones which they had laid on Heaps to serve as a memorial to Posterity the Tombs wherein their blessed Ashes are deposited The memory of those great Men were fresh not only in all the Country but likewise in all the East where many of those famous Nations have still remembred that they have come from their Race So when the Hebrews entred into the promised Land every place there did celebrate their Ancestors both the Towns and the Mountains and the very Stones themselves did there speak of those marvellous Men and of those astonishing Visions by which God had confirmed them in the antient and true belief Those who are ever so little conversant in Antiquities do know how curious the first times were to erect and to preserve such Monuments and how industriously careful Posterity has been since to retain the occasions of their setting of them up 'T was one of the ways of their writing History the Stones have since been better fashioned and polished and Statues have succeeded after Pillars to great and solid Masses which the first times erected 'T is also very rational to believe that in the lineage wherein was preserved the knowledg of God were also preserved by writing the remembrances of antient times For Men have never been without that care At least this is most certain that they made Songs which the Fathers taught their Children Songs which were sung at their Festivals and in their Assemblies gave a perpetuity to the remembrance of the most remarkable actions of the past Ages From hence came Poetry which was afterwards changed into various forms and modes the most antient whereof is still preserved in Odes and those heroick ways used by all the Antients and still to this day by those People who have not the use of Letters in Praising God and great Men. The stile of those Songs is bold extraordinary natural always in what it is fit to represent Nature in all its Transports which for that reason is forced by the most lively and impetuous Sallies disengaged from these ordinary Bonds that are requisite in an united Discourse confined besides to just Numbers and Cadences which advances their force surprizes the Ear seizes the Imagination gives an Emotion to the Heart and with more ease imprints it self in the Memory Among all the People of the World none have so much used these kind of Songs as have the People of God Moses takes notice of a great many of them which he denotes by the first Verses because the People knew the rest Numb xxi v. 14.17.18.27 c. Exod. xv 1. He himself hath made two of this Nature The first is his Song for their triumphant passing over the Red Sea and the Enemies of the People of God some already drowned the rest half conquered by the dread and terror of it By the second Deut. xxxii v. 1. Moses confounds the Peoples ingratitude by setting forth Gods Mercyâ— and Vengeance Following Ages imitated him 'T was God and his marvellous Works were the Subject of those Odes which they composed God himself inspired them and it was only to the People of God that Poetry came truly by Enthusiasm Jacob declared in that mystical Language the Oracles which contained the Destiny of his twelve Sons that so every Tribe might the more easily keep in Mind what particularly related to it and learn to praise him who was no less magnificent in his Predictions than faithful in performing them Thus you see the means made use of by God to preserve even down to Moses the remembrance of past transactions That great Man instructed by all those means and raised upon high by the Holy Ghost hath written the Works of God with an exactness and simplicity which attracts belief and admiration not only to himself but even to Almighty God He hath joined to past actions which contained the original and antient Traditions of the People of God the wonders which God actually wrought for their deliverance Of that he produces to the Israelites no other Witnesses than their own Eyes Moses tells them not of things which were done in impenetrable retreats and in profound Caves he speaks not in the Air he particularizes and circumstantiates every thing as a Man that fears not to be caught in an untruth He grounds all their Laws and their whole Republick on the wonders which they themselves have seen Those wonders were nothing else but Nature changed all on a sudden on different occasions for their deliverance and the punishment of their Enemies the Sea divided it self in two the Earth opened herself heavenly Food abundance of Water gushing out of Rocks by a stroke of the Rod and the Heaven which gave them a visible sign to direct their March and such like Miracles which they themselves had seen for forty Years The People of Israel were no more intelligent nor more subtil than other
stirring up the least Sedition among Men it will excite all the Earth He is neither violent nor impetuous and he who was hardly known when in Judea shall not be only the Foundation of the Peoples Covenant but also the Light of all the Gentiles Ibid. 6. Under his admirable Reign the Assyrians and the Egyptians shall be no longer but one and the same People of God with the Israelites Blessed be Egypt my People and Assyria the work of my Hands Esai 10.25 and Israel mine Inheritance All shall become Israel Ibid. 60.1 2.3 4 11.61.1 2.3 11.62.1 2.65.1 2 15 16.66.19 20 21. Malach. 3.10 Psal 110.2 all shall become holy Jerusalem is no more particular private City It is the Image of a new Society where all the People are gathered together Europe Africa and Asia received Preachers in whom God had put his Sign that they might discover his Glory to the Gentiles The Elect till then called by the Name of Israel shall be called by a new Name which shall signify the fulfilling of the Promises and an happy Amen The Priests and the Levites who till then came from Aaron shall for the time to come come from the midst of the Heathens that is the Gentiles A new Sacrifice more pure and agreeable than the old shall be substituted in its place and then shall be known the reason why David had consecrated a High-Priest of a new Order The Just shall descend from Heaven as the Dew the Earth shall bring forth her But and it shall be the Saviour with whom Righteousness shall be seen to arise Heaven and Earth shall joyn to bring forth as by a common Delivery him that shall be both Heavenly and Earthly together New Ideas of Virtues shall appear in the World in his Examples and in his Doctrine and the Grace which he will shed abroad will imprint them in their Hearts Every thing will be changed by his coming and God hath sworn by himself and the word is gone out of his Mouth in Righteousness and shall not return Isai 45.23 that unto him every knee shall how and every tongue shall swear and acknowledg his soveraign Power This is one part of the marvellous things which God hath shewn to the Prophets under the Kings the Sons of David and to David before all others All have written beforehand the History of the Son of God who was also to be made the Son of Abraham and of David And thus every thing hath fell out in the Order of the divine Counsels This Messiah shewn afar off as the Son of Abraham is yet shewn more near as the Son of David An eternal Empire is promised to him The Knowledg of God is spread abroad throughout the World is set to us as the certain sign and as the fruit of his coming The Conversion of the Gentiles and the Blessing of all the People of the World so long since promised to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob is anew confirmed and all the People of God lived in that expectation In the mean time God governed them after a most admirable manner He made a new Covenant with David and obliged himself to protect him and the Kings his Successors if they would walk in the Commandments which he had given them by Moses 2 Sam. 7 8 9 10 c. 1 King 9.4 5. 2 Chron. 7.17 c. 2 Sam. 11 12 c. if not he pronounced against them very severe Punishments David who had forgot himself for a little while was the first who felt them but having somewhat recovered himself by his unfeigned Repentance he has a confluence of Wealth poured upon him and is proposed as the model of an accomplished King The Throne is established in his House 1. Kings 11. Whilst Solomon walked in the Steps of his Father's Piety he was happy but in his old Age he was drawn aside and God who spared him for the Love of his Servant David declared he would punish him in the person of his Son Thus he lets Parents to know that according to the secret Decree of his Judgments he makes their Punishments to continuâ— after their Death and he keeps them in submission to his Laws by that Interest which is the dearest that is the Interest of their Family In the Execution of his Decrees the foolishly wilfull Rehoboam is given up to an extravagant Council his Kingdom is lessened and ten of the tribes revolt from him 1 Kings 12.16 17 c. Whilst those ten Rebellious and Schismaticall Tribes were departed from their God and their King the Children of Judah who were faithful to God and to David whom he had chosen continued in the Covenant and in the Faith of Abraham The Levites and the Tribe of Benjamin joined with them the Kingdom of the People of God subsisted by their union under the name of the Kingdom of Judah and the Law of Moses was strictly observed In spight of the lamentable Idolatries and Corruption of the ten separated Tribes God remembred his Covenant with Abraham with Isaac and with Jacob his Law was not quite extinct amidst those rebellious People he was continually calling them back to Repentance by innumerable Miracles and by the constant warnings he sent them by his Prophets Hardned in their Wickedness at such a rate he could no longer bear with them 2 Kings 17.7 8 9 10 11 12 c. but he drove them out of the Land of Promise without hopes of ever suffering them to settle there again The History also of Tobit happened at the same time and during the beginnings of the Captivity of the Israelites it discovers to us the Conduct of the Elect of God who still remained in the separated Tribes That Holy Man Tob. 1.5 6 7. c. dwelling among them before the Captivity knew not only how to keep himself Pure from the Idolatries of his Brethren but also how to put the Law in Practice and to worship God publickly in the Temple of Jerusalem without ever being drawn aside by their ill examples or perswaded to a Compliance through servile fear Id. 19 20 21. When he was a Captive and persecuted at Nineveh he and his Family still retained their Piety and that admirable manner with which both he and his Son Tobias had their Faith rewarded even here upon Earth shews that notwithstanding Captivity and Persecution God had secret ways of making his Servants sensible of the Blessings of the Law in raising them evermore by the afflictions they were to suffer to higher and more exalted thoughts By the Examples of Tobit and his Holy Admonitions those of Israel were stirred up to acknowledge at least under the Rod the hand of God which chastised them but yet they almost all continued in obstinacy those of Judah so far were they from taking warning by Israel's Chastisements that they followed their ill examples God did not cease admonishing them by his Prophets whom he sent one after
a Light to lighten the Gentiles When the time of preaching his Gospel drew near St. John the Baptist who was to prepare thâ— Way before him called all Sinners to Repentance and made the whole Desart to ring again with his Cries whilst he spent the first Years of his Life in it with an Innocence equal to the greatness of his Austerity The People who for five hundred Years had been without any Prophets acknowledged this new Elijah and were ready to take him for the Saviour of the World so great and extraordinary did his Holiness appear to be But then he himself did shew unto the People him whose Shoes latchet he was not worthy to unloose John 1.27 At length Jesus Christ began to preach his Gospel and to reveal what he had seen from all Eternity in the Bosom of his Father He lays the Foundation of his Church by the calling of twelve Sinners Matt. 10.2 Mark 3.16 Luke 6.14 Act. 1.13 Matt. 16.18 and he puts St. Peter at the head of them with so opened and declared a Prerogative that the Evangelists who in their numbring up of their Apostles do not observe any certain Order yet do all agree in this one thing of naming St. Peter before all the others as being the first and chief of them Jesus Christ goes through all Judea which he fills with his Kindnesses healing of the Sick being merciful to Sinners whose true Physician he shews himself to be by the access he gives them to himself making Men to feel an Authority and yet a pleasing Meekness as never yet appeared in any but in his Person He declares high Mysteries but he confirms them by as great Miracles He commands great Virtues but at the same time he gives great Illuminations of them great Examples and great Graces 'T is by that also that he appears full of Grace and Truth â—ohn 1.14 15 16. and that we have all received of his Fulness All things are sustained in his Person his Life his Doctrine his Miracles The same Truth shines there throughout Every thing concurs to make him seem the Master of Mankind and the Model of all Perfection He alone living in the midst of his Enemies and in the sight of all the World was able to say without fear of being caught in an Untruth John 8.26.12.29 Which of you will convince me of Sin And again I am the Light of the World my Meat is to do the Will of him that sent me and to finish his Work and he that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone for I always do those things that please him His Miracles are of a peculiar Order and of a new Character They are not Signs in the Heaven Matt. 16.1 such as the Jews desired him that he would shew them He wrought them almost all upon the Men themselves healing their Infirmities All those Miracles were more the Instances of his Goodness than of his Power and did not so much surprise the Beholders as they touched them at the bottom of their Hearts He did them with Authority The Devils and the Diseases obeyed him At his Word those who were born blind received their Sight the Dead were raised from their Graves and Sins were pardoned The principle of all this was in himself They ran from the Source I find saith he there is Virtue gone out of me Luke 6.19.8.46 And there never was any that wrought either such great Miracles as he did or so many even almost on all that came to him And yet for all that he promises that his Disciples shall do greater Works in his Name so fruitful and inexhaustible was that Virtue he had in himself John 14 12. Who cannot but admire the Condescension with which he tempers the excellency of his Doctrine It is Milk for Babes and yet too at the same time it is Meat for the Strong He is seen full of the Secrets of God but he is not seen to be astonished at it as other men were to whom God communicated himself he speaks naturally of them as one that was born in that Mystery and Glory John 3.34 and what God had given him without measure he distributed viz. the Spirit with measure that so our weakness might be able to bear it Although he was sent in general to all the World yet at first he addressed himself only to the lost Sheep of the House of Israel to which indeed he was principally sent But he prepared the way for the Conversion of the Samaritans and Gentiles A Woman of Samaria acknowledges him for THE CHRIST whom her Nation waited for John 4.21 25. as well as that of the Jews and she learns of him the mystery of the new Worship which should be no longer fixed to any one certain place A Woman of Canaan and an Idolatress if I may be permitted so to say although she was reprehended forces from him by a passionate violence the healing of her Daughter Matth. 15.22 23 24. c. Matt. 8.10 11. He confesses that in several places the Children of Abraham were to be found among the Gentiles and he speaks of his Doctrine as being preached before contradicted and received by all the Earth The World had never seen any thing like it and his Apostles were astonished at it He conceals not from his own the sad Trials through which they should pass He discovers to them the Violences and the Seduction that would be made use of against them the Persecutions the false Doctrines the false Brethren and the Wars both within and without and the Faith that was to be purified by all those Tryals towards the last days the weakning of that Faith and the coldness of Charity among his Disciples but yet in the midst of all those Perils nothing not even the Gates of Hell should be able to prevail against the Church and the Truth Matth. 16.18 Here you see now a new manner of Conduct and a new face and order of things there is no more promising of Temporal Rewards to the Children of God Jesus Christ shews unto them a future Life and keeping them in suspence upon that Expectation he teaches them to draw off their Minds from all these lower sensible Enjoyments The Cross and patience under it was to be the portion of tneir Cup here upon Earth and Heaven was proposed to them as before to be taken by violence Jesus Christ Matth. 11.12 who shew'd to men this new way was the first to enter in at it He preached pure Truths which amazed the dull and ignorant and yet the almost only men that were proud and supercilious He discovers the latent pride and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and Doctors of the Law who corrupted it by their false and strained Interpretations In the midst of those Reproaches he honours their Ministry and Moses's Seat wherein the Scribes and Pharisees did sit Matth. 23.2 He was often in the
the whole by relation to each of its two parts so the divine Word whose Virtue sustains the whole is united in a particular manner or rather it becomes himself by a perfect Union that Jesus Christ the Son of Mary that which makes him to be the Son of God and Man both together begotten from all Eternity and yet begotten in time always living in the Bosom of his Father and yet dead upon the Cross for our Salvation But where God finds himself mixed Comparisons drawn from humane things are never but imperfect Our Soul is not before our Body and something fails it when ever it is separated from it The Word perfect in it self from all Eternity is only united to our Nature for its Honour That Soul which presides over the Body and makes several Changes in it it self suffers from it in its turn If the Body be moved at the command and according to the Will of the Soul the Soul is troubled the Soul is afflicted and influenced a thousand ways either tormenting or pleasing according to the Dispositions of the Body so that as the Soul raises up the Body to it self in the governing part so it is cast down below it by what it suffers from the Body But in Jesus Christ the word presides over all it keeps all under its Dominion So Man is raised and the Word is not cast down by any thing Immutable and unalterable it rules and governs Nature which is united to it in all things throughout From thence it comes that in Jesus Christ Man absolutely submissive to the inward direction of the Word which raises it up to it self has only divine Thoughts and Motions All that he thinks all that he wills all that he says all that he conceals within all that he shews outwardly is animated and inspired by the Word led by the Word worthy of Word that is to say worthy of Reason it self of Wisdom it self and of Truth it self Wherefore every thing is Light in Jesus Christ His Conduct is a Rule his Miracles are Instructions his Words are Spirit and Life It is not given to all to understand these sublime Truths nor perfectly to see in himself that marvellous Image of divine things which St. Austin and the other Fathers have thought so certain Our Senses govern us too much and our Imagination which will be concerned in all our Thoughts does not suffer us always to stay upon so pure a Light We do not know our selves we are ignorant what vast Riches we constantly carry about with us because we search not to the bottom of our Natures and only the most inwardly discerning Eyes can perceive them But as little as we do pry into that Secret and observe in our selves the Image of the two Mysteries which make up the Foundation of our Faith that is sufficient to raise us up above all and nothing of Mortality can affect us any more Also Jesus Christ calls us to an immortal Glory and it is the Fruit of the Faith we have for the Mysteries That God-Man that incarnate Truth and Wisdom which makes us to believe such great things upon its single Authority promises to us the clear and happy Vision of it in Eternity as the certain Recompence of our Faith In this way is the Mission of Jesus Christ infinitely advanced above that of Moses Moses was sent to rouse up sensual and brutish Men by temporal Rewards Since that they were become all Body and all Flesh it was necessary for him at first to captivate them by their Senses and by that means to inculcate into them the Knowledg of God and the horror of Idolatry to which Mankind had so prodigious an Inclination That was the Ministry of Moses But to inspire Man with more exalted Thoughts and by a full Evidence to convince him of the Dignity Immortality and eternal Happiness of his Soul this was reserv'd to be the Work of Jesus Christ In the times of Ignorance that is to say those which were before our blessed Saviours days what the Soul knew of its Dignity and Immortality led it for the most part to Error The worshipping of dead Men did almost make up all their Idolatry Almost all Men sacrificed to the Manes that is to the Souls of the Dead Those antient Errors do discover to us indeed how great was the antient Belief of the Souls Immortality and shows us that we ought to place it among the first Traditions of Mankind But Man who spoil'd all things had strangely abused it since the Soul carried him out to sacrifice to the Dead Nay they went at last to that excess as to sacrifice living Men to them they killed their Slaves and even their Women to make them go and serve them in the other World The Gauls did so with many other People And the Indians observed by the Heathen Authors among the first Defenders of the Souls Immortality Cas de hell Gall. 6. have also been the first Introducers of those abominable Murders in the World under the pretence of Religion The same Indians used to kill themselves to forward the Happiness of the future Life and that deplorable Blindness continues still to this day among those People so dangerous is it to teach the Truth in any other way or manner than what God hath instituted and clearly to explain to Man all that he is before he knew God perfectly 'T was the want of knowing God which made most of the Philosophers not to believe the Immortality of the Soul without believing it at the same time a Portion of the Divinity nay a Divinity it self an eternal Being uncreated as well as incorruptible and which had neither beginning not end What shall I say of those who believed the Transmigration of Souls who made them skip from Heaven to Earth and then from Earth to Heaven again from Beasts into Men and from Men into Beasts from Happiness to Misery and from Misery to Happiness and those Revolutions never to have any end nor any certain order How sadly was the Divine Justice Providence and Goodness darkened amidst so many fuliginous Errors And how necessary was it to know God and the Rules of his Wisdom before he knows the Soul and its immortal Nature Wherefore the Law of Moses gave only to Man the first Notion of the nature of the Soul and its Felicity We saw the Soul at first made by the Power of God as well as the rest of the Creatures but with this particular Character and Distinction that it was made after his Image and by his Breath that it might understand to whom it was obliged by its being and also that it might never fancy it self to be of the same nature with the Body not formed by its order and concurrence But the Consequences of this Doctrine and the Marvels of the future Life were not then universally unfolded This great Light and Discovery was not to be till the coming of the Messiah God had scattered some few
Sparks of it in the Old Testament Solomon said that the Dust should return to the Earth as it was Eccles 12.7 and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it The Patriarchs and the Prophets lived in that Hope and Daniel had foretold that there should a time come Dan. 12.1 2 4. that those who slept in the Dust of the Earth should awake some to everlarting Life and some to shame and everlasting Contempt But at the same time that those things were revealed to him he was commanded to seal up the Book even to the time of the End to let us understand that the full discovery of these Truths was reserved for another Season and another Age. But though the Jews had in their Scriptures some Promises of eternal Happiness and that towards the time of the Messiah's coming in which they were to be declared they spoke much more of them as appears by the Books of Wisdom and the Maccabees yet however this Truth gained so little Reputation among the antient People that the Saducees without ever knowing it not only were admitted into the Synagogue but also were advanced to the Priesthood It was one of the Characters of the new People to lay down as a Foundation of Religion the faith of a future Life and that was to be the Fruit of the coming of the Messiah Wherefore not being satisfied with telling us that a Life eternally happy was reserved for the Children of God he hath told us wherein it consists The happy Life is to be with him in the glory of God his Father John 17. the Life of happiness is to see the glory which he hath in the bosom of the Father from the beginning of the World the Life of happiness is that Jesus Christ is in us in his Members and that the eternal Love which the Father hath for his Son extendeth it self to us he fills us full of the same Gifts In a word the Life of happiness is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent but to know him in that manner which we call a clear sight 1 Cor. 13.9 12. 2 â—p 3.2 face to face the sight which reforms in us and perfects there the Image of God that according as St. John says We shall be like unto him because we shall see him as he is That sight shall be followed with an Immense Love and unexpressible Joy and a Triump that shall have no end Rev. 7.12.19.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. An eternal Alleluja and an eternal Amen shall be heard to resound through all the heavenly Jerusalem and all Calamities shall be done away and all Desires shall be satisfied there shall be nothing else to do but to sing Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God and to fall down and worship him who sits on the Throne for ever and ever With these new Rewards it was but neâ—essary that Jesus Christ should propose to us new Ideas of Vertue more perfect and purified Practices The End of Religion the Soul of Vertues and the Abridgment of the Law is Charity But until Jesus Christ was come into the World we may say that the perfection and the effects of that Vertue were not throughly known It was truly and properly our blessed Saviour that taught us to place our Satisfaction in God alone To set up the Kingdom of Charity and to reveal to us all the Duties of it he lays before us the Love of God even to the hating of our selves and continually persecuting that Principle of Corruption which we all carry about with us in our hearts He propounds to us the Love of our Neighbour even to the extending that beneficent Inclination to all men including therein even those that hate and persecute us he proposes to us the moderating of our sensual Desires even to the absolute cutting off our own Members that is to say that which gives us the most lively and sensible impressions He proposes also to us submission to the Will of God even to the rejoycing at the Sufferings he lays upon us as also Humility and that too to the loving of Reproaches for God's sake and to the believing that no Indignities how injurious soever can make us so vile in the eyes of men as we truly are in God's sight by our shameful and abominable sins Upon this foundation of Charity it is that all the conditions of Humane Life are perfected It is by that that Marriage is reduced to its primitive form the Conjugal Affection is now no more divided so holy a Society is only terminated by Death and Children do not now see their Mothers cast out for entertaining of a Step-dame in their places Celibacy is set forth as an Imitation of the life of Angels which is wholly and entirely taken with God and with the chast delights of his Love Superiours do learn that they are the Servants of others and devoted to their Good and Inferiours do acknowledge the wise order of God in their lawful Powers although they abuse their Authority this very thought sweetens to us the hardships of Subjection and under the most troublesome Masters Obedience is not at all troublesome to the true Christian. To these Precepts he superadds Councils of eminent perfection to renounce all pleasures to live in the Body as if we without the Body to forsake all things to give all we have to the Poor that we may possess nothing but God to live upon a little yea almost upon nothing and to expect that little too from Divine Providence But that Law which is most proper to the Gospel is that of bearing his Cross The Cross is the true Trial of Faith the true Foundation of Hope the perfect purifier of Charity in a word the true way to Heaven Jesus Christ dyed on the Cross he bore his Cross all the while he lived 't is by the Cross that he would have us to follow him and he hath promised to reward it with Eternal Life The first to whom he particularly made this Promise of Everlasting Rest was a Companion of his Cross This day saith he Luke 22.48 thou shalt be with me in Paradise Immediately after his Expiration on the Cross the Veil which covered the Sanctuary was rent from the top to the bottom and the Heaven was opened to holy Souls It was after he came from the Cross and from the horrours of his Punishment that he appeared to his Apostles glorious and a Conquerour over Death that they might thereby learn and understand that it was by the Cross they were to enter into his Glory and that he would shew no other way to his Children Thus in the Person of Jesus Christ was given to the World the lively Image of an accomplished Vertue who had nothing nor did expect nothing here in this World who received from men only continual Persecutions yet he never ceased doing of them good and for all that on whom
the event and you will find how God confounded the proud Princes The holy Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Historians do with one common consent report it and justify it by Monuments which remain still from their time But the matter ought to be attested by Heathens themselves Amm. Marcel l. 23. init Ammianus Marcellinus a Gentile in his Religion and a zealous defender of Julian hath recorded it in these Terms Whilst Alipius being assisted by the Governor of the Province was advancing the Work with all the Might he could terrible Globes of Fire broke forth from the very Foundations which they before had shaken by violent Assaults the Workmen who several times essayed to begin the Work anew were many times burnt the place became inaccessible and so the undertaking fell The Ecclesiastical Authors who are more exact in representing so memorable an Event do joyn with that of the Earth the Fire of Heaven too But after all the Word of Jesus Christ abides firm and sure St. John Chrysostome cryes out Orat. in Judaeos He hath built his Church on the Rock nothing shall be able to overthrow it the Temple nothing shall be able to build up again None can pull down what God erects nor can any build up again what God pulls down Let us now make an end of our Discourse on Jerusalem and the Temple and cast our Eyes a little on the People themselves heretofore the living Temple of the Lord of Hosts and now the Object of his â—â—arred The Jews are more levelled than their Temple and their City The Spirit of Truth is no longer among them Prophecy is quite at an end with them the Promises on which the stress of their Hopes depends are vanished all things are topsy turvy with that People and there is not one Stone left upon another And do but observe how far they are delivered up to Error Jesus Christ told it them I am come in my Fathers Name John 5.43 and ye receive me not if another shall come in his own Name him ye will receive From that time the Spirit of Seduction hath been so predominant among them that they are ready still at every moment to let themselves be carried away by it It was not enough that the false Prophets should deliver Jerusalem into the Hands of Titus the Jews were not as yet banished Judea and the Love they had for Jerusalem had obliged several of them to choose their Place of Abode among its Ruines Behold a false Christ arose up who was absolutely to compleat their Destruction Fifty Years after the taking of Jerusalem in the Age of the Death of our Lord the famous Barchochebas a Robber a wicked Wretch because his Name signified the Son of the Star impiously called himself the Star of Jacob foretold in the Book of Numbers and pretended he was the Christ Akibas Numb 24.17 Euseb Hist Eccles 4.6 8. a Man of greatest Authority among the Rabbi's after whose Example all those whom the Jews call their Sages came over to his Party tho' the Impostor gave than no other sign of his Mission but that Akibas told them the Christ could not be very far off The Jews revolted throughout all the Roman Empire under the Conduct of Barchochebas â—alm Hier. de jejuâ— â—5 in ver Comm. sup Lam. Jerem. Maimonid li. de jur Reg. c. 12. who promised them the Empire of the World Adrian killed six hundred thousand of them The Yoke of those miserable Wretches was very heavy and they were for ever banished Judea Who is there but sees that the Spirit of Seduction had seized their hearts Because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. for that cause God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lye that they all might be damned who believed not the Truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness There is no Imposture so gross but what deceives them In our days an Impostor called himself Christ in the East and all the Jews began to run in Flocks about him we have seen them in Italy in Holland in Germany and at Metz ready to leave all for the sake of following him They imagined already that they were becoming the Masters of the World when they learnt that their Christ was made a Turk and had forsook the Law of Moses We need not to wonder if they be fallen into such Dispersions X. The Progress of the Jewish Errours and the manner how they explain the Prophecies nor if the Tempest has scattered them after they had forsaken their own way That way was pointed out to them in their Prophecies especially in those which designated the time of our Saviour Christ But they let slip those precious Opportunities without any whit benefitting themselves by them wherefore we have seen them afterwards given up to believe a lye and they never knew since what course to take Give me leave a little to recount to you the course and progress of their Errors and all the Methods they have taken to sink themselves into this Abyss The ways by which we come to wander tend always to the broad Road and by considering where our wandring hath begun we may more securely go on in the right way Your Highness hath seen that two Prophecies have set forth to the Jews the time of Christ's coming that of Jacob and that of Daniel They both did foretell the ruine of the Kingdom of Judah at the time of our Saviour's Advent But Daniel revealed how that a total Destruction should come upon that Kingdom after the death of Christ and Jacob said plainly that in the Declension of the Kingdom of Judah that Christ which should then come should be the Expectation of the People that is to say that he should be the Deliverer of them and that he should erect to himself a new Kingdom not only framed out of one single People but out of all the People of the World The words of the Prophecy can admit of no other sense and it was the constant positive Tradition of the Jews that they were thus to understand it From thence that Opinion which was spread abroad by the ancient Rabbies and which is yet to be seen in their Talmud Gem. tr Sanhed c. 11. that at the time that Christ was to come there should be no more Magistracy so that there was nothing more necessary to make them know the time of their Messias than only to observe when they were falling into that woful Condition In fine they had begun well and if they had not had their minds prepossessed with the worldly Grandeurs which they hoped to find in their Messias and which they thought to have a share of under his Empire they could never have been mistaken in Jesus Christ The Foundation they had laid was certain for as soon as the Tyranny of the first Herod and the change of the Jewish Commonwealth which happened
another Chappel which we will translate from the latin Word Lararium a private Chappel of less Dignity than the former wherein were set up the Image of Achilles and some other great Men but Jesus Christ was placed in the 〈◊〉 Rank It was a Heathen who wrote it and he cites for his Witness an Author that lived in Alexander's time Here then are two Witnesses of this same Fact and you shall have another no less surprizing Porph. 1. of Phil. by Orac. Euseb dem Ev. 3.8 Aug. de Civit. Dei 19. c. 23. Though Porphyry in abjuring Christianity had declared himself an Enemy to it yet he forbears not in his Book entituled Philosophy by Oracles to affirm that some of them were very favourable to the Holiness of Jesus Christ God forbid that we may not learn by the deceitful Oracles the Glory of the Son of God who silenc'd them at his Birth Those Oracles cited by Porphyry are pure Inventions But it is good to know what the Heathen made their Gods to say of our Lord. Porphyry then assures that there were Oracles where Jesus Christ was called a Man Pious and worthy of Immortality and on the contrary the Christians were impure and seduced People He afterwards recites the Oracle of the Goddess Hecate where she speaks of Jesus Christ as of a Man illustrioâ—s by his Piety whose Body indeed submitted to Torments but whose Soul is in Heaven with the Souls of the Blessed That Soul said Porphyry's Goddess by a kind of Fatality inspired Error into those Minds wherein Destiny has not confirmed the Gifts of the Gods and the Knowledg of the great Jupiter which makes them Enemies of the Gods But be very careful how you blame him goes she on in speaking of Jesus Christ and be sure only to accuse the Error of those whose unhappy destiny I have related to you Very pompous and magnificent Words and absolutely void of all Sence but however they shew that the Glory and Honour of our Lord forced his very Enemies to give him Praises But besides the Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviour there is yet a third Point which is of no less Moment and Importance and that is his Miracles It is certain that the Jews never denyed them and we find in their Talmud some of those which his Disciples wrought in his Name Only Tr. de Idololat Com. in Eccl Tr. de Sabb. c. 12. l. generat Jesu seu Hist Jesu Deut. 13.1 2. the more to obscure and hide them they said that he had done them by the Enchantments he had learnt in Egypt or rather by the name of God that unknown and ineffable Name whose Virtue can do all thing as the Jews themselves acknowledge and that Jesus Christ had discovered they know not how in the Sanctuary or else because he was one of those Prophets taken notice of by Moses whose deceitful Miracles were to seduce the People to Idolatry Jesus Christ the Abolisher of Idols whose Gospel preached up the acknowledging of one only God throughout all the World stands in no need of being justified from that Reproach the true Prophets have no less preached up his Divinity than he hath done himself and that which is the Result of the Jewish Testimony is that Jesus Christ wrought Miracles to justify his Mission Now when they calumniously said that he wrought them by Magick they would do well to consider that Moses was accused of the same Crime 'T was the antient Opinion of the Egyptians who being astonished at the wondrous things that God had done in their Country by that great Man ranked him in the number of the principal Magicians We may likewise see this Opinion in Pliny and Apuleius where Moses was found named with Jannes and Jambres those famous Inchanters of Egypt of whom St. Paul speaks and whom Mâ—ses had confounded by his Miracles Plin. 30.1 Apul. Apol. 2. Zim 3.8 But the Answer of the Jews was easy The Illusions of the Magicians never have a lasting Effect neither do they tend to establish as Moses did the Worship of the true God and holiness of Life To which we may also add that God knows very well how to make himself Master by doing such Works as the Power of the Enemy cannot imitate The same Reasons placed Jesus Christ above so vain an Accusation which as we have already observed was only iâ—strumental to justify that his Miracles are incontestable They were in effect so powerful that the Gentiles could never disprove them no more than the Jews Celsâ—s that great Enemy of the Christians and who attack'd them in the earliest Days with all imaginable Address and Subtlety seeking with a most industrious Scrutiny whatsoever might turn to their Prejudice has not been so hardy as to deny all the Miracles of our Lord He was for shifting them off by saying with the Jews that Jesus Christ had learnt the Secrets of the Egyptians that is to say Magick Orig. cont Cels 1. 2. and so would fain attribute the Divinity to himself by the Miracles which he wrought by vertue of that damnable Art Orig. ibid. in Act. Mart. passim Jul. ap Cyr. lib. 6 â—p Aug. tom 2. Ep. 3.4 And for the same Reason also were the Christians look'd on as Magicians and we have a Passage of Julian the Apostate who laughed at the Miracles of our Lord but who for all that did not bring them into Question Volusian in his Epistle to St. Austin has done the same and that Discourse was grown common among the Heathen Therefore we need not be astonished that they who were so used to make Gods of all Men in whom there appeared any thing particular and extraordinary would set up Jesus Christ too among their Divinities Tiberius upon the Relations were sent to him from Judea proposed to the Senate to give divine Honours unto Jesus Christ This was not a Fancy in the Air Tertull. Apolog. 5. Euseb Hist Eccles 2.2 for Tertullian reports it as a thing publick and nâ—torious in his Apologetick which he presented to the Senate in the name of the Church who to be sure would not have contributed any thing to the weakening of so good a Cause as his by Stories which might have been confuted with so much ease and evidence If we would have the Testimony of a Heathen Author Lampridius will tell us that Adrian had erected Temples to Jesus Christ which were then to be seen at the time when he wrote and that Alexander Severus after he had done him Reverence in particular was resolved publickly to prepare him Altars and to put him in the number of the Gods It is certainly a great piece of Injustice not to be willing to believe any thing concerning Jesus Christ but what those write of him that were none of his Disciples This is to seek for Faith among the Incredulous or Care and Exactness among those who having their Heads full of other Matters look upon
Sacrifice to Libertinism Now can you believe that impiety did not lead them without any necessity in the World into all these Absurdities you have seen if against the testimony of Mankind and against all the Rules of good Sence it strives to take away from the Pentateuch and the Prophecies their constantly avowed Authors to dispute their dates with them For the dates are all in all as to this matter for two reasons First because Books that were full of so many miraculous deeds which are seen in them attended with the most particular Circumstances and advanced not only as publick but as present if they had been capable of being false would have carried their own Condemnation with them and instead of keeping themselves up by their own weight they wouâ—d long ago have fell of themselves Secondly because their dates being once fixed we can no more efface the Infallible mark of divine Inspiration which they bear impressed in the great number and the long course of memorable Predictions which we find them filled withal 'T is to shift off these Miracles and these Predictions that the wicked have run themselves into all these Absurdities that have surprized you But let them not think they shall escape God He hath reserved for his Scriptures such a mark of Divinity as can never suffer any prejudice 'T is the relation there is between the two Testaments They do not dispute at least that all the old Testament was written before the new here there is no new Esdras which can perswade the Jews to invent or to falsify their Scripture in favour of the Christians whom they Persecuted There needs no more By the relation of the two Testaments we prove that both are Divine They have both the same design and the same Consequence The one prepares the way to that Perfection which the other shews openly to all the World the one lays the Foundation the other finishes the Building in a word the one foretells what the other shews us accomplished Thus all the times are united together and the eternal design of divine Providence is revealed to us The tradition of the Jews and that of the Christians make together but one and the same Progress of Religion and the Scriptures of both Testaments are but one and the same Body and one and the same Book And because the discussion of the particular Predictions tho' in it self it be full of Light depends on many Deeds which all the World cannot equally understand God hath therefore chosen some of them which he hath made plain to the most Ignorant Those illustrious those bright and conspicuous Facts of which all the World is a witness are those Facts which I have here endeavoured to make your Highness comprehend that is to say the desolation of the Jews and the Conversion of the Gentiles happening together and both precisely at the same time as the Gospel was Preached and Jesus Christ appeared These three things united in order of time were yet much more so in the order of God's Decrees You have seen them go together in the old Prophecies but Jesus Christ the faithful Interpreter of the Prophecies and of the Will of his Father hath still better explained unto us that Bond of Unity in his Gospel He does it in the Parable of the Vine-yard so familiar in the Prophets The Father of the Family had planted this Vine that is to say the true Religion founded upon his Covenant and had let it out to Husbandmen that is to say to the Jews Matt. 21.38 And that he might receive the fruits of it he sent several times his Servants who are the Prophets But these unfaithful Husbandmen cause some to be put to death his goodness leads him to send them his Son and yet him they treat worse than they did his Servants At last he takes away his Vineyard from them and gives it unto other Husbandmen he takes away from them the Grace of his Alliance to bestow it on the Gentiles These three things ought therefore to concur together the sending of the Son of God the Reprobation of the Jews and the Calling of the Gentiles There needs no further a Commentary upon the Parable which the event has it self interpreted You have seen the Jews confess that the Kingdom of Judah and the State of their Commonwealth began to fall in the time of Herod and when Jesus Christ came into the World But if the Alterations which they made to the Law of God have brought upon them so visible a Diminution of their Power their last Desolation which yet continues must be the Punishment of a fat greater Crime That Crime is plainly their Ingratitude against their Messiah who came to instruct them and to make them free And it is from that time too that an Iron yoke has been over their heads and they have been long ago crushed with it but that God keeps them to acknowledge one day and to serve that Messiah whom they have crucified You then already see one averr'd and publick Fact that is the total Ruine of the State of the Jews at the time of Jesus Christ The Conversion of the Gentiles which was to happen at the same time is no less averr'd neither At the same time when the ancient Worship was destroyed in Jerusalem with the Temple Idolatry was attacked on all sides and the People who for so many thousands of years had forgot their Creator were now wakened from so long a seeming death of sleep And that all things might accord the Spiritual Promises are displayed by the Preaching of the Gospel in the Time when the Jews who had only received the Temporal ones being openly reproved for their Incredulity and made Captives over all the face of the Earth had no longer any worldly Grandeur to expect Then was Heaven promised to those who suffered Persecution for Righteousness sake the Secrets of the Future Life were preached and the true Blessedness was shown for from that abode where Death reigns where Sin and all manner of Evils do abound If we do not discover here a design always kept up and always followed it we see not here one and the same order of the Counsels of God who prepared from the beginning of the World what he finished in the fulness of time and who under different Estates but with a Succession still constant perpetuated to the eyes of all the World that holy Society by whom he would be served we deserve to see nothing and to be delivered up to our own hardness as to the most just and rigorous of all Punishments And that this Course of God's People might be conspicuous to the most undiscerning God made it sensible and palpable by Matters of Fact which none could be ignorant of unless he purposely shut his eyes against the Truth The Messiah expected by the Hebrews he came and he called the Gentiles as it had been foretold The People that owned him as come were incorporated with