love darkness rather than light not that Religion has any blind sides in it for God is light and in him is no darkness at all but because their deeds are evil and every one that doth evil hates the light One of themselves a great one has confess'd the only reason why men have so little controverted or contradicted the Principles of some other Sciences by which we build Houses or measure Fields 't is because says he these Principles do not cross our Appetites Be that famous Proposition in Euclid true or false for which Pythagoras offered an hundred Oxen in thanks to Heaven for helping him to find and demonstrate it they need not sacrifice one vile affection for it and yet even those Principles that are as plain as two and two is four have been gainsaid But then it was for some interest it was in hopes of founding a speculative Atheism for the sake of a practical one you may be sure of founding it I say more strongly upon Scepticism to the utter contempt of humane Nature baffling all sense and reason granting just nothing for fear of allowing some truth lest then some Notions of good and evil should have follow'd upon it But to shew 't is the inordination of mens affections that causes the evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God instead of following on to know the Lord What was it else but the old leven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduces that converted Christs Manna into Gall that turned the very Bread that came down from Heaven into that which perish'd with them For when the people saw him multiply the Loaves they were ready to follow him for those not only to satisfie their hunger but their ambition for presently they apprehended he that was able to make such extemporary provision for a multitude had it in his power to maintain and defray an Army upon easie terms Whereupon 't is very observable in the next Chapter after the relation of this Miracle they would have taken him by force to make him King intending him no question for their General against the Romans that oppress'd them so that he was fain to avoid their irresistible importunities of accepting a Crown by retiring up into a Mountain with his Disciples But when they saw him resolv'd to be a man of retirement when they saw him bent upon it not to serve turns and their politick Ends not to head their rebellious designs against their Roman Masters nor to cherish their aspiring thoughts for Universal Monarchy then say we not well That thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil But after all the dirt and contempt they had thrown upon him yet if at any time they took a fancy from some powerful action of his that he was breaking out in a blaze of State and Splendor straight they began again to worship him as the rising Sun then they resounded Hosannabs Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord then He was the Son of David and Messiah the Prince the Heir of the Crown while they had any hopes and expectations that the Kingdom of God as they call'd it should immediately appear But then again when they found themselves disappointed by his repeated Declarations That his Kingdom was not of this World they soon return'd to their old pass We have no King but Caesar He that maketh himself a King when they would have made him so speaketh against Caesar Nay to instance in better men His own Disciples themselves till the Descent of the Holy Spirit upon them had subdued their affections they were but men of like affections with us their passions clouded their reason they had some venial doubtings and failings too they deserv'd sometimes to be censured by their Great Master and ours for men of but little faith But all their want of affiance proceeded not from want of evidence in the thing it self That which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have lookt upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Did these good men want Proofs of the Resurrection It was proved to all their senses and yet some doubted because they did not see him in a triumphal Chariot for to the last hour of his stay upon Earth and immediately before his ascension into Heaven they never lost that ambition which made them say Wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom unto Israel But the former Contest among themselves which of them should be the greatest had like to have made St. Peter himself no Christian as those that call themselves the Successors of St. Peter have almost turn'd the Christian World upside down with the same unhappy Contest about Supremacy so early begun in the Church they forget what a sharp rebuke it brought upon St. Peter Get thee behind me Satan for he tempted our Saviour as did the Devil before him to think of the Kingdoms of this World and the Glories of them rather than speak of suffering at Jerusalem for which his Master gave him fair warning to look to himself and his own deceitful heart For thou savourest not the things of God but those that are of men 'T is still the scandal they take at the Doctrine of the Cross of Christ or rather at the Duty of taking up the Cross themselves that hinders the whole Jewish Nation which knows so much of these Prophecies from following on to know the Lord. But it was on the other side a very remarkable Proof that they who do his will shall know of his Doctrine that when the Pharisees with their overweening pride and ambition stood out against all conviction that Christ himself could afford them when the Sadduces deny'd the Immortality of the Soul because they rather wish'd the Immortality of the Body and its fleshly Lusts the Essenes another Sect among the Jews whom we do not find any where reprehended by our Saviour for they were honest and humble men of heart they liv'd much within themselves and had little to do with the World these flock'd apace into the Church as the Church-Histories inform us and for receiving the good Seed these proved the best Ground in all the Land of Promise The Sower that is the Preacher could he be sure he were enter'd upon such Ground he might afford to do as Moses was bidden to do and put off his shoes from his feet in reverence to it Who is there that would not willingly go barefoot all the days of his life on condition the place whereon he took his standing were always such holy Ground But how shall we become such My Answer is still the same Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord and our Saviour himself has told us That the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Which that we may all do I shall conclude with the Apostle's excellent Prayer Now the God of peace who did bring again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the blood of the everlasting Testament make us perfect in every good work to do his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS
unto Cyrus Thou art my Shepherd accordingly Cyrus took order for gathering the scattered sheep of Israel for raising them up from a kind of Civil Death from Slavery to Freedom from Banishment to resettle them in their own Country But allowing this Interpretation of the Text in its first literal meaning it does not follow but a higher sense should be put upon the words the Fathers and learned Antients contend with one voice that Christ is here that his plenteous Redemption his gracious releasing us from the Death of sin his raising us to the Life of Grace of Righteousness and of Glory were prefigured and typified by that restauration and temporal deliverance of the Jews 'T is Christ whose going forth from the bosome of the Father into the World is said in my Text to be prepared as the Morning prepared of God by his ever-fixt and never-failing Decree by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God the very Days of Christ's Incarnation his Birth and his Resurrection were appointed set-days as certain to come as they were surely expected by those that waited for the consolation of Israel who should no more be disappointed in their expectation than those that lookt for the constant returns of the Morning-light and this Day of his was to be as the Morning as the Day-spring from on high to dispel the darkness by the presence of his Light to disperse the Fumes that from ignorance and sin with its mortal effects had so long clouded the minds of men to dilate and spread over all the World the influence of his heavenly Doctrine both of Grace and Glory and as he is likened to the Light so he is also set forth in my Text by that other great Blessing from Heaven upon Earth the Rain And he shall come unto us as the Rain so says the Psalmist He shall come down like the Rain into a Fleece of Wool so gentle so refreshing and so fructifying even as the drops that water the earth an Emblem of Christ that Isaiah delights to use Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness But there is something more implied in his Coming unto us as the latter and former rain unto the earth For in that part of the Earth the Holy Land that flow'd with milk and honey it was one of their Blessings that these Rains came at set-times and seasons not so uncertainly as in these Parts of the World but the former rain about the time of sowing their Seed the latter rain about this very time in the Spring And if Christ be there compared to that former Autumnal and this latter Easter Rain 't is easie from our own thoughts to draw out the parallel That He came like the former Rain at his holy Nativity and like the latter Rain at his new Birth for so His Resurrection is called and thus compared as well as His Eternal Generation The Dew of thy Birth is as the Womb of the Morning The Words being thus explain'd I may prosecute the Design of them either of these two ways as there are two methods of handling any Article of the Christian Faith for Example this of the Resurrection may be treated of either first in an Historical way considering the Matter of Fact it self that makes up the Article so in my Text this Matter of Fact is supposed that Christ revived after two days or was rais'd up again the third day Secondly The Article may be enquired into as it is a Mystery of Faith or as it contains the Effects the consequence of these great things that Christ either acted or suffered for us so the power of his Resurrection as St. Paul calls it is also set down in these words He shall revive us He shall raise us up again and we shall live in his sight He shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth But thirdly Here is an Obligation upon our parts or a Condition imposed upon us if we mean to reap advantage from this revealed Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection and ours then must these Principles be pursued extremely home and we must go on throughout the whole course of our lives to practise accordingly Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. First then I shall consider the Matter of Fact that makes up the Article of Faith as it is contained in this glorious Prophecy and in some others like it For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy says St. John the Apostle and it was a great and just Appeal that the Prophet Isaiah made against Idols and their false Prophets Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Now if ever things to come were plainly and distinctly shewed long before these so important Transactions relating to our Saviours Passion and Resurrection were written as with a Sun-Beam were translated out of Hebrew into Greek by the Command of a Heathen Prince but by Gods special Providence some Ages before their Completion Whose voice could it be if not his that was before David who spake it in his behalf They pierced my hands and my feet Who was so pierced but he with the Nails on his Cross I may tell all my Bones as it follows there Could there be a more proper description of that Distortion he suffered during his Extension upon the cursed Tree 'T is as narally painted out in Isai 25. another of the four Evangelists as I may call the four Great Prophets of the Old Testament And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim that the very Price should be set down beforehand the goodly price at which they valu'd him and what they should do with it Buy the Field of Bloud then that every circumstance of his Death should be so punctually foretold the very words they should contemptuously speak in the midst of his Passion He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he will have him The words stood a long time before where they stand now in the 22th Psalm the Passion-Psalm there you may also find the Souldiers parting his Garments among them and casting lots for his seemless Coat It looks more like a History than a Prophecy yet Greece from the Septuagint attests the words as well as does Judaea from the Original That there should be darkness over the earth and the Sun should not give its light they had warning of it Amos 8. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day Why there were many Eclipses say the Jews Not one by their good favour when the Moon was at Full as it was always when they kept their Passover and yet this prodigious Darkness is witnessed by several Heathen Writers of
the reason he has left will rather oblige him to sit down under a wild suspicion that his Life is a waking Dream that the Heaven and the Earth and all things else about him are but false representations made by some hidden accursed power that is always deluding his fancy and that there is nothing in the World but the Devil and himself fit Companions for one another And having thus discours'd Historically of the Matter of Fact which the Prophet delivers in the Text I shall now proceed to consider but very briefly of the Mystery of Faith the consequence or effect of these great things that Christ either did or suffered for us so the power of his Resurrection as St. Paul calls it is also set down in these words He shall revive us He shall raise us up again and we shall live in his sight He shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth This Similitude is taken from a thing that is most common that is Rain and yet this Philosophical or at least this Experimental Age will allow me thus much That the richest Notes and the most undoubted Conclusions in the Book of Nature are such as we draw from the most vulgar and therefore the most constant Observations Therefore of all the Similitudes upon which the Divine Prophecies and Parables in the Old and New Testament are turn'd and form'd there are no Comparisons so frequently used as these between the products of Nature and the growth of Grace between the Fruits of the Earth and the encrease of heavenly Vertue and Glory in the humane Soul and Body no temporal Blessings are so often promis'd or so constantly perform'd to put us in mind of the Spiritual as the sending of the former and the latter rain the shining of the Sun on the just and on the unjust the watering the earth and blessing it and making it very plenteous The Church is every where represented as God's Husbandry as God's Vineyard and Christ himself is by himself resembled to a Corn of Wheat that fell into the Ground and dy'd as if he had said The Corn of Wheat this my Body the Corn of Wheat which falls into the ground and dies this is my Body which is given and broken for you To the same intent and purpose 't is observable that the Ceremony of waving the Sheaf of the first-fruit of the Harvest on the next day after the Feast of the Passoever was appointed in the Law of Moses as a significant Type of the Resurrection or of Christ's reviving and raising our mortal Bodies as His Sheaves with him and 't is yet more observable that God's peculiar Providence over-ruling the blind Jews to defer their Feast until Saturday that year when our Saviour suffered order'd it so that they wav'd the Sheaf exactly on the first Easter-morning when Christ arose But these effects on our Bodies are not the only or the greatest effects of Christ's Resurrection the Power and Wisdom of God in it is greater still in comparison of this Wisdom the Apostle counted all things no better than dung good only as that is to manure the Ground to prepare it for that good Seed and for this blessed Rain that should come upon it that was all that all the knowledge of the World was good for to those who knew not Christ But of what consequence now to our Souls as well as our Bodies is the Knowledge and Belief of this prime Fundamental Article The summ of all this Because Christ did and suffered all this for us therefore did God his Father give him by the Holy Spirit a power to raise up himself first and then all that are his with all manner of Resurrections both of Soul and Body from all manner of Deaths to which they were obnoxious Therefore the Scripture in some places uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is his full and intire Resurrectim the whole 6th of the Romans and most of the 5th is upon the force of his Passion and his Resurrection where 't is made the Idaeal Cause the very similitude and pattern of our Resurrection and more than so a vital influence is supposed to be derived from him upon us to assimilate or make us like him as well in our Souls as our Bodies that as we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection For this implanting viz. in our Baptism supposes a drawing of Vertue from Christ and is secur'd on his part to our lives end there is imply'd not only our Obligation but our Ability by the power he gives us that we also should walk as he did after this day forty days together in newness of life supposing that none can raise their hearts from the World and be thus renewed but by thinking on these things And this falls in with my third and last Part the Obligation upon our parts or the Condition imposed upon us if we mean to reap advantage from this revealed Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection and ours then must these Principles be pursued extreamly home and we must go on throughout the whole course of our lives to practise accordingly Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord For in the very next words to those of my Text the Prophet takes up this lamentation O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee O Judah what shall I do unto thee For your goodness is as a morning cloud and as the early dew it goeth away It seems that these men whom the Prophet had to do with were men of good intentions but so they say Hell it self is full of good intentions that is 't is full of those that one time or other intended to do well but here was their great mistake they thought the great work was done as soon as it was but intended Alas we are apt to take every faint endeavour and every feeble attempt for overcoming the World But then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord that is if we proceed in taking just pains with our selves till we love what we know or else we know nothing yet as we ought to know He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love That Jesus Christ came into the World to save Sinners this is not only a faithful saying but avowed with good reason by the Apostle to be worthy of all men to be received but every thing in Nature is received according to the capacity and figure of the worthy or unworthy Receiver Our Christian Philosophy 't is a most noble speculation Angels delight to pry into it Unbelievers themselves will acknowledge in their sober moods that our main Body of Divinity is a piece of magnificent Wit admirably refin'd and strongly knit together But because they want a soul for it to ponder and contemplate these great and amazing Truths till they come to practise as they ought therefore the men