Host of Angels was rapturous as the Prophet had been before for when one of that heavenly Chorus had told the watchful Shepherds Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all People Luke 2 10.11 v. 14. for unto You is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord Presently the whole Quire in a joyful transport prais'd God and said Glory to God on high and on Earth peace and good will towards Men and his being really born of the House and Lineage of David gave him a claim sufficient to an Interest in that Prophecy that the Messias should be a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his roots and whereas a voice in the Wilderness was to cry before our Saviour's preaching in publick Prepare ye the way of the Lord c. No sooner was John the Baptist born who was Christ's forerunner both in birth and in that work too but his inspir'd Father Zachary declares of him Thou Child shalt be call'd the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways Luke 1.76 77. to give knowledge of Salvation to his people for the remission of their sins The Messias was to be the Prince of Peace according to the Prophets and he eventually prov'd himself so when he made his first entrance into the World in the time of the most universal peace the World had known the swelling Roman Empire was then in a profound calm within it self after all those Civil broyls which had almost torn out its bowels before and it was at peace with all its Neighbours round about which had not happened of several Centuries before in such a juncture what could rationally have been expected but what was suitably great and wholly extraordinary That subtle old Serpent began to feel his influence even before his birth when all those stratagems of his whereby he was wont to embroil Mankind were broken he saw too easily that fatal off-spring of the Woman which should break his head ruine his arbitrary Tyranny and Power and easily dissolve those seemingly irrefragable chains whereby he formerly had miserably enslav'd humane nature This was that great and glorious King which God himself in spite of all the tumultuary insults and oppositions of terrene powers in conjunction with infernal malice setled upon his holy Hill of Zion It was He concerning whom so many gracious promises were made as upheld the Church of old under those many dangers difficulties and oppressions it was ordinarily engag'd in God knew and pitied his Peoples calamities and had promis'd that he would find out an adequate remedy for their extreme necessities this they believ'd they knew that God who had promis'd was truth it self and could not disagree with himself and therefore when their condition was most cloudy they saw the day of their Redeemer at a distance and were glad and resolv'd though God kill'd them they would yet trust in him This hope and confidence made them patiently endure the torture not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection resolving never to quit the hope of Israel their faith in the Messiah that they with him suffering for the faith in him might rise again to the resurrection of Salvation But as the blessed Jesus was that Star himself which Balaam had foretold should arise in Jacob so a Star attended his Birth not onely shining like the Pillar of Fire in the Night but giving a surer guidance than the cloudy Pillar in the day time leading the observing Sages from the utmost quarters of the East to give an Alarm to the Jews and make them curious too in observing the signs of the times that they might be sure not to miss at last when he should come of Him whose coming they had expected so long And indeed the Priests and Rulers and Herod nay and all Jerusalem were troubled Matt. 2.3 and disturb'd at that happy news which should have been their greatest joy and satisfaction The chief Priests and Scribes trembled to think if that were true that their imposing upon the People with a spiritual Tyranny and Hypocritical sanctity would be at an end Herod was justly startled at the name of a King as Princes are generally very jealous of Competitors in Empire and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem who had often felt Herod's fierce and bloody temper before might justly fear an Inquisition to be made among them for this young Claimer Herod yet of all the rest had the deepest impressions of fear and passion made upon himself which when the Wise men had deluded him he vented upon the miserable Bethlehemites The poor laborious Shepherds receiv'd the News with calmer minds they had no Governments no Interests to lose but liv'd in harmless Peace and humble content in ignoble Cottages and if their Flocks did well they 'd ne'er be concern'd in the cares of Kings and Potentates therefore they flew eagerly to the Presence of their Saviour and agreed with the Eastern Sages in their Prudence not esteeming the new-born Infant according to the meanness of his circumstances but according to the glorious presages and indications of his Birth-right So happy are the lowliest minds and so much more capable of Divine impressions than those distracted with the thoughts of worldly grandeur So much more suitable they are to him who tells us He was meek and lowly in spirit not puft up with the Hosanna's nor yet dejected with the Crucifiges of the impetuous and variable multitude but though Herod were angry and raged God would not permit his madness to take place chearful Angels were ever ready to wait their Master's errands and they warn'd Joseph of the impendent danger so opening the way to the accomplishment of every word of God for when Joseph fled into Aegypt for security whose low condition in the World made him both unsuspected to the Jewish frontier guards and to his Aegyptian entertainers who little suspected that a mighty King enter'd under their Roofs under the tutelage of a contemptible Mechanick or that a little harmless Infant conceal'd a God when this was done an Angel too in due time gave Joseph such intelligence as put an end to his voluntary banishment and yet things were ordered so that upon the news of Herod's Son's reign Joseph turn'd aside to Nazareth instead of returning to Bethlehem that so the Son of God might at once be call'd out of Aegypt and be stiled a Nazarene that no Prophetical circumstance or Punctilio might be wanting to his Birth which was necessary to convince the World of his being that real Messias which had been so long promised to the Fathers from all which it was no wonder that Christ himself afterwards referred the Unbelieving Jews to these very Considerations Joh. 5.39 Search the Scriptures says He for in them ye think ye have Eternal Life and they are they which testifie of me Now
Dead before that great day must be called the Sons of God in the same sence as our Saviour is and consequently our Savour cannot on account of such Resurrection be so the Son of God as to be his only begotten Son exclusively of all others tho' that title be so exclusive in it's own nature As for the three Reasons of his being called the Son of God derived from his Offices it 's true in the first place that God has sanctifyed our Saviour and sent him into the World but so he sanctified Jeremy and so he sanctified John the Baptist and the last in particular he sent into the World with an extraordinary Commission i. e. to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation and to prepare the way of the Lord against his publick appearance which Employs were both wholly extraordinary but as for that descent of the Holy Ghost upon him whereby say they he was anointed to his Office without measure there was no particularity eminently distinguishing Him in that from his own Apostles upon whom the Spirit descended in a visible manner at the feast of Pentecost and fitted them so for the same Office of Preaching and every way promoting the Salvation of Mankind Indeed we no where find the Apostles called the Sons of God on account of their being baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire but we see our Saviour is declared the Son of God in whom he is well pleased on that occasion but he was own'd by the same title at his Transfiguration too when there was no effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore there was some peculiarly eminent reason for giving our Lord this Title which could not be applied on any account to any other Person If we reflect on the second ground of Christ's being called the Son of God which is because He is our Great High-Priest and so constituted by God himself our Author's proof of it is very strange viz. from that passage of the Psalmist Thou art my Son Heb. 5.5 this day have I begotten thee quoted by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews for tho' those Words are there repeated as well as in the first Chapter of that Epistle yet it 's not in a different Sence or to a new purpose but the Apostle there speaking of our Saviour's Priesthood and the greatness and excellency of that Office undertaken by him tells us no Man takes this Honour to himself but He that is called of God as was Aaron Now the Apostle shews that our Saviour had such a Call as well as Aaron for his Father who said to him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee shewed his Propriety in his Son and his Love to him by those words so that it could not be strange that his Father should lay so great an Honour upon him But then his title to the Priesthood it self is founded on that Thou art a Priest for ever ver 6. after the order of Melchisedec so then the Son-ship of Christ is antecedent to his Priestly Office and He was made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec because He was the Son of God and not called the Son of God because He was our High-Priest As for the last reason why our Saviour is called the Son of God viz. Because he is exalted to the Supreme Power over all things and so is our King Hab. 1.5 which he proves again from the same words as quoted in the same Epistle to the Hebrews There yet again the same truth occurs that Christ was the Son of God before He entred upon his Kingly Office for by Him God made the worlds and our Saviour never had a being but that at the same time he was the Son of God but if God by Him made the Worlds ver 2. as the Apostle says and he could not be our King before the Worlds were made We who are a part of these Worlds being those Creatures over whom he was to be King then he was the Son of God before he was our King and therefore could not be his Son on that account Besides if we should allow all these things the whole grant would be useless for Christ is called as before we observed the only begotten Son of God in an eminent and distinguishing manner above all others but if upon account of his Offices Prophetical Priestly or Regal Christ be called the Son of God then all those who exercise the same Functions in the world may upon the same reason lay claim to the same title for of some of them we know the Psalmist says They are Gods and they are all the children of the most high but if they can all justly lay claim to the same Title then there 's nothing peculiar to our Saviour included in that being the Son the only begotten Son of God which yet the very Title it self imports All these Reasons then not being sufficient to give our Saviour the Title of the only begotten Son of God in a manner so super-eminent to all other Creatures and their Originals particularly to Angels who are of a Spiritual Nature and are called the Sons of God There must remain some other ground for our Saviour's being so called and that is his eternal generation of the Father which puts him into such a Relation to his Father as no other creature can possibly pretend to We have prov'd that the whole of his Five Precedent Reasons do not fill up the Idea or make good the full meaning of those terms wherein Christ is called the only Begotten Son of God his Beloved Son or his own Son for if I am Born of my Mother but not Begotten in his own Image by my reputed Father tho' my reputed Father were able after Death to raise me to Life again tho' he were able to confer upon me all the Authority in the Universe yet all this will be so far from giving Me justly the Title of my Father's only-begotten Son tho' perhaps he never had any other that by all these Reasons together I should be a putative Son but really no more related to my supposed Father than our Saviour was to Joseph the Husband of the blessed Virgin when before her Espousals he was begotten in her by the Power of the Holy Ghost Nay should we admit of the very unphilosophical Hypothesis of Ruarus Quid in eo absurdi si spiritum Dei venas in virginis uterum descendentes emulsisse atque ex sanguine coagulato Embryonem formasse dicam non aliter atque id fit spiritu in masculo semine latente Ruarus ad Mersennum Epistola Centur. 1. Num. 56. p. 262. the most modest of the Socinian tribe all would be too little to make good this glorious Idea of the only begotten Son of God But his eternal Generation answers all and makes our Saviour as properly the Only Begotten Son of his Heavenly Father as I or any other Lawful Son is the only begotten of his
to set up their Master for the Son of God who had justly suffered before for blaspheming that Divinity he pretended so near a relation to But tho' what I have said already may go a good way toward the proof of that That Jesus was the Son of God yet for the farther clearing this matter we may enquire Into the promises and predictions concerning his birth or appearance in the world as an Intercessor for it Into the manner and circumstances of his Birth Into the intent and design of his Doctrine Into that influence Scripture history in these cases ought to have upon all those who own the being of a God whether they be Christians or not It 's our business to enquire into those promises and predictions current in the world concerning such an Incarnation of the Divinity or its extraordinary appearance in the world for the restauration of its bliss before by the encrease of wickedness perverted and ruined for Promises and Prophecies concerning a person yet unborn and these publick and obvious to an inquisitive world are wont to signifie such a person wholly extraordinary especially when the same spirit which imparts the fore-knowledge of him gives his very name to the world so we find when the Man of God cryed against the Altar in Bethel 1 Kings 13.2 he prophesied That a child should be born unto the house of David Josiah by name who upon that Altar should offer the Priests of the high places themselves and pollute it with dead mens bones that Josiah spoken of there so long before his birth made good the Prophets word to the utmost and has that admirable character bestowed upon him by the Holy Ghost 2 Kings 23.16 25. That like to him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him So the name of Cyrus was foretold long before his birth by the Prophet Isaiah He 's there stil'd God's shepherd his anointed the man whose right hand God himself had holden but he was to be a perfect Hero and such heathen as well as sacred Historians represent him and God by Isaiah predicts his glory Isai 44.28.45.1 2. even That he should perform all his pleasure saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built and to the temple thy foundations shall be laid which Cyrus so named by the Prophet was indeed a type of our Jesus our Saviour and deliverer How numerous and how plain soever the Prophecies of him in Scripture were we shall more particularly consider hereafter but some principal passages we must on this occasion take notice of And first of that foundation of humane hopes the Proto-evangelium Paradisiicum or that promise made to our first Parents in their lapsed state tho' before their expulsion from Paradise for it was a promise to them tho' a threat to the Serpent to whom the speech was more immediately directed Gen. 3.15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel This being by all Christians and antient Jews interpreted of the Messias was the first glad tydings of hope to those who were just fallen into a ruinous condition this supported our great Parents spirits when otherwise nothing could present it self to them but fears terrors and desperation after this we find God promising as a peculiar blessing to Abraham and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 which the Jews too of old understood of the Messias to be of the stock of Abraham according to the flesh nor could it otherwise have been made good for the Jewish nation tho' they were partakers of particular and infallible oracles yet were but an obscure nation in respect of the rest of mankind and tho' they were active in the degeneracy of their Church to make Proselytes to their Law yet the numbers were not great and if that of our Saviour be truth That they made their Proselytes two fold more the children of wrath than they were themselves Matt. 23.15 that care of theirs was no very great blessing to the world Therefore S. Peter in the close of that Sermon he preached on occasion of the lame man's cure Acts 3.25 26. applyes this promise to our Jesus and more distinctly and determinately S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made He saith not unto seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ And further we have in the early ages of the world that famous and indisputable prophecy of dying Jacob The Scepter shall not depart from Judah Gen. 49.10 nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shilo come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be the exact accomplishment of which as Shilo means the Messias that is the Christ we shall afterwards take notice of It were no difficulty to shew how many of those institutions and Ceremonies of the Jews prefigured this same Saviour but I shall rather confine my self to prophetick words than actions as tending more directly to my purpose Famous was that prediction of Balaam Numb 24.17 I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth. And afterwards Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have the Dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of the City by which general destruction is onely meant that Idolatry and those Idolaters which the Doctrine of the Gospel should confound and this as Christians have all along applied to Christ So the Jews prov'd sufficiently they understood it so by their eager following the Barcochab whom they thought pointed out by this Text as I hinted before Nor did the Jews till afterwards when they came to seek subterfuges for their obduracy question the meaning of their Law-giver when he told them The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet Deut. 18.15 from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken this could onely be made good of Christ since Moises Ben Maimon the most learned of Jewish Writers of late has largely prov'd the disparity between Moses and all other Prophets mention'd in Scripture and Scripture it self asserts That there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses Deut. 34.10 whom the Lord knew face to face Our Saviour onely spoke out Divine Mysteries in the day time and in the face of the whole world he needed not as others the mediation of Angels or of Dreams or of Visions to make him understand the will of God but saw and
that He who before his appearance in the flesh had been the Author of a strong and impregnable faith in God's people and who created such fears and made such terrible concussions in the souls of wicked and ungodly men that he who when born was to do things beyond the utmost reach of any thing but Omnipotence to do a Creator's work and restore all the decays of ruined Nature that he should make his entrance into the world in a miraculous manner was rationally to be expected since the causes in supernatural as well as other things must be proportioned to the effects And certainly to any thing but a Jew these prodigious appearances at the birth of our Saviour would have signified as much as golden Scepters and imperial Diadems and all the gaudy shews of victories and conquests and especially it should have been so since the Jews themselves stupid as they were expected wonders in and at his birth but above all things their behaviour was strange to him in that if the Messias were to be the King of the Jews themselves the Jews themselves as his Subjects should with the first have submitted to him by which means if any he might have grown formidable to their enemies and have as they expected restored the kingdom again to Israel whereas indeed John 1.11 He came to his own but his own received him not So that if he must have been so great and victorious his Conquest must have been made at first upon his native rebels before he could have spread the terror of his arms abroad They who expected only a Man tho' very great to appear should have look'd for no such effects of his appearance but what might justly have consisted with humanity armies are not wont to grow like Mushrooms in a night and those who cannot have the assistance of their Subjects for their own good can scarce expect suitable supports from others to carry on or secure the interests of ingrates or rebels If any thing of worldly greatness were indeed to have been expected at the Messiah's advent it should have been that in so depraved an age of the world he should have come attended with miraculous vengeance to destroy the adversaries of divine goodness and their own happiness That Those his enemies who would not admit that he should reign over them should have been brought out and slain before his face But on the contrary as his design was Mercy so he came in a way proportioned to it the lenity and softness of his ingress into a sinkking and undeserving world was wholly astonishing Born as it was foretold of a pure and spotless Virgin a descent agreeable to that prodigious innocence apparent in his life and converse and according to the very tendencies of nature more likely to incline to pity and compassionate tenderness of the miseries of others such a temper being the ornament as well as the expected companion of a Virgin state He was born a King that he might with the greater intention study the good of his Subjects yet born in a low and contemptible estate that he might the better instruct the too aspiring sons of Men that all the most substantial greatness is founded in humility He was not wellcom'd into the world with the dreadful shouts of conquering armies but with the softer Hallelujah of joyful Angels gentle and kind Spirits whose triumphs were rais'd not from the dismal groans of an impenitent tortured world but that glory arising to God's eternal Name from that peace brought down by him to earth and that good will which was then undeniably demonstrated toward the sinful children of men His Birth was not first notified to Kings or Emperors or other worldly Grandees that they might have cast their Crowns at the feet of him who lives for ever and ever but to innocent and toyling Shepherds who were watching their flocks by night Men whose veracity none could reasonably suspect and who could have no bye perverse design of their own to carry on no intreagues to manage by imposing cheats and shams upon the credulous who were the most proper witnesses of his Birth who himself fed his flock like a shepherd Isal 40.11 who gathered the Lambs with his arm and carried them in his bosom gently leading those that were with young as it was predicted of him Nor was the Royal Palace of a Monarch honoured with his nativity but a mean and scorn'd stable to shew That God had chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which were mighty and that the base things of this world and things which are despised were chosen by God and things which are not to bring to nought things which are 1 Cor. 1.27 28 2â— that no flesh should glory in his presence and yet that it might not be pretended that He who was rightful Monarch of the world wanted the due acknowledgments of his Sovereignty and divinity too from his wiser and more considerate vassals the Eastern wise Men whom yet we dare not with those Legendary Authors conclude to have been Kings made their Presents to him of Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe proper offerings to so extraordinary a person and sufficiently divulged both his birth and title tho' that interstice of time between his birth and preaching publickly made all those premonitions forgotten But was he meerly as he was esteemed the Son of an inconsiderable tradesman in Israel of a poor person thrust into the stable of an Inn to give place to his Superiors was it a slighted infant the companion of beasts it may be at his nativity and beneath the notices of Men of birth and fortune was it such a one that could be born by divine operation of an untouch'd Virgin of the sacred royal Line was it such a one that was receiv'd into the world with the homage of blessed Angels attended with a prodigious Star at his birth adored by humble foreigners blest and admired by Judaean Saints and holy Men Could such a one employ the dreams visions revelations and the calmer studies of so many inspir'd Prophets both among the Jews and Gentiles employ the care of active Angels for his preservation from the malignant fury of envious powers and the happy Pens of faithful Evangelists to transmit the series of his glorious actions as well as the account of his miraculous birth to inquisitive ages Could such a one be the Prince of Peace the everlasting God the infinitely wise Counseller that blessed seed in whom all the nations of the World should be blest that rock of Ages on which was fixt the faith of the Prophets and Patriarchs the Saints and Martyrs of old so firmly that neither the force nor subtilty of Men or Devils could prevail against them No these were works only fit for a divine Being to undertake nothing but God could be so waited on by humble and acknowledging nature nothing but God could so strongly affect the hearts of holy Men to raise the
which cost him so much study so many fastings and earnest prayers to Almighty God and Schlichtingius pursues the fancy with a great deal of heat and violence Crellius joyns with it too so that this may pass for their general solution of the difficulty a difficulty which could never be found till they created it and with their mighty pretences to Reason and clear interpretations of difficult places shut all true Reason and clear Scripture-light out of doors It 's certain that the Evangelists mention nothing of this formal ascent into heaven and is it likely that they who set down all the circumstances of his birth to his very wrapping in swadling clothes and lying in a manger they who mention his flight into Aegypt his wandring from his parents his several ascents to Jerusalem his Transfiguration on mount Tabor a matter much less glorious and important his talk with Moses and Elias a very unnecessary discourse if he had learn'd all those things from God himself before is it likely that those who set down these things so punctually nay S. Luke himself of whom when it serves their turns they say that He was so inquisitive as to omit nothing of consequence wherein our Saviour was concern'd that these should omit so prodigious an Ascent into heaven as this which would naturally have conciliated so great an authority to his person and his doctrine and would have been very necessary too if he had been no more than a meer man Had there really been such an Ascent it would have been very improper in his younger years for besides the weakness and insufficiency of that age for the most divine speculations we are told plainly after that dispute of his with the Doctors and his return with and obedience to his parents Luke 2.52 that He encreased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and Man which must be false and ridiculous if he had been in Heaven before and had been fully instructed in all divine matters by God himself As for that second time allotted for this Ascent viz. immediately after his Baptism the Evangelists tell us plainly the design of his being led by the Spirit into the wilderness was that he might be tempted of the Devil Luke 4.2 Nay and as S. Luke asserts He was tempted by the Devil forty days this could not have been true had he been in Heaven any or all those days and whereas the Evangelist adds that in those days he did eat nothing and when they were ended he afterwards hungred this story must be both false and disgraceful too for how could he who had corporeally attained the glorious vision of the Almighty be so soon affected with the inconveniences of flesh and blood when we never find Moses tho' fasting as long several times complaining of any such hunger Or can we believe the Devil so very diligent and violent an enemy to Man's happiness would have given our Saviour so glorious a respite which in all probability too must have been so prejudicial to himself When the Socinians can shew us any thing like a proof of their dreams in God's word we 'l consider it till then we 'l entertain it only as a ridiculous not to say a blasphemous Romance and adhere to the natural and genuine interpretation of these words the Word was with God viz. that Jesus Christ or he who in his humane nature bore that name was from eternity actually existent in the presence and in the bosom of his father that therefore that Prayer of his was rational and intelligible Now O father glorifie thou me with thy self Joh. 17.5 with that glory which I had with thee before the world was This Prayer is intelligible enough according to the common Doctrine of the Christian Church that Christ had a being before the beginning of the world quit that sence and we have nothing but figure upon figure incoherent inconsistent and very profound Heterodoxy and nonsense And may we not fairly assert that old way of explaining such passages as these when the Evangelist in the continuance of his discourse says plainly and the Word was God That the Word was with God say they is as much as if the Apostle had said tho' he was unknown to the world he was very well known to God in his privacy and that 's very likely to be true if God be Omniscient that he knew his Son But if it be said He only knew him then it 's false for God himself had by his holy Angels before made him known to the blessed Virgin to his supposed father Joseph and to the Shepherds of Bethlehem and to the Wise Men of the East nay he was known to most of them by the name of the Son of God by the office of saving his people from their sins c. and good old Simeon in his Eucharistick song gives us a compleat Compendium of the Gospel Luke 2.31 33. and we are sure He knew the infant Jesus to be the salvation of God who was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles and to be the glory of God's people Israel Here then we find the adversaries of our Faith wholly mistaken in the consequent gradation of the Evangelists they are yet engag'd in more difficulties but what methods do they fix upon to disengage themselves According to the ordinary acceptation of the words a man would be ready to conclude that the Evangelist meant as he said and that if the Word was God he was so indeed and therefore not simply a Creature or a meer Man but what may look very suspitiously it 's observable that those who are unwilling to own any such thing as a Mystery in the Objects of our Faith make every word in this beginning of S. John's Gospel Mysterious so by God we must understand Man or one that really is no more than a Man only honoured with the name of God as being his Deputy or Vicegerent or as the Psalmist speaks to Kings Psal 82.6 7. I have said you are Gods and all of you are children of the most high but ye shall dy like Men and fall like one of the Princes Well we allow it Princes are so styl'd there in a figurative sence because of their deputation from heaven and the derivation of their authority from thence And in David we have a King a Man after God's own heart but was ever any thing like this in this text spoken of him Would not the Author be impudently ridiculous who should preface a History of David's life thus In the beginning of the Israelitish Kingdom was David for so he really had a being as soon as ever Saul had any title to that kingdom and David was with God i. e. He was known only to him for God had cut out his Prophet Samuel a way to anoint him King unknown to Saul to prevent any jealousie in him of any such intended Heir to his Crown and Israel in general were as ignorant
tho' it were an inward grace a strengthning of the Soul which they requir'd of him Again when the Disciples were with him on ship-board and during his quiet sleep just sinking by the violence of an angry tempest they in a fright wake their Master and cry out to him Lord save us we perish Mat. 8.25 If our Saviour was a meer Man the Disciples acted with much less sence than Jonah's Mariners who every one in the storm called upon their Gods for help and summoned sleeping Jonas not to save them by His Power but to joyn with them in calling upon his God For was it ever heard before that when a Ship was just sinking or running upon a rock the ship's Crew ran to some poor ignorant Passenger to beg their security from him The Mariners tho' convinced that he was an extraordinary Person made no such application to Saint Paul in a parallel danger it 's God alone who can command the Seas and Winds his permissive Word makes them ruffle the Universe and put Nature into a Consternation the same Word lays them still as in their first Originals ere uncorrupted Nature knew any thing terrible or dangerous In the case before us our Saviour answered them not as that King of Israel did the Woman If the Lord help thee not what can I do But He arose and rebuked the Winds and the Sea and there was a great calm Nature in its greatest hurry own'd his Divine Authority only his Disciples stumbled upon the Question ver 27. What manner of Man is this that even the Winds and the Sea obey him They talked like Men beside themselves with Fear they called upon him for Help as if they had believed him to be God they reflected upon that Deliverance he had given them as if he had been no more than Man but he takes no notice of any error they were in in their first Devotions but by his Mercy encouraged them to do the same again upon a like occasion What the Disciples did here in a storm at Sea that Saint Stephen the first Martyr for Christianity did in a more violent storm of Persecution on Land for when he came to his last Agonies when it was the proper season for a good Man to exert the utmost vigor of his Faith and Charity then for himself and with respect to his own Soul he prays Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The frequent expiring Ejaculation of Holy Saints and Martyrs after him Compare now this with that assertion of the wise Man concerning Death Eccles. 12 7. Then shall the Dust return to Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and the consequence will be either that our Lord Jesus Christ was the great Author or Creator and Giver of the Rational Soul or else that this Holy Martyr then when filled in an extraordinary manner with the Holy Ghost in his extreme hours when commonly Mens apprehensions of futurity are most Clear and Rational talk'd in a very Impertinent and sinful manner to devote his Soul to him who could have no right to it if he were a meer Creature and to forget his God Franciscus Davidis would have us believe here that Stephen did not call upon Jesus Christ but upon God the Father and that we should translate the expression O thou Lord of Jesus receive my Spirit but this Socinus has strongly confuted tho' upon their common Principle of our Saviour's being a meer Creature Franciscus undertakes the much more rational part However here his subterfuge is nothing worth It was Jesus the Son of God He who bore that proper name of Jesus from his Circumcision for whose sake Stephen was now persecuted to Death by the malicious Jews it was the same Jesus whom he saw at the right hand of God when the Heavens opened to give him such a view of future Glory prepared for Martyrs as might support and encourage him under his sufferings it was to him therefore that Stephen applyed himself and sitted himself for a glorious and happy Exit by that admirable Resignation But neither did Saint Stephen stop there but as the utmost effort of a dying Martyr's Charity He adds this to his former ejaculation ver 60. Lord lay not this sin to their charge He certainly designed exemplary Charity in this and to imitate his dying Saviour who prayed his Father to forgive his Murderers for they knew not what they did But the Martyr's enemies would have had little reason to have admir'd his Charity had he presented his Prayers for them to one who had no power to forgive them and the Jews would be as ready now to make the Objection as heretofore Who can forgive sins but God only And if God to whom vengeance belongeth in whose sight the Death of his Saints is precious would certainly avenge the blood of his Saints and Martyrs upon their Persecutors to what purpose was it to pray to him to forgive them who not being the most high God himself could have no Power to forgive those who had sin'd against the most high God so as to give them any security but above all He could never have hoped for any acceptance at the hand of God in any Petition whatsoever had he now in his last extremity been guilty of Idolatry Saint Paul had been made partaker of extraordinary Revelations had been snatch'd up into the third heavens where he had seen and heard things not lawful for a Man to utter 2 Cor. 1â— 7 8 9. indeed things unspeakable lest He should have been exalted above measure thro' the abundance of those Revelations there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him This was a very severe humiliation and Saint Paul was sensible of it and at first as appears by the Text very uneasie under it Saint Paul knew well enough that the best remedy for all calamities was Prayer that Prayers presented to the true God with a sincere heart could not return unfruitful but Saint Paul presently applyes himself to Christ For this cause I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me says he and He said unto me my Grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness By the Lord here the Socinians themselves understand our Lord Jesus and therefore alledge this Text as a proof of Pious Mens praying to Christ Now had Saint Paul prayed to Christ for Assistance and Relief in such a case where only the Supreme God could really help him if that Christ were a meer Creature then such a Prayer must be Idolatrous and such Service be called Idolatry wherein the Creature was rather worshipped than the Creator and Christ a Creature must as Lucifer of old have endeavoured to set himself up for a rival God and prosecute a separate Interest of his own and manage and assist his servants in a way of opposition to the most high God and
Dispensation of his Word and Sacraments that he is that great and glorious King in perpetual Obedience to whose Commands we are oblig'd to live and without Obedience to whose Commands perform'd according to our ability we certainly merit Eternal Punishment and this power over us as a Prophet and a King we doubt not took its Original from that Sacrifice he offer'd for our Sins in the fulness of time but on account of the certainty of which Rev. 13.8 he was effectually that Lamb slain from the beginning of the World Well then our Saviour in his Suffering paid a sufficient Price to satisfie for the Sins of all Mankind to atone God's anger against them as Sinners and to prevent their eternal Damnation but these Advantages accrueing from his Priesthood and his Sacrifice can only be participated in by those who submit to his Instruction and his Government he purchas'd that Interest in us at a dear rate and the Connexion between the one and the other is indissoluble He therefore that would reap any Benefit from the Sufferings of our Saviour must obey his Directions submit to his Laws do his Will he who acts so must certainly be very perfect in all Religious Duties therefore those who are eternally saved by Christ's Death must as far as possible be perfect in all Religious Duties therefore the true genuine Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction must infer a necessity of Practical Holiness not destroy it thus we see when God appointed the brazen Serpent to be set up in the Wilderness for the relief of those who were bitten by fiery Serpents that brassy Representation had a power sufficient annex'd to it to heal all that were hurt but if any bitten Israelite out of an obstinate humour would not have cast his eyes upon the brazen Serpent though the Serpent had been just over his head he would have dy'd by the Wound because the Condition on which alone the Cure was to be had was annex'd to the appointment of that Serpent viz. that the wounded Person should look up to it Or let us take our view of the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction from another place then we shall find Faith as an originally necessary Condi ion of receiving any Benefit by it and Faith to be true must as necessarily work by Love for if I am cast into Prison as a Debtor and another out of pity to my deplorable state go and discharge all my Debts and receive an entire acquittance of all such Debts for me and in my name this is Love and Kindness and sufficient in the case in the Judgment of all Rational Men but if after all this done and the Acquittance shew'd me and attested I 'll not believe one word of all the matter and to prove I do not believe will continue a Prisoner still though always complaining of the sadness of my own Condition my Friend did enough for me but what am I the better my Incredulity makes my state and condition still as sensibly lamentable as before so whereas by Adam's Transgression all Men are brought into a state of Guilt and all stand as Prisoners under the hand of God justly incens'd against us and are such Debtors to his Justice as unless that Debt be discharg'd by or for us we must be eternally miserable Our blessed Saviour assured of our Insolvency has by himself satisfi'd his Father's Anger he has discharg'd that Debt we stand engaged in to Heaven his whole Gospel is a sufficient Evidence of what he has done for us in it we are acquitted by God the Father from those Punishments we were liable to for the sake of his Son and the truth of that Gospel has through all Ages been sufficiently attested to the World but if after all this we all turn Socinians if we will not believe that our Saviour has really extended any such Goodness towards us and to prove that we do not believe it we slight all those Rules of Holy Living which are given us and resolve with the rebellious Citizens in the Gospel that we will not have this Man to reign over us that we will not submit to his Laws nor acknowledge his Soveraignty his Satisfaction is ineffectual to us and though we groan under never so deep a sense of our natural Misery we can reap no good from that we must therefore believe in our Saviour we must believe him able willing and really to have satisfied his Father for our Debt we must believe that by virtue of that Satisfaction so made He 's able to save to the uttermost all those that come to God in and by him We must believe he 's really able to Teach us and that he certainly has a Right to Command us and when we sincerely believe all these things and that as it was one great end of our Lord's offering himself for us to free us from the Punishment so it was another to free us from the Slavery of Sin so that we should not obey it in the Lusts thereof it will be impossible that we should indulge our selves in Sin nay we cannot confirm the Truth of our profest Faith or make it credible to the World that we really Believe what we pretend to do unless we endeavour as he that has called us is holy so to be our selves holy in all manner of conversation Let those then who talk so freely of the Doctrine of our Lord's Satisfaction who would persuade us that it 's so irrational and pernicious to believe any such thing find out any Arguments from their own Scheme of Doctrine which may serve to enforce Practical Holiness more vigorously than what we have delivered if they can Will They tell us we are oblig'd to it out of pure Gratitude to Heaven bcause God is pleased to forgive us our Sins past freely and to confirm that free Pardon to us by the Death of his Son as if he meerly dy'd a kind of Martyr for that Truth which they make almost the sole end of all our Saviour's Sufferings Gratitude it 's true may operate powerfully upon a generous Soul but the most generous of all would be willing to understand the nature of that Obligation they have to be so grateful and the reasons of it We are then obliged by God's free pardoning of our Sins how do we know he has done so By the Testimony of Scripture that Word of God which is sufficient to instruct us to Eternal Life Well we own Scripture does inform us That our Sins are freely pardoned by God and we should build very confidently on that evidence did not those we have to do with teach us a great deal of Diffidence and show us that such Passages of Scripture are capable of very different Interpretations and that when we think we have a very clear proof of this or another Particular when we come to scan things accurately by our own Reason we find we have none at all for the same Scripture which tells us we are freely pardoned