good works ii Tit. 14. To the doing of which 6. he hath given us the Spirit for our helper Every Miracle that it wrought to say nothing but what is within the verge of these words bids us consider what a Potent Lord we serve for whom nothing is too hard By a Thousand Wonders by more miraculous works than we could have had time to read should they have been all written did he awake the sleepy World commanding them to arise and go about his work and he would be with them his Power which nothing can withstand should aid and succour them The obedience me thinks which the Winds and the Sea and the Fishes and the Graves and the Devils themselves paid him call upon us and tell us both what we ought to do and what assistance we may expect from the power of his might to make us obedient to his Faith Who can resist the joynt importunity of so many Witnesses who can hear all these tell us that the Son-of-God is come by whom we must be governed and yet be so senselesly obstinate as to say We will not have this man to rule over us O deaf ears O hearts harder than the nether Milstone which will not let such loud voices sink into them such mighty arguments penetrate and mollifie them into compliance with him What can reduce such Souls and bring them under any government who will not be reclaimed by the authority of the Son of God I may call Heaven and Earth to Witness against such obdurate hearts The Father Word and Holy Ghost these are Witnesses in Heaven that testifie it is our duty and interest too to submit our selves unto him The Water Bloud and the Spirit they are Witnesses on Earth which agree together to perswade us to take his easie Yoke upon us Can neither Heaven nor Earth prevail with us Is not God the Father Almighty great enough to lay his commands upon us Is the WORD of God of less credit than the common vogue and opinion of the World with us Cannot the Holy Ghost be believed concerning the place from whence it comes when it says that no unclean thing shall enter in thither Do we think his holy life to be a troublesome folly and despise his bloud and resist his spirit and receive all the grace of God in vain Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth after God had sent many of his Servants who were disregarded He last of all sent his Son into the World saying surely they will reverence my Son but they have rebelled against him I might call for Hell it self to witness against such perverse and disloyal Creatures The Devils will not fail to accuse such men hereafter for they believe and tremble they acknowledge this great Truth that Jesus is the Holy one of God iv Luke 34. which is the very same that Jesus himself said when he tells us the Father hath sanctified him i.e. made him his holy One and sent him into the world x. John 36. And that is more I doubt than a great many irreligious spirits will confess in their works I am sure the most of the Christian world utterly deny it Do you think the Devils who made that confession would have disobeyed him if they might have taken our place and had his Salvation offered to them Would they not have shaken off their chains and taken upon them his yoke had they received such gracious invitations as he hath made to us Let us not be worse than they I beseech you by casting away that hope which was never given them and slighting such tenders of mercy which are peculiarly directed to the children of men But let us rather admire adore and magnifie this amazing love of God who sent his Son so kindly to speak to such wretches as we are And let us show that we are sensible of his love by hearkening to his voice and readily submitting our selves with all dutiful nay joyful affection to his commands See I beseech you again that you refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on Earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven Let all his Laws be held most sacred and be devoutly reverenced and observed Know that this is your wisdom and understanding nay remember that it is your life And therefore keep your Souls diligently lest you forget those things which you have heard and lest they depart from your hearts all the days of your life Chuse death rather than the life of the unrighteous fornicators idolaters adulterers thieves covetous drunkards revilers and extortioners who he hath pronounced shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Do you not remember how observant the children of Jonadab the son of Rechab were of their Fathers Commandment and how they could not be tempted no not by a Prophet to contradict it xxxv Jer. 6. What Arguments I pray you had they so reasonable and moving as those which urge us for this injunction Might they not have slipt many ways with better colour than we can do from this obligation Did there want plausible pretences to plead their excuse if they had absolved themselves and not observed it Might they not have said that every Creature of God was good and none to be refused That their stomachs sometimes required a little Wine and that it was reasonable to give them satisfaction That their Father had gone beyond his Authority and taken away the just liberty which God had left them That they were restrained enough by the Divine Laws and that there needed no more of his making O the insensibleness and ingratitude of Christian people that can think of these mens reverence to so severe and hard a command of their Father and be less obedient to their most gracious Lord What a forehead hath that man who dares venture to break any of his Precepts when he hath so many Reasons to believe that he hath laid none upon us but those which are the very mind and will of God and are such a necessary indispensable burden that unless we carry them we cannot be saved There is nothing that can be pretended why we should not strictly tye our selves to his will Not only the love which engaged the Rechabites enforces our obedience but infinitely more reason than there was in their Fathers will and pleasure for we are assured that Jesus is the Son of God He could not but have a perfect understanding of what was fit and convenient for us If there had been any other way more easie to Heaven than this he hath set before us we cannot but think He would have revealed it unto us If there were any license that could be granted us to dispense with our obedience He was not so unkind as to conceal it much less would he have taken it upon his death that none will be allowed For he declared openly in his Sermons that he will not only take
long ago Whether the Scripture be glorifie thy Son or glorifie thy Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is all one in exact contemplation of things Now if the truth of these words be throughly examined how he had glorified him and how he would glorifie him again we shall meet in both with a plain testimony that Eternall Life is in his Son to bestow on us Let us consider them briefly apart I. As for the former I find that God had already glorified him before he spake these words three ways 1. By his Transfiguration of which I now discoursed for then St. Luke saith ix 32. they saw his glory And that by this Glory which they saw the Father testified he should be made glorious in the heavens and able to make us so I refer you to what I have said already on this Argument 2. And I need not use many words to shew that he had also glorified him very frequently by the many wonderfull works which he had wrought for in them it is likewise expresly said ii Joh. 11. he manifested forth his Glory and the multitude were excited by them to magnifie him with Hosanna's and to cry out Glory in the highest xix Luk. 37 38. By these also he shewed the power wherewith he was indued to doe any thing that he had promised and they moved his Disciples hearts as you reade in the place now mentioned ii Joh. 11. to believe on him 3. But there was a third glorification of him to which I believe these words have a more speciall reference because it was very famous and but newly passed Which was his raising Lazarus from the dead By this Jesus said expresly that glory should redound to God the Father and that He the Son of God should also be glorified thereby xi Joh. 4. For this very end he there teaches his Disciples Lazarus fell sick and he therefore delayed to go and recover him though his great friend that there might be a fit opportunity by the miraculous resurrection of so noted a person as Lazarus was it appears by the coming of such numbers to comfort his sisters vers 19. and in a place so nigh to Jerusalem vers 18. where the greatest opposition was made against him to doe honour to Jesus and to make it known that he assumed not more glory to himself then God the Father gave him This was a very great testimony from God that indeed LIFE was in him and that he did not vainly call himself vers 25. the resurrection and the life because he now with his almighty word restored one to life who had been so long dead that there was no possibility of his reviving but by the very LIFE it self Hereby he declared that as the Father hath Life in himself so he hath given the Son to have Life in himself v. Joh. 26. What he had said before in his preaching he now justified by his works according as he himself foretold he would when he said Verily verily the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ver 25. The hour which was then coming yea was just at hand seems to be this time when he raised Lazarus up out of his grave declaring thereby both the truth of what he had said v. Joh. 26. that he had life in himself and likewise that there would be another hour as it presently there follows ver 28 29. wherein all men whatsoever shall rise out of their graves at his voice and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life as they that have done evill unto the resurrection of damnation They might well believe it because he said it who proved himself to be the Truth by such works as none could doe but he that was the Life II. But this is not all that we are to consider in this Testimony of the Father who doth not onely say that he had glorified him but that he would glorifie him again which was done also at three severall times 1. At his Death when many of the graves of the Saints that slept were opened xxvii Matth. 52. For the very rocks rent and the earth did quake and the veil of the temple was torn in sunder from the top to the bottom and the Sun refused to give its light and such an amazement came upon the Centurion who was then upon the guard that he glorified God xxiii Luk. 47. by confessing that Jesus was a righteous man and no pretender to a title that did not belong to him but as other Evangelists express it the Son of God To these wonderfull things concurring at his death to glorifie him and doe him honour the voice from Heaven seems to have had some respect because of what follows ver 31 32 33. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me This he said signifying what death he should die For even now when he seemed most weak he began to tread the Devill under his feet Now he began to draw not onely the Jews to him but other men the Romans also one of whose Captains in the midst of his reproach confessed him to be the Son of God The very opening of the graves served to adorn the triumph he was about to make over the powers of darkness being a sign that he had now despoiled him who hath the power of death which is the Devill and that he had Life in himself and will give it us especially now that he hath finished his triumph and is glorified at God's right hand Of which the rending of the veil also was no obscure token shewing that we have liberty as the Apostle speaks x. Heb. 19. to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus It may seem indeed an uncouth form of speech to call his Crucifixion by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lifting up from the earth or exaltation but one may say and with great truth that Christ's death upon the Cross as S. Fragment L. viii in Joh. Cyrill of Alexandria speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was his promotion contrived for his fame and glory for he is glorified perpetually for this having procured many benefits to mankind by its means This is one part of the Record of the Father to this Truth when he said he would glorifie our Saviour Which you see was as much as to say He would make it appear even when he hung upon the Cross that he was able to open mens graves and unloose the chains of death and in due time raise them up to everlasting life For 2. God farther glorified him at his Resurrection which was attended with the resurrection of the dead bodies of those Saints whose graves were opened at his death xxvii Matth. 52 53. There were severall witnesses of this in Jerusalem to whom those persons deceased appeared as there were of his own resurrection which
his father's house were many Mansions xiv 1 2. that is there was room for all comers though never such multitudes The discourse indeed of our Saviour there shews that this is but a fancy yet if we consider the haste men make in any other advantageous offers and how they will strive to prevent and circumvent one another to gain any preferment here in this world they might well think that men would come in as great crowds to heaven as we have seen them sometime come to Church and would all run as men do in a race contending earnestly who should carry away the crown For bonorum quorundam sicut malorum est intolerabilis magnitudo the greatness of some goods as well as of some evills is so excessive and intolerable as Tertullian if I forget not somewhere speaks that it weighs down all that can be cast into the scale against it and suffers not our wills as you have heard to deliberate about it Whence is it then that we see so little care and concern about that far more exceeding eternall weight of glory that good which is so vast that in this state we cannot bear the very thoughts of it In stead of that forwardness which might have been expected there is a strange backwardness so much as to think of these things A prodigious numness and stupidity hath seized on the hearts of Christian people who seem to have no life at all in them To what shall we impute it seeing the Sun of righteousness hath shone so brightly and strongly on them with these chearfull beams of Eternall Life which he hath brought to light through his Gospell Is there any thing here that can pretend to vie with the Eternall Life he hath revealed I will not stay for an Answer the disparity is so great between this and all other goods What is it then which makes men so indifferent Is there little or no hope that God will bestow such great and glorious things upon such vile wretches as we are No he hath promised and prepared them as you have heard and he cannot be worse then his word nor lose all his own preparations What is it then that stifles their endeavours after this immortall bliss Will he not give it but upon very hard terms and such rigorous conditions as are enough to freez the warmest resolutions when we think of them Not this neither For he hath prepared these good things for those that love him And what is there more easie what more pleasant and chearfull then love especially of the first and chiefest Good which will certainly make all our duty as easie and delightfull as it self is Or will you say that we cannot love him it is an impossible Condition For shame consider that the very offer of such glorious things is enough to make us love him intirely if we did believe them Were we perswaded that he will bestow upon good men such happiness with himself so great so long it would inflame our hearts with the most ardent passion towards his service Therefore I have already named the true cause of all mens coldness and sloth After all our search we shall find it nothing else but this They do not believe They are not perswaded of the certainty of the rewards in the other World or have not fixed this belief in their Minds for if they had it would not easily slip out again They are moved strongly by what they see with their eyes and feel with their hands and taste with their tongues but faith hath little or no place or power in their hearts This is proved to be too true by the lives of men which are so base and unworthy as if they did not hope for the happiness of a fly in the other World Therefore every one of our business must be to awaken that faith in our Souls which we profess that Divine principle which is of such force as to overcome the World For it is manifestly true which the Apostle writes that without faith it is impossible to please God We shall never doe any thing worthy of him unless we believe that God is and that he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him As on the contrary it is no less manifest that if we do believe we shall not onely please him but we shall please our selves in doing so and find it most delightfull to be religious It will marvellously inliven us and infuse as it were a new spirit and soul into us so that we shall differ as much from our selves as the corn doth when it is sown in the ground and when it shoots up again in all its verdure and beauty It will make us adorn our selves I mean with all the fruits of righteousness and beget in us such a spirituall life as will fructify and increase in all good works And here consider first That the things themselves propounded to our belief are such as we cannot but desire it should be true that God intends to bestow them on us Who is there that would not willingly live for ever that doth not think Immortality the greatest prerogative of humane Nature provided we may live always in joy and pleasure in uninterrupted contentments and never-fading delights Though they should be less then our Lord hath promised there is no heart but above all things wishes to be so happy To see onely the beautifull orders of the heavenly hosts the glorious Company of the Apostles the goodly Society of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the venerable Quire of Pastors the whole multitude of holy men and women who celebrate a perpetuall feast of joy to live in happy friendship with them to love them and to be beloved of them to bear a part in their eternall Song of praise and thanks to God how desirable is it above any thing that we can fansy in this world No man hath so little love to himself as not to wish he might be numbred among those Saints in glory everlasting It 's impossible we should not be pleased with the thoughts of having a consortship in such an incomparable happiness were we but perswaded that it is not a dream but a reall truth There needs nothing more to bring it into all mens favour but onely to be satisfied that there is such an Happiness And that 's the other thing I would propound to your thoughts That as we naturally desire such an Happiness so if we consider the evident demonstations we have of it in the Gospell this and a great deal more appears to be the undoubted inheritance of all good Souls who shall see God and be with our Lord and behold his glory Which wonderfully recommends the Christian Religion to us wherein we are gratified in our most important desires and have those things made sure and certain to us which we would all fain have for our portion For what is the generall intent of the Gospell but to discover to mankind immortall life
remember that your Baptism engages you to learn of him and to become like him Express that Honour towards God that Fear and that Love of him which he requires Imploy your selves carefully in all actions of Justice Charity and Sobriety Yea be prepared chearfully to follow him in suffering as well as in doing his blessed will This will be an infallible testimony that you are the children of God as on the contrary if you want this Witness all other evidence of it will fail you There is no reason to distrust this but the stronger your confidence is without it the more grosly you deceive your selves if you conclude your selves to be dear to him You find both these strongly asserted in this Epistle For the Affirmative read ii 29. If ye know that he is righteous know ye that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And iii. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous For the Negative read the following words ver 8 9 10. He that committeth sin is of the Devil for the Devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the Devil whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his Brother And for your encouragement to purifie your Souls remember that the purity and holiness of Christ's Life and Doctrine secures you of the truth of all his gracious promises We may say with a greater assurance than the Psalmist did in his days xii Psal 6. The words of the Lord i. e. his promises are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of Earth purified seven times Which should make us value them more than thousands of Gold and Silver though never so perfectly refined and to say as he does in another place cxix 140. Thy word is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it Those Metals are not freer from Dross after they have passed never so oft through the Fining-pot than his promises are from all mixture of deceit We may rely upon them with the greatest confidence and be secure they will never fail us It is as certainly true that God will take us to be his Sons and Daughters that he will dwell in us and give us everlasting life as it is that Jesus is the Son of God He that says the one says the other too and he may be alike believed in both But then having these promises we must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. vii 1. For the Son of God was manifested you heard for this purpose And this was the end for which he gave himself i. e. to die for us that he might sanctifie and cleanse his Church with the washing of Water by the Word v. Ephes 26. and redeeming us from all iniquity purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works i. Tit. 14. Which if we study sincerely then this WATER here spoken of is part of the Waters of Life and this Testimony gives us assurance that we shall have our share in those Eternal good things which he hath promised in his holy Gospel For he is the Truth and in him there is no Lye But of this more hereafter when we have heard the following Witnesses and given glory to Jesus and made our acknowledgments to him in some such words as these A PRAYER I Believe O Lord not only that thou art a Teacher come from God and speakest the words of God but that thou art above all the very WORD of God it self into whose hands the Father hath given all things I admire the holiness of all thy Precepts and rejoyce in the purity of thy exceeding great and precious promises Thou art the Truth the Holy one of God without spot or blemish in whose mouth was found no guile There is all reason that we should receive thy testimony which thou hast given of thy self and all that thou hast testified to us to be the will of God and believe that without holiness no man shall see the Lord. Good Lord increase my Faith that as I see still further demonstrations of thy power and glory and cannot but acknowledge the perfect sanctity equity and goodness of all thy Laws and be in love with the beauty of thy most holy life so I may feel my heart inclined more and more to submit it self to be governed by thee to obey thy will and to imitate thy example Happy are those holy Souls who have learnt of thee to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world and whose hearts by that means are full of the blessed hope of immortality hereafter and of thy tender care of them while they are here There is nothing so desirable as to be holy even as thou who hast called us art holy in all manner of conversation It is the perfection of our Nature the end of our Being and the true satisfaction of our hearts to have thy image formed in us in righteousness and sincere holiness Imprint this sense deeper O blessed God in mine and every Christian heart That it may be our perpetual delight as well as our study to give thee the honour that is due unto thy Name to love thee with all our heart and soul and strength to preserve an holy fear of thee in our mind to trust in thee and cast our care upon thee to hope in thy never-failing mercies and to rejoyce evermore in thy love and that good hope which are better than life it self O that we may never cease to testifie our true love and honour and fear of thee with all other religious affections by praying without ceasing and offering the sacrifice of praise continually and in every thing giving thanks especially for the oblation which our Lord made of himself to thee which love may it be published with perpetual praise and thanks every where to the end of the world And give us the grace to add unto our love of thee a sincere and unfeigned love of all men That we may do to them whatsoever we desire that they should do to us Let this be the constant Rule of all our designs desires words and actions Let it ever be before our eyes to make us duly honour and observe our superiours pity succour relieve and comfort all those who are below us and be just faithful and friendly to all others O that every man would speak the truth with his neighbour and be charitable in their judgments one of another meek and gentle in all their words and behaviour ready to distribute and to do good studious of the things that make for peace forward to be reconciled to those
by this sickness ver 4. Therefore he stayed so long before he would move towards him that Lazarus might be dead before he got to Bethany and He might get more glory by his resurrection than he had done by healing so many sicknesses and casting out such a number of Devils For this proved that he had power not only to break but utterly to destroy the works of the Devil and to tread him quite under foot who had the power of death For which reason he tells his Disciples that he was glad for their sakes that he was not there when Lazarus died to the intent they might believe ver 15. Have their faith that is more confirmed in him by seeing such an illustrious miracle wrought upon Lazarus after he was dead than it could have been by healing his sickness and preserving him from death They had seen many desperate diseases cured but never any man raised to life after he had been so long dead Some of the Jews indeed objected this to him that he ought to have been so kind as to have saved his friends life if he had had the power which he pretended Could not this man say they which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died ver 37. They do not by these words express their Faith but their unbelief and upbraid him with weakness or want of love The latter could not be imputed to him for by his tears just before mentioned ver 35 36. they all observed how much he loved him But from thence some of the company took occasion to disparage his power and to ask the rest of their neighbours how they could believe that he had opened a blind mans eyes as was commonly reported Chap. ix when he suffered one whom he loved so much to want his help and perish If he had done the former how easie had it been for him to do the latter In which he failing though his affection could not but move him to do his utmost for his Friend they took it to be a demonstration that he was not such a mighty Man as the People imagined This perverse reasoning moved our Saviour very much so that he groaned again in himself v. 38. to see their deplorable obstinacy and malice as much as he had done before v. 33. to hear their pitious lamentations which they made for the dead These mens condition was far more pitious because he foresaw there was but little hope that they would be moved when they saw their frivolous cavil answered by the Resurrection of Lazarus Which would show there was good reason why he let him dye that he might express never the less love to him but more to them and to all Mankind by restoring his life which was a more Divine work by much than to have saved him from Death To this therefore he immediately applies himself and bids the Sister of the deceased whose faith it seems began to stagger not doubt but she should see the glory of God vers 40. such a stupendious instance that is of the power of God in him as would move many to give glory to God that sent him For wherein could the Majesty of God appear more to their astonishment than in such a marvailous work as this which when he entred upon he first lift up his eyes to him and called him Father on purpose that the People might believe he came from God and was his Son when they saw him answer his Prayers in this manner vers 41 42. Where if you read the place you will see he gives this reason why he made a publick acknowledgment to God for hearing him so often not because he doubted of his presence with him now but meerly that the by-standers might know by whom he did such miracles and ascribing them to no other power but his might believe that he had sent him What should they believe else when they heard him after this address to God commanding Lazarus with a loud voice expressing his assurance and authority to come forth and when they beheld him who could not lately move himself in his Bed rise up out of his Tomb and walk about not only restored to life but in perfect health This struck the hearts of many of the Jewes who were there present so powerfully that they believed on him vers 45. that is concluded he was more than a Prophet no less than the Messiah himself And those Cavillers before mentioned who still persisted to maintain their infidelity by the absurdest imaginations were so startled at it that they went presently and told some of the Great Sanhedrim what Jesus had done wishing them I suppose to look to themselves and not suffer these proceedings vers 46. For they were so alarmed with this news that a Council forthwith is called and they enter into a solemn Debate what course to take with him seeing plainly how powerful this Miracle was to win him Proselytes and draw the People to him vers 47. It had had that effect upon many already as you have heard and they were afraid it would increase the number of his Disciples so much that it would prove their utter ruine For they say vers 48. If we let him thus alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and Nation That is the People will proclaim him their King and thereby we shall incur the indignation of Caesar who will send an Army and cut us off till he leave neither root nor branch as it is iv Mal. 1. but destroy both us and our Temple That place they were resolved to preserve though it were with his destruction whose death they now determine as soon as ever they could catch him For so their consultation ended first they decreed v. 53. that for the publick good as they called it He should be put to death and then that if any knew where he was v. 57. they should give notice of it that he might be apprehended in order to his trial Thus their blind malice turned the most powerful means of their conversion into the ground and reason of his destruction For because he did so many miracles v. 47. they did not think it fit to let him live when-as for that very cause they ought to have believed on him and thought him worthy to live eternally For I think these Three things are very considerable wherewith I shall conclude this part of the SPIRITS testimony I. First this Miracle wrought upon Lazarus was so evident a token that he was the Son of God that it had in it all the conditions which the Gentile King whom the Jews speak of in the Book COSRI * Part. 1. Sect. 8. requires in a prodigy sufficient to perswade men to believe that God speaks by him that works it Our mind says he cannot be brought to think that God enters into society with flesh and blood unless it be by such a miracle
No man then had the impudence to deny the Eclipse of the Sun the Earthquake the rending of the veil of the Temple and the rest of the astonishing things that then hapned The first of them is mentioned by a Pagan-writer and though the Apostles published both that and all the other continually yet there is no book either of Jew or Gentile who were enemies great enough to his Religion that goes about to disprove them And as for his miraculous works they were generally done openly at Feasts in the Synagogues on the high-ways and were so commonly talkt of that the Rulers feared all the world would run after him xii John 19. Therefore the Apostles could not falsifie in the report of these things but they might be easily confuted Which no man ever attempted but both Jews and Gentiles acknowledged that he wrought Miracles for his Apostles also wrought them every where and so did their Successors in some Ages after To these the Ancient Christians appeal as an undoubted testimony to their Faith which they could not be so silly as to mention were there any dispute whether there had been Miracles wrought or no. His Resurrection also was attested by Five hundred people who saw him together at once and it was proved beyond contradiction by the strange descent of those miraculous gifts upon his Apostles according to his promise Which came upon them also at a Feast when all the Nation though living in far distant Countries were assembled together and a great company of Proselytes also and devout people were present to be witnesses of it Yea the Apostles themselves as is notoriously known went over all the world and openly showed the power of Jesus which was in them Now if all these be true Witnesses or rather if you grant there were such Witnesses which no sober man can deny they being visible here on Earth in the company of so much people there can be no doubt remaining of this that Jesus is the Son of God They proclaim this so loudly with one voice that S. John had reason to say We beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father They beheld it in his Preaching and Life they beheld it in his bloudy Death but especially in the power of his SPIRIT both before he died and in raising him up from the dead and they beheld it also when they were with him in the holy Mount and had the Testimony of the rest of the Heavenly Witnesses Which were heard on Earth though they were in Heaven as men of high quality and of unblemished integrity with the hazard of all they had did constantly affirm And though some of those Heavenly Witnesses might not be believed so much at the first which is the cause I suppose that our Saviour bids his Apostles as you have heard not declare what the voice from Heaven said till after his Resurrection xvii Matth. 9. yet when they had received such great testimony that they were good men and men of God by having the Holy Ghost bestowed on them to bestow upon others also and when by this they were able to demonstrate his Resurrection then all the rest that they alledged as a proof that he was the Son of God did highly merit belief also and there was no reason to suspect the truth of such reports as were verified in so authentick a manner For with great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus iv Acts 33. And the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus was a powerful Witness that there was nothing so great said of him by the voices from Heaven but it ought to be received as the undoubted truth of God Who at sundry times and in divers manners testified to his Son Jesus that by some means or other the most obstinate hearts might be convinced and those tongues which blasphemed him might confess him to be the Lord. A PRAYER ALL thy works praise thee O holy Jesus they all show the greatness of thy power and declare thee to be the Lord. All thy Saints therefore ought to bless thee and to speak good of thy Name who didst manifest forth thy glory in such miraculous works upon Earth and art now crowned with such glory and honour in the Heavens Great was the glory of that Almighty love which gave health to the sick feet to the lame eyes to the blind and life to the dead How gloriously didst thou triumph over the Devil and all the powers of darkness declaring thy self to be the Redeemer of the World by delivering those who were oppressed by him Great was thy Majesty and therefore greatly to be praised Those triumphs ought to have been attended with the most joyful shouts of Praise and Thanksgiving to thee as the Saviour of men and the Lord of Men and Angels All that saw thy wonderful works ought with never-ceasing love to have glorified thee the great Lover of mankind the Repairer of our ruines the Restorer of our happiness our mighty Deliverer from all our Enemies and the inexhaustible Fountain of life and all other good things which thou every where dispensedst to them How ought all our hearts now to overflow with love to thee the blessings of whose goodness so overflowed in all places that none can tell the number of them Especially when we remember how by the mighty working of the same Spirit which glorified thee so on Earth thou art raised from the dead carried to Heaven set at the right hand of God and made the King of glory This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes This is the sovereign Balsam of all our wounds This is our solace and comfort in the greatest troubles This raises our Spirits when they are oppressed and gives us life in death it self Be thou honoured and acknowledged by me and by all mankind with the humblest the most hearty and affectionate devotion to thy service Be thou ever praised as much as thou wast reproached and blasphemed Let thy Name be sweet and mentioned with delight and joy throughout all the World Live O blessed Jesus in the glory wherein thou art inthroned Sit and reign there till all thine Enemies become thy foot-stool For among the Gods there is none like unto thee O Lord neither are there any works like unto thy works All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy Name For thou art great and hast done wondrous things Thou art Lord alone O give unto the Lord ye kindreds of the people give unto the Lord glory and strength Ascribe unto the Lord the glory due unto his name O worship him in the beauty of holiness Say among the Heathen the Lord reigneth who was dead but is alive again and liveth for evermore O sing unto the Lord a new song sing unto the Lord all the Earth Yea sing unto the Lord a new song and worship him all ye Gods For thou
when the Israelites bade him prove it But our Lord needed not to call for any Witness John the Baptist a great Prophet as they themselves allowed was ready of himself for it was his office to declare openly that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and abiding on him He saw and bare record that this is the Son of God as the Voice from Heaven in his audience also pronounced him Which a great many People if need were could afterward certifie who concluded that an Angel spake to him as you have heard from S. John's testimony .xii. 29. 2. Now if you proceed further and ask for some Witness of Moses his authority like to that of the WORD the second Witness to our Saviour who can hear any thing of it Do we ever read a word of Moses his appearing in such a Glory as our Lord Jesus did to his first Martyr S. Steven and to S. Paul and to his beloved Disciple Nay where are the Witnesses that say he was so much as transfigured when he was upon the Mount or doth he himself ever affirm it When was his Rayment made as white as Snow or where as I shall examine more hereafter was the bright cloud covering the Mount which was all cloathed with darkness we read indeed that when he came down his face shone but not in so bright and glorious a manner as our Saviour's did when he went up into the Holy Mount and especially after he ascended into Heaven Then S. Steven as I have said saw the Glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand an honour never given to any Angel in Heaven And the Apostle of the Gentiles saw him again in a light greater than that of the Sun at Noon-day And to S. John he appeared as the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS in such a Majesty as he was not able to bear but made him fall at his feet as dead He that weighs such things as these will see that all the glory of Moses to use S. Paul's words 2 Cor. iii. 10. was no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth 3. Then if you look for the Testimony of the HOLY-GHOST I have already noted that it never came down upon him as it did upon the Founder of our Religion Much less did he send it upon some select Men after he was dead who should do as great wonders as himself And still much less did he bestow it upon all the People as our Lord did for a while upon all Believers There is not the smallest foot-step of any such Honour or Power that he had For He did not communicate a portion of his Spirit to the LXX Elders who were chosen to be his Assistants but the Lord said to him I will come down and take of the Spirit which is upon thee and put it upon them xi Num. 17. which words do not signifie it is true that he had less but only that they had more of the Spirit than before yet He did not so much as lay his hands upon them that they might receive it but God took of the Spirit which was on him and gave it to the LXX Elders even to those two who were not there present at the Tabernacle but remained still in the camp ver 25 26. 4. If you go therefore next to the Testimony of WATER how transparent is the Purity of our Saviours Doctrine above that of Moses Whose Laws though they contained nothing dishonest yet burdened the people to prevent a greater mischief of their running into Idolatry with a number of precepts which in themselves had no goodness at all to commend them Nay the Letter of the very moral Law laid restraints only upon the outward man so that they who were subject to it little regarded the purifying of their spirits from those irregular passions and naughty affections which our Lord expresly prohibits There were many things also indulged in those days which our Lord doth not allow Whose design was not only to purge the heart and make the spirit of men much better by all his precepts but to advance them to the noblest degree of purity and goodness Where do you read in the Books of Moses such precepts of meekness of mortifying fleshly lusts of kindness to all and tender compassion of trust in God of contentedness with the present and hope of his mercy in another world as are frequent and obvious in the Gospel of Christ Nay in what place of the Law do you find so much as one command or exhortation to Pray much less to Pray without ceasing and to Pray not for riches and victory over enemies and long life but for the Divine Grace and favour for the Holy Spirit for remission of sins and for Eternal Life And now I mention that word I cannot but desire you to consider how low and poor the Promises of Moses were compared with those of our Saviour who hath brought in a better Hope Of which they could see so little so dim was the light in the Law of Moses that a whole Sect of men who believed in him and received his Law cast away all hope of obtaining good things in another life and denied the Resurrection of the Dead And we must add to all this that Moses was but the Light of that one Nation whereas our Lord says more than once I am the Light of the WORLD viii John 12. ix 5. Moses washed the Bodies of the Jews but now the hearts of the unclean Gentiles are purified by Faith xv Acts 9. And if you enquire further into the purity of Moses his life you will find it was not without flaws and blemishes for he spake unadvisedly with his lips and could not bring the people to their rest But our Lord was perfectly free from all spot the Lamb of God without blemish who never spake the least word amiss no not in the midst of such torments as Moses never endured 5. For if you pass on to consider what sufferings and BLOUD testifie Alas what is the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats to the precious Bloud of Jesus Did Moses seal that Covenant of which he was the Minister or did he sprinkle the Book of the Covenant with his own bloud Did he purge away the sins of the people by himself as our Saviour we read did 1. Hebr. 3. or sanctifie them by the offering of his own body once for all as it is x. Hebr. 10 Did he die to bear Witness to the Truth or witness such a good confession before Pharaoh as Jesus before Pontius Pilate Was it ever heard that by the enduring of a shameful and cruel death he declared to all the certainty of his Prophecy Upon what Altar was he offered And for what cause did he become a sacrifice This was peculiar to Jesus to suffer such things as no man ever did and for this very cause because he said He was the Son of God 6.
men in former times but had not such strength to enforce it Blessed be God should we all say A PRAYER BLessed be God who hath not done so for any people He hath shown us HIMSELF his WORD and the HOLY GHOST Israel hath not seen his Glory so as it shines in our eyes And as for his Power and Might they have not known them no more than the Promises and the Laws whereby he now governs us He hath given us a better Covenant founded upon a better Bloud which hath brought in also a better Hope and is confirmed by a more powerful Spirit Blessed be his Goodness that our eyes read and our ears hear those things which many Prophets and righteous men desired to see and hear but could not see nor hear them For it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto us by them that have preached the Gospel unto us which the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into O Bless the Lord with us ye Angels of his that excel in strength praise him and magnifie him for ever O all ye Powers of the Lord bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever O ye Spirits and Souls of the righteous bless ye the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Praise him all ye Apostles and Prophets praise him all ye Martyrs and Confessors praise him all ye glorious Lights who have made the Gospel of Christ to shine throughout the world Praise the Father Almighty praise his Eternal WORD praise the Holy Ghost who have made our Faith to stand not in the wisdom of men but in the mighty Power of God Praise him for the Incarnation the Life the Death the Resurrection the Ascension and the Glorification of the Lord Jesus who hath given us strong Consolation by that sure and stedfast hope which throughout all these means he hath setled in our hearts O praise him for his marvellous love to us whom he hath called after a glorious manner and by an amazing vertue to the knowledge of Christ by whom his Divine power hath given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness And make us who are so nearly concerned in this love to be very sensible how great it is which hath not only called us to his Heavenly Kingdom but made us sure and certain by so many Witnesses that Jesus is the Lord of all the King of infinite Majesty Power and Glory Let our Souls never cease to show forth and publish the vertues and powerful operations of him who hath called us into his marvellous light Let our mouths be filled with his praise all the day long who out of the riches of his mercy hath made us who were not his people to be a chosen generation an holy nation a peculiar people to himself O that our Faith may grow exceedingly and be deeply rooted and grounded in our hearts And as it stands upon the surest foundations so we may be built up in it with the most assured confidence and stand unshaken and immoveable in it unto the end And as thou hast differenced us from all other people in the clearness of that Light which lets us see that ours is the most holy Faith so help us by thy grace to distinguish our selves from all others by holding the mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience and by the upright actions of an unblameable life O that the light of Christians may so shine before men that others seeing their good works may glorifie thee our Heavenly Father O that it may disperse the darkness which over-spreads so great a part of the world That all impostures may be discovered and they that live in error may be brought to the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus O that his Dominion may reach from Sea to Sea even unto the worlds end Let them who dwell in the most desert places kneel before him and his enemies lick the dust Let all Kings of the Earth adore him and all Nations do him service Kindle in the hearts of Princes and Nobles an holy ambition to advance his Glory Inspire the hearts of all Bishops and Priests with an ardent zeal for the conversion of Souls And dispose the hearts of those who are in error that they may be apt and ready to receive thy sacred truth Plant thy Gospel where it hath not yet been and replant it where it hath been rooted out And give us grace who have long been thine own vineyard to bring forth plenty of good fruit That our lives may be as holy as our faith and we may convince Jews Turks and all other Infidels that thou art among us and that Jesus whom we worship is the Lord. To him with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Glory and Praise among all mankind and throughout all Ages world without end Amen CHAP. X. Other necessary Vses we are to make of their Testimony THere is no great skill required to see the difference between that Holy Religion which we profess and all others that are entertained in the rest of the World Some we must have and it is as palpable that this is incomparably the most excellent as it is that there is any Religion at all There is no Nation so barbarous but pays some respect and ceremony to use the phrase of Tully when he defines Religion to some Superiour and more excellent Nature which we call Divine Though they are ignorant what kind of God it becomes them to have yet they know a God must be had and must be worshipped Their own mind teaches them this as soon as they cast their eyes upon the admirable frame of the World which all naturally conclude must have had some most wise and mighty Builder But what respect and reverence that is which will be pleasing to him they are very uncertain it is manifest by the various ways they have invented to express their Devotion They all with one consent acknowledge a necessity of a Revelation to instruct them for there is no Nation but pretends to have received some things by the instinct inspiration or apparition of their Gods That which pure natural reason dictates is not to be found simple and unmixt in any Nation under Heaven For if we should stand meerly to that it hath ever resolved that the worship of God consists in the study of Wisdome Justice and all other Vertues Which as they are most eminent in God so he is best pleased with them in us And they that addict themselves to resemble him in this manner are the men that shall obtain his favour There are a number of notable sayings both in Heathen and Christian Writers to this purpose But when all this is said and acknowledged Men will offend against these Rules of Vertue and what shall they do then what will make him satisfaction and procure a reconciliation with him whom they have reason
Age. Increase of wickedness not only in themselves but others hath made some so impudent as to scoff at Religion and blaspheme Christ While they see those who acknowledge him do no better than themselves they are inclined to think that their belief makes them no more worth than those who have none at all Nay since they concur with them in their wicked practises they imagine that their fear of Hell and hope of Heaven is no part of their belief but only of their profession The hands of Infidels are strengthened in their impieties by the perfidiousness of ungodly believers They joyn with them to pull down Christian belief and make that be thought nothing which doth nothing above what infidelity doth And therefore let all those who love the memory of our Saviour who love their posterity and would not have them in danger to be drown'd in a deluge of infidelity put a stop to it by holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience 1 Tim. iii. 9. Let every one that nameth the Name of Christ depart from iniquity and endeavour all he can to support the honour of his Name and of his Religion by a strict observance of all his holy commands They who believe not or mind not what they believe may think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you 1 Pet. iv 4. But ye beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep your selves in love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20.21 And that now is the next thing which flows from hence If we believe the Record or Witness which God hath given of his Son it contains in it the greatest joy in the World For this is the record that God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son But I must refer that to another Discourse alone by it self Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy-Ghost GLory in the highest Let the Holy and undivided Trinity be for ever glorified by all Mankind especially by all Christian People who are made partakers of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit Blessed be God I most thankfully receive the manifold testimony which he hath given of his well beloved Son and humbly bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family of Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant me according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by the same spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in my heart by faith that being rooted and grounded in love I may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that I may be filled with all the fulness of God And God forbid that any Soul who hears the voice of these Witnesses of God should refuse and turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven and hath declared to us the unsearchable riches of God's grace and the whole counsel of his will O that all they upon whom the glorious Gospel of Christ hath shined may most heartily believe in his Name Let them all be knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And God forbid that any of them should hold the truth in unrighteousness But as they have received Christ Jesus the Lord so let them walk in him rooted and built up in him and established in the faith as they have been taught abounding therein with thanksgiving And quicken that faith O thou author and finisher of it that it may work with great power in all Christian hearts and mightily bow their wills to forgo any of their own desires rather than displease thee and forfeit thy love and favour Let it inable them to overcome the World that they may be no longer slaves to the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life but conquering all these may yield themselves unto God to be the servants of righteousness and obey from the heart that form of doctrine which is delivered unto them And may the powerful working of faith and love and hope make all our duty easie to us that we may ever render thee cheerful as well as constant service May thy testimonies be our daily delight and the rejoycing of our heart May we love them above gold yea above fine gold May they be dearer unto us than thousands of gold and silver May we daily renew our strength and run and not be weary and walk and not faint May the holiness of our lives bear witness to the sincerity of our faith that others may glorifie thee our God for our professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ And we obtaining a good report by faith and carrying this testimony out of the world with us that we have pleased thee thou mayst receive us to thy self to be glorified with thee and to rejoyce in thy love towards us for ever Amen THE END Our Lords Ascension Acts. 1 9. And when he had spoken these things while they be held he was taken up a Cloud receiued him out of their sight to And while they stedfastly looked toward heaven behold two men stood by them in white apparell H. Which also said this same le sus shall so come as you haue seen him go into heaven THE WITNESSES TO CHRISTIANITY OR The Certainty of our FAITH and HOPE In a Discourse upon 1 S. JOHN V. 11. PART II. By SYMON PATRICK D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by E. Flesher for R. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred Majesty MDCLXXVII TO The most Reverend Father in God GILBERT By Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY Primate of all England and Metropolitan and one of His Majestie 's most Honourable Privy Council c. May it please Your Grace TO cast your eye upon the Second Part of that Work the First Part of which I took the confidence to address unto your Grace the last year It is concerning that ETERNALL LIFE which was with the Father as St. John speaks and now is manifested to us by his Son Jesus Christ who hath published the most gracious Purposes of God the Father towards us The thoughts of which as they cannot but be at all times exceeding welcome to Devout Christians especially to those who are faithfull Ministers in Christ's Kingdom so never more then when they
Schoolmen imagine is the Aureola or little golden Crown which the Judge will give to rare Vertues By which they mean some accidentall reward superadded to the essentiall Blessedness Like the little crown of gold wherewith the other crown upon the Table of Shew-bread was finished as the Vulg. Lat. renders xxv Exod. 25. from whence this expression seems to be borrowed But that the overplus of reward which Christ will give to some shall consist onely in a peculiar brightness of their body I see no ground to determine because God hath so many other ways to crown the faith and love and hope of those whom he delights to honour It is better to conclude all this discourse with the words of the same Father which follow a little after * Ib. cap. 21. What and how great the spirituall grace of the Body will be because the time is not come to make experiment I am afraid lest all that we say of it be rashly spoken And therefore I shall onely adde of which we may be certain that as Macarius observes whether it be a greater or a lesser glory that we attain we shall all shine together in one most blessed and glorious place His words are these As Birds produce feathers of a different kind Homil. 32. and some fly nearer to the earth others farther off but all fly in one common air or as there is one Heaven which hath many Stars in it some greater then others but all fixed in heaven So the Saints shall be differently planted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one Heaven of the Divinity and in one invisible country Thither let us all direct our paths thither let us continually aspire saying as he does in another place to which I shall adde the words of another great man O how ineffable are the promises of Christians Macarius Homil. 4. who have such glorious expectations that the Faith and riches of one single Soul cannot be equalled by the glory and beauty of heaven and earth though we take in all their furniture and treasures and variety and goodliness and bravery And yet how fairly do these things shine in our eyes and with what pleasure do we behold their beauty Anselm in Protolog If then the created life be so good how good is that Life which creates If the salvation we receive be so pleasant how sweet is that Salvation which gives all Salvation If that wisedom be so lovely which understands the works of God how lovely is that Wisedom which of nothing contrived them all Finally if there be so many and so great delights in delectable things what and how great is that Delight which is in him that made all things delectable He that shall enjoy this Good what shall he have what shall he not have He shall have what he will and what he would not he shall not have If honour and riches be desired God will make his good and faithful servants rulers over many things Nay they shall be called Sons of God and Gods and where his Son is there they shall be heirs of God and coheirs with Christ If they desire true security there is none like that for certainly they shall be as certain that these or rather this Good shall never by any means be wanting to them as they are certain they shall never leave it of themselves nor God their Lover ever take it away against the will of those he loves nor any thing stronger then He be able to separate them and God They shall rejoyce therefore perpetually And they shall rejoyce as much as they love and love as much as they know And how much O Lord shall they know thee then how much shall they love thee Certainly neither eye hath seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man in this life how much they shall know thee and how much they shall love thee in that I beseech thee O God let me know thee let me love thee that I may rejoyce in thee And if I cannot do it to the full in this life O that I may profit every day untill it come to the full Let thy Knowledge grow in me here and there be made full let thy Love increase and there also be full that here my Joy may in hope be great and there in possession full Amen CHAP. IV. Of the ETERNITY of this LIFE FRom this larger then was at first designed consideration of the nature of this LIFE pass we now to a short Meditation of the ETERNITY of it which indeed is the Crown that God sets upon its head the Circle if I may so speak which wreathing it self about this Happiness makes it to be our sovereign Good And it may not be unworthy our observation that this Eternity of Life is as far above the continuance of all other blessings heretofore promised as the Life it self is LIFE among the Jews according to the letter of their Law signifying onely all earthly good things there was onely a long life not an eternall in the land of Canaan promised to them that kept that Law But quite otherwise the LIFE promised by Christ consisting onely in the enjoyment of spirituall and heavenly blessings it is not a long but an eternall never-ending life in the possession of these good things which he hath assured to us It being but fit that as the Life exceeds that which Moses promised so the duration of it also should as much out-run his as for ever extends it self beyond an Age. Now the word ETERNALL may be conceived to comprehend in it these Three things I. First that there is nothing but LIFE in this state of Blessedness which shall not be interrupted by any dolefull accident Life and Death I told you in the holy language signifie the same with Blessedness and Misery And therefore the Eternity of life must include in its notion a state of pure happiness of mere and unmixed pleasure without any thing that deserves the name of Death to give it the least annoyance There we may hope to be so happy as to know without mistake and to be wise without folly and to increase in knowledge without our present toil to acquire it Love is there without hatred jealousy or envy joy without any sighing or sorrow praises without complaints obedience without reluctance speed and alacrity without dulness and heaviness in one word perfect purity and holiness without spot or blemish to sully the glory of it As this lower region of the air we see is the place of clouds and darkness thunder and lightning storm and tempest but to the dwellings of the Sun and fixed Stars none of these pitchy vapours ascend to obscure their brightness or trouble their peace just so is this World the scene of misery and vexation confusion and disorder our bodies are tossed with severall storms and our Souls many times hurried with more violent tempests the fierce gusts of their own passions but when
can doe for our Souls in the other World He inspired them with such Understanding by the power of the Holy Ghost that the greatest Doctours in Israel were not able to resist the Wisedom whereby they spake They understood clearly all the ancient Prophecies There was no veil or cloud any longer upon them but the Holy Ghost made them see the whole Mystery which was wrapt up in them It revealed all Types explained all Figures led them into the Sanctuary and Most holy place shew'd them the true meaning of the Mercy-seat and laid all those things which did but obscurely point at ETERNALL LIFE so open and naked that none could chuse but see if he did not shut his eyes they were not the same men that they had been but just before and were made thus learned without any humane helps of instruction A convincing argument of his power to raise our Minds when we depart this World and have not the clouds of this Body before our eyes to as great a pitch of knowledge as I discoursed of in the beginning of this Treatise And the suddenness of this change was as clear an argument that he can doe it without difficulty and that there is not so great a distance between this present state and that which we expect but he can presently translate us to it And 4. this Knowledge you may consider farther being accompanied with a mighty Power whereby the Holy Ghost inabled them not onely to give eyes to the blind feet to the lame health to the sick but life also to the dead as was very well known in those days was an undoubted testimony that He from whom it came is able also to change these vile bodies and make them like to his own most glorious body For it is visible he hath a power whereby he can subdue all things to himself To take away life you may think is no such great matter that we should take any notice of it yet to doe even this with a word for lying to the HOLY GHOST was an argument of a mighty power residing in the Apostles And when Abarbinell speaks of the power of the Messiah to work Miracles from that Prophecy of Isaiah xi he alledges these words to prove it vers 4. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked Which was never literally fulfilled during our Saviour's stay on Earth where he did nothing but good to men but was made good after he went to Heaven by his power in his Ministers who smote that wicked couple mentioned Act. v. without any hands merely with the breath of their mouth What shall we think then of their restoring men to life after they were dead for which they were more notorious We cannot but look on this as a great witness of the wonderfull power of Jesus in them and consequently of the life and glory he intended to bestow on sinfull dust and ashes He would not have filled them thus full of his Spirit if he had not meant thereby to raise their expectations above all that even by its power they at present felt Had it not been his design to make them hereafter like to God he would not have preferred them to such a resemblance of his Wisedom and Power here in this World They that could raise others from the dead had no reason to doubt of being raised up themselves When they saw themselves made the conveyers of such great blessings to all mankind they must needs stand fair they could not but conclude for a very large portion of his favour to their own persons For the truth is 5. these gifts which were then given to men proclaimed aloud the marvellous bounty of our Saviour as well as his power and would not let them doubt of a far more glorious exercise of it in the other World then they saw and were the instruments of in this And if any imagine that though this might be a testimony to them of Eternall Life yet it is none to us the contrary will soon be evident if you do but consider 6. that our Lord having made a promise of Eternall Life not onely to his Apostles but to all that believe on his Name the HOLY GHOST puts us in strong hope of it by demonstrating his faithfulness to his word For the Effusion of it was the performance of a promise which he had frequently made when he was with them both before his death xiv Joh. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter and after his Resurrection xxiv Luk. 49. Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you c. i. Act. 4 5. Being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which said he you have heard of me For you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence And therefore we have great reason to look for the promise of Eternall Life with much confidence because He who made it was so faithfull and just in fulfilling his former promise at the time appointed Especially since he thereby demonstrated that he hath sufficient power to doe for us according to his word For he who made such an extraordinary change in them on the day of Pentecost that they were able in an instant to speak all languages to prophesy and understand the secret counsels of God can change us we need not question from glory to glory and at last transform us so perfectly as to make us like to himself And I may adde to strengthen this consideration 7. that our Lord declared he would send the HOLY GHOST for this very purpose that they might believe the rest of his holy promises particularly this great one of Eternall Life Which is the meaning of that which you reade in xiv Joh. 12. where after he had told them ver 9 10 11. that God appeared to them and shew'd himself in the Works that He did which demonstrated that the Father dwelt in him and consequently that he would go and prepare a place for them and take them up to himself he adds these remarkable words Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth in me the works that I doe shall he doe also and greater works then these shall he doe because I go unto my Father As if he had said Mark now what I farther declare to you and rely upon it as a certain truth The works that I have done are sufficient to convince you but for a greater confirmation of your faith that I am going to the Father and am the Way the Truth and the Life I tell you that after I am departed these wonderfull things shall be repeated before the eyes of the world by those that believe on me Nay some things shall be done which your eyes have not yet seen because I go to my Father i. e. have power in the Heavens
us for arrant fools Do you think we are mere Mushromes that our brains are made of a sponge or our heads stuft with wet straw What do you make of us or what have we done that argues us to be such blocks and trunks as you suppose us And yet such was the constant preaching of our ever-Blessed Saviour that if he had not made his promises as plain and certain as his commands he would have been liable to such language For he calls men as you reade in that Parable xx Matth. to a laborious life of piety From the beginning of his preaching to the end of it he had no other design Early in the morning vers 1. when he first appeared in the world he went out and what was it to doe but to hire labourers into his vineyard At the third hour he went out again and said to those whom he found idle Go ye also into the vineyard vers 4. At the sixth and the ninth hour of his life he still followed the same business At the eleventh also vers 6. he finds other loiterers and says to them also Why stand you here all the day idle Would they have moved from their place think you if he had not agreed with them to pay them for their pains Would they have returned no other answer but that No man hath hired us and not have also added What will you give us what shall we gain by our labour had he not satisfied them about that matter If there had been no wages to be expected they had better have stood idle still or have staid for some other Master Had it not been evident that the Lord of the vineyard was a wealthy person able to give every man his peny i. e. a reward for his service he might have called long enough and seen his ground all overrun with briars and thorns before he had procured any labourers to go into it Certainly if we will but allow our Saviour to have been a person of ordinary reason and common capacity we cannot imagine he would have endured so long toil and travell and walkt all the countrey of Judaea over to win proselytes to him if he had not made it as visible that he would bring men to the blessed sight of God in eternall rest and peace as it was that he called them to a God-like life of piety righteousness and true holiness during their stay in this present world We must depress him into the rank of the most witless men or else believe that He who required so much work from his servants demonstrated he was a good Master rich and furnished with the most ample rewards And therefore 3. we may well believe that He came with such Testimonies from above from the Father and from the Holy Ghost and intended Himself to appear from heaven as the Authour of Eternall Life without which he could not have gone about to establish such a Doctrine or if he had would not have succeeded One of these Witnesses exceedingly justify the other and are not to be divided We have reason to think a person of his Understanding who spake as never man spake his very enemies being judges would not have attempted the settlement of such a strict rule of life as his Doctrine contains without such countenance from Heaven as I have mentioned to perswade the world that he would lead them thither Though I must add 4. that the strict purity and holiness of his Doctrine singly considered is of great weight and moment to perswade us that ETERNALL LIFE is in him because this is a part nay a principall part of his Doctrine Which He who in all other things that he said was unreprovable would not have affirmed so expresly and constantly if he had not been fully assured it was true Do but observe how this Doctrine is constantly intermixed with all his Sermons It is the very strain of his Preaching that if any man would follow him and doe as he did he should find rest for his Soul and that God the Father of all would honour those who did him service xii Joh. 26. This he proclaims in the plainest terms and the clearest manner viii Joh. 12. I am the Light of the World Illuminator Deductor humani generis as Tertullian excellently expresses it * Apolog. cap. xxi the Inlightner and the Conducter or guide of mankind He that follows me shall have the light of life the wisedom that is which shall lead him to immortall blifs And to make this more manifest let it be noted 1. how he proclaims this to every man iii. Joh. 15 16. that the Son of man must die that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life For God so loved the world that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And 2. he asserts it with the greatest earnestness with the strongest and most vehement asseverations vi Joh. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life He tells them also 3. with the same assurance that God had sealed him for this purpose or set a plain mark upon him whereby all might see that he was to be the Authour of everlasting life vi Joh. 27. And observe 4. that having told them it was visible if they pleased to open their eyes that God the Father had designed him to give them immortall satisfaction he repeats this Doctrine a great many times in that Chapter vers 33 35 39 40 47 48 51 54 57. Insomuch that St. Peter concludes at the latter end of that Sermon there was no Master comparable to him who had the words of eternall life ver 68. And it is farther observable that he affirms 5. he came to bring his followers to the greatest happiness x. Joh. 10. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly And 6. that he tells them again he came to publish this glad tidings by the appointment of the Father xii Joh. 50. I know that his commandment is life everlasting whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 7. that he affirms he hath power to make good what he promises x. Joh. 28. And I give unto them eternall life and they shall not perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand xvii 1 2. Glorify thy Son as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him And lastly he tells them that he was such a person as might well be credited in all this since he came down from heaven and was at that moment in heaven iii. Joh. 13. Which he repeats again viii 23. I am from above I am not of this world and ver 38. I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ver 42. I proceeded forth and came from God neither came I of
he be seduced into this belief by any earthly appetite or desire and therefore we ought to conclude he was abundantly satisfied by the most evident demonstrations that he should live for ever and be the Authour of Eternall Life to others which among other reasons should very much satisfy us III. Who may farther consider also the Baptism of that famous person St. John the Baptist That is his whole Ministry which is comprehended under the name of his Baptism as Circumcision sometimes includes the whole Law of Moses In this we shall find if we examine it a plain testimony to the great truth we are treating of that ETERNALL LIFE is in Jesus for all the faithfull All that Nation who persecuted our Saviour held John for a Prophet and went to be baptized of him Insomuch that the wisest of them durst not affirm that his Commission was from men or that he taught and baptized the people from a private motion of his own but rather that he undertook this office by authority from heaven Upon which account they were bound to receive his testimony concerning our Saviour as unquestionable which they themselves clearly discerned to be a good consequence and therefore would not reason this matter out with our Saviour but let it fall to the ground when they themselves had begun the dispute Now He testified as plainly that by him we shall have Eternall Life as he did that he is the Son of God For 1. as soon as ever he began to preach he told them the Kingdome of heaven was at hand iii. Matt. 2. Which language the Jews understood well enough and therefore never askt what he meant for so they had learnt out of the Prophet Daniel to call the Kingdome of Christ Whose throne was to be erected by an heavenly power and not by any humane means and under whose government they expected the greatest blessings that heaven ever meant to bestow upon them Now that under this name the Baptist comprehends the Eternall Felicity which Christ should bring is apparent from the exposition which he makes of it in the following part of the Chapter Where he tells those who were dubious that he was not the Christ but they might shortly expect him and that when he came he would gather the wheat into his garner as well as burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire iii. Matt. 12. This he said when the chief of the Jews came to his Baptism which was a testimony that Jesus who presently came after him was to open the Kingdome of heaven and gather all pious men thither as wheat into a garner Which though it denote first of all the Church of Christ yet must needs include in it the notion of a Church to be made exceeding glorious because the King of it hath his seat and throne no-where but in Heaven And then 2. after this the Baptist gave a more express testimony of what they were to expect from Jesus when he said Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World i. Joh. 29. Which words must needs intend as hath been said already that He is to restore us to the favour of God wherein our first Parents stood to take away that which separates between God and us and to make us capable of Paradise again And still more expresly 3. he says iii. Joh. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life Unto which testimony our Blessed Saviour himself appeals v. Joh. 33. after he had been discoursing ver 25 26 c. of his power to give life to mankind Indeed there was a witness he shews which in itself was far stronger then this and that was the Works which he did but this was a better witness to them and therefore our Saviour uses it who durst not affirm John's Baptism was not from heaven whereas they boldly said the works of our Saviour were not from thence but from the Devill This is the meaning of those words that follow ver 34 35 36. after his appeal to John's witness But I receive not testimony from man but these things I say that ye might be saved He was a burning and shining light and ye were willing for a season to rejoyce in his light But I have greater witness then that of John c. That is Though I do not chiefly rely on any humane testimony such as John's was and indeed do not need it having one more immediately divine and heavenly yet for your sakes who have a good opinion of him and own him for a Prophet and whom I would willingly convince and save by any means I instance in him so much and re-mind you of what he said concerning me That which makes me first of all speak of his testimony and so often refer you to it is not because it is the first and chiefest in its own nature much less the onely testimony I have but because I think it will be most effectuall to doe you good He being in himself a most excellent person shining among you in great wisedom and zeal and also by you so esteemed and received among you at least for a season with a great deal of satisfaction And to this now adde 4. another thing which I took notice of in the former Treatise and must here just call to remembrance that our Saviour himself was baptized of him at Bethabara a place that denoted him to be the person who should lead men to their Rest the Joshua that should conduct them into the land of promise and you will confess this WATER we are speaking of to be the Water of life which if we drink of it will revive and chear our fainting spirits If we do but receive I mean the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus into our hearts if we seriously consider it together with the strain of his Life if we mark the office of St. John Baptist the end of his Ministry and the testimony which his Baptism gave to our Saviour we shall find them all leading us into this comfortable belief that He is the Prince of life and that none can miscarry who live as he taught and tread in his steps but have good hopes in this world which shall not make them ashamed in the world to come IV. This Jesus himself also bad his Disciples believe by the same Authority whereby he baptized and gathered Disciples to himself Which none could doe I shew'd you as he did but the Christ in whose days the Jews expected an Universal Baptism and cleansing of the people Now the very end and intention of his Baptism was it is very well known for the Remission of sins and consequently for Eternall life This he taught men to believe and then authorized his Disciples to receive men to these high and noble Privileges by baptizing them in his Name Upon which followed such a marvellous change in their Souls they were so inlightned renewed and transformed
for so villanous a Murther But they granting that his Bloud was shed by them we shall soon prove it was for another cause even that which is recorded in our Books Which none ever undertook to confute though they were put forth in the face both of Jews and Romans who might long since have exposed our Religion to shame if Pontius Pilate could have averred out of the Records of the Court where our Saviour was judged that things were not so as his Disciples have related And that this Bloud of his so shed and upon such an account as we have received is of very great force to induce us to believe another World and an eternall Happiness there for us with Jesus I am now to demonstrate and shall easily make good unless we will entertain such low and slight thoughts of him as no man can suffer to lodge in his mind who attends to the Doctrine he preached and all the arguments which prove him to be the Son of God That alone indeed is sufficient to justify all that he preached particularly that God by him will give Eternall Life to those that obey him If he be so nearly related to God as even his Bloudy Death I shew'd in the former Treatise proved him to be we may believe him when he says that As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself But I shall wave this generall way of reasoning though undeniable and offer some things more particular to every one's serious consideration I. It is apparent by the whole story which it would be too long to relate that to lay down his life was an act perfectly voluntary in our Saviour who if he had pleased might have avoided it He might have chosen whether he would have died or no for no man as he said x. Joh. 18. could take his life away but he laid it down of himself openly professing I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again He need not have faln into their cruel hands it is plain unless he had freely consented to it And when they were about to apprehend him many legions of Angels were ready for his rescue if he had pleased to lay his commands upon them xxvi Matt. 53. Nay when he made the Souldiers feel his power so that they went backward and fell to the ground xviii Joh. 6. he could withall have escaped and gone his ways as he had done at other times when this reason alone is given why they did not apprehend him as they attempted because his hour was not yet come vii Joh. 30. viii 20. that is He did not see it to be the fittest time for him to resign up himself to their power Now it cannot enter into man's deliberate thoughts that he would have so freely without any constraint or resistence given up his life especially when by preserving it he might have lived in great repute esteem and admiration of the people yea have been honoured for escaping out of the hands of his enemies if he had not been sure of ETERNALL LIFE and a greater glory in the Heavens which he should win by going so willingly out of this present world He that saved others could surely have saved himself and spoiled their jeer xxvii Matt. 42. if his will had not been otherwise resolved He that raised Lazarus from the dead could have more easily struck all his opposers dead at his feet if it had been his pleasure What should make his will then thus bent upon death What hindred the putting forth of his power for himself which it is manifest he so often used for the benefit of others What could move him so tamely like a Lamb to give his throat to the bloudy knife and to hang so meekly upon an infamous cross if it were not the contemplation of an incomparable felicity which he hoped to obtain by his Obedience to God and bearing witness to the Truth All men of sense cannot chuse but look upon this as an undoubted Argument that he himself stedfastly believed and had good assurance of the truth of what he preached For who is there that can find in his heart to die and die in such a manner so painfully and with such ignominy for that which he thinks in his conscience is false nay does not know to be certain It is next to an impossibility that any man in his wits should so far forget himself as to be forward to throw away all he hath against the strongest inclinations and perswasions of nature which abhors death and most of all a cruell and disgracefull death merely to justifie a lie which humane Nature is ashamed of without the help of torments to make it odious There have been sundry examples of rashness and foolish boldness but none can be produced nor easily imagined of such an one as this For what can a man propose to himself who lays his life at the stake to make good that which he believes hath no truth in it What can he hope to get by such a mad resolved obstinacy No man attempts any thing without an end much less will he expose his life to the least hazzard without a cause of some moment What can you see then in this case weighty enough to be cast into the balance against a man's life which should make him sacrifice it freely as our Saviour did Riches and all the Pleasures they can provide for us could be of no consideration because they will doe a man no service when he is dead and our Saviour had no posterity to whom to leave them Honour and Fame also seem to be of as little value for what satisfaction is it to be talkt of in the world when we have left it and hear nothing of what is done in it Yet this is all that can be imagined to have any power in this business One may possibly you may fansy for to get a great Name in the world by being the Authour of a new Opinion or Sect throw away his life though he know that he doth but broach a lie A strange supposition this is which a man in his right senses one would think should not be inclined to make But since some have pretended it is possible I shall briefly shew that it could have no hand in our Saviour's Sufferings As will appear if we consider either the Circumstances of his Death or the quality of his Doctrine or the manner of his Life II. The Circumstances of his Death were such that if they be but a little examined you will presently find there is no place for this conceit For 1. it stands upon good record that He himself knew of his death beforehand and foretold it with the manner of it and yet was so far from endeavouring to avoid it that he went of his own accord to the very place where he knew they would come to apprehend him This is a plain declaration that he was
longer upon such considerations as these when his Doctrine which is the Second thing I mentioned is so holy and pure so heavenly and divine that the constant preacher of such things could not be guilty of so great an impiety as to call the God of heaven at last to bear witness to a known untruth No it condemns lesser lies to so severe a punishment that to say he was sent of God with the words of Eternall life nay was the Way the Truth and the Life when he knew he was not deserved according to his own sentence the heaviest condemnation To which if you add the manner of his Life which was the last thing it will compleat the Demonstration For it was so perfectly conformable to his Doctrine that we cannot but think he believed it and so could not die with a lie in his mouth Particularly it was so free from all covetous designs and from hunting after the applause and praise of men that it is incredible he should seek that by death which he had despised through the whole course of his life If he was so thirsty of vain-glory as to lose his life for it why did he not make it his business to win all he could of it while he lived Why did he not lay the foundation of his after-fame by insinuating himself in the most diligent and men-pleasing manner into the favour of all the Jewish nation and conform himself so perfectly to their humour that they might have presently made him their King Nay why did he not accept the offer when the people intended to advance him to the throne This had been a more likely way to honour and renown if that was all his aim then the lifting him up upon a Cross He might have hoped to build a lasting glory on the love of the Scribes and Elders of the people whereas this infamous death he could not but see would make him so odious that it would rob him of all mens good word and quite frustrate the design of winning a reputation among men This is a truth of which I presume by this time the most suspicious and unbelieving are convinced who cannot but confess that the voluntary death of such a person as this and a death so horrid and ignominious is a plain testimony of his sincerity and proves beyond any reasonable contradiction that he did not invent his Doctrine himself but believed it to be of God and did not seek to gain any thing by it but immortall life and glory in the world to come VI. Now that we must needs be great gainers hereby as well as himself will appear if you consider that he came into the world on purpose to doe mankind good as the business of his whole life testifies He went about doing good and sought all occasions of obliging even the most ungratefull He had compassion on every body he met withall and never denied a cure to those that begg'd it though they were never so poor and contemptible He imployed his Disciples also who attended on him in the same charitable works of healing all manner of diseases and easting out unclean spirits He bad them go and speak peace unto every house into which they entred And as for themselves he professed the greatest love imaginable to them as they themselves have recorded He called them his Friends and did not use them as Servants nay his Children and at last his Brethren which are all terms of much kindness and tenderness which he ever expressed towards them From whence I conclude that unless he could have served them better by his death then by his longer life he would not have so soon and so willingly gone to the Cross and there left these dear Friends for whose sake he had hitherto lived more then his own If he had not died for their sake too and been certain he should thereby shew more love to them and doe them better service then any other way he would have been as much inclined to stay still with them as they were to desire it He saw how loth they were to part with him and with what sad countenances and troubled spirits they received the news He was incompassed with sighs and groans when he did but mention it for sorrow as he speaks xvi Joh. 6. had filled their hearts Would not this have moved a heart less tender then his to alter this resolution when it was in his power to stay longer with them How could he endure to see their tears flow so fast when he was able to dry them up with the speaking but one word that he would not leave them If he had not been sure that he was going as he told them to his Father and that it was on purpose to prepare a place for them which ought to have made them rejoyce rather then weep because he would come again and receive them to himself that where he was there they might be also xiv Joh. 1 2 3 28. without all doubt his great love would have yielded to their prayers and commanded his power to prolong their happiness in his company He should be able he verily believed to doe greater wonders for them and bestow greater blessings upon them if he did not hearken to their importunities or else we cannot but think if we measure him by our selves he would have still continued with these his dear Companions especially since none as he professed could snatch him from their society but it was his own free choice to leave them V. And he earnestly desired them to believe as much and to look upon his BLOUD as the Seal of a New Covenant which contained better promises then the former between God and men So he said just before his death when he spoke of the Representation of it This is my BLOVD of the New Testament or Covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins xxvi Matt. 28. And so the Apostles believed and spake of his BLOUD in the same terms when by his resurrection from the dead they saw that it was the BLOVD of the Covenant x. Heb. 29. and that he was most eminent for this above all other things as the expression is xiii Heb. 20. where the Apostle calls him the Shepherd of the sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was great in the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Now this is one Article every body knows one of the promises contained in it that we shall as certainly have Eternall Life as Israel in due time was brought to the possession of the good Land God promised to their Fathers Abraham you reade xv Gen. 7. had the word of God for it that he would give his posterity the Land of Canaan into which he had brought him out of Chaldaea And when he made so bold as to ask how he should know that this was true you find ver 9 10 11. that God passed this promise into a Covenant which was made by the bloud of sundry beasts
whose bodies being divided and the halves laid one against another a smoaking furnace appeared and a lamp of fire representing a Divine Presence which passed between those pieces ver 17. according to the custom in those days of making Covenants by the parties going between a beast so out asunder In like manner our Blessed Lord and Saviour promised more then once or twice the Kingdom of Heaven to all his followers most earnestly intreating them to believe it And lest they should doubt of it he proceeds at last of his own accord to ingage himself to bestow it by entring into a solemn Covenant with them Which was ratified not by the bloud of beasts and the cutting their bodies in pieces but by his own most precious bloud and by suffering nails to be thrust through his own flesh that he might confirm us in the belief of his promise of an eternall inheritance ix Heb. 15. VI. And great reason there is we should be confirmed by it in this belief For what could he doe more to assure us he meant as he spake then to seal it with his bloud The Apostles justly took this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eminent testimony or WITNESSE to the truth of that which he preached So you reade 1 Tim. ii 6. He gave himself a ransome for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a testimony in due time That is He became the price of our Redemption and like the Paschal Lamb his bloud saves us from the destroyer and assures us God will bring us to our Eternall Rest of which we cannot reasonably doubt since his giving himself thus to die for us is an evident testimony of God's great love to men and of his will which he spake of before ver 4. to save all men by pardoning their offences and bringing them to Eternall life for Jesus his sake His bloudy death was an unquestionable Witness as St. John here calls it of the truth of his promise which he confirmed and sealed in this solemn manner by dying on the Cross to verify it And this he did at that very time or season which was most fit and proper for such a business just when the Prophets said he should doe it for in those days as we reade ii Luk. 38. they looked for redemption in Jerusalem And he could not satisfie their expectation by any better means then this which was illud Testimonium as Erasmus renders it that Testimony that remarkable Witness which none can justly question For it is taken by all for certain that He doth not intend to deceive qui morte suâ fidem facit who seals what he saith with his bloud This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testimony I may adde or WITNESS to the truth of what he preached was most properly his own Testimony There were sundry others but none while he was on earth so peculiarly his as this which was all he could doe to justify himself and his Doctrine The Voice from heaven was a Witness as you have heard but that was the testimony of the Father His Doctrine was a Witness but he saith of that it is not mine but his that sent me vii Joh. 16. His Works or Miracles were a Witness as he says v. Joh. 36. but in the same place he adds that they were the works which his Father gave him to finish and xiv 10. My Father doeth the Works But as for his most precious BLOUD it was that and that alone whereby He himself witnessed the truth to us For this cause he came into the world as he tells Pilate xviii 37. and it was a free act of his own for which reason he is said to give himself for us and to lay down his life there being none as I said before that had power without his consent to take it away from him And therefore it may well be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That testimony whereby He more peculiarly witnessed that this was the will of him that sent him that every one who saw the Son and believed on him should have everlasting life This he preached all his life and he justified it to be true by his Death When they would have had him revoke what he had said and deny that he was sent upon this message by God he maintained it to the last drop of his bloud Which was as much as could be done for the verifying of his Doctrine and assuring the World that he sincerely published the will of Heaven For who can doe more then die for the truth which he asserts But he having thus attested by dying that which God the Father had witnessed before in his life-time by voices from heaven by signs and wonders and such like things it pleased the same Father Almighty to give a more illustrious testimony to Him and to the truth of his Doctrine then ever had been given either in his life or at his death and that was by his Resurrection from the dead Which is commonly in the Holy Scriptures ascribed to him and made his work ii Act. 24 32. i. Ephes 17 20. c. and evidently proved all that I have said and more too For it shewed that as he was not a deceiver of others so he was not deceived himself God hereby bad all the World believe what he had preached and no longer make any doubt of that which he had testified even by his own BLOUD to be his heavenly Truth But of this more in its proper place VII Let us now consider that those persons whom our Saviour bad all men hear because they were sent by him as he was by the Father have told us and the event proved it true that this BLOUD was shed to make peace as you reade ii Eph. 14 15. That is to reconcile Jews and Gentiles together between whom there had been very long differences so that of twain they might become one new Man and both serve him in the same Religion and partake of the same privileges What force there is in this to prove the right we have to Eternall Life you will soon see when I have noted that the intention of God to bring all the World to share alike in his divine favour and love which had been so much inclosed in the Jewish Nation was notably proclaimed by the rending of the veil of the Temple in twain just when the veil of our Saviour's flesh was torn and he yielded up the ghost xxvii Matt. 50 51. This was a plain indication as Photius * Epist cxxv the famous Patriarch of Constantinople hath truly observed a Symbol and Presignification to use his words of the overthrow and desolation that was coming upon that Temple and the Worship therein celebrated How could it be otherwise construed when that place wherein their most holy rites were performed and their most venerable mysteries kept from the eyes of the vulgar was now laid open and exposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words are to common view and
and his wonders his mighty power and stretched-out arm all the grea◠acts of the Lord as they are called xi Deut. 7. which Chapter be pleased to reade unto that verse which were eminent tokens that GOD had taken the◠to be a peculiar or speciall people to himself as he frequently speaks and was able to fulfill his word to their Forefathers of giving them the Land wherein they were then strangers for their inheritance Just such as this is our case whom He hath called by his Son to an inheritance incorruptible and that fadeth not away reserved i◠heaven for us To obtain an eternall Redemption for us and deliver us out of the hands of all our enemies his own most precious BLOUD was shed as of a Lamb without spot or blemish Whereby also as you have heard he testified to the World that he was no Deceiver but came to them from God with the words of Eternall Life Many things concurred to make this BLOUD a witness of his Truth and of his power to fulfill his own promises And yet notwithstanding this was the very thing that offended many and kept them from following him They could not endure so much as to hear him speak of giving them his flesh to eat and his bloud to drink though he told them thereby he would give life to the World And therefore to strengthen this Testimony of his BLOUD and to convince them evidently that he was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the World and gives life to it there was another Witness which attended it both before his BLOUD was shed and likewise afterward which was the SPIRIT That is as I shewed in the former Treatise on this subject the power he had to work wonders and the miraculous power which raised him from the dead and presented him to God in the heavens This was abundantly sufficient to prevent any offence they might take at Christ crucified and to settle in their hearts an unmovable belief that he was their mighty Redeemer who would bring them to the eternall Rest which he had promised For this is the last and greatest argument which St. John here produces ver 6. He came no◠onely by WATER but by BLOVD also and it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness for the SPIRIT is the Truth Or as Arias Montanus translates it the SPIRIT is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Witness that undoubted testimony on which we may certainly rely For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that SPIRIT which I speak of is truth an◠infallible Witness which cannot deceive you that Jesus is the Son of God And so it is likewise that Eternall Life is in him and that we shall enjoy it by his means for this RECORD of God is given to make us as sure of the one as we are of the other Let us briefly therefore consider first what his Miracles say to this and then secondly what force there is in his Resurrection and Exaltation to prove it I. And at our entrance upon the first of these let us before we go any farther weigh those words of this Apostle St. John in his Gospell xx 30 31. where he tells us that he wrote the signs which Jesus did suppose after his Resurrection in the presence of his disciples for this very purpose that they might believe that he was the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have LIFE through his Name They were wrought by Him and recorded by his Disciples for these two ends that the World might be convinced He was the great Lord of all and that they might by faithfull subjecttion to him look for Eternall Life from his omnipotent love It was the design of all his wonderfull works throughout his whole life to which the Apostle may have respect as well as to those after his Resurrection to perswade men to believe that he would make his followers so happy For by these he manifested forth his glory as I observed before of the beginning of his Miracles in Cana of Galilee ii Joh. 11. and declared to the world he could work as great a change upon our mortall bodies as he did then upon the Water making them as much nobler then they are now as the Water excelled it self when it was become Wine They were mighty instances of his Power and of his Goodness too they made him appear to be the King of Israel who was to deliver and bring Salvation to them though much greater then they expected That our Lord did work Miracles is a truth which they that crucified him can no more deny then that he died The wisest of them could never find any colour to affirm that the Gospel-story was but a fabulous Legend which related Wonders that were never done For if they had been able to say this Maimonides the very best of them would not have been put to such distress as to let fall these words which we reade in his Treatise of Kings Cap. xi Do not imagine that the King Messiah shall have any need to work wonders or alter the course of Nature or restore the dead to life again with such like things that fools talk of Had he not known as well that these things could not be denied which are related of Jesus as he did that their force to prove any thing being granted they would be an unanswerable testimony to him he would never have thus slighted as he doth in many other Books things of this nature which brought the greatest reputation to Moses among their ancestours and were the cause why they believed on him though he attempted no such wonder as the raising dead men to life again Our Saviour he was not ignorant very often appealed to his works as the testimony of God to him and thought it sufficient to tell John's disciples when they came to inquire who he was that he opened blind mens eyes cleansed lepers and raised up the dead by which they might answer their own question And therefore something was to be said by this Jew to disparage these upon which he saw the credit of our Saviour in great part relied Now had it not been the readiest way to deny that there were such Miracles wrought Nothing but the notoriousness of the facts made him wave that course which drove him upon this wretched shift of denying utterly that Miracles are credible witnesses to him that works them By this means he thought to rob our Saviour of the glory they brought him and was so blind as not to see that at the same time he took away from his own Master the greatest support he had of his Authority And therefore herein he is deserted by his own Country-men particularly by Abarbinel who as I observed before makes the power of working Miracles one of the principall gifts of the Messiah In which our Lord it is apparent to his very enemies was so eminent that one cannot imagine why he did not believe on him unless with the
dwelleth in me he doeth the works The properties of God are known by the works that he doeth and there are such wonderfull evidences of a Divine power as well as wisedom in me that all the Visions the Prophets had together with all the Miracles they did were not such a testimony of a Divine Presence with them as these are that the Father dwelleth in me Therefore believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me ver 11. that is take my word for it that you See the Father as you desire by seeing me or else believe me for the very works sake Let these at least convince you that I am as nearly related to him as I pretend for they are such as can come from none but from God alone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Greg. Nazianzen speaks Orat. xxxvi p. 590. The Son is a brief and easie demonstration of the Nature of the Father who appeared in him and spake by him and declared both how good and how powerfull he is not onely by all that our Saviour said but by the Works that he did Which were most manifest tokens that God was in him and that his words were the words of God and consequently that in him we have life and that he went to heaven as he said to prepare a place for us and that he will come again and receive us unto himself if we walk in that way which he hath chalked out to us by his most holy Life This our Saviour asserts also in other places where he alledges his Works as an evidence of this very Doctrine I shall mention onely two more and so dismiss this Argument In the v. Joh. 28 29. he tells the obstinate Jews it was no such marvell that a dead man should be raised up by him if they considered which was far more wonderfull that he was the Person who would one day call all mankind out of their graves and give unto the good Everlasting Life For proof of which he puts them in mind presently after of his miraculous Works ver 36. which testified God had sent him and would verify all that he said And thereupon he exhorts them to search the Scriptures for in them you think ye have eternall Life and they are they which testify of me But you will not come to me that you may have life ver 39 40. Which was as much as to say You all look for ETERNALL LIFE and you hope in the Holy Scriptures to find it I wish you would be more diligent in perusing them for they shew plainly that I am He who must bring you to it But this is the misery of your condition that neither my Works spoken of before nor the Scriptures nor the testimony of John Baptist which he first alledged ver 32 c. will perswade you to believe on me without which I cannot bestow Life upon you The same he tells them x. Joh. 25. Where he saith The works that I doe in my Father's name they bear witness of me They made it so apparent that is he ought with all readiness to have been received that he could not judge as you reade in the next verse their infidelity came from any thing but improbity Now what it was his works witnessed he tells us ver 27 28 29 30. viz. that to his sheep who were obedient to him he would give Eternall Life of which they should have such a sure possession that they should never lose it because none should be able to wrest them from him with whom God himself had intrusted them who would maintain and defend them and their right to it without any possibility of plucking them out of his hands His Father he means had appointed him to bestow this Life on all his followers who was able to make good his own purpose and promises And therefore as the Works he did made it appear that He and the Father were one so He would certainly make good the Doctrine which he preached and thus by Miracles confirmed that they should have Eternall Life and never perish II. This we may reasonably think his Miracles declared if we consider the nature and quality of every one of them which in generall was the doing of some good or other to mankind What did this speak but that He was come to be the Authour of the greatest happiness to them They could not well pick less sense out of his Works then this when they saw him bestow such benefits that He was of GOD who is Good and doeth good and would never cease his loving-kindness to the World For the multitude and the constancy of his Miraculous acts of bounty in so many places to all sorts of men throughout his whole life declared the largeness the universality and unchangeable perpetuity of his Goodness which would withhold no good thing from upright persons And therefore in his Answer to the Question which John's disciples proposed you find his opening the eyes of the blind cleansing the lepers making the lame to walk and such like miraculous works in conjunction with his preaching the Gospell to the poorest people which was nothing else but this glad tidings of Eternall Life xi Matth. 5. This he published so plainly as none before him had done and that they might be disposed to believe him to be the person in whom all nations should be blessed He did such Miracles as none before him had done which were all blessings the greatest favours and kindnesses to mankind but no hurt to any one man in the world This was a greater Argument to receive him as the Authour of Eternall Life which he promised then the wonders in Egypt were to perswade the Israelites that Moses should redeem them and bring them to temporall felicity inasmuch as the constant doing innumerable benefits to men renders one far more acceptable then the killing and destroying them III. But then if you more particularly consider that a great many of his Miracles were the restoring men to their primitive state of integrity and soundness of body by removing the sicknesses and diseases which Sin had brought upon them it was a notable signâ—â—◠〈◊〉 He was the Healer of Nature the Restorer of the World the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saviour of mankind who could bring them back to that blessed immortality which they had lost Whence it was that when he cured the man sick of the palsy in stead of saying Be well he said Son thy sins are forgiven thee to shew that He had power to remove the punishment of sin and so make them immortall VI. The like another sort of Miracles seems to suggest to us which was his feeding so many thousands at a time with a small quantity of provisions Of which you reade as in other places so in vi Joh. 5 6 c. where you find that with five barley loaves and two small fishes he entertained about five thousand people so plentifully that every one of them had as
much as he desired and when they had done there were twelve baskets of fragments which remained over and above to them that had eaten This Miracle made the multitude conclude that certainly He was the Prophet who should come into the world and therefore they purposed whether he would or no to come and make him their King ver 14 15. And when he avoided it by crossing the sea privately ver 16 17 c. they also took shipping to follow after him and never rested till they had found him ver 24 25. Whereupon our Lord takes occasion to tell them how sorry he was to see them so industriously pursue the food of their bodies and not mind the food of their Souls to which his late Miracle led them and in plain terms tell them that Spirituall food was himself who was the Bread of life they should hunger after more then for the loaves wherewith they had been filled and that if they did eat of him they should have everlasting life and he would raise them up at the last day ver 26 27. and 35 c. This they might easily have believed if they had considered the Miracle of the loaves which was a token from God that he could support them eternally For why should not he be able to give life who so strangely preserved it and out of a little dust make a body as he had out of a few crums made so many loaves If their desires had been fixed upon this Eternall Life which he preached as much as upon the present they would as naturally have taken this Miracle for the Seal whereby God noted him to be the giver of it as they took it to be a mark that he could thus fill their bellies every day and save them the labour of seeking food after the manner that Moses fed their Fathers with Manna in the Wilderness V. And next to this if you consider how he dispossessed Devils which was a Wonder as frequent as any if told the world plainly that He was come to destroy the works of the Devil to overthrow his kingdom and devest him of his power unless they would still uphold him in it By Sin he held his Throne this gave him all the power he had over men and made them his vassals and slaves Who being so often rescued out of his hands and he so openly foiled it was a sign that Jesus was come to take away the sins of the world and thereby disarm him of the power of death and restore men again to that everlasting Life out of which the Devil had before thrown mankind as our Saviour now threw him out of them All this the Jews themselves confess shall be the work of the Messiah According to what we reade in the Authour of the Book concerning the Service of the Sanctuary who saith that the King Messiah shall restore all things to their first estate so that the intention of God shall be fulfilled which he had in the Creation of the World for the World shall return to that naturall perfection which it had before rebellious Adam sinned The Prophets are faithfull witnesses of this as it is written lxv Isa 19. I will rejoyce in Jerusalem and joy in my people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying And so he speaks also in another place of that Book xxv 8. He will swallow up death in victory and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces The Authour also of Baal Hatturim as I find him cited by Hackspan * Cabala Judaica Sect. 72. confesses as much in his Notes upon xix Num. where he saith In the times of Salvation or the days of Christ there shall be no use of the Ashes of the red heifer according to that He will swallow up death in victory Which words are cited by St. Paul 1 Cor. xv 54. as the other part of that verse is by the voice St. John heard from heaven xxi Rev. 4. when he is treating of the Resurrection of the dead as the great comfort of Christian people Who may well expect it and all the blessings that attend upon it from our Lord Jesus the true Messiah if to all that hath been said we adde the consideration of what follows VI. That he raised even dead men to life again which was the greatest Miracle of all and at that time the greatest witness of the SPIRIT to him This shew'd that indeed he had Life in himself and would bestow it upon us as I have already noted for he raised them on purpose to declare what he was and what they might expect from him viz. a perfect victory over death and the grave Which appeared most remarkably in the resurrection of Lazarus who was the most famous instance of this power residing in him For the Miracle wrought on him was not so little as the recovering one who drew his last breath which was the case of the Centurion's Servant nor the restoring one to life who was newly dead as in the case of the Ruler of the Synagogue's daughter nor the raising a young man who was carried out towards his grave as the Widow's son was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Nyssen speaks * De Hominis opifici◠cap. xxv his Wonder-working proceeds to something more sublime A man of grown years not onely dead but musty already putrid and in a dissolution as he describes his condition so far gone toward corruption that his own friends thought it not fit our Lord should go to uncover his tomb because of the ill smell which might be expected this man I say with one word of our Lord's was restored again to life firm and compacted and though he was bound hand and foot with grave-cloaths it did not hinder his coming out of his grave which as Theophanes thinks was a Miracle little less then his Resurrection Who can chuse but look on this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the same St. Gregory's words as the beginning the little Mysteries as I may call them of the Vniversall Resurrection into which Christ now initiated his Disciples For it is apparent by this He is the Lord of Life who can raise a putrid rotten carkass as well as those who are but newly departed the world And this was no private business transacted onely between him and his Disciples but a thing so notorious that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude who were there present bare record of it xii Joh. 17. That is they affirmed it to be no vain report but told those of Jerusalem whither our Saviour was then going who had not seen the Miracle done that it was a certain Truth upon their knowledge Which they might affirm with the greater assurance because as Theophanes * Archiepis Taurom Hom. xxv observes they were confirmed in this belief by the testimony of all their senses By their own voice which shewed him the Tomb
in heaven binding whom it would and loosing there according to the power given him As a lion let loose among a company of foxes so did he fall upon the societies of Daemons and Philosophers and like a thunderbolt struck through all the armies of the Devill who was so afraid of him that he trembled at his shadow and ran away if he did but hear his voice He delivered the incestuous Corinthian to him being far distant from the place and again he snatcht him out of his hands being perfectly acquainted with his devices And in like manner he taught others by the same severity not to blaspheme But let us not content our selves merely to admire him let us not onely be astonisht at him let us imitate and follow him What though we cannot doe such miracles as the Apostles did and there is no hunger and other miseries to be endured the times being peaceable and quiet God be blessed yet there is their piety and the holiness of their life to be transcribed which was no less admirable And this is the noblest conflict this is the syllogism which cannot be contradicted this by our Works Should we discourse never so excellently but live no better then others we gain nothing For unbelievers do not mind what we say but what we doe saying Do thou first of all follow thine own words and then perswade others For if thou tellest us of millions of good things in the other world but art so intent upon the things of this as if there were no other we believe thy works rather then thy words For when we see thee greedy to snatch other mens goods bitterly bewailing thy friends deceased and in many other things offending how shall we believe thee that there is a Resurrection Thus unbelievers are hindred from being Christians And therefore having seen how glorious our Saviour is Id. Homil. xii in Johan being instructed in his Religion and made partakers of so great a gift let us lead a life agreeable to our principles that so we may injoy those good things which Christ hath promised For He therefore appeared not onely that his Disciples might behold his glory in this world as they say they did i. Joh. 14. but also in the world to come For I will saith he that where I am they may be and see my glory And if he appeared so illustriously here what shall we say of his glory there O happy thrice happy they more happy then can be expressed who shall be thought worthy of that glory Which if we should be so unhappy as not to see better had it been for us if we never had been born To what purpose do we live and breath what are we if we miss of that Light if we may not be permitted then to see our Lord and Master If those who enjoy not the light of the Sun lead a life more bitter then death how miserable will their condition be who are deprived of that light This loss will be punishment sufficient though this is not all they must expect For being banished from this Light they shall not onely be cast into outer darkness but there burn perpetually and miserably consume and gnash their teeth and suffer a thousand other miseries Let us awake therefore let us look about us let us use our utmost endeavours that we may enjoy the happiness Christ designs for us and be far remote from the river of fire which runs with great noise before the dreadful tribunall Into that if we fall there is no redemption And therefore let us purify our life let us make it bright and shining so that we may have boldness of access to the blessed sight of our Lord and obtain the promised good things through the grace and loving-kindness of Christ Jesus by whom and with whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost be glory world without end Amen CHAP. XIII The Vse we are to make of this RECORD I. AND in the very entrance of so pious a design to improve the great grace which Heaven hath bestowed on us it becomes us to stand amazed at the transcendent love of God our Saviour who not contenting himself to have thoughts and intentions of good towards such wretched Sinners hath been pleased to make us a gracious promise that he will bless us and to acquaint us by no less Messenger then his own Eternall Son appearing from heaven in our flesh with the secret purposes of his heart to give us the greatest Blessedness There is nothing so astonishing as this whether we consider the incomparable excellency of the Good he designs us or the favour he hath done us in revealing it to us or the glory of that person by whom he reveals it or the certainty we have that this is a true report that God hath given to us Eternall Life and this Life is in his Son O most joyfull news shall we poor mortalls live for ever and live there where Jesus is May such as we presume to expect such glory honour and immortality as he hath brought to light by his Gospell O wonderfull love which might have concealed its kindness and yet eternally obliged us It had been enough if we had got to heaven without knowing before-hand we should be so happy Why should such offenders injoy the comfort of hoping for so great a Happiness while we are here in these earthly prisons Might we not have been well contented to creep upon our hands and knees to so high a glory Had we not been fairly used if with our heads hanging down and not daring so much as to lift up our eyes to that holy place we had travelled through this world and at last found our selves beyond all expectation at rest with Jesus But O the love of God which hath bid us hold up our heads and look above and behold our Lord in his glory and hope well yea be confident that he hath seated us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus We are indebted to him beyond all thoughts for promising us so freely out of his exceeding great love and giving us so evident a right to such glory and honour as our own unworthiness and guilt forbad us to promise our selves or to have the least expectance of And what is it that he hath so freely promised To look into that high and holy place where he is at some distance to behold his glory to have an Angel come sometimes to visit us and bring us some message from him in some of the suburbs of heaven And a great favour too I assure you A very singular kindness it ought to be esteemed if we vile wretches may be permitted to be so happy as but to come near the gates of the celestiall palace Well would it be for us to come but within the sound of those melodious hymns which the heavenly host continually sing or to live but in some of the most remote corners of that heavenly countrey and there enjoy for
Peter says that those heavenly Ministers have so great a value for the Gospell that they desire to look into these things wondering that we Gentiles should be made not onely fellow-citizens with the Saints but equall to themselves They rejoyced when they heard the good news that our Lord was come down to men and it seems he hath told us things beyond all their expectation Shall not we then set a due esteem upon them and look into them and consider them who have them so near unto us and are so much concerned in them Then it were better for us if we had no eyes or if we lived in those places where no such things are to be seen for none will be so miserable as they that might have been exceeding happy and chose to remain miserable and that when so few thoughts would have secured their happiness For there is no way to be undone but onely by not believing or not considering the Gospell of God's grace Secure but these two passages and strict piety will necessarily be our imployment and Eternall Life our reward No temptation will be strong enough to make us neglect our work and I am sure faithfull is he who hath promised and will not fail to pay us more then our wages VI. And what now remains but to put those in mind who obediently believe in the Lord Jesus what cause they have to entertain themselves beforehand with great joy in the comfortable expectation of God's mercy in Him to Eternall life Let all his true-hearted Disciples who hear his voice and follow him rejoyce yea let them be glad in him with exceeding joy Let them say O how great is the goodness of God! how rich are those blessings which he hath laid up for them that love him how exceeding great and precious are the promises he hath made them Our calling in Christ Jesus how high is it what is there nobler then his kingdom and glory To which also he hath called us by glory and vertue Heaven and earth concur in the most glorious and powerfull manner to give us assurance that it shall be well exceeding well with all those that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Why should we suffer our selves then to be dejected at any accident in this world which falls cross to us Shall we take pet when any thing troubles us and let our spirits die within us who have such glorious hopes to live upon and mightily support us Jesus is alive He is alive for evermore And in him is Eternall life for all his followers The Father the Word the Holy Ghost are come to comfort us with this joyfull news The Water the Bloud and the Spirit all say the same and ask us why we are so sad when life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospell It is the desire of the Lord Jesus that we would not mourn as though he still lay in his grave and could doe nothing for us He is certainly risen and gone into the heavens where God hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance And it will adde to his joy if it be capable of increase to see us rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory And therefore let us doe him the honour to glory in his holy Name and let us say alway Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 3 4. We ought to say so with joyfull hearts even when death it self approaches which of all other is the most frightfull Enemy of mankind but is made our Friend by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospell 2 Tim. i. 10. Which hath given us as the same Apostle saith such everlasting consolation that it would be a great reproach to it to receive Death timorously which Wise men before our Saviour came concluded might be for any thing they knew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of all goods Our Lord assures us they were right in their conjectures and hath made that certain which Socrates whose words those are left doubtfull Plato Apolog Socr. And therefore we ought not to leave the world as if it were the greatest unhappiness that could befall us It is for him onely to fear death as St. Cyprian speaks * L. de Mortalitate p. 208. who would not go to Christ and he onely hath reason to be unwilling to go to Christ who doth not believe he shall begin to reign with him This is the onely thing as he writes a little after which makes men take death so heavily quia fides deest because Faith is wanting because they do not believe those things are true which He who is Truth it self hath promised But though they give credit to what a grave and laudable person promises they are wavering about that which God saith and receive it with an incredulous mind For if they believed they would entertain that which now seems dreadfull as St. Greg. Nazianzen * Orat. xviii p. 284. says that blessed Martyr did whose Death he doubts whether he should call his departure from this life or rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his departure of God or the fulfilling of his desire And thus if we may believe Calcidius the famous Trismegistus died Fr. Archangel Dogm Cabalistica saying to his Son that stood by him My Son hitherto I have lived an exile from my country but now I am going safe thither And therefore when a little while hence I shall be freed from the chain of this body see that you do not bewail me as if I was dead For I am onely returning to that most excellent blessed City whither the Citizens cannot arrive unless they take death in their way There God onely is the Governour in chief who entertains his Citizens with a marvellous sweetness in comparison with which that which we now call Life is rather to be termed Death And what if in our passage to it we should fall into divers temptations or trialls of our sincere affection to the Lord Jesus There is no reason that this should dishearten us and deaden our spirits For it is the singular privilege of a Christian to rejoyce in the Lord alway iv Phil. 4. especially when he suffers for righteousness sake In that case the Apostles thought it an honour that they were counted worthy to be beaten and suffer shame for his Name v. Act. 41. And St. James thought their example was not unimitable by other Christians to whom he saith i. 2. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations And so they did as you reade in the Epistle to the Christian Hebrews of whom the Apostle gives
stood so nearly related to him as to be his Son and therefore worthy to be glorified by him again and again until He had fully judged as he there speaks between Him and his Adversaries who denied him to be the Christ but was pronounced by God to be the Prince of life To conclude this you may note that not long before God spake in this manner from Heaven to them our Saviour had said That they had not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. John the Baptist had and so had three of his Disciples And therefore John bare witness of him whose testimony he says was true ver 32. though he did not stand in such need of it as if his credit could not be supported without it No He appealed to him merely because they had such an high opinion of him ver 33 34. otherwise he had a greater testimony than that of John ver 36. which was not only the works that he did which testified of him that the Father had sent him but the Father himself who sent him note this for he appeals now to what the voice from Heaven said he has born witness of him ver 37. And if they had had any goodness in them ver 38. they would have received him whom the Father sent When did He send him but when he spake by that voice from Heaven which now he utters once more in other words for their greater and fuller satisfaction when many of them were assembled together that they who had not hitherto might hear his voice as well as Jesus himself and his Apostles and be awakened hereby to attend to what the other witnesses of him should say especially after he was risen from the dead I should pass now to the Examination of one of them were it not fit before I part with this to take notice of a Tradition which runs among the Jews concerning this way of Revelation by a voice from Heaven which they say was very usual in those ages The Doctors deliver so their words are in the Babylonian Talmud * In the title Sanhedrim cap. 1. that from the death of the latter Prophets Haggai Zachariah and Malachy the Holy Ghost was taken away but yet notwithstanding they had the Ministry of the Bath Col i. e. the daughter of a voice By that name they call this way of Revelation because they say it was not a full and strong voice which they heard but a voice coming out of another voice and heard when it was gone Just as sparks say they are called Bene resheph the sons of an hot coal because they leap out of the fire so is this called the daughter of a voice because it resulted from a voice and came as it were out of the womb of it being a kind of Eccho after something that was spoken which they could not understand but only caught hold of this tail as I may call it and conclusion of it And they would have us believe that as under the first Temple they had the benefit of Prophecy Urim and Thummim and the Holy Ghost so this succeeded them under the second Temple and was proper to that age of the world being then only in use when all the other were wanting Hence many Christian writers of these latter times have fancied that God therefore declared Jesus to be his Son by a voice from Heaven because it was the only way wherein he then communicated his mind to the Jewish Nation Paulus Fagius think was the first that started this notion of the Bath col which was a praeludium b◠imagines to that true Divine and Heavenly voice which was to speak to them indee◠from Heaven that is our Lord Jesus Christ To whom the Bath col it self gave testimony when it said This is my belove◠Son in whom I am well pleased But 〈◊〉 name shows it was not the true voice from Heaven but a mere type signification and testimony of that true voice and word of God which was to come shortly and speak to them To whom alone this Bath col told them they must all hearken Thus he writes upon the Chaldee Paraphrase * In xxviii Exod. 30. And he had said the same before in his notes upon the Fifth Chapter of Pirke Avoth where his word◠are that God would accustom the world 〈◊〉 little by this beginning to that true Heavenly voice our Saviour Christ who was to follow in whom hereafter the Father would be heard But I think there is reason to doubt o◠all that the Jews say about this matter their brags being many times beyond the Truth and devised to obscure the glory of our Saviour Who it is most likely had that honour done him now by these voices from Heaven which was not usual in those days for he himself tells them as I observed before Ye have not heard his voice at any time v. John 37. As for that which they pretend that this Bath col or daughter of a voice was peculiar to the times of the second Temple it is so far from Truth that it is contradicted by some of themselves who find instances of the contrary in the Holy Books God called out of Heaven to Abraham every body knows by his Angel Gen. xxii 11 15. And Maimonides * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. observes that he spake to Hagar and Manoah's wife though neither of them he says had any thing of the spirit of prophecy but only heard the Bath col Which interposed if we could believe others in the case of Thamar And often whispered to Moses as the writer of his Life in many places affirms Nay they tell us in the Eleventh Chapter of the forenamed Title in the Talmud that Nebuzaradan heard this Bath col before the destruction of the first Temple bidding him make a fresh assault upon Jerusalem and not be discouraged in his attempt nor fear the fate of Senacherib For the time is at hand that the Sanctuary shall be destroyed and the Temple burnt But that there was any such thing under the second Temple I see no ground at all to believe It is far more probable that they have devised a number of such stories as we read in their Books merely to gain some credit and reputation to their Doctors Can any man of sence imagine that God would bid Jonathan hold his hand when he was beginning to Paraphrase upon the Prophets saying to him by a voice from Heaven Who is this that reveals my secrets to the sons of men And that he like a bold fellow stood up and said I am the man who undertake it for thy honour and not my own And yet Elias Levita has the confidence to tell us in his Preface to these Paraphrases that as Jonathan was going to do as much for the Holy writings as they call them as he had done for the Prophets he was absolutely prohibited by another voice from Heaven which said Is it not sufficient that thou
evidences which He produced while he was on Earth to justifie his high Authority which is comprehended under the Name of the Son of God but enquire after those only which He hath given of it since He went to Heaven and ascended to the Throne of his glory From whence this Word of God hath been pleased to speak or in some very remarkable manner to assert this Truth upon no less than three several occasions I. First of all He showed himself to his first Martyr S. Steven in a sensible Majesty standing at the right hand of God in the splendor of the Divine glory Read but the vii Acts 55 56. and there you will find He made himself so plainly appear to be the Son of God and that with power as S. Paul you have heard speaks in 1. Rom. 4. that is the King of Heaven and Earth next to the most supreme Majesty of God the Father Almighty that nothing can be said against it unless any man will be so audacious as to fancy that this holy and glorious Martyr was strongly deluded But there is a clear demonstration against that from the whole story of his Life and Death For He was a man of great note and eminency in the Church who held the very first place among the seven Deacons vi Acts 5. that were chosen to attend the daily ministration to the poor The feeding of whose bodies He did not think the only thing belonging to his charge but such was his zeal he likewise broke and dispensed the Bread of life to all his neighbours He justified the Christian Faith of which he was full vi Acts 5 8 10. against all opposers with singular wisdom great fervour and mighty demonstrations by the power of the holy Ghost He confounded all those whom he disputed withall though he could not overcome them He stopt their mouths by the wisdom and spirit wherewith he spake which made them wish they could stop his though there was no other way they saw to silence him but by taking away his life They suborned therefore false witnesses against him whom they knew not how to confute They brought him before their Great Council to be tried Where all his Judges fixing their eyes upon him saw he was so far from being at all daunted that there was a sparkling Majesty in his countenance like that of an Angel when he appeared to their forefathers vi Acts 15. They could never devise or fancy any thing greater to say of them or of their most eminent Doctors than now they beheld in this illustrious person The face of the Patriarch Isaac they tell us was so changed when the holy Spirit rested on him that a Divine light or splendor came from his face And they would have us believe that Phineas his countenance did burn and flame like a Torch by the inhabitation of the holy Ghost in him Nay Maimonides himself to omit the other Authors in which I find these reports will have the Prophets to be Angels So he interprets more than once the first and the fourth verses of the second Chapter of the Book of Judges Where by the Angel of the Lord he understands a Prophet whom God sent to them to bring them to repentance And expresly says * More Nevoch part 2. cap. 42. that their wise men have told them This was Phineas for at that time when the Majesty of God dwelt upon him He was like to an Angel of the Lord. And it is the opinion of some of them whose Names are not worth mentioning that in the Prophetical visions the form of a man vanished and the appearance of an Angel came in the room thereof till such time as the Vision ceased The light which shone within was so great that it broke through their bodies and externally appeared if we could believe these Doctors who would fain adorn their wise men with that glory which they really beheld in this man of God S. Steven Who was so full of the holy Ghost and had such glorious illuminations in his mind that there was indeed an amazing lustre in his face and he lookt more like an Angel than a man This emboldened him to speak to that grave Senate with all the assurance in the world and to reprove them for resisting the holy Ghost Which so cut them to the heart that it enraged them to the highest degree of fury and they lookt upon him as if they would eat him up But he still full of the holy Ghost and nothing fearing what he saw he must suffer from an exasperated multitude cast up his eyes above and fastned them stedfastly upon the Heavens from whence cometh our help Where He bade them all take notice vii Acts 54 55 56. that he saw the glory of God and Jesus shining at his right hand in a far greater glory than they had seen in his face That was only a glimpse of the Majesty of Jesus whom he preached to them and now feared not to affirm that he saw in his royal splendour and greatness incomparably above all the Angels in Heaven And is it not a great deal more reasonable to believe that He indeed saw Jesus there than to think that he would obtrude thus boldly a mere imagination upon them with the certain loss of his own life If he had not been sure that he beheld him whom they crucified now most highly glorified a person of his wisdom and spirit would have been more cautious than to follow him in that bloudy path to which this assertion led him when if he would have held his tongue there lay a fairer and smoother way before him But so visible was the royal Majesty of our Saviour that he could not but proclaim it aloud and speak as S. Peter said the things which he had seen though he knew they would call it blasphemy and punish him for it with present death He was willing to suffer that for the honour of his Master and to testifie his love to him who told him his Faith was no fancy as he might see by the glory wherein he appeared Which abundantly satisfied him that he was the Son of the Highest able to reward all his faithful servants with immortal glory It is true we read of never a word that our Lord spake to this Saint but the splendour of his appearance in such glory and Majesty at God's right hand was as significant as any words could be and bid him be assured of the truth of what S. John is here proving that indeed he is the Christ the anointed of God anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows made the Lord of all things inferior to none but only him who hath put all things in subjection under his feet If any one ask me how he could see the glory of God and how he knew this to be Jesus who appeared at Gods right hand I Answer to the first enquiry that He saw God's glory in the same sence that
Father The last words of our Saviour were Father into thy hands I commend my spirit xxiii Luke 46. And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit vii Acts 59. He died with these and the following devout words in his mouth crying again with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge In which he expressed as much charity to men as in the other he did faith in Christ And openly declared himself a person of such piety and goodness such admirable candor and sweetness of spirit so utterly void of all rancor and gall when he had the highest provocations from his bitter enemies that as we may be sure he could not be guilty of devising a lye to the deceiving of others so we may reasonably believe that God Almighty would not let such an excellent man be deceived to the ruine of himself and the casting away so precious a life II. But that jealousie and suspicion might have no pretence left nor any man justly call in question the truth of this apparition our Saviour was pleased a second time both to show himself and also to speak very audibly unto another person of great integrity and authority and that was S. Paul Whose testimony concerning this is the more considerable because he was a person of considerable note in the Nation of the Jews both for his descent and for his education and for his zeal in their Religion iii. Phil. 5. He was an Hebrew both by his Fathers side and his Mothers a Scholar of Gamaliel's i. Gal. 14. under whom he made an exceeding great proficiency xxvi Acts 5. and was addicted to the most strict Sect of Religion then among them whereby he became full of flaming zeal for the Law of which he was a rigid observer even according to the expositions they had made of it by the traditions of their Elders These he held so sacred that the name of Jesus was odious to him because he little regarded them And he was transported with so bloudy a rage against his disciples that his intention was to send as many of them as he could meet withall after S. Steven to whose death he was consenting viii Acts 1. xxii 20. that is He approved the fact of those seditious Zealots who were the authors of it or as the words may well be rendred out of the Syriack translation he was as well pleased with the killing of him as any of the company The lenity of his Master was no example for him to follow He learnt no meekness in the School of Gamaliel but suffered himself to be hurried away with the furious spirit of the multitude whom he accompanied in that tumult For he undertook to secure the garments of those who stript themselves to throw the first stone at that blessed Martyr of Christ Jesus Nor did his fury rest here but he gave his voice against other Saints when the sentence of death passed on them xxvi Acts 10. And not content to make havock of the poor Church at Jerusalem he enlarged his cruel projects and stretches his wrath as far as Damascus thither he goes armed with authority from the Senate xxii 5. whose Commissioner he was now as he had been for some time which shows he was a person of no small condition in that Nation For He tells us himself that what he did at Jerusalem was by authority from the chief Priests xxvi 10. who gave him letters also to those at Damascus that they should assist him in the apprehending all the Christians that were there ix 2. xxii 5. He brought the Decree of the Senate along with him which had been made against them and lest any should question whether he was deputed to see that order put in execution he was ready to satisfie them of that by showing his Commission xxvi 12. In short he breathed forth nothing but fire and sword as we speak against the worshippers of the Lord Jesus being exceeding mad against them according to the account S. Luke gives of him viii Acts 3. ix 1. and which he gives of himself xxii 4. xxvi 11. Now who would expect that such a man as this should himself become a Disciple of Jesus much less a preacher of his Religion A man so noted for his violence the other way and whose name was so terrible to Christian people that Ananias was afraid to go and deliver a message to him from our Lord after he was told something of his conversion Was there any hopes that he should ever confess and publish the very same thing for which S. Steven was stoned And yet so powerful were the prayers of that holy Martyr which adds much to the force of his testimony that our Lord answered them ere long by pardoning and converting this enraged Zealot To whom he was graciously pleased to appear as he had done to that Saint more than once as we find recorded in the Sacred story from his own mouth The first time and the most remarkable was when he was upon the rode to Damascus Then our Lord met him not far from that City when he had no such thing in his thoughts but was possessed with quite contrary designs and made him fall down and worship him whose Name he so hated that he would have forced all Christians to blaspheme him Read the ix Acts 3 c. and there you will find him who little regarded what S. Steven said and perhaps took him for a frantick fellow when he told them he saw Jesus glorified surrounded himself with such a glorious light from Heaven as left him no power to resist this truth which he had so bitterly persecuted For in that wonderful brightness there was a person appeared to him with such a dazling lustre that after he had beheld it he lost his eyes and could not see by reason of the glory of that light xxii 11. which was the cause I believe that he askt with no small astonishment Who art thou Lord The Angels appeared sometimes in great glory but never with such a splendour as to hurt the sight much less to take it away and therefore he now concluded that this person was of an higher condition much greater than the Angelical Ministers whose brightness was never known to be so amazing And to give satisfaction to his doubt our Lord the WORD of God told him in plain terms with an audible voice I am Jesus whom thou persecutest And wisht him not to proceed any further in this course which he might easily see would prove destructive to him For to contend with him still who was so glorious what would it be but to wound and ruine himself and by seeking to ease himself of one trouble to run upon a greater just as a beast does that kicks against the pricks which are to quicken it and put it forward This voice he alone heard who was to be instructed by it The company that was with him heard only a confused
unto them So S. Paul writes to the Thessalonians 1 ii 8. every one of whom he exhorted and comforted and charged as a Father doth his children ver 11. But he never used any flattering words towards them nor spake as pleasing men but God who trieth the hearts nor carried on any design of covetousness or winning of glory to himself nor would be in the least burdensom to them but was gentle among them even as a nurse cherisheth her own children ver 4 5 6 7. Show me the man that ever spoke with such wisdom and judgment as they did and with so much tenderness of heart None but their Master ever preached or wrote with so Divine a Spirit which John the Baptist describes in such words with which I shall content my self as prove the excellence of his Person from the excellence of his Doctrine which he delivered unto men They are in the iii. John 31. where he says He that COMETH from above is above all He that is of the Earth is Earthly and speaketh of the Earth He that COMETH from Heaven is above all That is He who appears from Heaven with such a Divine Authority who delivers the mind of God in so rare a manner that one may see he hath been with God must needs excel all other persons in dignity Moses and the Prophets and me also who am of an Earthly extraction born like other men and can speak only like a man poor and low things in comparison with those which that Heavenly teacher delivers who I must needs again confess is far superiour to me because he is not a mere man but comes from Heaven and so is above all Prophets whatsoever who had more of the Earth than of Heaven in them that is knew none of those secret counsels of God concerning mans everlasting bliss nor could direct us in so short but plain and sure a way to it as he hath done And then it follows ver 32 33. And what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth c. He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God That is he speaks such things that a man may easily see he is the only begotten of the Father who is in his bosom and knows his very mind having as certain an understanding of Heavenly things as we have of what we see and hear And therefore whosoever believes him does no more but assent to God whose words he speaks by a particular commission he received from him to act in his Name It is very observable that just after the mention of these Witnesses 1 John v. 10. S. John adds that He who believes not this record which God gives of his Son hath made him a liar as on the other side John the Baptist here says That he who doth receive his testimony i. e. believes solemnly acknowledges God to be true From whence I conclude that what is said in this Epistle hath a relation to that which is writ in the Gospel which I take to be no more than this That the Divineness of Jesus his Doctrine the purity and Heavenly strain of his discourses his preaching as if he had heard and seen the Father and knew the state of things above his speaking the Words of God not as anothers like the Prophets before him but as his own was a great testimony to him that he was sent of God in that quality that he pretended So that they who received him did but rely upon the Truth of God and give up their faith to him who hereby as well as other ways perswaded them that this was his Son 2. But then that which I mainly insist upon is this second consideration That his pure most holy Doctrine and Life was a great argument of his Divinity because this was part of his Doctrine that he was the Son of God For who can think that a person of his vertue who taught men both by word and deed such reverence to God and such justice and charity to men could be guilty of putting such an open affront upon the one and such an abuse upon the other as to challenge this title and propound himself to be received in this quality if he had not a just and undoubted right to it He that came with so much sanctity and holiness in all his other words and all his other actions one cannot but conclude was as holy and free from sin in this as much as in any thing else that he said he was the Christ and perswaded the people to believe he was the Son of the blessed This is certain He affirmed himself to be the Christ the Son of God first to his Disciples And that both before his sufferings xvi Matth. 16 17. ix Mark 41. and also after his resurrection xxiv Luke 46. And then to others also who were as yet none of them as 1. to the woman of Samaria iv John 26. Then 2. to the blind man whose eyes he opened ix John 35 36 37. And lastly he asserted it when he was brought before his Judges as you have heard already and this very matter was brought in question yea when they adjured him by the true God and as he bare any respect to him to tell them the very truth in this thing Now who is there that would not infer from hence that all the rest of his Doctrine being so opposite to all lying and every other vice and his whole life giving such a proof of his perfect vertue that they had nothing to ground a charge upon against him but merely this profession of his own wherein if he had pleased he might have been silent it is not in the least credible that a person of his integrity should after so long speaking truth now at the last be guilty of speaking a lye And 2. a lye of such a dangerous consequence as this by which if it were one he and a world of Souls must be undone Yea 3. that he should tell it so often to so many persons And that 4. before the Magistrates who are Gods in this world And that 5. when they were desirous and very importunate to know the truth Yea 6. before God himself by whose name he was solemnly adjured to speak nothing but the truth How is it possible that such a man as he should be so void of all fear of God as to offend him in so high a manner There are none sure whose unstandings are sound or whose consciences are not crackt who can so much as fancy much less perswade themselves to believe that a person whose innocence was so great that all the false witnesses they could find men who cared not for their own lives could not be masters of his should now in such a serious manner when he was going out of the world put such an horrid cheat upon it and with the loss of his life too upon a shameful gibbet as
at Bethabara a note they imagined of his inferiority to John and yet had a testimony from thy self that he was sent of God too does not only now take upon him thy office and thereby lessen and extenuate thy authority but quite eclipses and obscures thee baptizing far more than thou dost Which shows that they began to conceive John was not the man they had taken him for but that Jesus rather should enjoy that name which they had been apt hitherto to bestow upon him and their Argument was because Jesus baptized more Disciples than the other did To this John answers in the next words ver 27. A man can receive or take unto himself nothing except it be given him from Heaven That is let not this trouble you that Jesus Baptizes and all come to him it is no more than I told you that I was no body in comparison with him For no man can honestly assume more authority to himself than his Commission gives him And for that reason I could not do so much as Jesus does because I have not received so much nor can pretend so large a power from God who alone can give it And then he adds that it is strange they should forget what he had told them in express words ver 28. Ye your selves bear me witness that I said I AM NOT THE CHRIST but that I am sent before him That is it is a wonder you raise this dispute when I never gave you any occasion to fancy me to be as great as he but told you plainly as you your selves may remember that I was not your KING anointed by God to rule over you all the honour that I had being no more than this to be ordered to come and prepare his way for him I never intended that my washing you with Water or gathering Disciples should be a mark that I was the CHRIST Alas I only baptized you with the water of repentance that you might be disposed to believe on him who I told you was coming To whom you would do well now that he is come to go and be baptized of him For he brings a nobler baptism than that of mine being as much above me as the Bridegroom at a wedding is above him who only waits upon him and prepares things belonging to the marriage That 's the sence of the 30. verse I never intended to set up my self as the Principal person in this business that we are come about For I know very well that he who hath the bride is the bridegroom that is he is the Head of the Church or people of God to whom God hath designed that high honour And that is Jesus not I who am only his Friend sent before to make things ready for him It is a great honour for me to be one of his Disciples and to receive his instructions And I am glad with all my heart that I live to hear him preach It is an exceeding great pleasure to me all the joy I can desire to hear him the Bridegroom speaking to his Bride the Church and telling her himself what he intends to do for her and what he would have her to do Question no more therefore to whom you should go for purifying from your sins nor think it strange that he Baptizes more than I. For He must increase but I must decrease ver 30. There remains now nothing for me to do but I must be obscure as Theophylact glosses like the day-Star when the Sun arises All must become his Disciples even they who now are mine and I my self too as in truth I am For he says the Friend of the Bridegroom that is himself standeth which was the posture of a Scholar before his Master and heareth him rejoycing greatly because of his voice that is because he is come to teach who could do it better than himself For there is as much difference he presently adds in the next words ver 31. which I have explained before between their two doctrines as there is between the Heaven and the Earth And therefore they must needs be inexcusable who did not receive his testimony ver 32. and become his Disciples Who came with such authority from God ver 33. and had not the Spirit by measure ver 34. but the power to reveal the whole will of God and do all his pleasure ver 35. For as he concludes everlasting life is the portion of him who believeth on Jesus but if a man believe not he shall never see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Thus you see John himself directs them again unto Jesus and bids them go to his Baptism become his Disciples and no longer doubt whether he was the Christ or not For as he did not pretend to an equality with Jesus so they should see his fame continually decline and grow less by the growth of the Glory of Jesus who should shine alone by himself and quite darken him So Gregory * Hom. 20. in Evang. the Great expounds those words now mentioned ver 30. He must increase and I must decrease the sence of which he seems to have hit better than any that I have seen when he says In what was John diminished and our Saviour advanced but in this that the people seeing the abstinence of John and his retirement from the society of the world imagined him to be the Christ whereas our Saviour whom they beheld eating with Publicans and keeping the company of sinners they fancied was not the Christ but only a Prophet But when in process of time both Jesus who was taken for a Prophet appeared to be the Christ and John who was taken for the Christ was discovered to be but a Prophet then was fulfilled what he had foretold He must increase and I must decrease For both our Saviour increased in the esteem of the people because he was acknowledged to be what he was and John decreased because he ceased to be called what he was not 2. And this leads me to the next consideration which I shall but briefly mention That as John directed them to prefer our Saviours Baptism before his and to become the Disciples of a far greater Master so the end of the Baptism of Jesus was to entertain men for his Disciples that thereby they might make profession of their belief in him And here now our Saviour began to eclipse the lustre of John and showed himself much superiour to him both in that he did not administer Baptism himself by his own hands as John did but appointed his Disciples to do it who thereby became equal with John and that he gathered Disciples to himself whereas John Baptized them into the belief of him that was to come after him as you read expresly xix Acts 4. None I suppose can doubt of this but that they who received baptism from our Saviour's Disciples who waited constantly upon him did thereby own Jesus for a Teacher or Master sent of God as Nicodemus speaks
sets his seal to this Truth calling God his FATHER twice as he hung upon the Cross First when he prayed for his Enemies FATHER forgive them xxiii Luke 36. and then when he prayed for himself FATHER into thy hands I commend my Spirit ver 46. With these words he resigned up his Soul to God And had it not been a seasonable time now to retract what he had said if it had not been a Truth which must be justified to the last gasp How can any one think that a man who preached the Life and Judgment to come and lived as if he believed it would venture to die with a lye in his mouth and that of so high a guilt and which he knew also could not be long undetected here as it would be severely punisht in another place nay which He himself he knew very well would presently confute For he frequently had said as his very enemies understood that he would rise again the third day after he was killed which he must needs think would prove a lye if the other had been so when he told them he was the Son of God God who only can raise the dead but cannot lye would never have justified so blasphemous a lye as this and given it an undeniable authority by fulfilling his word For as his bloudy death plainly proved that he believed himself to be the Son of God and took it for an undoubted truth so his Resurrection was an infallible proof that he was not mistaken but had witnessed that by his death which was as true as he thought it His Death show'd that he was certain of it and his Resurrection makes us certain that he was not deceived These two therefore must be joyned together to make up a complete evidence and so they are as you shall see for the Witness of the SPIRIT contains the Resurrection in it Yet I must add that his BLOUD considered alone did not barely prove that he believed he was Gods Son and thought it the greatest sin to deny it but it proved also that he had great reason for such a belief Reasons so weighty that they over-balanced the natural love of life And therefore this alone may be called one of his Witnesses which not only justified his integrity but declared that he had the greatest assurance and the clearest evidence of that which he asserted being so certain of it that the fear of death could not make him doubt it nor all the torments in the world tempt him to deny it IX And if you consider what manner of person Jesus was you will soon be satisfied also that he was not liable to mistake strong fancies for weighty reasons but was as far from being deceived himself as he was from any intention to deceive others The principal thing indeed which his Bloud testified was that he did not on set purpose go about to put a cheat upon the World or invented his Doctrine himself Yet all things considered it proves likewise that his Doctrine was true and ought to be believed by us For such was the quality of his person and of the rest of his Doctrine that they plainly manifest He was neither led by fancy nor possessed with any Demoniacal illusion when he said he was the Son of God So great was his wisdom and the sharpness of his understanding that any man who hath not lost his own understanding may easily see he could not be apt to be gull'd with the impostures of imagination And so great and discreet was his Piety that it is as visible he was not obnoxious to be deluded any other way When He was but a child He amazed the principal men of the Nation with his questions and answers And afterward in the whole course of his preaching there appeared nothing but what declared a most prudent sober and excellently composed mind Nothing of inequality and unevenness in his temper No rapturous discourses or ecstatical expressions Nothing that savoured of Melancholy which imposes upon some or of Pride and Vanity which abuses others But the greatest gravity and seriousness mixt with admirable sweetness and humility is the plain character of our Saviour Then look over all his Doctrine and where shall we find any that ever spoke so clearly and with so much Majesty of Righteousness Temperance Charity and Piety of all our duty towards God and Man as he did Who had the gift of comprehending much in a few but perspicuous words of illustrating his Doctrine with apt and familiar resemblances of confirming it with powerful arguments and of confuting all the cavils of his adversaries with the strongest reasons None of which things are to be found in any of those who have been abused by their own fancies and passions or by the juglings of evil Spirits as will appear more plainly by considering a little more particularly those two cavils Let it be taken then for granted that there have been some men who meant not to deceive that were notwithstanding so overborn by a strong fancy or haughty imagination as not only to take their own dreams for Divine Revelations but also most vehemently to assert them even with the loss of their liberties estate nay and life it self And suppose withall that there have been some who were so fully possessed with a conceit of nearer communion of God that they took themselves to be Christ himself or Apostles sent by him and that no torments could perswade them to think otherways Yet see what a vast difference there is between such vain pretenders and our blessed Saviour even in the very words that they spake And first I think it is very consirable that you never read of any man so presumptuous as to fancy he was the very Son of God who sits at his right hand and rules over all and hath power to judge the quick and the dead No these vain Enthusiasts have only conceited that they were after I know not what spiritual manner made one with Christ and so united to God that as they phrase it in swoln words of vanity they were Godded with God and Christed with Christ But who discerns not the disparity between this foolish language and the words of soberness which our Saviour spake Which indeed is the most remarkable thing If you consider all the Doctrine of these empty Pretenders there is nothing more ridiculous They have ever affected big words lofty and high-flown phrases and mystical expressions wherewith they love to stuff their Books and their discourses which either have no meaning or if they have it is very poor and despicable when it comes to be stript of the fantastical language wherewith it is cloathed And therefore such men have been so far from amazing any considerate persons that they have rather moved their laughter and scorn while they heard them babble nothing but mystical nonsence with abundance of confident boldness And if they have found any followers they were such as had no depth no solidity of
even when thou wast scorned and rejected of men Great was the splendour of thy Majesty under the mockery of a Crown of Thorns and under the reproach of the Cross it self And great was thy Love O thou Lover of Souls who wouldst shed thy own most precious Bloud to work and confirm thy Faith in our hearts that believing on thee we might have life through thy Name O how expensive was thy Love which never thought it had done enough till thou hadst assured our hearts by giving thy self for us How infinitely are we indebted to thee who hast so dearly purchased our eternal joy with thy most bitter sorrows I ought to have the greater regard to all that thou hast said either concerning thy self or concerning the obedience I owe thee or the happiness thou hast promised me because thou hast sealed all in so sacred a manner and chosen to die that thou mightest bear witness to thy Truth For this end thou camest into the world and hast honoured thy self with the Name of the True and faithful witness the beginning of the Creation of God who hast shown us the path of life by thy bloudy and most ignominious death O that none of us who are called by thy Name may ever prove so base and unworthy so ungrateful and disrespectful to thee so insensible or forgetful of thine amazing goodness as to forsake that course which thou thy self hast begun and into which thou hast led us by thine own example Let none of us prove unlike thee who art the beginner and the finisher of our Faith Let us never degenerate from the Original from whence we come nor dishonour the very Author of what we are by actions unworthy of his children But be pleased graciously both to excite and assist our pious endeavours to follow thee and to witness a good confession as thou hast done at least in our lives and conversation That they may testifie to all how much we reverence thee by our observance of thy commands and justifie the truth of thy Word that thy yoke is easie and thy burden light by our chearful free and ready observance of them And if thou wilt have us to witness a good confession also by our bloud or by parting with any thing that is as dear unto us for thy names sake O that we may then imitate thee the true and faithful witness by continuing faithful to thee unto death Let no Soul of us ever faint in our mind much less draw back for fear of any thing that may befall us But still go on and couragiously meet whatsoever opposes us in our way to Heaven Help us to stand fast in the Faith to quit our selves like men and to be strong as becomes thy faithful servants and souldiers who have vowed to be true to thee unto our lives end O Blessed Jesus who can think that he does or endures too much for thee Who can complain of thy service or repine at the sufferings it may require When he thinks of thy labour and pains to secure our hope in God of an eternal redemption from all miseries and troubles and from all sin the cause of them by shedding thy own most holy bloud We are unworthy to bear the Name of thy servants if we should be so ungrateful to thy memory as not to celebrate that love with perpetual praises and thanksgivings And how fearfully shall we reproach our selves if we continue to commemorate it and yet grudge to deny any thing for thy sake or behave our selves as if we would renew thy sufferings by our continued sins Far be it from any of us to think any thing so dear to us as Truth and Righteousness that holy Truth which thou hast delivered to us O that we may read with such an affection the whole history of thy love and all the Laws thou hast left to govern us and the gracious grants thou hast made us as if we saw them written in thy most precious bloud By which thou hast testified the greatness and sincerity of thy love and assured us of the truth of thy Word and consecrated thy self also to be a merciful and faithful High Priest who canst have compassion on us and ever succour and relieve us when we are tempted as thou wast And may we be so sensibly affected herewith as to depend on thy intercession with the stronger Faith and with greater care and diligence tread in those steps which thou hast in such a manner markt out to us and persist in them so stedfastly that none of the terrors of this world may make us step aside and turn from thy Commandments Give us grace O Blessed Lord in the worst condition to express that resolution that undaunted resolution that constancy that confidence in God that zeal for his honour and glory that charity towards our enemies that humble resignation and that patient meekness which appeared in thee under thy greatest sufferings Arm us with the very same mind and spirit which we see in thy self That we who believe in a Saviour who abased and humbled himself so low who was so content to be poor and little regarded to bear all the slanders and scorn as well as the cruel torments which the malice of men could inflict upon him may not be proud and insolent covetous and ambitious impatient of pain or a little disparagement but constantly endeavouring to conform our selves to thy glorious pattern which we have before us may rejoyce in that faithful saying That if we be dead with thee we shall also live with thee if we suffer we shall also reign with thee Amen Now unto the faithful Witness the first-begotten from the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Bloud and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Amen CHAP. VII Concerning the Third Witness upon Earth the SPIRIT THere is one Witness more that remains still to be examined whose testimony was notorious and very well known for it was upon the Earth viz. that of the SPIRIT In the sixth verse S. John brings it in after the other two I have now treated of though in the eighth Verse it be set before them And there he adds this illustrious character of it which is not given to the two former it is the SPIRIT that beareth witness because the SPIRIT is the TRUTH Which is not to be understood as if the other two were not Witnesses for they are called so expresly in this eighth Verse or as if they were not truth for I have abundantly proved that they are But this mark is set upon the SPIRIT to denote it to be the most eminent Witness of the Three The witness or that Witness that which excels the other two in clearness and notoriousness that which was alwayes accounted most powerful to prove a truth that against which nothing
the raising of Lazarus which had drawn many of the Jews to him and he promises shortly to make it appear more brightly by raising up Jesus from the dead which would draw also many such Gentiles as these to believe on his name To conclude this that which the above named Jewish writer pretends in favour of Moses that he appeared and did his wonders in an age when the world was full of wisdom and knowledge is a great deal truer of our blessed Saviour For as he rightly notes * Sepher Cosri Par. 1. Sect. 63. that Learning still went along with the Monarchies so it never was at a greater height than in the greatest Empire that of the Romans and in the highest pitch of that Empire when our Saviour appeared Upon which account there cannot be any suspicion of fraud in this or the rest of our Saviours miracles which were not wrought in an ignorant age nor in an obscure and barbarous Nation nor in some blind corner of the Country but openly near a famous City for Bethany was hard by Jerusalem where there were professors of wisdom and in a time when men could easily distinguish between a real miracle and a mere delusion This therefore ought to have opened their eyes to see who he was whose miraculous works they could not but see And it is justly mentioned to their eternal reproach in the conclusion of this story xii John 37. that though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him For they could not with any colour ascribe them to any power but that of Gods who hereby told them what the voice from Heaven told him that this was his beloved Son in whom he was well pleased II. And truly there can no good reason be given which is the second thing that I told you should be considered why the Apostles should spend so great a part of the short History they have left of his Life in relating his miraculous works if they had not both known them to be evident and notorious things which all the Country could witness and likewise esteemed them mighty demonstrations that he was the Son of God Why else are they so large in describing his cures of several sorts with the manner of them if they were not sure that they could not be contradicted and if they did not desire they should be carefully heeded and concluded likewise that if they were men would acknowledge him to be the CHRIST whom God had sanctified and sent into the world to declare his will to them Which belief if it were once rooted deeply in their hearts the Apostles knew very well would irresistibly constrain them to be obedient to him in every thing This is that which gives his words such authority which makes them sink into our hearts and possesses them of our very Souls and turns all other opinions and perswasions which are inconsistent with them out of doors a belief that our Creator speaks unto us by his mouth They were well aware that it was no easie thing to perswade the world of this but that men might justly doubt of so strange a report For there is such a vast distance between God and us as the Jews make that Gentile King Cosar discourse in the foremention'd Book called after his Name that a man will be apt to think the Majesty of Heaven will not enter into such familiarity and friendship with flesh and bloud as to talk with them Before we can believe this says He we must see prodigies and miracles and behold the course of nature inverted by such astonishing works as can be done by none but him that created all things And it is well if after all this the mind of man will rest satisfied that the Lord of the World the Lord of the Sun and Moon and Stars the Lord of Angels as well as all inferiour Creatures will have society with such vile clay such contemptible dirt as we are And therefore as the Jew in that Discourse with him declares how God demonstrated his presence with Moses by mighty miracles seen by all the people and by their enemies too which were the fittest argument for God to use far beyond the little reasonings and disputings of Philosophers even so the Apostles prove to us that God was in our Saviour and that we ought to believe what he says of himself or concerning us by enumerating many of the mighty wonders which he did in the midst of the people wonders that amazed all beholders and of which they could give no account but that God was with him and spake by him as his Son else he could not have done those things which so much exceeded all the power of Creatures nay all that his own power had wrought for the honour of his servant Moses It was unreasonable that they should in those days ask any greater tokens of a Divine authority and when they did our Saviour told them they should have none but the sign of the Prophet Jonas that is his Resurrection of which I shall speak presently And it is as unreasonable in us now to expect any thing should be better attested than this truth That our Saviour did all those things which the Apostles have recorded We have them reported from those that saw them and that had all opportunities to examine them from those that beheld more of them than they could number men of great fidelity and admirable vertue men that had no interest so great as this to declare the truth for the good of mankind whatsoever they lost by it Unless we will demand that Christ should come again in every Age and also work his wonders in every Nation in every place before every particular mans eyes we can have no better assurance than we have of these things Now how absurdly unreasonable is he who will not be satisfied without such a new descent of our blessed Saviour from Heaven continually repeated and unless he may see him crucified afresh before his eyes For men may as well disbelieve that part of the story as all the rest and require that they may see all those barbarous cruelties and indignities which we read of acted over again upon our Saviour perpetually to the end of the World The very mention of which as it is horrible so should it be done it would destroy the very nature of faith which is the receiving of something upon report And that is one sure way of conveying the notice of things to us which we could not otherwise know And things so made known if the Witnesses be good are accounted by all mankind to be as sufficient a ground to proceed upon in the most considerable actions of humane life as the knowledge of them by seeing feeling and by the rest of our senses is Let us therefore receive the Testimony of the Apostles of our Lord seeing there is no exception as you may hear more before I have done that lies against their
whom we must worship when he was not sought to overthrow and take out of his hands We are secure that God would not have abetted an Usurper in so high a manner against himself And as for any unclean Spirits if they could have done such things as Jesus wrought they would not have employed their power we are sure to establish a Doctrine so pure and holy as the Christian Religion teaches which utterly destroys all that wickedness in which they delight There was all the reason in the World to believe one who came thus by the SPIRIT when he came by WATER too and by his mighty power promoted nothing but the most excellent Piety Vertue and Goodness among mankind But concerning the miracles of our Saviour there will be an occasion to say so much in pursuance of what I design hereafter that I shall add no more of them here Let us now proceed having heard what the SPIRIT did by him to consider what wonderful things it did for him whereby it proved him to be the Christ the Son of God II. And the SPIRIT sure very eminently bare witness of him when it raised him from the dead and not long after advanced him into Heaven to live for ever with God For both these are ascribed to the power of the SPIRIT in express texts of Holy Scripture Of the former you read in the 1 Pet. iii. 18. where the Apostle says He was put to death in the flesh being mortal as we are but quickned by the SPIRIT that is raised up again from the dead by that Divine power in him whereby he had raised up others before he died It was impossible that he should be held by the chains of death who had such a SPIRIT in him By this he shook them off more easily than Samson brake the Wit hs or the Cords wherewith he was bound when the SPIRIT of the Lord came mightily upon him And being thus quickned again the same SPIRIT also presented him to God in the Heavens as his dearly beloved Son in whom he was well pleased who had given him full satisfaction and done his whole will for which he sent him into the world So you read in the ix Hebr. 14. where the offering which the Apostle says he made of himself to God through the eternal SPIRIT was that bloudy sacrifice on the Cross which after his Resurrection he offered to God and continues still to offer in the Heavenly Sanctuary as the High Priest under the Law offered the bloud of beasts after they were slain at the Altar in the most holy place of the Earthly Sanctuary And this oblation is said to be made by the SPIRIT because that raised him to life after he was slain translated him out of his mortal condition carried him on high made his body glorious and immortal and having thus made him fit to be for ever with God presented him unto his Majesty where he remains through the power of an endless life a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek And this working of the mighty power of God which wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principalities and powers might and dominion and every name that is named was such a testimony of the SPIRIT to him that it confounded his adversaries more than all the miracles which he had wrought by the power of the same SPIRIT in his life-time And therefore the Apostles I observe alledge this immediately after the other as that which compleated the testimony of the SPIRIT to him Till this was clear and evident they relied wholly upon the other as you may perceive by the discourse of those two Disciples that went with our Saviour to Emaus Who doubted of his Resurrection after news had been brought them of it but acknowledged him to have been a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and upon that account were much troubled that their Rulers had crucified him because they trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel xxiv Luke 19 20. When they were fully perswaded therefore that he was indeed made alive again as these very men presently saw then they add this as an argument of the greatest force to convince the world that he was the Son of God the Redeemer of mankind This is the substance I observe of both S. Peter's first Sermons to the Jews and to the Gentiles He begins with a relation how great Jesus was in his Life and then proceeds to show how much greater God had made him by raising him from the dead Read but what he says to his Crucifiers on the day of Pentecost ii Acts 22 23 24. where he first tells them that Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of them as they themselves very well knew And then that he being delivered to them and by wicked hands crucified and slain God had raised him up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it In like manner he discourses to the first Gentile converts x. Acts 38 39 40. where he tells Cornelius and his friends how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil of which they were witnesses who had seen all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem and then adds that God raised him up the third day after he was slain and hanged on a Tree and shewed him openly though not to all the people yet to witnesses chosen before God even to him and others who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostle had nothing to add beyond this which was the greatest testimony of the SPIRIT to him Now it spake with a loud voice in his behalf for if he had not been God's Son as he said he was He would never have taken him out of his grave much less have advanced him into the Heavens Where it was manifested he now lived by the coming of the HOLY GHOST which fell upon Cornelius and his friends while S. Peter was speaking those words This was all that could be added to what the Apostle had said and God sent this to prove his Resurrection and Exaltation at his right hand Which was such an undeniable proof of his authority that having thus raised him the SPIRIT as I said finished its testimony to him For how should it speak plainer or more convincingly or who can think that it would have continued to speak for him in this manner after his death if he had died with a lye in his mouth The SPIRIT which S. John here says is the TRUTH openly declared by restoring him to life that his Bloud was most acceptable to God It showed that
it was no common thing but the BLOUD of the Holy one of God It witnessed to that WITNESS and proved that as he did not speak contrary to his knowledge so he did not speak contrary to the truth And if the SPIRIT could not be believed in this it would have lost all its credit and never have been believed more we could never have known any thing by the greatest wonders it can work if such things had been done for a deceiver as it is apparent were done for Jesus For that he was raised up to life again we are assured by the testimony of the Apostles and by the testimony of the Holy Ghost of which none can reasonably doubt as it were easie to show if it were not my present business rather to demonstrate that this was an irrefragable testimony of the SPIRIT to him a most powerful means to beget faith and assurance in mens minds that Jesus is the Son of God It was for this very end that S. John wrote the History of his Resurrection and the several signs and tokens they had of it as he tells us in those words xx John 30 31. Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name For this plainly reversed the sentence of condemnation which the Jews had pass'd upon him It showed that he was acquitted in a far higher Court than that which judged him worthy of death Whose decree it rescinded and openly declared that he was no Blasphemer when he said he was the Son of God If he had God would have been more concern'd than they to have kept him fast in his grave for ever that there so great a lye might have been buried together with himself For the further clearing of which it will be fit to consider briefly these three things First that before he died he promised his Apostles that he would rise again and gave this also as a sign to all the people whereby they should know that he was the Christ And secondly that he declared this to be the greatest sign he had to give of it And thirdly that his very enemies confess it is a sufficient sign and satisfactory testimony of any truth I. For the first of these that it was a sign promised to his Apostles and predicted to the people there is nothing more easie to be observed in the Gospel story For he tells his Apostles very often that they should see him betrayed and killed but on the third day he would rise again No sooner had S. Peter confessed that he was the CHRIST but from that time forth Jesus began to shew them how that he must go to Jerusalem and there suffer many things and be killed and be raised again the third day xvi Matth. 21. For he would not have them expect a Christ that should reign here on Earth but in Heaven And till he went thither he would not have them so much as preach that he was the CHRIST ver 20. And what he had said here at Caesarea he repeats again when they were in Galilee xvii Matth. 22 23. And again when they were going up to Jerusalem xx 19. And not many hours before he was apprehended he said again A little while and ye shall not see me and again a little while and ye shall see me because I go to the Father xvi John 16. At which words they were greatly troubled because they minded more what he said about his death than they regarded his resurrection which was to follow But the greater their trouble was then the greater their satisfaction was afterwards when they saw him alive again The less disposed they were to believe it the more confident they grew when they saw such a wonder They wept and lamented when he was gone as he told them they would ver 20. But when he came to see them again their heart rejoyced with such a joy as none could dispoil them of ver 22. The ground of which joy you shall see presently when I have also remembred you how he foretold his Resurrection to the people as a testimony that he was the CHRIST It was their wont in all Ages and with great reason to ask for a sign that a man was sent of God And therefore now that Jesus came with such authority as to redress many abuses among them and to reform that Nation and Temple they ask him what sign shewest thou unto us seeing that thou doest these things ii Joh. 18. He had given them signs enough already and therefore makes no other answer but this to let them know what should be the last sign Destroy this Temple pointing to his own body and in three days I will raise it up vers 19. From whence we may safely argue that Jesus having given this as a sign and token whereby it should evidently appear more than by all his miracles that he was the Son of God the Almighty would never have fulfilled this promise and prediction if He had usurped his authority and taken upon him to be his ANOINTED without his leave Nothing was more easie than to quash all his pretences which relyed upon his Resurrection without which his Apostles as I told you had no authority to Preach that he was the Christ It had been but letting him rot in his grave as all men naturally do when they are dead and all the World would have been of the mind of the Pharisees that he was a Deceiver And God sure hath not so little care of the World as to deny them such ready and obvious means of satisfaction about the most important truth We ought to think rather that he would have concerned himself to see that this Temple which he spake of should lye for ever in its ruines and be turned to dust and ashes He who alone could do it would have been so far from rearing it up again that he would have provided it should be prophaned and made the vilest rubbish in the World But there being very good proofs many infallible proofs as S. Luke speaks i. Act. 3. that it was quite otherwayes and that indeed it was raised after three days as he had told the People it was a Testimony from God most high that He dwelt in that Temple and that it was his Holy place where he manifested his glory He declared to them by this that Jesus was no Deceiver but that they ought to believe he was the Christ of God For that a man should be raised from the dead by any other power than that of God's all the World concludes is impossible If any of those lying spirits which love to cheat and abuse the world could do such feats why do we not see this frequently happen that so they might break the force of this testimony and overthrow our belief Above
simple words more than all that could be found here and there scattered in the vast Volumes of the Philosophers Nay they advanced the sence of the Law of Moses They called Men to the noblest degree of purity For they cleansed and scowred them from all filthiness not only of the flesh but also of the spirit They advanced the business of holy living to such a pitch that some said it was impossible to be so good And what did they do now How did they overcome this objection This is the greatest marvel of all and gave their testimony a mighty force they show'd by their own example that it was possible This says Lactantius made the Philosophers miscarry in their design that though they spake well yet they did not live as they taught For men had rather have examples than words Because it is easie to talk and hard to do Our Saviour therefore and his Apostles convinced men by their actions that if they would not follow one that taught them they might follow one that went before them They guided them by their feet and not only by their tongues they led their hearers the way in all manner of vertuous and godly living Nay they refused sometimes to do those things which they might lawfully that all men might see their upright meaning and that they had no worldly design in their head So S. Paul tells the Corinthians that whereas he might have lived upon the Gospel and expected maintenance from them yet he chose to preach freely and make the Gospel without charge that it might have an easier passage into their hearts 1 Cor. ix 12.18 And thus he did at Thessalonica also where he wrought with labour and travel Night and Day that he might not be chargeable to any of them Not because he had not power to do otherwise but to make himself an example unto them to follow him 2 Thess iii. 8 9. And such was his practice you heard before at Ephesus xx Act. 34. So that one would think he had taken up this generous resolution at the very first which he continued every where not to make the smallest advantage by the Gospel of which he was a Minister It might have been sufficient one would think that he laboured in the Gospel and took pains to convert souls He needed not have laboured also for his living but expected food from those whom he fed with the bread of life But to make his Ministry unexceptionable and to show he intended nothing in the World but to bring men to this belief in Jesus he would not so much as support himself by their contributions but by the labour of his own hands provided both for himself and for others too as he tells the Ephesian Elders who were instruments with him of their Salvation Can there be any suspicion of the sincerity of such a Man as this What could he have in his mind but this one thing to win Disciples to his Master And could he doubt think you of his power to reward him for all his labour He was no fool it is plain but understood himself as well as the wisest of us all What should make him then neglect all other interests and bend his mind wholly to serve Jesus Such noble spirits as his were the unlikeliest of all other to cheat and deceive whose only business it was to take pains that they might give to others And men of such wisdom would not have taken all that pains for no other end but merely to perswade others to believe in Jesus if they had not been as sure that he was the Son of God as it was that they should get nothing by preaching it but stripes imprisonments infamy reproaches and perhaps lose their lives to the bargain And what should make men so prodigal of their bloud think you II. That 's now fit to be considered in the next place their sharp sufferings the BLOUD whereby our Saviour CAME that is was proved to be the Christ when he was preached by their Ministery No sooner did they appear but all the world with its whole power armed it self against them As the Jews under pretence of Religion opposed and persecuted them so when they fled into other Countries the Philosophers upon the same score set their wits against them and summoned all their Learning and their Arts of reasoning to dispute this new Doctrine out of doors To whose assistance came the Sophisters and Rhetoricians who imployed all their quirks and their eloquence to make it seem ridiculous Nor did the Magicians and Juglers with all the Daemons the then Lords of the world forget to oppose it with all their might But excited Kings and Presidents and Magistrates to exercise all kind of cruelties not only against the preachers of this Religion but against their followers The Edicts of Princes thundred out nothing but confiscations proscriptions banishments imprisonments rods axes strapadoes crosses fire wild-Beasts so that we may say of them all as it was said of S. Paul and Barnabas who were men that hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus xv Acts. 26. Men set forth appointed unto death as those that fought with wild-Beasts and made a spectacle unto the World and to Angels and Men 1 Cor. iv 9. Even unto this present hour says S. Paul in the following verses we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffetted and have no certain dwelling place and labour working with our own hands being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat God for them we are made as the filth of the World and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day And as they were long thus vilely used and destined to death so at last every one of them together with other great servants of Jesus Christ actually suffered death in justification of this truth that he was the Son of God S. Steven led the way who is called the Martyr of Jesus having shed his Bloud for him xxii Acts 20. And he that calls him so protests that he was ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for his name xxi 13. Nay when he speaks of the Martyrdom of S. Steven he was in the hands of his enraged enemies who were ready to stone him too and began to prepare themselves for it as you may read there xxii 23. And both before and after this he was persecuted with such violent and bitter zeal that his whole life was a kind of death which he suffered over and over again for his Masters cause Which makes him say when he gives a large catalogue of his sufferings that he was in deaths often 2 Cor. xi 23 25. and protest in another place that he died daily 1 Cor. xv 31. and in another that he was alway delivered unto death for Jesus's sake and that death wrought in him that he might make others live 2 Cor. iv 11 12. More than this you find in
together to believe it Were they drawn away with mere words And with the danger of their lives followed a poor despicable Preacher when they saw nothing that was wonderful for strange to perswade them to this worship What vain senseless imaginations are these Therefore they believed and suffered themselves to be torn in pieces rather than deny it because they saw all these things done by him and by his Preachers who were sent through the whole world to carry the benefits of our Father to mankind and to bestow the gifts of healing both on their Souls and Bodies But our Writers have not set these things down faithfully They have extolled small matters and ambitiously magnified them beyond their just proportions Why so I beseech you By what reason shall we believe any of your writings if this History of ours must be rejected In which but a few things of the many that were done are recorded by men of truth and honesty Did any God come down from Heaven and write with his own hand the stories that you believe Or is there any thing of that nature writ against ours Then you believe men and so do we Your Books were writ by men and so were ours And whatsoever you will say of ours look for the same to be retorted upon your own Will you have all things contained in your writings to be true so are all contained in ours Do you say ours are false the same we say of yours And how will you help your selves You cannot say that you saw the things that you believe no more than we But others saw them and therefore you believe them and so do we But ours were writ by rude and unlearned men and therefore not to be believed Consider if this be not an advantage to our cause and a stronger reason to conclude that these writings are stained with no lies but delivered with a simple mind ignorant how to amplifie things and so set them off with deceitful dresses As for that which follows concerning the trivial sordid stile wherein they said the Apostles writ it does not in the least render the faithfulness of their relations suspected and therefore I pass it over and omit his reply to it though I cannot well neglect this pertinent observation of Erasmus in his Preface to his Paraphrase upon S. Lukes Gospel The language says he of the Gospel is so simple and rude that if any body compare it with the History of Thucydides or Livy he will want abundance of things and be offended at as many How many things do the Evangelists pass by How many do they but just touch in two or three words In how many places do they disagree in the order of their Narration and in how many others do they seem to thwart one another These things might make a Reader less like them and not give such credit to what he reads For on the contrary they that wrote humane Histories how solicitous were they about their entrance upon their work How scrupulously did they weigh their words What care did they imploy to observe a decent order to set down nothing but what was plausible and exactly described And with what art do they endeavour to set things lively before our eyes With what pleasures do they intice and detain the minds of the Readers that they may not at all grow weary of them And yet these elaborate Monuments for the greatest part are lost and those that remain are not read with any assurance that they report nothing but the truth For who is so credulous as to believe that Titus Livius tells never a tale in his History But there are millions of men found who had rather die ten times than think there is one sentence false in the Evangelical story Is it not plain by this that it is not a business of humane power and prudence but conducted by a Divine vertue What Philosopher is there that ever had the confidence to propound such Paradoxes as these with hope to be believed That one Jesus was crucified and by his death saved mankind that he was God and Man born of a Virgin that he rose again from the dead and sits at the right hand of God the Father that he taught they were blessed men who mourned hungred and thirsted were afflicted ill-spoken of and killed for the profession of his name and that one day they should live again and see him sit in judgment to give immortality to the pious and endless pains to the ungodly What is there plausible and taking in all this And yet the humble low stile of the Gospel perswaded men of this so that thousands millions will rather forsake their lives than this plain truth which a few private unknown poor mean disciples of his delivered to the World What should move us then to distrust these records of the faithful WITNESSES of Christ which are come down to us through the hands of all Ages since so as they were delivered to them What do we see now more than our Forefathers did in Arnobius his days or those which succeeded that gives us any cause to suspect their truth Are they altered from what they were If any company of men had been so bold as to venture at such a change they would first have mended the stile no doubt and placed things in greater order and method according to the exactest rules of art But that they are untained an uncorrupted and in no material passage vary from what they were in former Ages appears by what all Christian Writers have transcribed out of them into their Books which agrees with that which we now read They are the same now that ever they were They contain a relation of those things which converted as Arnobius says the incredulous world who did not want wit nor learning no more than we but saw great reason to renounce all the fables which had been told of their Gods and to believe what they read here concerning Jesus For it is the testimony of God Almighty they evidently perceived that is recorded in those Books Which when we receive our faith will not be less divine than theirs in the first Age because we both receive the Witness of God only they saw or heard it and we read the record of what they saw and heard Which makes no considerable difference 〈◊〉 the nature of the testimony For the 〈◊〉 â—â—ny of any man standing upon aâ—â—â—â—ed record is as good an evidence 〈◊〉 he were alive in person to give it No man loses his cause when his Witnesses die if they have already given their evidence in any Court of Record And therefore there is no reason that our Lord Jesus should lose his authority among us because the Apostles his WITNESSES have left the world and so has the WITNESS of the Spirit and the Holy Ghost since that which they testified to mankind stands upon authentick record in the holy Gospel which cannot with any show of reason be
we understand thereby their holy preaching and living For it is said ver 3. that they had power to prophesie which signifies that they were endowed with extraordinary gifts for Prophets were next to Apostles in the Church to interpret and expound the holy writings and prove out of Moses and the Prophets as our Saviour did xxiv Luke 27. all things that concerned him both his sufferings and his glory And this they did cloathed in sackcloth that is in the habit of mourners for the abominations I suppose which they saw committed and the provoking infidelity of those to whom they preached Which was a notable mark of their great piety and charity as you may learn from ix Ezek. 4. and v. Matth. 4. They are said also to be the two Olive-trees ver 4. that is like Zerubbabel and Joshua two famous persons among the Jews after the captivity who were represented by this Emblem iv Zach. 3. King and Priests unto God men endowed with great authority and illumination from above and with as great purity For they had so much of the oil of gladness that they imparted it to others to the Candlesticks that is the Churches wherein they shined For so S. John teaches us in the beginning of this Book to interpret Candlesticks which is a great argument of the excellency of these men who by the witness of their life and doctrine made all those who were under their care to testifie some way or other to the same truth that they did At least by their lives for they are said to stand before the God of the Earth Which is an Hebrew phrase signifying to minister unto God to be imployed in his worship and service as the Priests and People were at the Temple and therefore sets forth the piety and devotion of these persons whose business it was to serve God even then when it was most dangerous so to do And as by Water so by Bloud also they bare witness of him For they had war made against them and in the fight since they would not yield they were killed ver 7. Nay it was notorious to all that their persecutors had not only drawn the sword against them but that they had resisted unto bloud for their dead bodies lay in the street of the great City ver 8. and they would not suffer them to be put in graves ver 9. which shows the enraged malice which they bare to these zealous WITNESSES who had tormented them ver 10. by the sharpness of their arguments and by their constant reproofs of their infidelity and wickedness Nor was the Witness of the SPIRIT wanting for they approved themselves as Ministers of God to speak in S. Paul's language and Witnesses of Christ by wonders and miracles so great that they might be compared to the two great Prophets Moses and Elias who appeared with our Saviour on the holy Mount For they sent fire out of their mouths ver 5. and had power to shut up Heaven that it should not rain ver 6. both which were the known works of Elias They had power likewise over the Waters to turn them to bloud and to smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they pleased ver 6. which is the plain description of men like to Moses who brought such plagues on the Egyptians as these had power to do upon those who were like them both in hardness of heart and in oppression of the faithful servants of God And therefore I suppose they are described with a power to hurt and destroy rather than with that healing and saving vertue wherewith the first Witnesses of Christ principally came to signifie that their rebellious enemies should be punished for their rejecting Jesus and doing despight to the SPIRIT of grace which once came to them in a more healthful and salutary manner casting out Devils turning Water into Wine healing all manner of Plagues and Diseases and that as often as they themselves pleased to desire And more than this you read ver 11. that after the time appointed by God for it he restored these Prophets to life again and thereby made their testimony something like that of his Son 's That is men animated with the very same spirit stood up in their place to the amazement of all their opposers Who were so far from being able to hurt them that they were as safe as if they had been in Heaven The presence of God was with them as in the cloud which preserved the Israelites from all danger And he advanced them to great honour by the Heavenly gifts wherewith they were adorned As Elias is said to come though he did not appear in person but another in his spirit and power and David is said to be raised up to reign over the Jews xxx Jer. 9. because his Son that is Christ was set upon his Throne so did the Spirit of life from God enter into these witnesses and they stood upon their feet when he raised up other Apostolical persons in their stead who were not less eminent than those who were dead but full of the same spirit of wisdom holiness burning zeal and might and power also from God This frighted all their enemies as well it might when they saw the Christian Cause would not die do what they could But if they killed some others started up in their room to witness unto Jesus and assert the same truth by wonders by their admirable preaching by their holy life and by death it self if nothing else would satisfie them For thus all the MARTYRS testified to him Whose BLOUD witnessed not only that they believed his Religion and that they valued the favour of Jesus more than their lives but that they had very good reason so to do or else men of such wisdom would not have endured such torments as they freely exposed themselves unto with so much chearfulness as we find they did For as S. Hilary tells us Some gloried in the chains which they wore in prison others being beaten till they died did nothing but give thanks others readily laid down their necks to be cut off and more ran to those piles which they saw built to burn them and with a devout haste leapt into those fires at which the ministers of their torments trembled and there were those who were thrown into the Sea not as if they were to be drown'd but went to partake of the refreshment of eternal bliss So he writes upon those words of the Psalmist lxv 10 12. Thou hast tried us as silver is tried we went through fire and water c. The fruit of which was that thereby many were converted unto Christ Their death gave life to others who seeing their zeal their constancy their meekness their patience and their charity became Proselytes to that faith for which they suffered A new race of illustrious Martyrs rose up in their stead in whom they yet lived For there was no other cause as that Father adds upon the following
our neighbours will we not allow God says the Apostle as much as we yield to them Shall not his word determine and conclude us When he gives evidence of a thing shall we still dispute it with him That besides the undutifulness of it is too great a stubborness We may rather be taught how to behave our selves towards him by the measure men expect from us and we from them Yea God does more deserve credit than any man for as he adds the witness of God is GREATER i. e. is of far more validity and certainty it may more securely be relied on than the witness of any men whatsoever God is not only greater than men but his Witness also or Testimony is greater which must be carefully noted it is of more force and strength to support any conclusion we may more undoubtedly found our faith upon it because it is not liable to any of those exceptions which may prejudice the best testimony of men Two things there are that lessen the testimony of men if we compare it with God's and make it to be of a nature more weak and infirm The one is that though a man be reputed honest and therefore we cannot legally except against his Testimony yet it is possible he may be a deceiver and we cannot look into his heart to know whether he be or no. We may not be able to prove the least deceit by him in what he says or ever has said or done and it is possible he never delivered any thing contrary to truth or did any thing contrary to justice but yet we can never free our mind from this thought since we know not his inward man that there is a possibility also it may be otherwise with him But then secondly suppose him perfectly honest and that it is impossible he should put a cheat upon us yet it will be always possible that he may be cheated himself because all men are fallible and may be mistaken The greatest integrity in the world cannot secure a man but the weakness of his understanding and the subtilty of others may sometimes impose upon him so that though he thinks what he says to be true it may be otherwise in it self than it is in his thoughts Herein therefore the Testimony of God is GREATER than the testimony of men that it is not liable to either of these suspicions it being utterly impossible that he should either be deceived himself or that he should deceive us He can neither lead us into an error which we all acknowledge to be contrary to his Goodness and Truth nor fall into one himself which is as contrary to the perfection of his understanding and his Omnipresent being The testimony of God then being so indubitable that it is above the testimony of any men it ought with all reverence to be received when he declares that Jesus is his Son for if it were but equal to humane testimony it ought not to be refused Now this is the WITNESS OF GOD says the Apostle which he hath testified of his Son That is It being granted to be most rational that we should receive the testimony of God nay give it greater respect than we bear to that of men I assure you that the evidence which we give you concerning Jesus is the very testimony of God and therefore do not slight it It is not we that bear witness to him so much as God We do not desire you to hear merely what we say but what God himself hath said who hath given many assurances of this truth If there were but two of them they might by your own rules very well expect to find entertainment but there are no less than six witnesses every one of them Divine they all speak from God and therefore you cannot deny your assent to what they prove For the first witness is God the Father himself who called Jesus his well-beloved Son And the second is the Word of God upon which account whatsoever he says is God's testimony also The Holy Ghost which is the third that proceeds from the Father and came on purpose to bear witness to his Son As for the fourth Water the Doctrine was of GOD his life was the life of GOD John's Baptism was from Heaven and he is called i. John 6. a man sent from GOD. Then for the Bloud which is the fifth witness it is called GOD's own Bloud xx Acts 28. And it appeared to be his by his gathering it up again after it was shed and taking it into the Heavens where he appears with it in the presence of God for us And the last of these witnesses is expresly called the Spirit of GOD xii Matth. 28. So that it is GOD you see who so many ways bears witness of his Son there is something Divine in every one of these Witnesses in those on Earth as well as in those in Heaven and therefore we cannot without an affront to GOD reject their testimony For then He would have worse measure from us than men have and we should give less respect to six Witnesses of his than to two or three of our neighbours If Jesus came not with clear demonstrations with fulness of proof then deny him any admittance but if God hath so many ways justified him to be his Son if his Life was so excellent his Bloud so holy his Spirit so Divine then we shall never be able to justifie it before any knowing man much less before God if we do not believe him and that heartily and fully in every thing no more doubting of the truth of what he says than we do of those things which our eyes and our ears report to us or of those which are delivered unto us upon the faith of the whole world For which end it should be our endeavour that our Faith may rest upon a sure and strong foundation and be laid on such grounds that it may stand the faster in a time of temptation The ignorant man's Faith indeed may be as strong as his that knows most and what he hath learnt by Education may be so confirmed by Custom that he will never stir from it but is only the effect of Nature which produces the same resolutions in those who are of other Religions The Christian way of obtaining a strong Faith is first to see the Son and then to believe on him to everlasting life as our Saviour himself teaches us vi John 40. To see him is to perceive and discern by evident tokens that he is the Son of God the true way to life upon which sight and plain demonstrations we ought to believe in him and submit unto him as our Lord. That 's the true Christian Faith which flows from knowledge and is founded upon the understanding of what such Witnesses as these say concerning Jesus It relies upon the testimony of the Father of the Word and of the Holy Ghost is wrought by the Spirit and confirmed by Water and Bloud And
therefore we ought to study this place of holy Scripture and have it much in our thoughts that so our Faith may stand in the Power of God For otherwise how shall we be able to follow the Apostolical Precept which would have us when we are questioned to render a reason of the hope that is in us 1 Pet. iii. 15. We may be able to stand our ground though we be ignorant of the true causes of belief but the enemies of it will look upon it as a foolish obstinacy if we have not so much understanding as to give some other account of our Faith than they give for theirs Suppose they should say Why are you a Christian whence is it that you look for a Resurrection a Glorious body and Eternal life in another world Would they not think us very stupid if we could say nothing to them but that so we have been always taught and are resolved to believe Would not this be as good a reason for them as it is for us and make us unworthy of the name of Christians who know our Books no better which bid us give and furnish us with a reasonable account Consider therefore what Answer you would shape to them that should make such a demand The Apostle says it is fit they should have a reason what is the best that you can offer for their satisfaction shall I tell you The plain Answer is this That Jesus whose Religion we follow was the Son of God and therefore we believe these things because the Son of God taught us so who cannot deceive us and we will not exchange this for any other perswasion though we should die for it It is certain enough that every body who hears this will presently consent to us that he is a fool who doth not stoop to him and comply with us if it be certain that Jesus is the Son of God But how do you prove that will be the next question Here is the labour this is our work and whence will you fetch convincing Arguments to make them yield to you this weighty point There is no such Compendious Abridgment of them any where that I know of as in this place of S. John which furnishes us with reasons both many and mighty to perswade us and others that Jesus is the Son of God You may tell them that the Father Almighty said so by voices from Heaven in the audience of credible persons and that the Word said so as they may be informed of S. Paul who had no reason greater than this to force him to leave all and with the daily hazard of his life to follow Jesus You may alledge the testimony of the Holy Ghost both at his Baptism and afterward the marvellous sanctity of his Doctrine and Life the Confession he made at his bloudy Death the Glory of his Miraculous works his Resurrection from the Dead the Power of the same Spirit in his Apostles after he was gone to Heaven all the Miracles which were wrought long after their times in the places where the holy Martyrs of Jesus suffered together with the wonderful success of these Witnesses who perswaded innumerable People in all Countries to become the subjects of this crucified King Christ Jesus Study this place therefore I say again very well that you may be able to oppress any gain-sayer with the great weight of those reasons which you render of your faith And study it likewise till you feel the faith of Jesus doing something in your hearts till that faith which hath so good a cause have sutable effects that is till it change you as it is ever apt to do into the nature of that cause from whence it flows It comes from God see that it carry you to him and change you into his likeness It relies on his Testimony be sure that it make you perfectly of his mind It comes with the authority from the Word of God it self and from the Holy Ghost let it mightily inspire you with devotion to him and set your affections on things above where Christ is now at God's right hand It relies upon the Purity of his holy Doctrine and Life and therefore ought to purifie our hearts that we may behave our selves in all holy conversation and godliness It is founded on his Bloud on which we can never look but it will deaden our affections to this World and make us crucifie the flesh with its passions and lusts It stands upon the power of God and should therefore make us strong in the Lord and in the power of his might It grows as you see upon sundry roots and flows from several heads and therefore should dispose those in whose hearts it is planted to be abundant in the work of the Lord and to bring forth much fruit that we may be known to be indeed the Disciples of Jesus whose faith is supported by such numerous Witnesses And this now will lead me to the next thing which S. John here makes to be the necessary consequent of this faith and therefore ought not to be omitted IV. If there be such great such abundant reason to believe that Jesus is the Son of God then there is as great a necessity lying upon us to be obedient unto him and punctually to observe all his commands This Faith both requires our submission and obedience to him and also gives us power and ability to perform it It is a meer trick of the Devil another piece of his Sophistry when He cannot dig up the foundation of Christianity which I told you was his first indeavour to hinder all superstructure upon it by perswading Christian People that Faith and Obedience are no necessary Companions but that they may be good believers and yet not keep Christ's Precepts Some think they need not and others which is the same cheat in another shape think they cannot But I appeal to every Man's conscience if he be a believer whether he do not perceive his heart over-awed and his will inclined to reverence and subjection and all his powers mightily moved to tender their service when he seriously thinks that Jesus is the Lord to whom God the Father hath committed all Judgment and will render to every Man according to his works Do you not feel this faith carrying a great authority with it Nay is there not an irresistable energy and vertue in it while you attend to it pressing you to conformity with his holy will Who can gain-say this And who can say then that his Faith does not both engage and inable him to be obedient to his Saviour if he do but mind what he believes He never thinks of that but it powerfully urges and constrains him to yield himself to be a faithful Servant of Jesus in every thing that he declares to be the mind and will of God These uncontrollable inclinations declare to us so plainly the tendency and natural disposition of Christian Faith that we cannot but see it is so far from
no knowledge of those who work iniquity but bid them depart from him whatsoever relation they pretend to him And by his Bloud he assures us that he preached nothing but the undoubted Truth of God What is it then that makes men still continue either to slight all that he says or to give him the lye It is no better if we presume to believe that we shall shift well enough in another world though we do what we list while we are here It is to contradict the voice of the Father of the Word and of the Holy Ghost It is to oppose the Doctrine the Life the Sufferings the Power and Spirit of the Lord Jesus who all tell us that we must be holy and unblameable before him in love if we hope to be accepted with him They that live wickedly and yet hope well do in effect say that He is a Lyar and that there is no such necessity of holiness without which he says no man shall see the Lord. Or else they despise that blessed sight which is as bad and neither dread his displeasure nor desire his favour If they be believers then they reproach him by their wicked lives as if he were still dead and could do no more to make his disciples better or to reward and punish their good or bad behaviour than Mahomet can or any other impostor All the Oaths curses and blasphemies which we hear out of Christian mouths are as so many spears to pierce our Saviour again because they forely wound his Religion and tend to the destruction of his Kingdom and Government All the lasciviousness wantonness and filthy debaucheries that are among us are a kind of crucifying Jesus afresh they are a scoff and mock at his Cross as a ridiculous piece of folly They reproach him as if he were an ideot that did not understand pleasure but would put himself to unnecessary pain and trouble Nor can we put a much better interpretation upon mens eager pursuit of riches and honours in unjust uncharitable and irreligious ways which charges him with great ignorance to say no worse who took the quite contrary course to happiness As for all those who gibe at his Religion and make themselves sport with the History of his Birth and of his Sufferings they come under another rank being open and professed Enemies to his Majesty They do as much as in them lies to hang him upon the Gibbet again and expose him to the scorn of the world They justifie the Jews in their calumnies and blasphemies and take part with Judas or rather are worse than He who was tempted only by his covetousness to betray him And better it had been for these men if they never had been born It were better for them that a milstone were hang'd about their neck and they were cast into the Sea or that they had been hang'd themselves on a Gallows as high as that of Haman than that they should live thus to expose the Saviour of the world to shame For though he will not die and rise again to convince them yet he will come and appear again to condemn them He will be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance of all them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thess i. 8 9. Let us therefore take good heed to our selves that we be neither faithless nor unfaithful to our belief But let us settle such an unmoveable faith in our Souls upon these strong foundations which God hath laid for it and let us so stir it up by new reflections every day on what we believe that we may have our portion among those who are spoken of in the next words ver 10. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe But some perhaps will pretend that there are so many things to hinder every man from doing his duty that though he believe never so well and think obedience never so necessary yet he shall never be able to comply with the commands of the Lord Jesus but must be forced to break them even after he hath resolved the contrary To this S. John hath here also taken care to give us an answer when he tells us that such is the power of Christian Faith that by it we OVERCOME THE WORLD ver 4 5. For whatsoever is born of God OVERCOMETH THE WORLD and this is the victory that OVERCOMETH THE WORLD even our faith Who is he that OVERCOMETH THE WORLD but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God V. That is the next thing therefore which I am to give a brief account of that our Lord expects which he would not do if he did not endue us with sufficient strength that in the vertue of this Belief we should get the better of all temptations which stand in the way of our duty and would hinder us from the performance of it By the WORLD with which we are to conflict till we overcome is partly understood wicked men xv John 18. partly the tribulations and miseries we may here endure by their and other means xvi Joh. 33. and partly the allurements and enticing enjoyments wherewith all our senses are entertained 1 John ii 15 16. All these oppose us and set themselves against us either by discouraging or else flattering us from our known duty It is hard to be the object of hatred contempt or scorn harder to endure also poverty hunger restraint and such torments as the Apostles and other blessed Martyrs suffered and perhaps hardest of all to resist the perswasions of pleasure which prosperity and wordly Glory bring along with them What must a Believer do when he is thus beset Must he be content to yield himself too weak to deal with these enemies Must he let the WORLD have the day and declare that it was impossible to stand against its mighty forces Or will it be sufficient to enter into a conflict with them if it be but to say that he was not false or cowardly though he suffer himself to be over-powred by them No the Faith of Jesus is stronger than so if it be deeply rooted in our hearts and will enable us to master all these which seem to be no equal match for us Their strength lies only in the weakness of our Faith If we stand fast as the Apostle speaks in the faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel they will lose their force and flee before us and leave us victorious These six Witnesses are such Champions if I may so call them that the Faith which is led by them and firmly relies upon them cannot come off basely but must needs be triumphant 1. As for the hatred of men and their despisal alas what a contemptible thing does it seem how
lightning struck into his mind xviii Psal 33. He maketh my feet like Hindes feet and setteth me upon my high places which he expounded to this sense God will inable me with speed and easiness to run not only upon the even ground and over the plains but in craggy and steep places he will lead me not only upon the level but assist me to climb Mountains and to overtop the highest difficulties that are in my way to Heaven and immediately he found all his fears vanish his resolutions determined and such a courage put into him that from this time forward he was immoveably bent to that formerly dreadful kind of life Would not this word of God then think you which I have expounded inspire us with as manly a resolution and greatness of mind to obey God's unquestionable commands if we did but suffer it to penetrate into our hearts Did we but conceive that we heard the Father say to us perpetually This is my Son This that came by Water and Bloud that climbed even the cross it self that surmounted the highest difficulties He is my beloved Son and if we thought we heard the WORD say the Son of God is come God is manifested in the flesh and felt the Holy Ghost inspiring him with the same heavenly thoughts the whole glorious Trinity telling us they will assist us and afford us their continual help it could not but give wings as I may say to our feet and make us skip over the most mountainous discouragements and run the ways of God's commandments and not be tired that we might follow after and go to the blessed Jesus For the course of life which that Gentleman affected was that of a Religious Order as they call it where they are tied to do more than God commands to live by a Rule stricter than the Gospel and under the Will of a Superiour whom they are bound to obey as if he were Christ himself And it was not the literal sense of the place neither which thus animated him and put it into his heart to undergo such a servitude And therefore if he did the will of men so chearfully and undertook more than God requires of us and upon a weaker perswasion by accommodating the sense of an holy word to his own present thoughts there is no doubt but a right faith would indue us with the like power notwithstanding the appearance of great labours in the true service of God in obedience to his indispensable commands we having this word of God to strengthen our faith the prime and natural intention of which is to make us confident that He who leads us in this way the Captain that conducts us is Gods Son his most dearly beloved who cannot but be as faithful as he is powerful to make good all his promises to us And we should the rather strive to follow after him and to run with joy the race that is set before us because then we shall have the honour still to testify to him upon Earth we shall be his WITNESSES and prove at this day by his mighty power in our hearts and lives that he is the Son of God Turks and Jews that read not our Books cannot be convinced by any arguments at present so much as by this They see how we live but we can shew them no Miracles to convince them nor can we make them hear the voice from Heaven for their conversion till we can recommend our Bible to their serious consideration And the only way to do that is for us to live more justly soberly charitably and piously than the rest of the World By which means they may be brought to have better thoughts of Jesus by having good thoughts of us and be induced to read our Books by seeing so much of them in our good works And what happy days might we hope to see could we but use this argument to prove Jesus to be the Son of God that no men are so good so holy and pure so peaceable and kind-hearted so free from fraud all guile as those who are called by his Name How glorious then would the name of our Lord be over all the world His word would run and be glorified as the Apostle speaks 2 Thess iii. 1. just as it did in ancient days when they could say confidently Non de nostro sed ex illorum numero c. * Lact. lib. 5. cap. 19. They are not of our company but of theirs that follow the Heathen superstition who rob and steal by Sea and Land who murder and kill who cheat and cozen who drink and swill who prostitute their bodies and profane themselves by filthy fusts the Whores the Fornicators the Cheats the Forgers of Wills and Testaments the Drunkards the Thieves the perjured Persons and all the rest of the wicked crew are of their number nothing of this can be objected to our People whose whole Religion is to live without wickedness nay without any spot or blemish How would it stop the mouth of all the world nay make them fall down and confess that God is certainly among us could we but say thus in our days and make such a challenge to Turks and all other unbelievers Shall we always let our Saviour want this noble testimony Shall we do nothing but talk of him and prattle of our Faith and make our boast that we are right Believers and damn all Infidel People Alas alas these big words will do nothing As long as they see us live no better than they we shal not perswade them that we believe better And therefore let us have this worthy ambition in our hearts to become WITNESSES our selves unto Jesus Let us study how to show forth his praises or rather Powers * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.9 who hath called us into this marvellous light And since we cannot do it by Miracles let us do it by well doing and patient continuance in it So shall the Name of our Lord Jesus be glorified in us and we in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess i. 12. who at his appearing will bear WITNESS to us xi Hebr. 4. that we were faithful and righteous by receiving us as God did Abel's gifts up unto himself For hereby also we shall be instruments of conveying this Faith down to Posterity with some power Would you not have them believe the same that you do Is it not your desire that the next Age may confess him as well as this There is no such effectual means can be thought of to promote and propagate his Faith as the fruits of it in an holy life This will make men afraid now to speak evil of him and this will teach our Children after us to be zealous professors of Christianity and not such cold believers or such infidels as we see and hear of in the World Assure your selves it is Prophaneness which hath made so many unbelievers in this
see their Departure is at hand In which regards I doubt not this Treatise will be acceptable to your Grace because it contains a Description and full Assurance of that happy Life which you shortly expect For there is nothing so reviving in our declining Age as to think that the passage out of this Life leads us not to Death but to Immortality and that it will not take away our Happiness from us but give us a purer enjoyment of it Pleasure not mixed with a mortall body but sincere and free from Grief and Sorrow For when we shall be set at liberty and delivered from this Prison we shall come thither where there is no Labour no Sighing nor Old age but a Life of perfect ease and tranquillity that breeds no trouble nor any other evill but is serene and clear in an immovable Rest and Peace Where the happy Inhabitants sweetly contemplate the nature of things and philosophize not for Popularity and the Theatre but for the finding out solid and everlasting Truth I have but translated the words of Plato * in Axiocho p. 370. or of some other Philosopher that hath borrowed his name who was much pleased in such thoughts as these though he made but uncertain guesses at that blessed state which our Lord hath so clearly revealed and so strongly demonstrated that we have reason with never-ceasing joy both in life and death to give him thanks for so great a Grace For as there is nothing beyond this that the heart of man can wish so nothing of such importance to our present Happiness in this World For which cause the Jews have thought fit to expunge those from the number of Israelites who do not believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Resurrection of the dead and to resolve that they shall have no part in the World to come though they otherwise live orderly and observe the Precepts of the Law For such men they saw opened a door to all licentiousness and could never doe so much good by any other means as they did hurt by subverting this Belief Which I have endeavoured therefore to establish by such Arguments as they were ignorant of till our Blessed Lord and Saviour appeared who as St. Matthew observes out of the Psalmist uttered things which had been kept secret from the foundation of the World Maimonides himself saith in his last Chapter of his Book concerning Kings that at the coming of Christ things hidden and profound shall be laid open and revealed to all Which is true of nothing more I have shewn then of that which is the greatest desire of all mankind immortall Life Of which though I have not treated according to the dignity of the Subject yet I am confident I have laid a good Foundation to be improved by the labours of those who have more skill and more leisure And it is a very great satisfaction to have done any thing though never so small for the honour of our ever-Blessed Lord and Master whom it is the highest glory in the world to serve in faithfulness and truth For He will not fail to reward such services with an ample recompence being a Prince so great that nothing is beyond his Power and so gracious that his Servants have reason to expect the best effects of his Good will Which may very well content us whatsoever usage we meet withall at present And should mightily excite us as St. Chrysostom often and earnestly exhorts * Homil. 87. in Matth. p. 539. neglecting the suspicions and the reproaches and the praises too of men to study this one thing alone how to be conscious to our selves of no evill which will bring us in the end both here and hereafter the greater glory The God of all Grace bless this Work to the settling and increasing this holy Faith and Resolution in all our hearts whereby we shall also obtain the sweetest foretasts of the Joys of the future State And may your Grace be blest with many of them to support the infirmities of Old age and having finished your days have an easie passage to that better Life and there receive from the Chief Pastour when he shall appear the Crown of glory which fadeth not away Which is the hearty Prayer of My Lord Your GRACE's in all dutifull Observance SY PATRICK TO THE READER I Have no other reason to give for adding one more to that heap of Books which men complain is already grown too great but the hope I have of doing some service to our Lord by making a farther search as I promised in the conclusion of the former Part of this Work into the Testimony of these Divine Witnesses concerning ETERNALL LIFE The Hope of which is the most precious Legacy the Son of God hath left us the Hindge upon which all Religion turns without which it would be the greatest Vanity as Lactantius * Lib. vi c. 9. vii 1. often speaks to obey the commands of Vertue for whose sake we must endure not onely many Labours but ofttimes sore Calamities We were born as he discourses elsewhere * Lib. vii 6. to acknowledge God the Maker of us and of the World whom we therefore acknowledge that we may worship him and therefore worship him that we may receive Immortality for a reward of our labours because his service ingages us in the greatest and therefore Immortality is bestowed on us for a recompenc◠that being made like to the Angels we may serve the Father and Lord of all for ever and be the Eternall Kingdom of God This is the Chief of all things this is the Secret of God this is the Mystery of the World to which they are strangers who following their present pleasures have addicted themselves to terrestriall and frail goods and sunk their Souls born to celestiall enjoyments into delights as deadly as they are muddy and dirty And it is the singular Priviledge of Christians as I have demonstrated to be assured of a Good so great by so many most credible Witnesses whose Testimony none can refuse but they that will be so absurd as to believe none at all The Father the Word the Holy Ghost the Water the Bloud and the Spirit declare so unanimously and so plainly that the Lord Jesus will give Eternall Life to his followers that what the Oratours said in flattery to the Athenians in the time of the Chremonidian War may in truth be said to us if we alter but one word that other things indeed are common to us with the rest of the World Athenzus in Deipnosoph L. vi p. 250. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the way that leads men to heaven is known to Christians alone Who have a manifold grace bestowed on them enjoying not onely a Promise of Eternall Life which the World never had before but that Promise attested by so many Witnesses who tell us also it is in the power of him that died for us to conferr it on us as well
Our Passions are not mastered Forgetting our heavenly Originall we let anger swell and rage and take no care to suppress that pride and haughtiness which will at last lay us low We do not chastise irrational sadness nor foolish pleasure nor unchaste laughter nor disorderly aspects nor unsatiable hearing nor immoderate talking nor absurd thoughts nor any of those things by which the Evill one takes advantage against us to our ruine There is nothing like to this but quite contrary we give liberty to other mens evill affections and like Princes when they have got the Victory require nothing of them but onely that they be on our side and take our part though they oppose God the more impiously and audaciously These things it seems were then too manifest to be denied and notwithstanding these reproaches of holy men the humour propagated it self to after-times For the cure or prevention of which nothing is so necessary to be believed and preserved perpetually in mind as that Counsel which the same great Doctour gives in another place * Orat. xxix p. 493. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Wouldst thou be a Divine and worthy of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Keep the Commandments Go in the way of God's precepts Practice is the best step thou canst take to contemplation Which is the surest advice for all Christians to follow who must not think by any other means to arrive at that blissfull sight of God in which our knowledge of him will be perfected in the other World Of which Beatificall Vision I have not adventured to say much in the ensuing Treatise because our manner of living as Saint Augustine * Epist cxii ad Paulinam speaks in an Epistle of his upon this very subject is of more consideration in this inquiry then our manner of speaking Nam qui didicerunt à Domino Jesu mites esse humiles corde plùs cogitando orando proficiunt quà m legendo audiendo For they that have learned of the Lord Jesus to be lowly and humble in heart profit more by meditation and prayer then they can by reading and hearing But something I have said as far as I could find any directions in the Holy Scriptures which warrant us to conclude that the participation we have of God now shall be so improved in the other World that whatsoever we enjoy of him here we shall in a higher and after a more perfect manner with the addition of immortality enjoy when we rise from the dead We are now the Sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus who bids us be confident of it and rejoyce in it And yet he mentions this as a speciall priviledge belonging to us after the resurrection when we shall not marry nor die any more but be equall to the Angels and be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sons of God being the children of the Resurrection xx Luk. 35 36. Just as it was with our Lord Christ himself who was in a more speciall and excellent manner called the Son of God after his rising from the dead when God said to him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee advanced him that is to a more excellent degree of likeness to him in power and dominion putting all things under his feet So it shall be with all those Sons whom he brings unto glory They shall be more nearly related to God at the Resurrection and resemble him more exactly whose Image they now bear in Wisedom and Goodness But how much he will then impart of himself to us the Apostles themselves were not able to inform us We are now the Sons of God faith Saint John 1 Ep. iii. 2. but it doth not yet appear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how we shall be the Sons of God in the other world We now find I may adde by a parity of reason a great pleasure in holy thoughts we feel the joys of ardent love are ravisht with the melody of Songs of praise and with the sweet violence of a glance of light from heaven upon us and we are fure we shall be so happy as to have a great increase of this pleasure when we remove from hence But it doth not appear how we shall think nor what will be the satisfaction of heavenly Love nor what new Songs shall be put into our mouths nor how God will look in upon us when we shall see him as he is We must be content to know that all these will bear a proportion to the infinite Goodness of Him who is Omnipotent and hath loved us so much as to purchase us with a great price and to give his Holy Spirit to us and according to the Love of him that died for us and is gone to prepare a place for us that where he is there we may be also In this hope we may now rejoyce though we do not at present see our Lord with joy unspeakable and full of glory For I have proved by undeniable arguments that God the Father hath given power to his Son Jesus to make us more happy then we can now conceive and that He will undoubtedly bring us to live with himself What greater Good can we desire then this Or what greater Motive can be thought of to perswade us sincerely to embrace the Christian Religion whose business it is as Lactantius concludes his Book of a Blessed Life to direct us to the Eternall Rewards of the heavenly Treasure Of which that we may be capable we must presently disingage our selves from the insnaring pleasures of this Life which deceive mens Souls by their pernicious sweetness And how great a felicity ought we to esteem it to go being delivered from the impurities of this Earth to that most equall Judge and most indulgent Father who for our labours will give us rest for death life for darkness light for earthly short goods those that are celestiall and eternall None of the sharpnesses and miseries which we endure here while we are employed in the works of righteousness are in any manner to be compared with that reward Therefore if we will be wise if we will be happy let us propose the worst things that can be to our selves and resolve to suffer them since it is manifest that this frail Pleasure we have here shall not be without punishment nor Vertue without a divine reward All mankind ought to endeavour with all speed to direct themselves into the right way that having undertaken and performed the duties of a vertuous life and patiently endured its labours they may be worthy to have God for their Comforter For our Father and Lord who made and settled the Heaven who brought the Sun and the rest of the Stars into it and out of Nothing raised the rest of the World to this perfection wherein we see it beholding the Errours of mankind sent a Leader who should lay before us the way of righteousness Him let us all follow Him let us hear Him let us most
p. 280 c. The use we should make of this Record p. 286. A Meditation p. 294. CHAP. IX The Testimony of the WATER concerning Eternall Life p. 299. Where first the purity of our Saviour's Doctrine is considered in many particulars p. 300. to 312. Secondly the purity of his Life Ib. to p. 317. Thirdly the Baptism of John Ib. Lastly his own Baptism p. 322. A Meditation p. 330. CHAP. X. The Testimony of the BLOVD is considered p. 333. in Ten particulars The first p. 335. The second p. 339. The third p. 346. The fourth p. 348. The fifth p. 350. The sixth p. 352. The seventh p. 356. The eighth p. 362. The ninth p. 365. The tenth p. 371. A Meditation p. 376. CHAP. XI The Testimony of the SPIRIT considered p. 381. First in the Miracles he wrought p. 384. which are considered in generall p. 388. and then in 6 particulars p. 397. Secondly in his Resurrection from the dead p. 407. and Ascension to heaven p. 417. explained in eight particulars to p. 426. An explication of 2 St. Peter i. 3 4. p. 427 c. A Meditation p. 434. CHAP. XII The Testimony of the holy APOSTLES p. 439. who opened this Doctrine more fully 443. declaring first how our Lord will appear in person at the last day Ib. p. 444 c. Secondly that in the mean time Souls do not sleep p. 445. proved by severall testimonies of St. Paul and St. John p. 447. to 457. which was always the sense of the Church p. 460. The certainty of the Apostles testimony p. 464. proved by their Life and Doctrine p. 470. by their Bloud p. 474. and by the power of the Spirit which accompanied them p. 478. by which they cured some and delivered others to Satan p. 481 c. A Meditation out of St. Chrysostom p. 491. CHAP. XIII The Vse we are to make of this RECORD First in admiring the great love of God p. 499. Which is illustrated secondly by what God hath done for us more then for any in former times p. 507. How uncertain the Philosophers were in their reasonings about this matter p. 508. How little of it was revealed to the Jews p. 514. who had no express promises of Eternall Life p. 515 c. and therefore saw it but obscurely p. 524. and had no such Witnesses of what they knew p. 532. Which ought thirdly to excite in our hearts such love to God as moves us universally to obey him p. 536. No motive comparable to this p. 539. whose strength appears in six properties it hath p. 541. to 551. Which fourthly makes it more strange that it doth so little move men p. 552. Want of Faith is the reason of it p. 555. which we must therefore awaken p. 556. by the consideration of what hath been said which is briefly summed up p. 557. to 566. A Meditation out of St. Chrysostom to the same purpose p. 571. CHAP. XIV A farther Improvement of this RECORD p. 577. which we ought to believe with an unshaken Faith p. 578. An incouragement to Faith p. 583. For the quickning of which severall questions are proposed which is the Fifth Vse p. 586. First about the way to this Felicity p. 587. Secondly about the nature of the way p. 597. Thirdly about the unreasonableness of being desirous to stay always here p. 606. Fourthly about their distance from it who never have their thoughts in heaven p. 608. Fifthly about the danger of resisting so mighty a motive to well-doing p. 611. Sixthly about mens resolutions all these things considered p. 617. The last Use concerns the great joy the righteous should have in the thoughts of what they hope for p. 624. which is a strong support under the greatest afflictions p. 629. demonstrated in three Observations p. 630. to 636. where the resolution of good men before Christ came is represented to p. 642. The examples of the Martyrs presented p. 643 c. Comfort from hence derived against the death of friends p. 646. or in any other sad condition p. 649. even in death it self p. 653. The Conclusion out of St. Gregory Nazianzen p. 655. ERRATA PAge 101. line 6. reade VI. p. 109. marg r. prosolog p. 461. marg penult Hom iv in Hebr. p. 508. 2. r. own peculiar p. 534. antep r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 606. marg r. iii. IMPRIMATUR Guil. Sill R. P. D. Hen. Episcopo Lond. à Sacris Domesticis Oct. 21. 1676. 1 S. Joh. V. 11. AND THIS IS THE RECORD THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO VS ETERNALL LIFE AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON AN INTRODUCTION To the following Discourse HAving made in the former Treatise as diligent a search as I could into the Records of Heaven and Earth and found there the clearest Evidences that Jesus is the Son of God to whom therefore we owe the most humble and chearful Obedience I purpose now to make a farther inquiry into them after the Royal Powers which belong to so great a Prince who both in his Nature and in his Office so infinitely excells all other that his loyal Subjects may well expect from him the greatest grace and favour He was God appearing as Man Epist ad Ephes to use the words of Ignatius and Man working mightily as God but yet submitted himself to the meanest condition and the basest death for the purging away our sins by his bloud whereby he obtained as the most ample Dominion over all creatures so the larges◠Power both to remit sins and also to reward the services of all those that believe on him To whom his affection is so great and extends it self in such boundless love that his kindness towards them will not be perfected I shall prove till he hath bestowed on them ETERNAL LIFE A Blessing for which all mankind most passionately wish not onely because the weakness of our bodies the inconstancy of all their enjoyments the troubles we mee◠with in the world and the necessity of dying make it most desirable but because it comes recommended to us by its own proper worth and excellence which is so exceeding great that it renders the most constant untroubled possession of this world's goods and a perpetuity in this life could it be obtained without any sickness or infirmity a vile and contemptible purchace in comparison with it This therefore all considerate minds would gladly be well assured of There is nothing of such importance to their satisfaction as a certainty of immortal happiness when they leave this Body Which will make our Obedience to God's commands as stedfast as our Belief is and withall most sweet and easie whatsoever opposition we have to discourage us For the hope of Eternal Life is able to lift us up above all the temptations wherewith the world can assault us be they either the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life or be they those hatreds reproaches persecutions loss of goods yea and death it self which
of Heaven and Earth the Fountain of all that is good and amiable in this world who here entertains us with so many pleasures that by them we may guess what he is able and willing to doe for them who have no greater care then above all things to please him They shall be fixed in a stedfast sight that is enjoyment of him to their infinite satisfaction IV. And if we mark the words of S. John who speaks this more fully and tells us in the place before named we shall see him AS HE IS which he makes the reason and cause of our being like him they will imbolden us still to seek into a farther meaning of this phrase And since we can enjoy nothing without a knowledg of it preceding we are to understand that to see God as he is will be to have our minds filled with a knowledg of him so clear so distinct and strong that it will even turn us into his own Nature Life and Bliss We shall not behold that is know him as we do now by similitudes resemblances and expressions borrowed from other things which is all our natures are here able to bear but by a clear notion of him formed in our minds wherein our hearts will be infinitely pleased and feel his happiness come flowing into them My meaning may be thus explained As it is an imperfect sight of a man which we have in a Picture though drawn by the most curious hand and strongest fancy and the man himself if he stand before a Looking-glass will in a moment draw an Image more like him then the skilfullest Artist can delineate all his life long especially if he never saw the person but onely had a description of him in a book or by report just such is the sight or knowledg that we have of God in this world either by his Word or by his Works or by the Idea's of our own mind a very imperfect thing and much like the picture of a person which we never yet had before our eyes But hereafter when he will be pleased to appear to give us a more immediate sight of him without these helps and present himself to our mind as the face to a glass this will be to know him indeed and to see him as he is Now as the sight of a Friend when he presents himself to the eye doth marvellously refresh and comfort us and there is a sense of pleasure imparted to us in the very beholding a rare beauty which we are not like perhaps to see any more so this Seeing God is no barren thing but instantly infuses the highest satisfaction and delight into pure hearts who by knowing his blessed Nature will find it imprinting it self as it were upon them and making every one of them to be the blessed Image of it Look what God is that they by the sight of him shall be He will dwell in them as the image of a thing does in the glass And they shall be possessed of him of his life of his joys by having a sensible perception of the Wisedom the Goodness the Purity and all the other Perfections that shine in himself V. Or if this be too hard to be understood let us content our selves to know that to SEE GOD as he is is to enjoy him as he is in heaven that is according to that manner and measure wherein he shews and manifests himself in those celestiall places Pious Souls shall really perceive all the effects of his Bounty Wisedom and Power which are known and communicated in that other world Which as it is higher then this so hath more of God to be seen in it then can be discovered here All that the holy Angels see and enjoy of him all that Good which he lets forth out of himself in that glorious place wherein above all other he is said to be shall be the portion of those happy Souls who may be said therefore to see him AS HE IS They shall not enjoy him in so low a manner as the highest and the most highly beloved persons have enjoyed him in this world where there is but little of him but in the noblest manner that he can be enjoyed so as the heavenly Ministers yea our ever-Blessed Lord are made partakers of him For when our Lord prays that his Disciples may behold or see his glory which the Father had given him xvii Joh. 24. his meaning is according to what I have said of the word Seeing that they might have their share at last with him in his Happiness and be admitted to take a part with him in that supreme Dignity to which he was ready to be advanced And thus when St. John invites others into the Christian Society telling them that their fellowship was with the Father and his Son jesus Christ 1 Joh. i. 3. it is as much as to say that they could no-where be so happy because it is the singular priviledge of Christian people to be admitted unto a partnership with God and our Saviour in their most happy life and to have hopes and expectation to partake with them in their eternall Bliss VI. Which may very well give me occasion to adde that since Grace Mercy and Peace come to us now from God the Father Son and Holy Ghost we may hope in this Vision of God to have as well a clear Knowledg of that ever-Blessed Trinity as a full communication from their ineffable Love We shall understand that Holy Mystery which now the sense of our weakness forbids us to pry into and be able perhaps to unfold how the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost is one God without any diversity or separation of nature Epist cxii ad Paulinam cap. 19. Homil. de Martyre Mamante as St. Austin expresses this Mystery which I durst not in my former Treatise adventure to explain For St. Basil had taught me to mark this in those words of our Saviour x. Joh. 27. My sheep hear my voice that he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they hear not question or dispute They believe he is the Word of God but do not ask how nor say if he was alway then he was not begotten or if he was begotten then he was not alway These are not the words of the Sheep of Christ who receive his voice and enquire no farther And I had learnt also from a great Divine of our own Nation D◠Jackson Pres to Cathol Church to whose grave judgment I thought there was a greater veneration due then to the little forward Censurers of this Age that the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity is an Argument more fit for Meditation in Prayers and Soliloquies then for Controversie or Scholastick Discourse We believe one Divine Nature in three Persons and that the Divine Nature in the Person of the Father required Satisfaction for the Transgressions of men against his Holy Laws and that the same Divine Nature in the Person of the Son undertook to make
God v. 1. and xviii 5. from this glorious presence here which appeared afterward also to give the Law from the same place After which you find that he and Aaron with his sons and the seventy Elders of Israel being invited by God to approach towards the foot of that Mount where he spake with Moses it is said that they saw the God of Israel xxiv Exod. 10. In both which places though Maimonides would willingly understand a spirituall sight of God with the mind being afraid lest any man should imagine God to be corporeall More Nevoc part 1. cap. 5. yet he acknowledges it is safe enough to interpret it as the Chaldee doth of a sight of that Glory which I treated of in my former Book Chap. IV. or of an Angel which in a luminous Body appeared to them But this last is rejected by a Rule in the Talmud * Tit. Kid. â—u hinc 11. where this very place last named is explained It is this He that interprets a verse of Holy Scripture always according to the literall sound is a Liar and he that addeth to it is a Blasphemer As for example when it is said they SAW THE GOD of Israel if any body interpret it literally he is a Liar for the God of Israel cannot be seen And if any one adde that they saw the Angel of God he blasphemously gives the honour of God to Angels The Chaldee onely is in the right who says They saw the GLORY of the God of Israel And so S. Cyrill of Alexandria understood it in the like case L. 3. Glaphy in Exod. when he observes the people were brought to Mount Sinai that they might be both Auditours and Spectatours of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of his Divine and secret Glory Which having never been seen out of the Secret place made now a most illustrious appearance and at the bottom of it called his feet there was a pavement on which the Glory stood very bright and becoming the Majesty that was upon it For the Text says it was like a Sapphire-stone and as clear as the purest and serenest sky A token I suppose of the Divine favour towards them which the clearness of the Heavens very well represented as clouds and darkness were signs of God's displeasure And accordingly it follows v. 11. that he did not lay his hand upon the nobles of Israel i. e. did not hurt them though the common opinion was that if men saw such a sight they should die presently No so far were they from receiving any harm by it that they did not merely see God but also eat and drink of the reliques of the Sacrifices that had been v. 5 newly offered to him He entertain'd them with provision taken from his own Table and they feasted with his Majesty to their great joy and satisfaction Such a Glory I told you S. Stephen saw when his persecutours were going to stone him And it is reasonable to suppose that in some part of the Heavens God now manifests himself in a most glorious visible Majesty to the exceeding ineffable joy not terrour and affrightment of those who shall be admitted to approach to that Light which is now inaccessible So that this will be a part of our eternall happiness to live in those pure clear Regions where unknown Glories and most splendid magnificent sights will present themselves to us where we our selves shall be cloathed with a brightness like that wherein our Lord appeared to S. Stephen and S. Paul and behold him in a greater Majesty and brightness then that was because our capacities will be inlarged to make room for more illustrious manifestations of God to us We shall live in that place as was said before where he dwells in light unapproachable by mortall men in the company of the holy Angels who as so many Stars of glory will add if it be possible to the splendour of that place and with our Blessed Saviour God-Man whose glorified Body we shall behold And so behold it that we shall bear the image of the heavenly as we have born the image of the earthy We shall be made immortall that is we shall be ever with the Lord in such glorious Bodies as his is so that in our selves we may see the Glory of God For it must be noted here that though our Happiness will begin when our Spirits depart this life yet it will not be perfected till the Son of God shall come the second time to raise our bodies out of the dust that they may have a part with our Souls in a never-dying Life Till then the Happiness I speak of it must be confessed will not have its Crown or utmost Consummation But yet the Soul in the mean time I shall prove in its proper place doth not lie asleep nor hath all its Powers bound up in a cold and lethargick dulness though it have not attain'd the utmost enjoyment of that Good for which it hopes Our Saviour seems to make these two distinct things the putting us in possession of everlasting life and the raising us up at the last day vi Joh. 40. This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may HAVE EVER LASTING LIFE and I will RAISE HIM VP at the last day which he repeats again v. 54. The former of which expressions may well denote the comfortable Hope we have of Happiness when Soul and Body shall be united and the other the perfection of this Happiness when they shall be again united We shall enter into a great part of Felicity when we quit these Earthly Tabernacles our Souls shall then feel themselves alive and alive in the midst of those delights that will still increase and never have any end and they shall joyfully expect the Resurrection of the dead and the Glory wherein our Saviour shall then appear and all his Saints together with him who having received abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by Jesus Christ Thus I have said a little concerning this great promise of SEEING GOD and it is so little that I feel my self unsatisfied and would fain penetrate farther or at least speak more distinctly of this ETERNALL LIFE But this small glance we have had of it may well awaken our Souls and excite them in the worst condition here to burst out into those words which the Authour of the Commentaries upon Job under the name of Origen puts into that Holy man's mouth Lib. I. p. 448 449. Thither will I go where the Tabernacles of the Righteous are where are the Glories of the Saints where is the Rest of the Faithful where is the Consolation of the Godly where is the Inheritance of the Mercifull where is the Blessedness of the Vndefiled Thither will I goe where Light and Life dwells where Glory and Mirth where Gladness and Exultation inhabit from whence Grief Sadness and Sighing fly
capacities so much inlarged And therefore you may consider farther 5. that if this capacity and this desire in our Souls be not filled we shall be so far from leading an happy life that we shall be more miserable then we are now because we shall be more able to discern our wants And thence we may conclude that to make us happy our Mind shall be gratified and it s widened enlarged Faculties filled with a Divine light proportionable to the power it hath to apprehend Well then 6. considering that all objects are finite and limited both in their nature and number except God alone who contains in his own Being all things that are and can possibly be our Minds will certainly be carried to him as the onely object that can perfect their Happiness by satisfying their boundless desire of wisedom and knowledge He alone can fill those Minds who long to know all things and who have an aptitude to a vaster knowledge then now can be conceived And 7. who can doubt but he will fill them since he hath promised as you have heard by our Saviour that the pure in heart shall see him that is know him and contemplate him in that Eternall LIFE which Christ hath revealed For in this our enjoying God must begin and it may well be called SEEING in Scripture because Knowledge to the Mind is the same with Seeing to the Eyes and the Vnderstanding to the Soul is the same with the Eye to the Body And 8. we can as little doubt but that their Souls will be most happy who shall lead such a Life which begins in their admission to this blessed Sight The contemplative Life even in this world hath been thought by the greatest Philosophers to be the most excellent and in a manner Divine as Aristotle endeavours to prove by severall Arguments in the conclusion of his Ethicks Lib. x. c. 7 8. Now the more excellent the object is which we contemplate the more excellent is the contemplation it self From whence he concludes xii Metaphys in another place that God must needs be the most Blessed because he perfectly and perpetually contemplates himself whom all acknowledge to be the most excellent and perfect object And since the Understanding says he conceives by a kind of conjunction with that which it understands so that in some sort they are made one from thence also we may argue that his Contemplation of himself must needs be the most excellent because it is the most intimate as well as constant and never interrupted enjoyment of the most excellent Being The more then our mind can be fixed on God and the more we understand of him and the nearer we approach to him the more we shall partake of his most blessed Life who being most intimately One with himself never ceases to contemplate his own most adorable Perfections You will be the more sensible of this if you do but imagine how happy many a man would think himself could he but raise his mind to understand the wonderfull frame of the World and discover the rare wisedom that lies hid in the contrivance of every part of so goodly a Fabrick If there be such pleasure in looking into the curious composure of this great Book of the Creatures and searching after all the mysterious learning contained in it which employs the study of innumerable souls night and day you may easily conceive it must needs be a most sublime satisfaction to know him clearly who is the Authour of this Structure whose Artifice now ravishes contemplative minds into such admiration They seem to have meant nothing else anciently who discoursed of the Musick of the Spheres or celestiall Orbs but the extraordinary pleasure and delight wherewith the minds of those Philosophers were struck who beheld the orderly and gracefull motion of those heavenly bodies And the same men said the Mind of man was an Harmony because of the well-set notions whereof it is composed and the sweet touches that it gives us when it is in tune and runs into coherent thoughts and orderly speculations Now look what joy it would be to a contemplative man if he could know the Art there is in the frame of the Heavens or if he could but so reflect upon his own Soul as to know its nature all its motions the spring and the manner of them nay but to know his own Body which as the Psalmist says is so fearfully and wonderfully made that it astonishes our minds when we seriously think of it and by this you may judge what an happy life it will be to be acquainted with God by whose wisedom the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth and who fashioned all our Souls and curiously wrought all the members of our bodies where no eye could see but onely his own yea to know so much of him that But it is not in my power to make you understand what this Knowledge shall be for that would be to place you in Heaven Nay we cannot conceive how God himself should make us know it in this state unless he work a change in us and cause these bodily operations to cease All that I can doe is to make you understand that our Souls shall be enlarged to know more then now we can conceive and that we shall be as inconceivably pleased in that knowledge for the very hope of it now is not without its singular pleasure You will ask perhaps But what is it that we shall know of him Do you tell us of a mysterious Darkness or which is all one an inapprehensible Light This is but to know that we are ignorant And who can fasten his heart on things of which he hath no perception or delight in the thoughts of that with which he hath no acquaintance I answer We are already acquainted blessed be God with something of him though as I have said before we see but through a glass darkly 1 Cor. xiii 12. As a glass represents not the thing it self but its image and he that sees a thing in a glass doth not know it immediately from its self but from its image such is the knowledge we have of God in this life We know him by the effects of his Wisedom Power and Goodness and by the revelation he hath made of his Mind and Will in his Gospel We know him not immediately and by himself but we know as it were an Image of him in his Works and in his Word And though this knowledge be but obscure and not so clear as we desire yet so much is plainly revealed that one day we shall see him face to face that is we shall be more nearly present to him and immediately contemplate him who is a Mind and Spirit joyning himself to our very Mind by himself and not by an image What that is some excellent Souls seem also to have had a little tast of here in this world by gasping with the mouth
pleasures here as you may clearly discern from what hath been said consisting in a vehement motion which is very transient and quickly slips away we must rest a while before we can renew it and begin the motion again The duration of the present is short but there are long pauses made before another succeeds For no man can always eat and drink or every moment enjoy any other delight much less can he always attend to what he enjoys though the attention is that which makes the delight But now quite contrary this pleasure that flows from the Vision of God is of such a nature that it is always felt and injoy'd For being firm and steady fixt and unchangeable like God himself it is not received by piece-meal and at certain seasons as our pleasures here are but is full and all together without any space between to disjoyn its parts Which makes those happy souls live in one continued compleat happiness and joy which doth not pass away but still remains They can always love him always praise him always feel a sense of his goodness trickling down their hearts and filling them with ineffable joys without any ceasing Who would not then by a short course of Piety here which must be oft interrupted by sleep and other necessary occasions and it is well if not by many failings run towards this never-discontinued life of happiness in the other world Who would not wish and strive to enjoy such a Good as will never suffer him to be out of enjoyment None sure but they who though they cannot always eat and drink and take their pleasure yet have their hearts so sunk into such delights that they cannot receive any taste of these celestiall entertainments Do but spend a serious and stedfast thought upon them do but give your selves a true gust of them and you will sooner cease to eat and drink then to hunger and thirst after them III. For this word ETERNALL you will soon see in the most obvious acception of it denotes the perpetuity and everlasting duration of this uninterrupted and unintermitted LIFE or state of highest Happiness If we should suppose it to be but of a short continuance yet such is the pleasure of it I have shewn you so satisfying are its joys that any man of sense would chuse rather to spend seventy or eighty years there then to pass them in this miserable world Nay one day of that life is better then a thousand of ours and much rather should we wish to have the meanest place in those celestiall mansions then the greatest preferments on this Earth But besides that it is so transcendently sweet and delicious you must now consider that this LIFE knows no term nor period but lasts as long as him that is the Authour of it He never began to be the Lord and to be Good as Clemens Alex. concludes his V. Book being alway what he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor will he ever cease to doe good though he bring all things to an end Still holy Souls will enjoy the sweet fruits of his love when all things here wither and perish He is the Eternall God blessed for ever from everlasting to everlasting and changes not And such will the state of happiness be to which our Lord will bring his servants to a Crown of glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. v. 4. to a building of God not made with hands 2 Cor. v. 1. eternall in the heavens xii Heb. 28. to a kingdom that cannot be shaken to a light that is never sullied with any cloud and can never be put out to a splendour and glory that is neither eclipsed nor ever impaired for it is the Glory of God the enjoyment of his eternall brightness which as it is not broken by sleep nor interrupted for a time by any of our earthly employments so much less shall it break off by death and cease to be for ever This is the very Crown as I said at the beginning and the perfection of the Happiness we expect This makes it to be absolute Bliss because it wants not that continuance which all our enjoyments here desire but still complain they cannot have Which some anciently thought they saw most lively represented in the History of the Creation of the World where there is a constant mention as the Hebrews observe Pirke R. Eliezer c. 18. of the evening and the morning making one day till the whole six days-work was ended The evening and the morning were the first day saith the Text i. Gen. 5. And the evening and the morning were the second day vers 8. And so you reade of all the other six till you come to the seventh wherein God ended the work which he had made and rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made ii Genes 2. But it is not said here as it is in the conclusion of all the former days that the evening and the morning were the seventh day And therefore they lookt upon the Six days as a Calendar of the severall Ages of this World in which there is a continuall vicissitude of day and night of light and darkness pleasure and grief labour and rest and one generation goes that another may come till all have an end But the Seventh day in which they found no mention of evening and morning they took to be an emblem of that happy Sabbath and perfect repose we shall have in the other Life L. vi contra Cels p. 317. when as Origen speaks we have done all our work faithfully and left nothing undone After this says he follows the day of God's Sabbath and Rest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in which all pious Souls that have finished their work as God did his ascending up to the Spectacle above and the generall assembly of the just and blessed shall feast together with God and keep his everlasting Sabbath of joy and gladness and peace without any succeeding sadness and sorrow or any conclusion of their happy enjoyments Of which also the happy condition of the Hebrews after they came out of their Egyptian bondage was some kind of figure for it is called by the name of a Sabbath or Rest which God gave them from their hard labours and when they come thither they are said to come to their rest In like manner the Apostle speaking of the Christian Happiness calls it by the same name and proves that there still remains another Rest for the people of God iv Heb. 9. And the Spirit it self saith xiv Rev. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord that they may rest from their labours There is nothing we can enjoy in this life but besides that it is short we must attain that short enjoyment by much labour We must not have it with perfect ease but with toil and pains and the sweat of our brows Or if it come at a cheaper rate yet it will stand
us in a great many thoughts and be paid for with much care and solicitude afterward to preserve our contentments which else will be in danger to be lost and leave us the more miserable There will be many also that envy to us our happiness and others perhaps that will endeavour to oppress us and deprive us of it And if we can escape all these troubles yet we must have a sore conflict with our selves and our spirituall enemies which will put us to great pains to keep our selves from being corrupted with the delights of this world or poisoned and infected with the evill examples that are round about us Therefore this present time may well be called the time of our labours after all which there is nothing we have got but must also have an end and we shall be forced quickly to take our leave of it But now in that joyfull Sabbath that is to succeed we shall rest from all these labours and be at no more pains to attain or keep our happiness There will be no danger as I have said of our being despoiled of it No Serpent can creep into that Paradise to tempt and allure us from that great felicity nor shall we be in any danger from our own Flesh nor find our selves in a World where there will be any thing to excite our desires but what we may freely take the fullest satisfaction in By which and all the rest that hath been discoursed you may clearly see there can be nothing wanting to compleat the happiness of that state but onely the never-ceasing duration or continuance of it Now in this as was said at first the Rest we expect in the other world differs from that which God promised the Hebrews in the land of Canaan For by virtue of Moses his Law they had a title onely to a long life in that fruitfull Country in opposition to which as well as to our short life here the Christian Rest is called an everlasting Life an inheritance immortall because incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. i. 4. So our Lord himself calls it a great number of times in one discourse he had with the stupid Jews Joh. vi where he exhorts them to labour not so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth to everlasting life which the Son of man came to give them ver 27. For this is the will he tells them of him that sent him that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life ver 40. And because they were still sottishly regardless of what he said he affirms it again with the most vehement asseverations ver 47. Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life And 58. He that eateth of this Bread shall live for ever which is repeated again in sundry other places of the same Chapter And I must tell you for your more ample satisfaction that our Saviour hath taken care to deliver this Doctrine to us in such words as can have no other sense or meaning The word for ever or everlasting in the Old Law sometime signifies onely the duration of severall years or a long compass of time which at last might have an end As the Hebrew servant who had sold himself for six years if when they were at an end he chose not to go free he was to serve his master for ever xxi Exod. 6. that is till the Jubilee if his master lived so long and he were not redeemed nor released And there are many Ordinances of Moses not now to be enumerated which are said to be everlasting because they were to continue till the coming of Christ Now lest any one should imagine that the Life our Saviour speaks of shall be everlasting onely in the same sense a very long continued happiness severall Ages suppose which in conclusion might determine and come to an end he hath prevented such thoughts by using other words besides this of everlasting life that we may be assured it signifies more in the Gospel then it did under the Law that is an Endless Bliss For 1. he not onely tells the Jews in the forenamed Chapter vi Joh. 50. that he was the bread of which if a man did eat he should not die but that whosoever liveth that is every living man and believeth in him shall never die xi Joh. 26. Which is as much as to say He will give us a Life without any death And farther 2. he says that whosoever keeps his saying shall never see death viii 51. Which if it signifie any thing distinct from the former must denote that he shall never be in any danger of death or come near it which in the next words vers 52. is called tasting death How can this be say the Jews since Abraham and the Prophets are dead and thou sayest if a man keep my saying he shall never taste of death That 's the phrase wherein our Saviour's Passion is expressed who tasted death i. e. lay in the grave a while for every man ii Heb. 9. And therefore may signifie here that our Saviour's faithfull Disciples after he hath given them everlasting life shall not die at all no not for the space of three days though afterward they might rise again But I have taken notice of one expression fuller then this for he doth not onely say that they shall not die nor taste of death but 3. that they cannot die any more xx Luk. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is no possibility after they have attained that life that they should die again for they are equall to the Angels and are the children of God being by the Resurrection begotten to an immortall life Hence it is that the Apostle calls this happy state by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immortality 2 Tim. i. 10. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruption ii Rom. 7. and saith that our bodies shall be raised in incorruption 1 Cor. xv 42. and put on immortality ver 53. and bear the image of the heavenly Adam i. e. of our Lord now he is in glory who we know dies no more ver 49. Which all signifie the Body as well as the Soul shall enjoy such a solid state of happiness as cannot moulder or be dissolved but will remain firm and durable like the Authour of it by whom death shall be swallowed up in victory ver 54. i. e. be so perfectly conquered that it shall never recover the least power any more Innumerable Ages shall never put a period to this ETERNALL LIFE but after they are all past the whole Man shall be as fresh and beautifull without any declension or sign of decay as if it were but newly risen and had just then put on its purest robes of glorious Light There will be as full a Good I mean and as great a strength to enjoy it and as perfect a liking also of it
to search how full it is Alas what shallow brains have we to contain a wide and deep Ocean what weak eyes to look stedfastly upon the most glorious Light of heaven How much too short and narrow are our thoughts to compass an Eternall duration When we have done all we can the best way I think to our satisfaction will be to have recourse to a passage from the mouth of God himself wherein we must rest our selves contented It is in the xxi Rev. 7. where St. John was told by him who sat upon the throne ver 5. that He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son A most marvellously-large Conveyance is here delivered to us from him who hath all that can be in his possession The Great Lord of Heaven and Earth makes us a grant in these words so exceeding full that we cannot desire it should run in more comprehensive terms For by this promise 1. He makes over to us ALL things Heart cannot wish more to make us compleatly happy then he settles upon us for there is no good thing that he will withhold from those that stedfastly adhere to him And observe 2. the tenure wherein we shall hold these vast and large possessions which is as an Inheritance We have an everlasting perpetuall estate made us in all things The terms of this writing are such as if it had run in these words By an eternall indefeasible right he shall possess all blessings For Inheritances it is well known among the Hebrews never failed nor went out of the family They could not be so alienated by sale or gift but they returned in the year of Jubilee to their first owner or his posterity Which makes the word INHERIT in the holy language to signify the enjoyment of a purchace or possession out of which the inheritour can never be thrown and which he cannot quit but shall remain settled in him to perpetuity This St. Paul calls the riches of the GLORY of his inhehitance i. Eph. 18. to signify that our celestiall Patrimony is not onely exceeding large and firmly settled on us but also most noble and brings along with it everlasting honour and renown Which is more fully explained you may note 3. and the reason of it given in the next words I will be GOD to him I will confer that is such benefits on him as are fit for the bounty of the omnipotent Goodness to bestow Look what He was to Abraham in this world to whom he promised to be a God xvii Gen. 7. that he will be to us eternally In blessing he will bless us and be our exceeding great reward The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 GOD answers to the Hebrew word Elohim which doth not respect the Essence of the Almighty but his Providence as * in Psal xiv 1. Genebrard among others hath well observed and signifies as much as the Judge the Moderatour and Governour of the World from whence it is that Judges Magistrates and Rulers are called by this name to whom it belongs to give rewards and punishments And accordingly the Hebrew writers observe that it is never said the Lord will be the God of any persons but when he expresses some singularly-great kindness and stands in a speciall relation of love to them In particular Abarbinell notes upon Deut. vi that he is never called the God of Israel till he had brought them in a wonderfull manner out of the land of Egypt the house of bondage I find indeed that he promised to be their God before when he told Abraham that he would give him and his seed the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession xvii Gen. 8. But he did not begin to be so till he began to lead them thither and in token of their being his they had kept the Passeover and received his Law from Mount Sinai Before this Moses says We were bondmen in Egypt and the LORD brought us out with a mighty hand vi Deuter 21. And the LORD shewed signs and wonders great and sore upon Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all his houshold before our eyes ver 22. He doth not say in all these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LORD our GOD but onely the LORD brought us out and the LORD shewed because he speaks of the time before the giving of the Law which was the greatest kindness he did them after they came out of Egypt But as soon as he had made mention of that says Abarbinel in the very next words ver 24. he alters his style and tells them The LORD commanded us to doe all these statutes to fear the LORD our GOD for our good always c. And ver 25. It shall be our righteousness if we observe to doe all these Commandments before the LORD our GOD as he hath commanded us And so he speaks vii 1. When the LORD thy GOD shall bring thee into the land c. and ver 2. When the LORD thy GOD shall deliver them before thee c. and ver 6. Thou art a holy people to the LORD thy GOD the LORD thy GOD hath chosen thee to be a speciall people to himself c. For from the time of his appearing on mount Sinai and so forward says that learned Hebrew Writer He was our God because then we took upon us his Divinity And I think I may as truly observe that till the Resurrection of our Lord from the dead which compleated that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure which Moses and Elias discoursed with him about and said he should accomplish at Jerusalem ix Luke 31. we never reade that the Father Almighty is called the God of those who believe in his Son Jesus Then he demonstrated beyond all contradiction that he was their Saviour and mighty Deliverer who would rescue them from the bondage of corruption the fear of death the power of the grave and give them immortall life And therefore then he bids Mary go and tell his Disciples whom he calls Brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God xx Joh. 17. This is the first time he is called their God but ever after there is no language more common For as St. i. Eph. 3 17. 1 Pet. i. 3. Peter and St. Paul call him the GOD of our Lord Jesus Christ I suppose because he had raised him from the dead and highly glorified him for his obedient suffering of death so they address themselves to him as particularly related to them and ready to bestow upon them the like blessedness saying i. Rom. 8. 1 Cor. i. 4. iv Phil. 19. 1 Thess iii. 9. I thank MY GOD always c. MY GOD shall supply all your need We rejoyce before OVR GOD c. as you may reade in many places of St. Paul's Epistles Which shews that this promise in the Revelation made after our Saviour's Ascension of being the God of
those who overcome includes in it the bestowing on us the most excellent benefits Because he will be our GOD in a more excellent manner then he ever was yet to men such a GOD as he was to our Blessed Lord himself He will prefer us to live with him in great splendour and glory He will give us an inheritance in a better Country which is an heavenly where all delights flow and never cease to spring up to those happy Souls who shall enjoy the eternall fruits of his greatest love For so he adds 4. and he shall be to me a Son A Son you know expects the Inheritance of his Father because to him it properly belongs and upon him it descends And therefore to be to GOD a Son is to be made like him and to live with him in that very happiness and bliss which he enjoys So St. Paul expresses it viii Rom. 17. he shall be an heir of GOD a co-heir with Jesus who as the Son of God inherits his Glory He shall participate that is with God in his everlasting life kingdom honour and joy which what it is we are not able to tell no more then we can comprehend what his Majesty is who possesses heaven and earth and is infinite in all perfections But we have the greatest reason that can be to expect so great a bliss because we know that God loves his Son Jesus and hath given ALL THINGS into his hand iii. Joh. 35. We are sure that God hath made him most blessed for ever He hath made him exceeding glad with his countenance Honour and Majesty hath he laid upon him and his glory is great in his Salvation xxi Psal 5 6. Now it is most evident you may again observe 5. that the generall intendment of this promise is to put us in hope of being made like to Christ our Elder Brother For he is not ashamed to call us by that name And this being his great Prerogative that he is Heir of all things when the Father of mercy assures us that we shall inherit all things it is as much as to say we shall share with Christ in his large possessions It is easy to note how the Holy Gospell describes our expected felicity in the same terms wherein it speaks of that which Christ our Head enjoys with whom St. Paul says we shall appear in glory and reign with him and have a glorious body like his and in order to it be caught up in the clouds 1 Thess iv 17. which was the manner of his ascension to heaven i. Act. 9. And accordingly here God promises to him that overcomes that he shall inherit all things in conformity still with our Saviour whom he hath appointed heir of all things i. Heb. 2. I cannot say there is any allusion in these words to the Olympick rewards given to the Conquerours in those Combats but so it is that they who overcame there were accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equall to their Gods that is their Hero's or deified men Fabri Agonist L. ii c. 11.16 17. and therefore had Statues erected to their honour and an annuall Pension settled on them for their more noble maintenance But what was this to the reall Divine honour and glory which God will give to victorious Souls To whom he promises not a small Pension or Annuity but an inheritance and that of all things i. e. to shine in the glory of our Blessed Saviour who is King of kings and Lord of lords and can prefer all his Subjects to such a greatness that they shall be more like Gods then men So St. Greg. Nazianzen often speaks that * Orat. xxxvi p. 592. we shall be made Gods in the other World by him that was made Man for us in this It is hard to tell what Heraclitus meant by that speech recorded in Clemens Alexandrinus * L. iii. Padag c. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men are Gods Gods are men But it is verified in the Christian Religion which reveals a Divine state to which we shall ascend when we leave the earth by him who came down from Heaven into a vile condition that he might promote us thither Let us study then these words very hard and think often what it is to have ALL THINGS that the love of the Almighty will bestow when in the most eminent sense and in another World he shall become OUR GOD and what it is to have an estate in him that can never be cut off but remains as firm as the Throne on which he sate when he spake these words And then if you believe in him it will fill you with unspeakable joy without entring into particular enquiries to think that you shall be so happy as to be his Sons and Heirs who want nothing that can be desired or he can give And indeed these other words ETERNALL LIFE wherein God's gracious promise commonly runs are of the same import and force with those now mentioned All that we hope for is contained in them As 1. Pardon of Sin without which we cannot take one step toward so great a bliss For death the fruit and punishment of sin will still remain unless sin be pardoned and then what hope can we have of life much less of Eternall life which is therefore perhaps called by the name of Righteousness v. Gal. 5. because it includes our perfect justification and absolution from the guilt of sin without which we could not attain it And 2. it supposes the Adoption of Sons which is begun in this life but not perfected till the next when we shall be made the children of God by receiving a new life from him at the Resurrection of the dead And 3. the Redemption of the Body is another blessing included in it For being raised again it will be freed from its present weaknesses alterations and pains to which it is obnoxious and stand in need of not so much as food and raiment And therefore the time when he will bestow it is called the day of our Redemption iv Eph. 30. To which must be added 4. the carrying of it up to heaven to meet the Lord For being raised a spirituall body it will not be fit for this World but for the other Where 5. we shall rest with him in the celestiall Inheritance and enjoy all the happiness it affords for LIFE you have heard signifies all good things And lastly the Perpetuity of them is plainly expressed in the word ETERNALL which makes the happiness of this heavenly LIFE appear so exceeding great that our present Life compared to it is as Censorinus says of Time in regard of Eternity no more then a Winter's day Let this then suffice us to know that we shall have a perfect enjoyment of all the Good we are capable to receive when we are made greater then we are by the change that shall be wrought in us at our departure hence and at the resurrection of the dead And let our pains
be more imployed to know the truth and certainty of this then to know what the Good is we shall enjoy which will be best known by possessing it And herein now we may admire the Goodness of God and see how liberall he is of his bounties where we are capable to receive them Though he hath said little to make us particularly understand the LIFE of the next world yet he hath said very much to assure us that there is such an happy Life Where we can understand and comprehend his mind there he fully expresses himself and therefore where he is more silent it is no doubt because should he speak of such matters we cannot understand him We are able to conceive any thing that he shall declare for the reason of our hope and the ground of our faith and it highly concerns us to be very well satisfied in the foundation of such expectations in a future World And therefore herein our gracious God hath not been sparing to reveal himself but hath granted us the strongest Evidences for our claim to such an Inheritance Which makes me conclude that if we were as capable to receive instruction concerning the Inheritance it self and to have a Terrier as I may call it or particular description of that heavenly Country of the manner of their Life and all the fruits growing there delivered to us He that hath been so large in the assurances he hath given us would not have denied us also this satisfaction Well therefore it is for us that this is the onely reason why we want it and know not what we shall be because we cannot till we be changed be made partakers of so great a knowledge And well is it for us that we have also so good a cause to think that this is the onely reason because God hath manifested himself so fully to us in other things that belong to our happiness by giving us the most firm grounds whereon to build our future hopes This is the thing which this present Treatise chiefly intends to shew as God himself speaks concerning the promises of the New Jerusalem xxi Rev. 5. that these Words are faithfull and true There is no couzenage or deceit in these promises no fraud or collusion in the drawing them up nor any alteration in God's mind since they were made and he hath set such seals to them But I may say as he there doth to St. John who it 's possible might doubt of what the Angel had shewn him Behold or as Andreas Caesariensis reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold behold I make all things new See here and observe I my self who sit upon my Throne assure thee of the Certainty of these Visions If thou wilt take my word I here pass it to thee that I will fulfill all these promises Such I say is the unquestionable credit of the Words of ETERNALL LIFE God himself hath spoken them He hath bid us believe them yea he hath said we must account him a liar if we do not rely upon them For this saith St. John is the Record that God hath given us eternall Life and this Life is in his Son Before I come to a particular examination of all that hath been said and done to verify this let me note these two things First that the Apostle saith we have a RECORD of this truth which is attested from the mouth of severall infallible Witnesses who have deposed what they saw and heard about it to the satisfaction of all those that will consider their testimony There being such a RECORD that is that Jesus is the Son of GOD we have no reason to doubt of the Eternall Life he promises but upon the very same grounds that we believe the one we ought to believe the other If the Father the Word the Holy Ghost and all the other Witnesses have proved the former by undeniable testimonies then at the sametime they proved this also that we shall live by him For 1. it is evident that if Jesus was the Son of God sent by him in a speciall manner into the world to act in his stead we are to believe all that he says of himself or that others by his commission and authority have declared him to be Now if we look into his Gospell we shall find that he most earnestly affirms himself to have been before Abraham was viii Joh. 58. and to have had a Glory with God before the world was xvii 5. and to be so one with the Father that the Father was in him and he in the Father x. 30 38. And they who were his inspired Witnesses whom he said he would send as the Father sent him xx 21. and who were filled by him with the Holy Ghost declared him to be God's WORD who in the beginning was with God and was GOD i. Joh. 1 2. the image of the invisible God the brightness of his glory and the character of his person who in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens were the works of his hands i. Col. 15. i. Heb. 3 10. From all which we may certainly conclude that he is not onely the Son of God in regard of his Authority but by Nature begotten of him before all worlds of one substance with the Father And therefore We may be confident 2. that he being thus nearly related to God must needs know his mind and be acquainted with his most secret purposes and resolutions To which he was so privy that he says he was then in heaven when he was come down to reveal them to men iii. Joh. 13. So that we may safely look upon the promises he makes us of ETERNALL LIFE as the declarations of God's gracious will and pleasure which shall undoubtedly be fulfilled No man indeed as St. John speaks i. 18. hath seen GOD at any time the onely-begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him For who could dive into God's mind and tell us what was in his thoughts What man could enter into his breast and see what was in his heart to doe for us None but his onely-begotten Son who being in his bosome and privy to his most secret Counsels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath declared or expounded him i. e. his hidden will and decrees which else had not been revealed to us It is the opinion of Maimonides in severall parts of his Works * L. de Fund Legis cap. i. n. 10. More Nev. part i. c. 37. 54. c. that when Moses prayed God to shew him his Glory he meant his Essence of which he desired to have a distinct conception as it is in it self such as we have of a man when we have seen his face and by the image of him remaining in our mind can distinguish him from all other men But there are other of their Learned men who by his Glory understand the Rewards he will give the pious and the prosperity he sometimes bestows on the
wicked Whatsoever it was God told him he could not comprehend it but must be content with the sight onely of his back parts not of his face xxxiii Exod. ult That is saith Maimonides with the knowledge of something of his Essence or as he elsewhere expounds it * More Nev. p. i. c. 21. of his Works and Attributes of which he had such an obscure knowledge as we have of a man whose back parts we have seen but never beheld his face To be so intimately acquainted with God and his mind as he wish'd was the priviledge of the Messiah alone who had the clearest and fullest sight of the Glory of the Father both of his Essence and his Will and his gracious intentions towards us for he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the bosome of the Father and therefore sees his face as the Scripture speaks and hath not merely some obscure representations of him like that of a man when he turns his back to us but a full view of him in all his perfections of which he himself is the very Image And what he saw he hath by God's express will revealed to us and discovered those things which eye never beheld but were kept secret from the foundation of the world concerning the glorious rewards which his love will give to all pious persons For since I have proved that he is his Son we cannot imagine that he presumed to say more then he knew or told us things out of his own mind onely when he spake of ETERNALL LIFE as he frequently did but what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth as it is iii. John 32. We cannot believe otherwise 3. when we look upon him as the Son of God but that he must needs speak the very truth to us As he could not but know the Mind of God if he was so one with him so he could not but speak to us according to what he knew of his Mind For as the Father is Truth so is the Son because he is perfectly the same with the Father We worship the Father of Truth and the Son the Truth who are two in person but one in consent and agreement and identity of will as Origen * L. viii contra Celsum speaks explaining those words of our Saviour I and the Father are one x. Joh. 30. and I am the Truth xiv 6. We may be confident that the words of both are equally faithfull and true So God the Father bad St. John write of his own sayings as I observed before xxi Rev. 5. And in the same style our Saviour commands him to write of himself These things saith the Amen the faithfull and true witness iii. Rev. 14. John Baptist had said as much before iii. Joh. 34. He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God To which the words of our Saviour in another place of that Gospell perfectly accord xii 49 50. I have not spoken of my self but the Father which sent me he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak And I know that his commandment is EVERLASTING LIFE whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak And 4. he hath no less Power then he hath Truth but being the Son of God the heir of all things can make good his gracious promises and put us into the possession of the Eternall Inheritance which we expect as coheirs with him He was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead i. Rom. 4. according to his own prayer just before he offered up himself to God Father the hour is come glorify thy Son that thy Son may glorify thee As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast given him xvii Joh. 1 2. And can we think 5. that he will not faithfully execute this trust and imploy his power for the end to which it was given him He would not then be like his Father who keepeth Truth for ever As he also most certainly will being the same Jesus yesterday and to day and for ever xiii Heb. 8. For if Moses was faithfull in the house of another wherein he was but a Servant no doubt our Lord who is a Son over his own house or family iii. Heb. 6. will not fail to discharge his royall office with all exactness but manifest himself to be like his Name The Word of God xix Rev. 13. Faithfull and true ver 11. This RECORD concerning him St. John thought so weighty and secure an evidence that he concludes all good Christians as sure of Eternall Life as if it were already in their hands For after he had said here in the words I am explaining that God hath given us i.e. made us a promise of Eternall Life which is in his Son he adds immediately which is the Second thing I intended to note that we have eternall life Which cannot signify less then that we have such a good right to it that we may account it ours The reason is because he that effectually believes in Jesus hath him in whose power it is to give it and who hath passed his word many a time that he will bestow it So you reade ver 12. He that hath the Son hath life He may be as sure of it as if it were in his present possession for by faith in Christ he is united to him who is the fountain and well-spring of life and bliss and stands ingaged divers ways to make all the Members of his Body happy with himself For to as many as received him he gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power or authority to become the Sons of God i. Joh. 12. who may legally claim the consummation of their adoption in the Eternall Inheritance They are by his grant unquestionable heirs of it and have such a strong title to it that they can never be defeated of it This heavenly Estate is in them as Lawyers speak though they be not in it They have an indisputable right I mean to it and may call it theirs though they be not yet seised of it and have not taken possession which in due time none can hinder or debar them of So the Apostle would have the Faithfull stedfastly believe for this was the very end for which he recorded the Evidences forementioned that they might know they have eternall life ver 13. which he repeats often in his Gospell as you may reade iii. Joh. 36. v. 24. vi 47. where he asserts this in the most earnest manner and assures them that he spake of this matter out of certain knowledge Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life He is a most happy man and may look upon himself as owner of more then all this world is worth Which he can never lose though he be not yet entred upon his inheritance because it is in the custody of him who hath
shone as the Sun though this may reasonably be thought as I shewed in the former Treatise to be a representation of his Ascension into heaven where he shines at the right hand of the Father and is the Lord of glory And therefore I shall onely observe two things first the words now added to the voice formerly delivered secondly the manner wherein they were spoken in the audience of those Apostles I. As for the words now added in this second voice to those of the first wherein he had declared him as he doth here again his beloved Son in whom he delighted they are these HEAR YE HIM Which are the very words that Moses spake to the Children of Israel when he prophesied of the Messiah and said xviii Deut. 15. unto him ye shall hearken And it may be one reason why Moses was now present when God spake these words in the Mount that he might consent to this truth which was now so solemnly pronounced in his hearing that Jesus was the Great person of whom he had prophesied Now God bidding the Apostles HEAR HIM and Moses himself to whom they had hearkened all this while being content that he should take his room it is an argument of something to be declared by him that Moses had not spoken And what should that be but onely the words of Eternall Life which was but obscurely intimated and shadowed in the ancient Law but by him was preached so clearly and distinctly that the voice of the Heavens is not more audible There is nothing I shall shew in due place that our Saviour preached so frequently nothing upon which he insisted so long and earnestly and took such pains to settle in mens minds as this belief that Eternall Life shall be the portion of all that doe well And therefore when God the Father bad them hear him who made it his principall business to publish this glad tidings to the World it was the very same as if this Voice had said in express words This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased believe it He shall give you eternall life This is the Commandment his Father gave him as you heard before xii Joh. 50. This is the will of him that sent him vi Joh. 40. This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternall life 1 Joh. ii 25. And therefore he stands engaged to bestow it and we agree with him for it when we enter into his service For you may observe farther that as to hear Moses was to embrace the Covenant that God made with them by him so we can understand no less by hearing the Son of God then our entring into the New Covenant of which he is the Mediatour which is founded upon better promises then the former whereby we have a title to a celestiall not an earthly inheritance whereof he is the Lord and to which he hath engaged himself to be our Conductour And indeed Moses and Elias who were never called the Sons of God much less by a voice from heaven so termed appearing now with our Saviour in glory it was a notable sign that He should be taken up to a far greater glory then theirs and have power of changing men into such a condition as that wherein he was now transfigured and in the mean time should preach that life and immortality which they saw conferred upon those two persons to honour him Whom the Disciples you may observe again saw in a glory so much greater then the Law-giver himself now had that if the voice from heaven had been silent it would have been an argument our Saviour should be the Lord of glory For when they desired to make their abode there and for that purpose to build three Tabernacles they say one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias putting him in the first place before the other two which they would not sure have done had not Moses and Elias done reverence to him as a greater person then themselves I shall end this with a Tradition among the Hebrews which if it signifie any thing may serve to shew that Jesus is their long-expected Christ For R. Bechai saith * in xlix Gen. 10. that when Jacob speaks of the coming of Schilo he comprehends not onely the last Redeemer the Messiah but the first Redeemer also i. e. Moses who shall have the honour then to attend upon the Messiah and enter into the holy land according to what the Masters say upon xv Exod. 1. where the words are then Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall sing And in the great Commentary upon Deuteronomy they write as the same Authour goes on that God said to Moses Because thou didst give thy life for them in this world desiring that God would blot his name out of the book of life to preserve theirs in the world to come i.e. the days of the Messiah when I shall bring Elias to them you two shall enter in together Which may possibly be the meaning of those words i. Joh. 21. Art thou Elias and he said I am not Art thou that Prophet i. e. Moses who alone was worthy of the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prophet above all others Now if there were any ground of such expectation that these two should come in their own persons you see it here fulfilled on this holy Mount where Moses who was so much in mount Horeb and Elias who used mount Carmel now appeared and had communication with him about his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure out of this world unto his heavenly Kingdome ix Luk. 31. The Mount where they met and where Jesus was transfigured is generally believed to be Tabor as Hermon a little hill near Jordan there is a tradition was the place from whence Elias was taken up to heaven In these two Mountains saies Proclus * Orat. viii our Lord Jesus was proclaimed the Beloved Son of God from whom we may expect immortall bliss At Hermon when he was baptized in Jordan on Tabor when he was transfigured and appeared in a glory as much greater then Elias's as the high mountain Tabor was above the little hill of Hermon And so was fulfilled says he that prophecie of the Psalmist lxxxix 12. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoyce in thy Name In both places was published this joyfull news that God had sent his Son to be the Saviour of the World First in the mount from whence Elias was transported into heaven and then in the mount where he came to attend on our Lord when he was transfigured God the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confirming his Sonship proclaimed again with a loud voice This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him For he that heareth him heareth me as Proclus there glosses and he that is ashamed of him and his words of him will I be ashamed in my glory Let us listen to him therefore and since we hear him say as I noted before Verily
verily I say unto you he that heareth my words and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life v. Joh. 24. let us take it for as express a declaration from God the Father as if that voice which required them to hear Jesus had said You that are obedient to my Son have everlasting life and are in no danger to perish being translated from the dominion of death to be heirs of life II. And now from the consideration of the words that were spoken let us pass to the manner wherein they were delivered which is so vastly different from that wherein God spake formerly to Moses and the children of Israel from another mountain that I cannot but think it was intended to signifie something of the grace of Eternall Life which Jesus brings to us When he was transfigured and his face shone as the Sun the Evangelist tells us moreover that his raiment became glistering exceeding white as snow and that a bright cloud also overshadowed them out of which the voice before named came saying This is my beloved Son c. Which if it be compared with former divine Manifestations of the same kind we may reasonably look upon as an indication that this Person came to discover 1. something more glorious then Moses had done and 2. something that expresses more abundant love and kindness of God towards men which is nothing else but Eternall Life First I say something more glorious and resplendent or as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. iv 6. the light of the knowledge of the glory of God which we behold in the face of Jesus Christ For the Mount to which Moses went up and where he and the people heard God speak to them was all covered with clouds and thick darkness Thus God himself told him beforehand he would appear xix Exod. 9. And so he did when the day prefixed for it came vers 16 18. Unto that thick darkness Moses drew near xx 21. And the people also stood underneath the mountain beholding it burn with fire into the midst of heaven with darkness clouds and thick darkness iv Deut. 11. xix Exod. 17. All which places the Reader may be pleased to consult together with xxiv Exod. 18. where we find that Moses went into the midst of this cloud and there was covered and quite obscured from their sight A very fit emblem of the obscurity of the knowledge which they then had of God and of his will and of the terrours of the Law which was a ministration of death as the Apostle speaks and so astonished them with the thunders and lightning which came out of the cloud that they fled and stood afar off xx Exod. 18. As on the other side God appearing now to our Saviour in a quite contrary manner on the top of another Mountain where there was no black cloud though it was in the night no smoak or sulphureous vapour much less a thick darkness hiding him from his Disciples sight nothing but a bright and lightsome cloud which overshadowed them and shewed them the glory wherein he shone it was a lively representation of the light which he the Light of the world came to give to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death and of the glory and bliss whereof he was the Minister unto which he invited mankind in words of grace and sweetness as he did his Disciples to stay here on the mountain by those chearfull beams wherewith the glory of the Lord surrounded them For this manner of appearing as I said Secondly plainly suggests some greater manifestation of the love and kindness the goodness and bounty of Heaven to mankind then had been made before in that way of revelation to Moses which was so much different from the sweetness and amiableness of this When Moses conversed with God upon mount Sinai he descended thither in Fire as the places before mentioned tell you And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire in the eyes of the children of Israel xxiv Exod. 17. v. Deut. 22 23. But when our Blessed Lord took his Apostles with him to a sight of the Divine Glory there was onely the appearance of a wonderfull bright and chearful light some mild rays from heaven which had nothing of terrour in them but ravished them with joy to find themselves in so glorious a Presence And therefore they were not left at the foot of this high mountain as Moses left the Israelites at the bottom of the other but he brought them up with him xvii Matth. 1. And they were not put into a fright as the Israelites were who removed their station at the sight of the fire on mount Sinai nor did they shriek as their Forefathers did there who cried out saying Why should we die for this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more we shall die Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die v. Deuter 25. xx Exod. 19. But they were ravished out of themselves with the glory of this sight which was so inviting to their eyes that they wisht for no other station but desired to remain perpetually fixed there They were so far from running away that they said Let us make here three Tabernacles as if they meant to pitch there the place of their abode and never take their eyes from so beautifull a Light It is observable also that in the dark Mountain where Moses was together with the fire and thunder and lightnings there was the noise of a Trumpet exceeding loud which made not onely all the people tremble but the whole mount quaked greatly xix Exod. 16 18. And God spake likewise to the people with a great voice v. Deut. 22. wherewith both they were so astonished as to wish never to hear it more and Moses himself also so terrible was the sight together with the noise said I exceedingly fear and quake xii Heb. 21. Whereas on the Mountain where our Lord was transfigured there was not one such frightfull flash nor the least dreadfull sound nothing but his own glistering Body the splendour of Moses and Elias the brightness of a heavenly cloud and this one sweet voice which proclaimed nothing but love and grace in their ears This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him St. Matthew indeed tells us that when the Disciples heard they fell on their faces and were sore afraid xvii 6. But this doth not signify that they were seised with any horrour at the dreadfulness of the sound but onely amazed at the suddenness of the voice and the marvellous splendour of the Light And therefore the other Evangelists do not mention any such terrour after the voice which being accompanied with a glory they had never beheld might well amaze them but did not make them tremble The very
The testimony of worthy men as the Apostle here observes is readily received by us and therefore we ought to be afraid of being so rudely prophane as to reject the testimony of God which is of far greater weight then theirs and hath been solemnly given you see more then once for the confirmation of our Faith But God the Father willing more abundantly to shew if I may borrow those words in vi Heb. 17. unto the heirs of this promise the immutability of his counsel hath graciously vouchsafed us farther assurance and by his WORD hath told us as much as He himself declared by those voices from heaven What we are to understand by the WORD in this place I have shewn in the Former Treatise viz. the Lord Jesus himself God Man or God the WORD made flesh Orat. contra Gentes p. 49. who as St. Athanasius speaks is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Interpreter and Embassadour of his own Father For as by the word a man speaks we understand his Mind which is the fountain from whence it comes so but by a more lively representation and after an incomparably more excellent manner we beholding the power of the WORD come to the knowledge of his Father as our Saviour himself saith xiv Joh. 9. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also From him this Eternall WORD came down and was incarnate not onely to reveal his will but to die for our Sins and to seal what he had preached with his Bloud After which God raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the Heavens from whence he testified as loudly that he hath in him ETERNALL LIFE for us as he did that he is the SON OF GOD. This Witness therefore let us now examine and look over again the old Evidences which we formerly searched wherein I doubt not we shall find this Truth most clearly contained And the Testimony of the WORD you know as well as that of the FATHER was threefold once to St. Stephen a second time to St. Paul and a third to this beloved Disciple St. John I. For the First of these it stands upon record in so many words that St. Stephen being full of the Holy Ghost and looking up stedfastly to heaven saw the heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand vii Act. 55 56. Thus he declares not to some simple people who perhaps might believe him for his confidence but to the great Councill of Jerusalem who he knew were very much disaffected nay perfectly opposite to this truth To them he protests in open Court when he was upon his triall and bids them mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold take notice of what I now tell you I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God And he said it though he knew he stood in certain perill of his life for this declaration It was for no other reason that Jesus himself was put to death but because he said He was the Son of God and that they should see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven And therefore for him to confirm so peremptorily this odious Truth after they had killed Him and thereby make them guilty of innocent bloud yea of the bloud of their great King was a Crime he might well expect they would punish with as great severity as was in their power to express which we may be confident he would never have provoked had he not been so sure of the Glory of our Saviour that he could not hold his peace For who is there so frantick as to expose himself to death for such an unprofitable lie It is not in the nature of man to suffer so shamefully as he did in his own person merely to bring a little false honour to another To fansy a person of his Wisedom guilty of such madness is a kind of distraction in him that supposes it who were he sober would be taught otherwise by the abhorrence he feels in himself to throw away his life for a trifle Since there is not the least reason then to question but that this Holy man beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand i. e. the gates of Heaven being set open that he might have the favour to look into the celestiall palace the Majesty of God was there represented to him sitting on a Throne as it used to be in the propheticall Visions and he beheld the Lord Jesus the very next person to the Divine Majesty we may clearly see in this Vision both the things that St. John here asserts viz. that Eternall Life is in Jesus the Son of God to give to those that effectually believe on his Name I. As for the first the power wherewith he is invested to give Eternall LIFE it is visible from his standing at God's right hand which denotes his Omnipotent Virtue to effect what he pleases For by the right hand of God Jesus himself was exalted to the right hand of power as you reade ii Act. 33. v. 31. and therefore being placed there it signifies that he can doe for us what God hath done for him that is exalt us to the like glory in the heavens where he is And as this is a clear proof of one of the things here recorded that LIFE is in him so the other II. That God hath given the faithfull a right to this Eternall LIFE with him and that he will bestow it on us is no less evident from the very End of this Vision For we can see no other reason of this glorious appearance of our Saviour to him but to incourage him in his preaching and incite him to witness a good confession as he himself had done before this great Councill and before Pontius Pilate in hope that if it cost him his life as it had done our Saviour he should live and reign with him in that glorious place where he now beheld him This was the purpose of the heavenly WORD 's coming now to him that he might not doubt of his promises nor shrink in the least from what he had preached though he should die for it which would doe him no greater harm then to dispatch him presently to the celestiall habitations In the very beginning of his history we reade that he had no sooner heard the Indictment read which they had drawn up against him but before he spake a word for himself the whole Council behold his face as it had been the face of an Angel vi Act. 15. There appeared that is such a bright and sweet Majesty in his countenance as made him look like one of the celestial inhabitants who had already prevented the glorious state to which he was going And his Answer to their charge being ended their barbarous rage was not more apparent then it was that the heavens opened to receive his Spirit
flesh armed what might which thou hast given to grass and hay As well may a butterfly think of mounting up to heaven or a flower attempt to pluck up a cedat as we poor wretches conceive a thought of effecting such wonderfull things This sure signifies that men are very dear to God or else he would not thus dwell among them It may well make us believe there is nothing so great nothing so glorious promised by Jesus but he will work it for us having already transformed us into such noble creatures As Manoah's wife said to him xiii Judg. 23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received a burnt-offering and a meat-offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us such things as these so might they in this case say and with greater advantage then she If the Lord would let us still remain under the power of death he would not have given such gifts into our hands for that is more then to receive the poor oblations we make to him nor would he have revealed such secrets to us He would not have sent us the spirit of wisedom and knowledge nor raised us to the degree of prophecy nor put new tongues into our mouths to declare his wonderfull works nor made all diseases submit to our word All which gifts with divers others they had reason to look upon as the earnest of the Spirit and the Seal of the Holy Ghost whereby they had an assurance given them as I hope to shew elsewhere of the everlasting inheritance which Jesus hath promised in the heavens For they demonstrated that He who had power thus to alter and advance mean men and to make them Stuporem mundi the wonder and amazement of the world could also give that Life which he had promised by that very power which they felt already working in them And they also made it evident 6. that he would bestow it For there is no more reason that he should thus bestow the Holy Ghost at present then that he should hereafter give us Eternall Life His faithfull promise is the security for both our hopes are built upon that sure foundation If there be any difference between the ground there is for one more then the other the advantage lies on the side of the hope of Eternall Life Which there is more reason now that he should give us then there was for giving the Holy Ghost even because he hath already done so much for his Church and there is more reason we should expect it because as I said before we have seen a remarkable instance of his fidelity in pouring out such rivers of living water when he sent the Spirit which he promised And here it comes to my mind in xi Isa that another Wonder which Abarbinell says the Messiah shall work at his coming is a Miracle like that of dividing the Red sea when Israel came out of Egypt Which he endeavours to prove from xi Isa 15. The Lord shall utterly destroy or dry up the tongue of the Egyptian Sea c. that is says he of Nile the great River of Egypt This our Lord hath done more excellently then they imagine For it was nothing near so great a wonder that Israel should be baptized into Moses in the Sea as it was that the people who followed Jesus should be baptized into him with the Holy Ghost poured down upon them from heaven The passing through the Sea and the Cloud to boot was not such a certain argument that Moses would bring them out of the great affliction wherein they had been plung'd and lead them to Canaan their rest and inheritance as these rivers of living water the gifts of the Holy Ghost and the admirable effects thereof filling the world with the Glory of the Lord were an undeniable proof to those who were under its conduct that Jesus was the person who would lead them to a better rest in a more heavenly Country which flows with far sweeter delights then milk and hony This did as it were dip their souls into this belief and made them sensible that Jesus is the Authour of Eternall Salvation far more then the Sea it self could baptize their forefathers into Moses i.e. persuade them that he was the Prophet of God who would deliver them and bring them to the peaceable enjoyments they desired And therefore I observe after the Jews who quarrelled at St. Peter's preaching to the Gentiles were satisfied that the Holy Ghost was faln upon them even as upon themselves they had no more to say but this then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life xi Act. 18. This they lookt upon as the beginning of God's favour and loving-kindness to them which would conclude in nothing less then the ETERNALL LIFE of which we are discoursing And so this very Apostle St. John after he had put the Disciples in mind of the UNCTION they had received and exhorted them to continue in that Doctrine which it taught Chap. ii of this Epistle 20 24. immediately adds that this is the promise which he hath promised us even Eternall Life ver 25. Which was as much as to say that the Vnction by the HOLY GHOST had so perfectly instructed them in the certainty of this great happiness that it was sufficient to move them to abide in the Doctrine of Jesus none being able to teach them better or to put them in hope of any thing greater then this ETERNALL LIFE which he promised and by the HOLY GHOST assured It is true indeed which some are forward to object that we in these days see not such evidences as those Believers had the Holy Ghost not inhabiting thus in every one of our Souls as it did in theirs Nor is there the like reason it should we being ingaged in no such hard services as theirs which stood in need to be incouraged with the strongest hopes of a glorious reward They were in deaths often as St. Paul speaks and therefore were in danger to faint without a most lively gust of immortall Life The whole World was their enemy and with the greatest rage oppos'd their preaching which required a clearer sight of the World to come and a more sensible descent of invisible powers for their assistence and support From whence we also derive no small benefit because the more sensible demonstration they had of it the firmer grounds of hope are laid for us whose faith relies upon their testimony and the power of the HOLY GHOST in them This is sufficient to hearten us in our duty that our Lord hath given to those whose testimony we have the greatest reason to believe such visible and palpable evidences of his being alive and of his intentions to quicken his servants to Life everlasting with himself Let us but heartily apply ourselves upon these grounds to live by the faith of the Son of God and we shall find the same Spirit that wrought in them operating in us
pragmatically inquire after those things which the Holy Ghost it self hath not mentioned in the Scripture Thou who knowest not all that is written why dost thou busy thy self curiously about those things which are not written Let it suffice thee to know that God hath but one onely-begotten Son Be not ashamed to be ignorant of the rest for thou art ignorant of it together with the Angels Which is the same with what a more modern Writer hath said Nescire velle quae Magister Maâ—imus Docere non vult erudita est inscitia To be willing not to know what our Supreme Master will not teach is a learned Ignorance With which I shall content my self and not envy to those who have a list to handle these things more nicely their ignorant Learning They may venture as far as they please if they think it safe but ought not to be angry with those who had rather expect farther discoveries in the other world where we shall be more knowing by a purer and more perfect illumination of the most high Trinity Oâ—at xi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as St. Greg. Naz. speaks elsewhere and yet more modest and apt to adore the incomprehensible God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Whose Testimony is so full to satisfy us there will be such an happy State that before I pass to the other Three Witnesses on Earth I cannot but rest a while and consider what a great way we are advanced towards a strong and settled belief of Eternall Life if these things be well digested in our minds If we would but always lay before our eyes these Records and were as well acquainted with them as we are with our Evidences for our Estates if they were as fresh in our minds as the words of a Record which we are to plead in some Court where we have a Cause to be heard or the Title to our whole Estate tried and determined I do not see how we should possibly doubt of this Promise which our Lord hath made to his followers nor how we should lose the joy and comfort of it in this world of sorrows Let all those who have taken the pains to reade thus far in this Treatise be so kind to themselves as on all occasions to recollect what they have read and in their quiet thoughts to put themselves often in mind that the Father hath said this is true by a voice from heaven at severall times when Jesus was baptized when he was upon the holy Mount and before a multitude of people He testified that ETERNALL LIFE is in him The Word also hath shewn us this glorious State when he appeared to St. Stephen to St. Paul to his beloved St. John who have all communicated their knowledge to us and told us that he assured them He lives and that we shall live by him The Holy Ghost likewise hath declared this by coming down upon Him and upon his Apostles and upon his faithfull ones And then they cannot chuse but rely most firmly upon such ample and unquestionable Testimonies and be very much affected with this full assurance of Faith which God works in us There would be no reason I am sure why they should not as strongly believe and expect the glory that Jesus will give us though they do not now see it as we all do the performance of the promise of any person of known honesty and ability though at a great distance from us No doubt the faith of Christians would be immovable did they ponder these things they would never call it into dispute after such demonstrations whether there be another Life or no. Yea they themselves would become immovable and stedfast and abundant in the work of our Lord because the very same Witnesses tell them that this is the onely way to eternall Happiness which cannot be compassed by any means but by patient continuance in well-doing How well then would it be with them could we but prevail with all Christian Souls to spend some time every day in calling to mind what they have heard these Heavenly Witnesses say If they would but cast up their eyes every morning towards heaven and think There Jesus is there he lives in great honour and glory there he sits at the right hand of the Throne of God there St. Stephen saw him in such glory St. Paul and St. John beheld him from thence they heard him speak and make most gracious promises to them he sent the Holy Ghost from thence to be his Witness there he is preparing a place for all them that have the heart to follow him thither he will receive our Spirits to behold his glory and with him shall all good men live for ever in unconceivable joy How would these thoughts inspire and ravish their hearts How would they change and transform them into quite other things How mean and contemptible would our petty injoyments which now so tempt us seem in comparison with that divine condition How impossible would it be to perswade us to yield to the breach of any of his commands and thereby forfeit such happiness Yea how easy sweet and pleasant would it be to doe as he bids us in hope of such an incomparable recompence I leave every one to make triall of it that he may be able to tell if he can what power and force there is in this settled belief It is reported by him that writes the Life of Laurentius Justinianus that when he was a youth about nineteen years old which is an age you know most slippery and subject to danger he thought he saw one day or night I know not well whether a very beautifull virgin approaching towards him and thus addressing her speech to him Why dost thou O young man thus disquiet thine heart and wast thy strength in a vain pursuit of many things whereon thou pourest forth thy affections why dost thou seek for rest in such triviall injoyments That which thou art so desirous of is in my power to bestow upon thee And if thou wilt resolye to take me for thy Spouse I promise to bring with me such a portion of peace and contentment as no other person can inrich thee withall The young man you may well suppose was much taken with so rare a feature and such fair promises which moved him to crave that he might know her name and the family from which she was descended To which she answered I am the Wisedom of God that is my Name thence is my Parentage if thou wilt accept of the offer I will be thine and give all I have to thee The youth says the story instantly consented and after he had drawn a contract between them thought she took her leave of him and went away to provide for the wedding Upon this he awaked and imagined the Vision instructed him to betake himself to a Monasticall life Which he presently vowed concluding that in that retirement he was to compleat his marriage to the
Wisedom of God when he had quitted the empty pleasures of the World However fabulous this Story may prove which seems to have been composed in imitation of that Vision of Hercules which many Greek Writers mention you may make it true if you please For behold how the true Wisedom of God our Blessed Lord and Saviour presents himself to you He hath appeared in most admirable beauty and a glorious form to many of his Servants which they have described and left us the picture of In his Gospell he is so lively expressed that we cannot if we look upon him but behold him as the onely-begotten of the Father the brightness of his glory and the character of his person Would it would but please you to listen to the offers he makes you the portion of Life and Glory hereafter together with true peace and contentment here which he will assure to you O that you would but draw a lively image of these things in your mind and represent the King of glory as soliciting your heart to his service Do you not believe that it would be infinitely more obliging then such an apparition as that now named Would it not more easily make you abandon the sinfull pleasures of this world then the other made him forsake the lawfull Would not the beauty of our Saviour and the splendour of his glory in the heavens set before your eyes be more inamouring then any imaginary or reall beauty whatsoever Would not these words of his be more piercing then any other I will give to him that overcomes to inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my Son Would it not transport our hearts with joy to hear that he will be contracted to us and assure us of such a dowry with himself in the heavens Would it not make all his commands so far from being grievous that we should think them sweet and delicious above all the pleasures wherein sensuall men are drowned He can make no doubt of it that hath not lost his reason and is able to understand what the difference is between such a certain truth as this and a dream and between the commands of our Lord and the obedience which that youth undertook to perform Jesus is certainly in the heavens He sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high He unfeignedly wishes we would be espoused to him He will settle an eternall inheritance upon us and He doth not require us to go into Monasteries and deserts to live like Hermites and Anchorets to immure our selves from all society though if he did we should have no ill bargain of it but onely to retire seriously into our selves and there often meet with him to live soberly righteously and godly while we are in the world to let no company draw us from his precepts nor suffer any creature to rob him of our affection And what a reasonable demand this is you will then see when you heartily believe this ETERNALL LIFE which he hath promised Believe and then you will think there is nothing too much or too hard to be done or suffered for the attaining such a glorious Life with our Saviour Which moved St. Stephen to suffer stoning and St. Paul to be in deaths often and St. John to endure banishment in a most desolate Island and worse things afterward that they might be so happy And let us with honest hearts desirous to be what God would have us beg the assistence of the HOLY GHOST to guide us in this way of understanding which we shall find incomparably the best to settle in our mind a sense of the happiness to come For when the Soul comes to the perfection of the Spirit Macar Hom. xvi xviii wholly purged from all affections and united to the Spirit the Comforter by an unspeakable communion so that by this heavenly mixture it becomes worthy to be a spirit it is all Light all Eye all Spirit all Joy all Rest all Exultation all Love all Goodness and Sweetness It becomes hereby privy to the Counsels of the Heavenly King and knows his Secrets It hath a confidence in the Almighty and enters into his Palace where the Angels and the spirits of the Saints are though it be as yet in this world For though it hath not attained the intire inheritance prepared for it there yet it is secure from the Earnest it hath received as if it were crowned and possessed of the Kingdome Who would not labour then to be so happy not onely hereafter but also here Georg. Nicomed in concept S. Annae there in possession and here in hope What a work is it to ascend up into heaven What laborious steps can lead us to so great an height What are the sweats of this mortall life to those eternall recompences By what pains shall we be worthy of friendship with our Maker How shall we make our selves a proper habitation for him to dwell in For he hath said I and my Father will come and dwell in him that loves me and keeps my Commands This is the end of the Good we have in hope this is the heavenly Kingdom this is the enjoyment of eternall pleasure this is the never-ceasing joy the perpetuall triumph the retribution transcending all our labours nay all understanding There are no labours no not in thought equall to this recompence of reward They all fall so infinitely below it that for mean for inconsiderable pains our transcendently-good Lord will give an enjoyment far surpassing all our thoughts All humane endeavours are of no account though we should wear out a whole life in them compared with the future Blessedness Though we should sustain a perpetuall combate all our days though they should be prolonged to an hundred years or to twice as much or thrice or a thousand times and all this while we should contend in a vertuous course we shall seem to have done nothing when we come to confer it with what we shall receive And therefore let us gladly by such small and poor labours strive to purchase these super-sublime recompences and treasure up these never-consuming riches I call those poor and small which not onely seem so to all but the perpetuall combate of an whole Age the most unwearied pursuit of vertue the most incessant and fervent pains in its service For such are the Goods which our munificent Lord will give in exchange for them such are the superabundant riches of his retributions such is the Hyperbole of his loving-kindness and goodness that for few things he will give infinite for beggery the greatest riches for perishing things Goods that last for ever These let us seek and dedicating our selves wholly to the Lord make haste to the obtaining so inestimable a Good Let us consecrate Soul and body to him and be fastened to his Cross that we may be worthy of his Eternall Kingdom giving glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost for ever and ever
Amen CHAP. IX Concerning the Witnesses on Earth and first of the WATER YOU have seen already how many there are that solicit our affections and perswade us to believe in the Lord Jesus and heartily consent to him in whatsoever he requires So many that how we should deny him after He himself hath appeared so often with the promises of Eternall Life and the Father also and the Holy Ghost have commended him to us as the Prince of Peace and the Lord of Glory it is harder to give any reason then it is to prove that he is the Son of God and that in him is ETERNALL LIFE For as if these Witnesses were not sufficient or that we may be born down by numerous Testimonies there are Three more who are our Neighbours as I may say with whom we are well acquainted and whose witness none could ever deny that speak the very same thing and affirm it as strongly as the other that God hath given us Eternall Life and that it is in his Son Jesus Let us call them in too and hear what they say in the same order wherein we examined them before in the former business first taking the Testimony of the WATER then of the BLOUD and then of the SPIRIT Of the WATER BY Water I have shewn we are to understand either that Purity whereof it is the Instrument which was most eminent both in Christ's Doctrine and Life or else Baptism both John's and his own by which he appeared to be the Sâ—n of God Let us have so much patience as to hear all these once more and consider what they say to the point in hand I. And as for the Purity and Holiness of his Doctrine there is much in it to perswade us that he hath Life in himself and will bestow it upon his Followers Certain it is that 1. it naturally lifts up the Mind towards heaven and disposes those that entertain it to look for Eternall Life for which it is but a preparation For it teaches us to abstract our hearts from this Flesh wherewith we are cloathed and from this World wherein we live as not worthy of all those thoughts and that care which we are apt to bestow upon them The very intent and purpose of it we cannot but see is to wean our minds from earthly injoyments and to take off our affections from the pleasures of sense to make riches and the praise of men seem little things and to give us contentment with our portion of present goods though never so small in short â—o render us something like to God himself whilst we are at this distance from him What can any man make of this but that it is a preparation for another life an Institution which designs to form men and make them fit for an higher World Do but take a review of that Compendium which I have drawn of this Doctrine in my former Book and you will be satisfied that it is nothing else but a contrivance to make us heavenly and intends to guide us to such a Life as is a prevention of Heaven a beginning of the celestial state whereby we shall live in part as men of another World and not of this Which future World 2. it is manifest his heavenly Doctrine supposes or else it would be so far from that Wisedom which was eminent in him that it would be the greatest absurdity that can be imagined For it teaches us if his service require it to deny our selves even in the most innocent and lawfull injoyments of this life to forsake father and mother and houses and lands for his Name 's sake yea to lay down our very lives rather then forsake his Doctrine and violate his commands These are express Lessons which his Sermons teach his Disciples but are things so sublime so much above the reach of flesh and bloud that it would be the vainest thing in the world to propose them to mens observance without the hope of something in another life to reward such hard services He would have had no followers on these terms had he not made it as plain and evident as the rest of his Doctrine that He would be the Authour of Eternall Salvation to them that would obey him Men were not so fond of troubles and torments and death as to expose themselves to the danger of them if they had not seen the greatest reason to believe that their Master would recompense their present Sufferings with a future happiness so incomparably greater that it would be the highest folly to avoid them None can suppose the Authour of such a Religion to be so weak as not to understand that men would never embrace this profession unless at the same time that he called them to this high pitch of piety he called them also as the Apostle speaks to his kingdom and glory And therefore without all doubt our Lord took care to preach this as the principall thing and to give good assurance of a blessed state to come because without this it had been the most ungrounded and foolish undertaking that ever man went about to perswade the world to be so mortified to quit all present possessions and to part with their lives for his sake He must have been the most unreasonable of all other men in preaching such Doctrine and supposed the World void of all reason if he expected to have it believed had he not been certain himself and been able by evident proofs to perswade others that all those who hearkened to him should be no losers but exceeding great gainers by quitting all things upon his account If he had not held this truth in his hands as clear as the Sun that they who would follow him should be immortally happy he might have stretcht them out long enough before he had drawn so much as one follower after him The Trees would as soon have followed him as Men who would never have stirr'd a foot in such a narrow path unless he had shewn them plainly that it led to Everlasting Life Let us consider and illustrate this a little Would not he expose himself to laughter and scorn that should earnestly perswade his neighbours to go and labour hard in his fields all day by which they should get just nothing for their pains at night Would it not seem a piece of strange mockery and contempt of us and as strange a folly in him that should invite us to enter into his service which he confessed would make us sweat and ingage us in many toilsome imployments and when we inquired what wages he gave should be able to assure us never a farthing that lay in his power or will to bestow upon us Would they not be equally ridiculous he that should make and they that should embrace such a proposall Might not such a trifler expect rather to be kickt then to be followed by the multitude Should we not hear them expressing their indignation in such speeches as these What Do you take
my self but he sent me For which reason he doth not discourse of immortall life as a Philosopher going about to prove it by reasons and arguments but onely asserts it as one that had Divine Authority for which he was to be believed and could himself make men eternally happy This was the onely thing that could be disputed and needed proof that he came from heaven to illuminate the world by his instructions And this he did not desire they should take upon his bare word but abundantly demonstrated it and told them ver 28. that after his death they should still see it made more evident that he did nothing of himself but as the Father had taught him he spake these things For then as you shall see in due place God the Father declared all these words to be true by raising him from the dead These things he said so often so openly so confidently and with such appeals to God who bare him witness as you have heard and never in the least contradicted what he said that we have great reason to believe he did not forge all this but delivered the mind and will of God as sincerely when he said he would give men Eternall Life as he did when he charged them to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Certain it is that He himself believed what he preached and had no doubt but a perfect assurance of it as will appear if we pass to the Second thing which we are briefly to consider II. His own most holy Life in the strictest obedience to God the Father This Abarbinell in his discourse upon xi Isa which I have so often mentioned makes one of the marks of the Messiah the perfect temper of his desires and affections and the direction of them according to the measures of the Divine Law Which he thinks is the meaning of those words ver 3. He shall be of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. This was so remarkable in Jesus who was so truly so compleatly and constantly pious that there never was any person so qualified to lay claim to this Dignity as he was His Life was so free from all blame such a perfect abstinence from all the pleasures of this world such a contempt of all that which we think most worthy of our indefatigable labours that it hath a strong force in it to perswade us that he indeed sought Eternall Glory and was fully assured he should be possessed of it for Himself and for all His. Who but a man so perswaded of his Doctrine would have lived in poverty when he might no question by the multitude and devotion of his followers have made himself incredibly rich What should incline him to remain all his days without an house so big as a fox or the smallest bird is owner of but an expectation of that house which is eternall in the heavens Could any thing move him to give away to the poor all that was given him but a certain knowledge of great treasures above We cannot conceive what should make him refuse the dignity of a King when the people intended to proclaim him if it were not this undoubted perswasion that he was the King of Heaven and should sit down at the right hand of the Throne of God Would any of those that doubt this labour as he did night and day for nothing Would any poor man cure multitudes of all diseases and take not a farthing for his pains Would any body live if he could help it and not know where he should eat the next meal's meat And who is he that can find in his heart to endure the hatred of the chiefest of the people and to be in perpetuall danger of snares and treacherous designs for the taking away his life without any hope to be a gainer by it Is there any likelihood that our Lord would have laboured in such sort as not to have leisure so much as to eat and after all that kind pains be content to be called Deceiver and Devill and to run the hazzard of being stoned and killed and yet have no assured expectation to reap some fruit hereafter from all his toil and trouble Let him believe it that loves to sting his fingers with nettles or to roll his naked body in snow we that have a more tender sense of our own pleasure must have leave to be of another mind Let any man try to perswade himself to lead such a life and by his unwillingness he will easily be convinced that our Lord who could look for nothing in this world from what he did and suffered would never have so chearfully freely and without any regret followed such a course had he not known as surely that he should be made glorious thereby hereafter as he knew that he must be made miserable by it here Ask his Poverty then and that will bear witness that he laid up treasures in the heavens Ask his Humility and that will tell you that he sought for the Glory of God onely Inquire of his Charity and Bounty his wonderfull bounty to all men and that will bear Record both that all fulness is in him and that he will not envy any thing he hath to his followers Let his Contentedness speak and that will assure you he was possessed of something greater then all worldly goods which he could tell better how to live without then others to live comfortably withall Examine his Labours and pains his travells and journeys trace his steps over sea and land and they will all confess that he sought a better Country which is an heavenly Ask him what he meant by his Patience his willing endurance of all reproaches calumnies hatreds persecutions and they will likewise conclude in the same testimony that he had a joy set before him which made him despise them all In short consult his Fasting forty days his enduring so many temptations of the Devill slighting his offers rejecting his counsels and you can have no account of them but this that he had indeed the meat that endures to everlasting life that he verily believed the voice from heaven which said he was the Son of God and that he knew he had a greater Glory then all the Kingdoms of the world which the Devill offered him And after all this I suppose there is no considering man but will think the unquestionable belief of such a person as he was to be of very great moment to settle ours in this weighty business It is safest for us without all dispute to follow the judgment of one so well able to discern truth from falshood that he was of as quick understanding in all things else as he was in the fear of the Lord. We have great reason to think that he was in the right and was no more deluded himself then he intended to delude others There was not the least flaw as I shewed in the former Treatise that appeared in his Understanding nor could
that Holy men doubted not to call this Baptism a S. Cyprian epist ad Donatum ad Magnum the Water of Salvation the Water of Life and the immortall Nativity b Optatus L. v. Nay St. Augustine informs us that the Punick Christians called Baptism by no other name then SALVATION which he thought so proper that he ascribes it to an ancient and Apostolicall tradition c L. i. de Peccatorum merituis c. c. 24. And Paschasius calls it LIFE in his Book of the Body and bloud of our Lord where he says of those who died shortly after Baptism that post perceptam vitam after they were made partakers of life they in nothing declined from the way And for this they had the Authority of our Saviour who said after he was risen from the dead xvi Mark 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and shewed St. John xxii Rev. 1 2. a pure river of WATER OF LIFE clear as crystall running through the midst of the street * So Andraeas Caesar joyns the beginning of ver 2. to ver 1. of the new Jerusalem from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Which is a plain description of the place of Baptism appointed by God and our Saviour in the midst of Christian assemblies called Streets because they are the place of concourse for the purifying of the world and restoring us to Paradise again And he calls his Baptism WATER OF LIFE because it runs thither and there we begin to live * S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. de Spiritu S. c. x. and are admitted to the friendship of God and put in assured hope that the Life which then begins shall be continued to Eternall life It is usuall with the ancient Writers of Christianity to speak of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instauration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transformation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a transfiguration of mens Souls in Baptism by which says St. Basil the Soul so glisters that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * in Psal xxix God forms it to himself to be as it were his Throne And so St. Cyprian testifies of himself in his Epistle to Donatus that though he was perplexed in so many errours as made him think he could never be rid of them and so led away by those vices which stuck close to him that despairing to doe better he began to favour them as things proper to him yet when he had received Baptism a light from above came streaming into him a celestiall breath repaired him into a new man and after a wonderfull manner he was confirmed in those things which seemed dubious and saw those things clearly which before were obscure and found a power to doe that which he judged not onely difficult but impossible Now this change which they felt in their thoughts desires and passions as soon as they were baptized was a powerfull argument to perswade them that they should as really rise from the dead and live eternally as they were now quickned when they lay dead in trespasses and sins to the life of God and true piety Which was the reason that they chose Easter rather then any other time as the most proper season for the receiving the grace of Baptism So the same St. Basil tells us that every day every hour every moment is a time for Baptism but there is none so fit as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortat ad Baptismum the more proper and peculiar season for it which is Easter-day For the day is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a memoriall of the Resurrection and Baptism is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a power granted us to rise again So that on the day of the Resurrection we should receive the grace of the Resurrection And therefore the Church calls on those whom she hath conceived and travelled withall a good while that now she may bring them forth This belief they were desirous by all means to impress upon mens minds and would have them look upon Baptism as the seal of a second life * Greg. Naz. Carm. iamb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which they could not be deceived finding such a beginning of it already as testified the mighty power of God working in them And therefore St. Paul with great reason alledges Baptism as a publick witness to the faith of the Church about the Resurrection of the dead and the Life of the world to come 1. Cor. xv 29. Else what shall they doe which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all why are they then baptized for the dead The Resurrection of the dead was so much the hope of Christians and Baptism gave such strength to their hope that when any person newly instructed in the Christian faith died before he could receive Baptism some of his Friends it is reported from Irenaeus received it after his departure in his Name To what purpose doe they this says the Apostle if he have respect to this custom why do they thus trouble themselves if they look for nothing after death This shews that even those who were mistaken in other things as in this about baptizing for their deceased Friends thought the dead were not lost but that there was hope of their future happiness else they would not still have continued to assist them and taken all the care they could that they might not be prejudiced for want of Baptism which in their stead they received They would not have been so senseless as to concern themselves to doe any thing for those who were gone from this world if they had not believed another and lookt upon them as capable there of Eternall Life Into the belief and expectation of which all Christians whatsoever were baptized which perhaps is all that the Apostle means by this Question Why are they baptized for the dead Which Rigaltius * In Tertul de Resurrect carnis c. 48. thus interprets Why are they baptized ut mortui resurgant that after death they may rise again why are they askt at the Font whether they believe the resurrection of the dead So that for the dead is for themselves in hope of what shall follow after death viz. a blessed Resurrection Which is the interpretation of St. Chrysostome as I have observed elsewhere * Aqua Genitalis who also bids us take notice how that which they expressed in words when they professed to believe this great Article of the Christian Faith was also represented as in an Image by the very act of Baptism In which the going into the water and the coming out was a sign of their descending to the state of the dead and of their ascending from thence to life again There is no man that is baptized but by the very rite and manner of it professes to die at least to sin and to rise again to newness of life This Death and Resurrection as the Apostle teaches vi Rom. 3 4
5. is most lively represented there But this is not all that is intended by it for even those * Arias Montanus who in that sense were already mortified and renewed by receiving the Holy Ghost before their baptism as Cornelius and his family proceeded notwithstanding to receive that holy washing and by their submersion took upon them the likeness of the dead and by their emersion appeared as men risen again from the dead If there were no other death to be escaped but that in sin and no other resurrection to be expected but that to newness of life why were they who had attained these baptized as dead men and being already dead to sin why again sustained they the image of death out of which they believed and professed they should come This very action of theirs proves that they lookt for another resurrection after death which is the resurrection of the body And this profession of theirs was so much the more weighty as they were the more learned and instructed being already taught by the Holy Ghost By whose power they were already dead to sin and made alive to God and by whose instruction they professed to believe that as there is another death viz. that of the body so they should overcome it by the mighty power of Christ raising their very bodies from the dead There are severall other interpretations of this place as that of Epiphanius * Haeresi 38. who expounds it of those who received Baptism at the point of death but I shall not trouble the Reader with them because they all conclude the same thing that Baptism was a publick profession of the hope of immortality and a Seal also of the promises of God not onely to that particular person who at any time received it but to the whole Church both to the living and the dead Who as oft as Baptism was repeated had an open assurance given them from God by whose authority it was administred that they should rise again to everlasting life And so I shall dismiss this First Witness on Earth which is the more to be regarded because though it be not so great in it self as those which speak from heaven yet to us it is very considerable and cannot be denied by those who cavill at some of the other For all men acknowledge the Life and Doctrine of our Saviour to be incomparably excellent and John the Baptist stands upon record in Josephus for a person of severe and strict sanctity and the whole Christian Church who were not so childish as to build their hope on a sandy foundation but stood immovable as you shall hear like a house upon a rock when all the world storm'd and made the most furious assaults upon them believed thus from the beginning as appears by their holy profession which they made when they entred into the gates of the Church by Baptism The mighty power of which WATER OF LIFE they have thus celebrated with their praises Greg. Naz. Orat. xl Baptism is the Splendour of the Soul the Change of the life the Answer of the Conscience towards God It is the help of our weakness the putting off the flesh the attainment of the Spirit the Communion of the Word the Reformation of God's workmanship the drowning of Sin the participation of light and the destruction of darkness It is the Chariot which carries us to God our fellow-travelling with Christ the establishment of our faith the perfecting of our minds the key of the Kingdom of heaven the foundation of a second life * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. xi At this the heavens rejoyce this the Angels magnify as of kin to their brightness this is the Image of their blessedness We would willingly praise this if we could say any thing worthy of it Let us never cease however to give him thanks who is the Authour of such a gift Greg. Nyssen L. de Baptismo Christi returning him the small tribute of a chearfull voice for such great things as he hath bestowed on us For thou truly O Lord art the pure and perpetuall fountain of Goodness who wast justly offended at us but hast in much love had mercy on us who hatedst us but art reconciled to us who pronouncedst a curse upon us but hast given us thy blessing who didst expell us from Paradise but hast called us back again unto it Thou hast taken away the fig-leaf covering of our nakedness and cloathed us with a most precious garment Thou hast opened the prison-doors and dismissed those that stood condemned Thou hast sprinkled us with pure water and cleansed us from all our filthiness Adam if thou callest him will be no longer ashamed he will not hide himself nor run away from thee The flaming sword doth not now incircle Paradise making it inaccessible to those that approach it but all things are turned into joy to us who were heirs of sin and death Paradise and Heaven it self is now open to mankind The Creation both here and above consents to be friends after a long enmity Men and Angels are piously agreed in the same Theology For all which Blessings let us unanimously sing that Hymn of joy which the inspired mouth in ancient times loudly prophesied I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyfull in my God For he hath cloathed me with the garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness he hath decked me with ornaments as a bridegroom and as a bride adorned me with jewels lxi Isa 10. This adorner of the Bride is Christ who is and who was before and who will be blessed both now and for ever Amen CHAP. X. Concerning the Testimony of the BLOVD the Second Witness on Earth THE next Witness which comes in order to be examined is the BLOUD by which I told you we are to understand the Crucifixion and Death of the Lord Jesus with all the attendants of it This is a Witness which the greatest enemies of Christianity cannot but confess was heard to speak in his behalf The stubborn Jews who will be loth to grant that a voice from heaven declared him the Son of God cannot deny that their forefathers imbrued their hands in his bloud For in the Babylonian Talmud * Vid. Horae Hebr. in Matt. p. 3â—9 Tzemach David ad an 3761. it is delivered as a tradition among them that they hanged Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evening of the Passeover and that a Crier went before him forty days saying He is to be carried forth to be stoned for conjuring and drawing Israel to Apostasy If any one can speak any thing for him to prove him innocent let him appear It is an hard matter to have any truth from these fabulous people without the mixture of a tale together with it When they cannot gainsay what we believe that their Nation were the great Instruments of his death they endeavour to find false reasons
1.18 would never alter for forty years before the destruction of the Temple but still continued red on the great day of Expiation Which if it be true as we have their own faith for it was a shrewd token that their most excellent Sacrifices were now able to doe them no service and that their Sins were of so deep a dye having crucified the Prince of life that nothing in the old Religion could purifie them In vain did they expect to hear that tongue speaking peace to them which was wont to publish good tidings for it still lookt as red as bloud and told them there was no hope for them but in Jesus who alone could make their crimson sins as white as wool By his bloudy Death they might sue out a pardon of those very crimes which they had committed against himself For it being a Sacrifice was for the remission of Sins or else the World had been in a worse case then it was before now that all other Bloud to cleanse them was quite taken away And there was no reason to doubt but God was perfectly well pleased and satisfied with this one Sacrifice of his else he would not have raised him from the dead nor admitted him into the heavens where as He himself hath since declared he appears in the presence of God and by virtue of his Sacrifice makes perpetuall intercession for us Now this plainly infers as hath been said before the hope of Eternall Life For if there be remission of sins then we are restored to the state of innocence again We are put into the state and condition of the sons of God and there is nothing to hinder our being re-possessed of Paradise and the Tree of Life To which we not being restored in this World it remains that we be admitted to it and re-instated in it in another IX Unto all which let the consideration of the time be added when our Saviour suffered for that is not without its instruction in this business but contributes something to the confirmation of our faith It was at the Feast of unleavened Bread as they themselves cannot deny a solemn time appointed by God to be observed at their departure out of Egypt when they were ransomed by a mighty hand and purchased to be God's peculiar people and began their journey towards the Land of Canaan which he had promised to their forefathers At this Feast it is well known a Lamb immaculate and pure was ordered to be slain whose bloud was that which saved them from the strokes of the Angel of Death who destroyed the Egyptians Now our Lord the Lamb of God without spot and blemish the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world as St. John Baptist testified being slain at this very time and hanging on the Cross after the same fashion wherein the Paschall Lamb was wont to be killed it was a Testimony clear enough to those that observed and laid things together that his BLOUD was their ransome from a greater slavery and was shed to deliver them from eternall death and destruction and after they had travelled a while through the wilderness as I may call it of this world and overcome there all difficulties and temptations would procure their entrance into a better and more glorious Rest then that wherein they were The Holy man who writes the Epistle to the Hebrews proves unanswerably chap. iv that the Rest into which Joshua brought the Children of Israel was not all that good men expected and which God intended to bestow upon them For if that great Captain had brought them to their finall Rest there would not have been mention made by the inspired Psalmist many years after their settlement in Canaan of another Rest which as the words there are remaineth for the people of God Now who can pretend to be the Captain of their Salvation to conduct them thither but onely our Blessed Saviour whose Name is the same with that of the ancient Joshua or Jesus who was baptized at that very place where they entred into their Rest in the promised Land to whom the heavens there opened and God the Father spake by an audible voice and the Holy Ghost fell down in a visible shape who at last after many promises and assurances that he would bring them to the heavenly Country was offered at that very time when their forefathers began their travells to their resting-place and hereby sealed what he had promised by his bloud as God the Father sealed to it by divers acts of his that He was a Lamb without spot an offering and a sacrifice to him of a sweet-smelling savour Well might St. Paul call him our Passeover that is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. v. 7. For it is as visible that he was slain for the salvation of mankind as that the Paschall Lamb was slain for the preservation of Israel and that as the destroying Angel passed over those houses where he found the bloud of that Lamb upon the door-posts and spared the lives of the inhabitants so all those Souls that are sprinkled with the bloud of Jesus i. e. believe on him shall be delivered by him from perishing and preserved to eternall Life Which Salvation he procured by offering himself freely as our Passeover that is for the like end but as much excelling as Eternall life doth temporary for which the Paschal Lamb was sacrificed And he made his sacrifice the more remarkable by offering it at that very time when the other was offered and when they themselves expected it For some of the Jews say expresly which adds much weight to this observation that on the same day of the month Nisan Israel shall be redeemed in the days of the Messiah Vid P. Fagium in xii Exod. 13. on which they were redeemed when God wonderfully brought them out of the land of Egypt Now our Saviour made good his word which he had often passed that he would give them his very flesh to eat whereby they might feast with him as they had done that day on the Paschal Lamb. He gave them also his very bloud to drink which was the price of their redemption that which saved them from the destroyer and overcame those enemies which opposed their entrance into the Eternall Rest For his flesh as he speaks vi Joh. 55. being offered on the Cross was meat indeed and his bloud drink indeed That is the most perfect food and excellent nutriment which hath a power to give not a temporary as the Paschal Lamb did but an Eternall life to those that partake of it by a lively faith in him Some of the Jews themselves thought there was some greater Mystery in the Passeover then the commemoration of their deliverance out of Egypt and say expresly that then God communicated his Divinity to men They are the words of R. Judah * apud Masâ—um in v. Jesh 1â— By the Sacrifice of the Passeover God joyns men so closely to himself that
they are one with him as light is with a candle Which had little truth in it till Christ our PASSEOVER was sacrificed for us when the mystery was explained and he invited all men to come and eat of his flesh and drink of his bloud and thereby have such a fellowship with him in his death that he might communicate to them his life For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Clemens Alex. speaks * L 11. Paedag. cap. 2. This is to drink the bloud of Jesus to partake of the Lord's immortality And so our Lord explains himself when he adds in the next words ver 57. As the living Father who being the authour of life can give it again to the dead hath sent me and I live by the Father shall rise again though I give my flesh to be slain so he that eateth me believeth on me though crucified shall live by me that is be raised again to life by me as I by the Father For he gave his flesh as he says at the beginning of this discourse ver 51. that is delivered it to be made a bloudy sacrifice for the life of the world i. e. that all mankind might have remission of sins and eternall life Which he will as certainly give to those who do not refuse to participate of this Sacrifice by believing in him as the Father of life raised him from the dead to live for evermore These words seemed hard to some of his Disciples ver 60. who could not understand that there should be such virtue in his flesh as to give life unto the world But our Lord tells them there was no cause of being offended at this discourse for if they would but stay a while they should be convinced that he did not ascribe too much to it ver 62. What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before That is What will you say if you behold me raised up from the dead and ascend into heaven where I was before I took this flesh Will you not then confess that my Death which is meant by his giving his flesh to them had an exceeding great virtue in it being so acceptable to God as to be thus highly rewarded Will it then seem incredible to you that I should obtain thereby a power to raise the dead and to give eternall Life This sure will be a convincing argument that I have not said too much of my BLOUD nor promised greater things then it can doe for you You will then if you consider it joyn your selves heartily to me though now you are ready to fly off and not think my Cross such a scandall that it should hinder you from being Christians X. And that will be one of our next works in the following Chapter to shew the power of Christ's Resurrection to perswade us that by his Death He will give life to the world Let us first onely briefly consider that there are some other Circumstances besides this now mentioned which declare there was something exceeding remarkable in the Sufferings of Christ on the Cross to procure him great glory For we find that Nicodemus one of their Senatours who durst not publickly own our Saviour while he was in great savour with the people came now that he was crucified and exposed to scorn and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes about an hundred pound weight xix Joh. 39. to honour his Corps withall Which would be a stronger argument of the thorough conviction already wrought in his mind if there be any truth in the conjecture of a learned Man * Jac. Alâ—ing Schiâ—â— l. w. p 26. that these spices were intended not to embalm him but as the manner was upon great occasions to burn at his funerall Thus far he is certainly in the right that the honour of having sweet spices burnt at their funerals appertained to no other persons but onely their Kings 2 Chron. xvi ult and the Head of all the Doctours the Nasi as they called him of their Academies And he notes likewise truly out of Joseph ben Gorion that when the funerall pomp of Herod the Great was carried forth fifty of his servants are said to have scattered all the way they went those very things which Nicodemus brought viz. Myrrh and Aloes and all other sweet spices But whether we can hence conclude that Nicodemus now honoured him by these as the King of Israel and the Prince of all the prophets I cannot tell because the Evangelist ver 40. seems to tell us that the use they made of these spices was to imbalm his body which they wound in linen cloaths with the spices as the manner of the Jews was to bury Yet this we may safely conclude that he would never have put himself to so great a charge and laid out so much upon his dead body if he had not seen something which convinced him that this was that King of Israel who would give him a reward for his love and open confession of him in his heavenly Kingdome There was nothing to move him to such an expence upon such an hated person but onely a perswasion that Jesus was what he pretended and an assured hope that by this flesh which now lay dead the World should be restored to life Yea such power there was in his Death to affect mens hearts that not onely the Centurion confessed him to be a righteous man but all the people who were come together to that sight beholding the things that accompanied his sufferings were prickt in their consciences and smote their breasts xxiii Luk. 47 48. They could not that is but express their sorrow for this horrid fact of shedding his BLOUD and dread the dismall consequences of it Insomuch that Gem. Sanh c. vi though it was forbidden by the Constitutions of the Sanhedrin to make any lamentations for a malefactour yet they were not able on this occasion to forbear it Their own Writers tell us that it was a part of the honour they did to a deserving person when his funerall was carried out to accompany him with sighs and groans and tears and beating themselves and such like tokens of their inward grief for his loss With which the Holy Scripture agrees when it names this as part of the Curse of God upon Jehojakim that none should so much as sigh at his buriall nor make the usuall lamentation saying Ah my Brother Ah Lord or Ah his glory xxii Jer. 18. From whence it is likely they passed a Decree that when any person suffered by a publick sentence for a crime none should presume to grace him with any ceremony nor use the least outward sign of heaviness though in their hearts they might mourn for him But this Decree and Custome settled by the Authority of their supreme Court the esteem which our Saviour wone to himself even when he hung upon his Cross forced the people to break Their affection to him was stronger then all Laws and they
saying Come and see and his loud voice which they heard saying Lazarus come forth xi Joh. 34 43. By their sight when they beheld him whom they knew very well to be dead obeying his word By their smell when they perceived the ill sent as they rolled away the stone By their touch when they loosed his hands and his feet as our Lord bad them and let him go By all these they were so well satisfied that there was no room left for their infidelity nor much for the Pharisees who knew neither how to confute this Testimony nor how to avoid the consequence of it They began now to despair of prevailing against him any other way then by taking away his life which their malice made them design against the clearest light Though that also proved as you shall see presently but a farther confirmation of the truth they sought to obscure by his rising again from the dead And they could have found in their hearts to have killed Lazarus too because as long as he lived he would proclaim this Miracle to the honour of Jesus who hereby gave such an illustrious testimony that he was the Authour of Eternall Life that just when he was going to raise up Lazarus he inculcates this Doctrine as the fittest season to impress it upon them xi Joh. 25 26. I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die Martha it seems believed this before upon a perswasion that he was the Christ the Son of God that should come into the world ver 27. But when she saw Lazarus come out of his grave then sure she believed it more strongly both because it was a farther argument that he was the Christ and likewise included in it that very thing which he propounded to her belief viz. that He was the Life and would give life unto those who were dead if they believed on him I shall conclude this part of the SPIRIT 's Testimony with those words of our Lord himself viii Joh. 50. where he protests that he sought not his own glory that is assumed not to himself this great power to be the Life of the world but God the Father sought it i. e. perswaded the world of it by the illustrious Miracles which he wrought whereby the Father honoured him as he says ver 54. and passed such a judgment on him that we may all conclude as he doth ver 51. Verily verily if a man keep his words he shall not see death II. Of which we shall be the more confident if we adde now the other Witness of the SPIRIT to him which was in raising him from the dead and giving him Glory at God's right hand This was a greater Wonder then all that preceded sufficient to satisfie those who still remained doubtfull For if any body as St. Greg. Nyssen discourses in the Book before mentioned should use those words of our Lord in another case and apply them to this business saying Physician cure thy self it is but meet that he who did such wonders on other mens bodies to prove a Resurrection should give an example of it in his own We have seen one nigh to death another newly dead a young man ready to be laid in his grave and Lazarus already rotten all these by his word recalled to life Let us see one live again who was wounded and had his heart pierced and his bloud shed one who we are sure was dead Come then and look upon Jesus himself whose hands and feet were pierced into whose side a spear was thrust Come and look upon him who bled to death And if this man was raised from the dead nay more then that ascended into heaven as abundance of credible witnesses testifie what doubt is there left that by him God will give us a blessed Resurrection unto immortall Life if we be obedient to him They that saw the one viz. his Resurrection and Ascension could not but stedfastly believe the other and have told us that he was raised and glorified on purpose that our faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 This was the great design and end of first opening his grave and then opening the heavens to him that our confidence in God might revive again and we might hope by his favour to have the honour of being made the sons of God by being the children of the Resurrection That our Blessed Saviour was really dead as the History testifies his greatest Enemies always confessed and still acknowledge He hung a long time upon the Cross there he bled and at last his side was wounded with a spear in the vitall parts All the spectatours were satisfied that he had given up the ghost and the Souldiers when they came to break his legs as the manner was found the work already so effectually done that there was no need of it He was wrapt in Cerecloaths laid in a grave and given up by all his Friends for a lost man But that after all this he was as really alive again as he had been before is testified by divers sufficient Witnesses and among the rest by one of his principall Enemies who was throughly convinced of it The Apostles saw him very often they spake with him they felt and handled him one of them put his finger into the very print of the nails and thrust his hand into his wounded side They eat and drank with him they received Commissions from him and after he had shewn himself alive to them by many infallible proofs being seen of them forty days he ascended up to heaven in their sight and from thence according to his promise they received the Holy Ghost i. e. in his Name did all sorts of Miracles raising even dead men to life again And after all he appeared from heaven to St. Paul a man that set himself vehemently against him and breathed nothing but threatnings and slaughters against his Disciples whom he turned quite to be on his side perswading him so fully that he was indeed risen from the dead that he became as you have heard a most zealous preacher of it with the continuall hazzard of his life This is a more credible History then any other as it were easie to shew if it were my present business and we may better doubt of all Records then of those wherein the memory of these things is preserved They were holy devout and self-denying persons who report these things upon their own knowledge And they are reported not by one or two but by many of them who met with nothing in the world to tempt them to tell a lie but with a great many things to deterr them from publishing so odious a Truth And therefore if we will not doubt of every thing we do not see we cannot refuse to believe that Jesus did indeed rise again after he was dead and buried and ascended into heaven Which being
supposed for I shall say no more of it here there is no man can have the face to deny the Resurrection of the body and Life everlasting which Christ our Lord hath promised us There can be no truer reasoning then that of St. Paul 1 Thess iv 14. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Jesus will God bring with him I. For thus much is evident at first sight and is included in the thing it self that this work of the SPIRIT proves a possibility of the Resurrection of the dead and shews that we mortal creatures who live on the earth may live in the heavens So the same Apostle argues elsewhere against those who denied this Truth 1 Cor. xv 12. If Christ be preached upon such credible testimonies as he mentions in the foregoing verses that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead It is the grossest absurdity that is to say there can be no such thing as the restoring of a dead body to life when it is so evidently verified in Christ's resurrection Which shews it is so far from being impossible or incredible that it is a thing which hath been done already as is very well attested by Witnesses that cannot with any equity be rejected And by the same reason he proves we ought not to despair of seeing our bodies made glorious and incorruptible For if He be not in his grave as none could shew him there after the third day but is made glorious why may not we partake of the same favour by that power which raised Christ from the dead and set him at God's right hand There is no reason to doubt of it but the greatest reason to hope and be confident that He who raised up the Lord Jesus as St. Paul speaks in the next Epistle 2 Cor. iv 14. will raise up us also by Jesus and set us in his presence in the heavens II. For by his Resurrection the SPIRIT proved the truth of all that the other Witnesses the Water the Bloud and his Miraculous Works too testified Particularly it demonstrated the truth of his Doctrine by which as you have seen life and immortality was brought to light If this had not been true that we shall live for ever by him Jesus would have perished and never have come to life again to deceive the World the second time But seeing God did not leave his Soul in hell nor suffer his Holy i. e. his anointed one to see corruption it is an uncontroulable argument that those who believe on him shall not perish neither but be made alive as he is Because He that said he would rise again the third day said likewise with the same assurance that at the last day he will raise up us also and bestow upon us everlasting Life When God who alone could doe it verified the one and according to his word raised up Jesus the third day He bid us be assured of the other that this Jesus hath Life in himself and will by his power raise up us according to his promise unto a never-dying life This is the Character He had given of himself I am the Resurrection and the Life that is the Authour the Cause of both He that believeth on me shall have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day nothing of him shall perish neither his Soul nor his body for even they that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall rise again to lise This he often preached and proved many ways but after all he sealed it with his bloud and bad them expect a little and they should see it sealed by his resurrection from the dead Which insuing at the time appointed was a perfect demonstration that he said true when he affirmed that He is the Resurrection and the Life by whom we shall receive this inestimable benefit of rising again after death to live for ever with him Of this as well as the former Consideration I may possibly say so much elsewhere that I shall spare any farther pains about them now III. Let us rather remember how severall persons rose from the dead at that very time when he left his grave xxvii Matt. 52 53. which were notable instances of his power to give life and put us in hope that we shall all rise again as they did There is no cause but his Resurrection to be assigned of this Miracle which fell out the same time that he was missing in his grave as the opening of their tombs at that very moment when he died Never was any such thing heard of before or since and therefore it was intended to demonstrate the mighty power of his Resurrection when many bodies of Saints which slept arose and came out of their graves and went into Jerusalem and appeared unto many Whose testimony none have had the confidence to contradict by endeavouring to disprove it but the Jews rather by some concessions of theirs confirm us in the belief of it For it is a common opinion now among their Doctours that the Kingdom of the Messiah shall begin with the Resurrection of the dead Bury me said R. Jeremiah with shoes on my feet and my staff in my hand and lay me on one side that when Christ comes I may be ready But of this conceit we can find no footsteps in the Old Scriptures which makes it probable that they have borrowed this as they have done many other things from the Holy Gospell in which it is recorded that he began his entrance upon his Kingdome with the Resurrection of some pious persons as an earnest of the restoring all the rest to Eternall Life And thus it is likely they have learnt to discourse of the bodies of the just after they are raised concerning which some of them speak so sublimely above the dull and gross conceptions of the rest of their Nation that one can scarce look upon it otherwise then as Christian language When the Soul is in the state of glory Vid. Jo. de Voysin in Pug. fid part iii. dist 2. c. 8. saith the Book Zohar it sustains it self with the light above wherewith it is also cloathed and when it shall return to the body it shall come with the same light and with the body shall shine as with the brightness of heaven More there is in other Authours to the same purpose which say God can give us bodies strong and vigorous like the Angels and that the bodies of the just after the resurrection shall be subtil like the globe of the Moon Vid. eum de Lege Div. in xxii Matt. 3â— and so give no impediment to the Soul in its enjoyment of the Splendour of the Divine Majesty But supposing this to be their own language without any tincture they had received from the Christian Doctrine it will be still more remarkable that our Lord Jesus according to their expectations
his preaching or presently followed it is a very strong argument to induce you to believe that he taught the way of God in truth having revealed all things pertaining to life and godliness as God himself attests For by the Glory wherewith he called us i. e. preached the Gospell and perswaded us to believe we are to understand his Transfiguration on the holy Mount where they saw his glory ix Luk. 32. and to which the Apostle afterward appeals ver 16 17. of this Chapter as a justification of the truth of their Ministry The coming down also of the Holy Ghost at his Baptism the voices from heaven in one of which God said he would glorifie him again as he had done already and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles are here also to be understood by Glory for by these we are called and moved to receive the knowledge of him And then by Vertue is undoubtedly meant that very thing which I last treated of his mighty power in miraculous works and the mighty power of the SPIRIT in raising him from the dead For it is well observed by Drusius and others that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue in these holy Writings never signifies as it doth in heathen Authours Piety and morall goodness in opposition to Vice but power and might in opposition to weakness And therefore by this word the Greek Interpreters of the Old Testament render the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes the Greatness Majesty and height of God's excellency and sometimes the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies strength and stoutness According to which in the New Testament it denotes either the mighty power of God as here in this place or else our courage and valour as in the fifth verse of this Chapter But it is no-where found in the sacred style used for piety and therefore we must not render the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to but by vertue that is the power and mightiness of God's arm or strength as the Scripture speaks by which our Saviour convinced the World that God the Father had sent him to give Life unto it Thus the Apostle St. Paul saith which will very much explain this that He was raised up from the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the glory of the Father vi Rom. 4. That is by his glorious power as Camero well renders it for his power appeared most gloriously in that wonderfull Work whereby as St. Peter here speaks he called us to believe on him So we are to understand him it appears by another Argument For if we should say we are called to glory understanding thereby heaven we could not be said to have precious promises as it follows hereby given to us For this would be to say that by calling us to heaven he hath called us to heaven But if we take these words the other way then the sense runs currently and delivers to us this excellent Truth That by such means as I have treated of the Descent of the Holy Ghost the Transfiguration of our Saviour the Voices from heaven the Miracles he wrought the might of his power which wrought in him when God raised him from the dead he perswaded men to receive him as the onely-begotten of the Father who was come by his authority to shew them the true way to everlasting life By these we know that we are not cheated but that he who hath called us is the Son of God by whom we are sure to attain everlasting life if we follow those directions he hath given us which will infallibly bring us to it And then the next words ver 4. are still more pertinent to my purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or by which GLORY and VERTUE are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises We are so sure to attain eternall life that we have many promises of it which are so strongly confirmed that we cannot doubt of them being delivered in such a divine manner For when he gave them it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by glory and vertue with such demonstrations of his Authority to promise them and of his power to make them good that we cannot but depend upon his word None I suppose question but by these great these precious yea exceeding great and precious promises he means those of raising us from the dead and carrying us to heaven to live with God and that eternally These are the chiefest things of which our Lord hath given us such assurance when he called us to believe on his Name Things which as much exceed all that was promised Israel as the heavens are wider then the smallest spot of this earth More precious are they then all lands if they flowed with milk and honey more to be desired then gold yea then much fine gold then all the gold of Ophir more to be valued then the Crowns of Kings which are not so much as an Emmet's Egge in comparison with this Happiness Now as there is nothing that can be compared with these promises so we have no testimony on Earth comparable to this of the SPIRIT that exceeding greatness of his power whereby these promises were brought to us and assured to be infallible For by this we know that He hath all power in heaven and earth and is able to doe whatsoever the Father Almighty doeth that is give life to the dead which is the property of the Almighty alone So the Enemies of our Religion are forced to confess who say there are three keys which God keeps to himself and commits to none of his Embassadours the keys of the womb the keys of heaven and the keys of the grave Thy power saith Joseph Albo speaking of God is not the power of flesh and bloud for the power of flesh and bloud is to put those to death who are alive but thy power is to raise those to life who are dead The very same we may justly say of our Lord Jesus Christ who challenges this power to himself as I have noted before out of the first of the Revelation where he tells St. John I have the keys of hell and of death ver 18. He was no ordinary Embassadour but can doe more then any whom God sent into the world ever did or could He can raise even the dead bodies of his subjects to life again And when he hath lifted them out of the dust if I may apply the Psalmist's words to this purpose can set them with Princes even with the Princes of his heavenly Court to praise and bless his love among those great Ministers the Angelicall powers for ever and ever Which is a power he doth not assume to himself vainly but was conferred on him by God the Father who raised him from the dead and gave him glory wherein St. John beheld him when he said I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keys of hell and of death Great is
will reward well-doers with the Crown of Life and be so far from letting their labour be in vain that he will doe for them as his Father hath done for him viz. bring them into his own joy So St. John writes in the very beginning of his Gospel i. 4. that in him was life and the life was the light of men He brought the promise of Eternall Life that is to mankind and can himself bestow it which is the best news the greatest cordiall that can be thought of to revive our spirits like the honey on the top of Jonathan's rod inlightning our eyes and making us live most chearfully and happily if we believe it and prepare our selves for it This they laid as the very ground and foundation of all Christian piety unto which St. Paul saith it was his office to call men in hope of eternall life i. Tit. 1 2 c. which God that cannot lie promised of old but did not manifest till the preaching of the Gospell which was committed to him by the commandment of God our Saviour who authorized him to open this Doctrine more fully then it had been even by our Lord himself while he was on Earth For St. Paul shews that at the last day so often mentioned by our Lord he himself will appear again in person after a visible and glorious manner to consummate all the faithfull whose happiness begins as soon as they depart this life These two weighty Truths are notably asserted by this Apostle I. Who declares by the Word of the Lord that is a speciall revelation from our Saviour the manner of his coming again from heaven with the attendance of his Angels to raise the dead and to lift them up to himself and give them the Crown of righteousness which till that time shall not be bestowed Reade 1 Thess iv 15 16 c. 2 Tim. iv 8. where the splendour of that great day when he will openly appear as the Lord of all is described no less lovely then magnificently as I hope to shew in another place It is the day of rejoycing ii Phil. 16. because he will then most eminently appear as our life iii. Col. 4. as our Salvation 1 Cor. v. 5. ix Heb. 28. to the praise and honour and glory of our fidelity 1 Pet. i. 7. And therefore for this time Christians are said to wait and look 1 Cor. i. 7. ii Tit. 13. as the time that will compleat their felicity which till then the Apostles plainly suppose wants its Crown and perfection And so the Church hath from the beginning understood them Who describe Souls departed as in a state of Expectants waiting for the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will come out of his most holy Temple to perfect those who now stand as they speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the porch or entry of it in atriis as the Latin phrase is in the outward Court of the Temple or holy place of God For as the Children of Israel stood in the outward Court which yet was a part of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Temple as we render it expecting the Priest every day to come out of the Sanctuary and the High-priest on the day of expiation to come out of the Holy of holies to give them the blessing In such manner do the Ancients describe the now blessed waiting and looking without though in Heaven of which the Sanctuary was a figure for that blessed hope of our Lord 's coming out of his Most holy place where he now is without sin unto their Salvation And thus the best of the Jews express their happiness saying that pious Souls are in the bundle of life as the most learned Dr. Pocock shews out of Judah Zabara * Not. miscell cap vi p. 176. in the high place in the treasury where they enjoy the splendour of the Divine Majesty being hidden under the throne of glory Which phrases signify a state of imperfection in comparison with that which our Lord Christ with whom saith the Apostle our life is hid and kept in safe custody will bring us unto at the day of his appearing II. But all this time they do not imagine that their Souls lie asleep without any sense of joy and pleasure no more then the Israelites did who were at their Prayers all the time that the Priest was in the Sanctuary desiring God to accept his intercession for them For what good doth it doe them to be in the Garden of Eden or pleasure as the Jews also call the place where they live if they have no taste of its fruits and happy enjoyments They would be as well any-where else as in the Bosome of Abraham by which the same Jews * Vid. Vcy 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 bil L. i. c. 16. as well as our Saviour describe this state if they do not feast there as that expression properly signifies and as the Parable of Lazarus supposes he did when it saith that now he was comforted or enjoyed his good things which made a recompence for all the evill he had here suffered The sense of the Christian Church in this matter is admirably expressed by St. Orat. x. p. 173. Greg. Nazianzen Who comforting himself and others for the losse of his Brother Caesarius concludes with these words I am perswaded by the words of the Wise that every Soul that is good and beloved of God when it is loosed from this body to which it is tied straightway 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conceives a certain wonderfull pleasure and rejoyces exceedingly in the sense and contemplation of the good it expects Which makes it go most chearfully to its Master because being got out of its prison and having shaken off its fetters which pinion'd the wing of the mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it already injoys as it were an image of the Blessedness laid up for it And not long after receiving out of the earth from whence it came and where it is deposited its nearly-allied body in such a way as God who tied them together and dissolved them knows it shall together with it inherit the glory there And thus St. Paul also plainly teaches us 1. When he relates how he was transported into the third heaven and into Paradise and for any thing he knew out of his Body 2 Cor. xii 2 3. Which evidently shews he believed that Souls could act without their bodies and that they shall enjoy God and have a sense of heavenly things as soon as they depart this life And so much the Jews themselves well conclude from the Spirit of Prophecy whereby holy men of God were separated for a time from their bodies so as to perceive nothing either by their senses or their minds but onely what God presented to them The phantasms indeed which they had received from this sensible world were commonly used to represent those things which were then offered to them by Divine Revelation but without any assistence of the
constant Auditours of Which made them the more confident to declare these things to others because they had them not at the second hand but immediately from himself And because it is the least of testimonies to say we have heard a thing therefore he adds in the second place that they had SEEN it beheld that is all the marvellous works he did to confirm this Doctrine which he delivered as the word Seen seems to be understood xv Joh. 24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin but now they have SEEN and yet hated both me and my Father They saw the vast numbers that he fed with a little food the sick that he cured with speaking a word the dead that he raised when all their friends gave them for lost and despaired of seeing them again in this world In short so many instances of his Divine power and authority that if they should have been written every one this Apostle supposes the World would not have been able to contain the Books that should have been written xxi ult But these are recorded which we find in the Gospell as he concludes the foregoing Chapter that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through his Name And lest any should imagine it was but a transient sight they had of these things and their eyes might be deluded as we sometimes are when a thing suddenly flies away from us or that they were but seldom spectatours of these things and so could not gather much from thence he adds in the third place that they had LOOKED on it that is had this evidence continually before their eyes They scarce saw any thing else but miracles They had not leisure ofttimes so much as to eat their meat by reason of the great multitude of people that came to be healed by him They conversed a long time with Lazarus after he was risen and our Lord himself was seen of them forty days after his resurrection speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God And when the Holy Ghost came they themselves to whom the Apostle here writes could testifie the wonderfull variety of spirituall gifts that were poured on believers But because we imagine that to feel a thing is far more considerable for our satisfaction then to see it or look upon it as St. Thomas would not believe those who had seen our Lord and heard him speak but he would put his hands into his wounds before he would be satisfied therefore the Apostle tells us farther that they declared nothing but what they had HANDLED of the word of life That is there was most palpable evidence and demonstration given of the truth of their report They were so near as to touch and feel that their eyes were not deceived when they thought they saw such miracles wrought For their own hands distributed the bread and the fish to the hungry multitude And some of them untied the grave-cloaths of Lazarus when he was raised from the dead And to give one instance for all when he himself rose again from his grave they not onely discoursed with him and saw him eat and drink and beheld him severall times and in severall places but he called them to him and said Behold my hands and my feet handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have xxiv Luk. 39. This very handling of him was a great argument of the Eternall Life which was with the Father but was hereby made manifest unto us for it proves his resurrection and that is a proof of ours Now they having thus heard and seen and beheld and handled these things how could they chuse but publish that Jesus is the Authour of Eternall Life And we receiving such testimony from them how can we refuse to believe their word that we may have fellowship with them in God and his Son i. e. be partakers as they were in that most blessed Life of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ If we do but believe there were such men as St. John and St. Paul and all the rest and if they had eyes and ears and hands like other men if they were men of sound brains and understandings as it appears by their writings they were if any credit may be given to sober persons who protest they heard those voices from heaven saw those miracles which they have recorded conversed with our Saviour after he rose from the dead as there are no Writers in the world deserve credit if they do not nay if they deserve more credit then any considering what they did and suffered as you shall hear for the testimony of that which they saw and heard and wrote to the world there is no doubt this Life was manifested most apparently to them and they had reason to bear witness of it and shew it to us And we cannot but rest satisfied that it is the will of God to give Eternall Life by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. No question to be made of it unless we will question all Histories in the world and believe nothing that is reported and delivered to us by others Which if it were once resolved there would be an end of most of the trade commerce and business that is managed in the world And deeds and evidences which men have from their ancestours would become void and present possession would be the onely title they could have to their estates But for our farther satisfaction let me briefly shew that the APOSTLES gave a continued Testimony to this truth all the three ways whereby St. John saith He came by WATER by BLOVD and by the SPIRIT I. As for the purity of their Doctrine which is one part of the Testimony of Water I have given an account of it in the first part of this Discourse Which demonstrates it was of that nature that it had been an idle attempt to preach it and endeavour to plant it in the World had they not believed and been able to prove that their Master who employed them would give them and all those who obeyed their word the reward of Eternall Life To which if you adde the holiness of their Life which is another part of this Testimony you cannot think that men of such sincerity in all other things would have affirmed so confidently as they did that which they did not take to be true nor have protested they saw and heard and felt such things as they never had any notice of But if you will needs suppose they might be so vile which is very unreasonable yet who can think they would have denied themselves so much as they did for their Master's sake in which a great part of their piety consisted if they had not been sure that he would lead them by such means to everlasting life This extraordinary contempt of all present things even of life it self as you shall
have been such fools as to have suffered in that manner they did had they not seen plain demonstrations of this truth For they were so miserably treated that they carried their lives in their hand and were every hour for any thing they knew at the brink of the grave He for his part had been compelled to encounter with wild beasts on the Theatre at Ephesus so some ancient Writers understand him who knew there was nothing more common with the Pagans then to cry Christiani ad Leones Away with the Christians to the Lions and it was a punishment to which the vilest Malefactors were subject particularly Magicians as we learn from another Paul * L. v de receptis sentemiis the Lawyer or at least he ran as great hazzards as those men did who were exposed unarmed to the fiercest creatures such as Lions Bears Tigers Leopards wild Boars and Bulls and Dogs To every one of which we have examples of Christians in the Ecclesiasticall Story that were condemned And it was for no other cause but this that he preached Jesus and the Resurrection How could they think him so senseless as to put his life in such danger upon this account if he was not fully perswaded of that for which he suffered so much nay had not good ground to be of this belief He knew the value of life as well as other men He was no stone nor block as I have said that had no feeling of pain He naturally loved ease and quiet and pleasure as well as the rest of the world And his education had not been such as to incline him to believe things carelesly especially such a thing as this quite contrary to all his former principles and as contrary to his present preferments and future hopes And therefore without imputing to him the highest degree of folly and stupidity the Corinthians could not disbelieve what he preached of the Life to come Concerning which he had received such full satisfaction and was convinced of it by such undeniable arguments that he chose rather to lose his life then to deny it or not to preach it III. And that He and the rest of the Apostles were not deceived nor judged amiss in this matter the mighty power of the SPIRIT which wrought continually in them and with them abundantly testified This was sufficient not onely to satisfy them but to satisfy the rest of the world that Jesus as they said was alive and made the Lord of all who was ready at hand on all occasions to bear witness to this Truth when they preacht it that he would give Eternall Life unto his followers This power of the SPIRIT going along with them was a thing so notorious that the Pagans in some places cried out the GODS are come down to us in the likeness of men and could scarce be restrained from doing divine honours to them xiv Act. 11 18. And whereas there had been some wonderfull things heretofore done among the Jews if we may believe themselves they now all ceased as if God had transferred all power on earth into the Apostles hands For they tell us there were Ten Signs in the House of the Sanctuary * Pirke Avoth cap. v. which never failed as that no woman ever miscarried by the smell of the flesh that was burnt upon the Altar no fly was ever seen in the House nor did the flesh of the Sanctuary ever stink nor the rain ever extinguish the fire nor the greatest winds hinder the smoak from ascending in a straight pillar towards heaven c. But forty years before the Sanctuary was destroyed all these Miracles ceased according to that of the Psalmist which they apply to this business * Talmud Bab. in Joma apud Raimund p. 297. We see not our signs nor is there any prophet to tell us how long lxxiv. 9. When the veil of the Temple was rent in sunder God who dwelt in the Holy place left his habitation and went out at that breach to return no more thither All the wonders were now without those doors in the open streets in every house in the whole world Which was a notable sign that Jesus was Christ and alive from the dead by whose power the Apostles professed to doe all their wonderfull works By these they proved that he was exalted at God's right hand and sate as he said he would on the throne of his Glory And their proof was the stronger because there was no great thing done as formerly there had but onely what was wrought by their hands who reigned now with him as so many Princes and sate on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel xix Matth. 28. xxii Luk. 30. They were supreme Governours whose office it is to judge in the Church under our Lord Christ it plainly appeared by the mighty power wherewith their Gospell was accompanied Which came as St. Paul tells the Thessalonians not in word onely but in power and in the Holy Ghost That is in Miraculous works and in extraordinary gifts which brought along with them a full assurance insomuch that he left it to them to tell the world what manner of men they were among them And if any enquire what was the effect of it he tells us that they were perswaded by this miraculous power to turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess i. 9 10. This was the fruit of their labours and travels to convince a number of people by wonderfull operations upon the sick nay upon the dead and by gifts of the Holy Ghost that Jesus was raised from the dead and possessed of Eternall life in the heavens from whence he will come to bestow it upon the faithfull whom he will never susser to perish but rescuing them from destruction make them ever happy with himself And whosoever afterward revolted from this Faith I may adde and set themselves to oppose it the Apostles shewed their power which was a great witness to Christianity as much in their plagues and punishments as in the cures they wrought upon others It may well be thought that those in the Corinthian Church who did not believe the Resurrection were reclaimed from their errour by that Letter which St. Paul wrote to them for we hear nothing of it more in the next Epistle But some there were in other places that obstinately persisted in their folly and not contented to disbelieve what the Apostles taught in this matter contradicted and blasphemed it Two of them are named in the 2 Tim. ii 17 18. Hymeneus and Philetus who taught that the Resurrection was past and consequently denied the rewards of the Life to come The occasion of their erring thus from the faith seems to have been this that the Apostles often speaking of a spirituall resurrection from a state of sin to the life of
other end but to shew how stupidly blind men are when they are left to walk in the ways of their own hearts and how deeply we are indebted to the exceeding great love of God who when he saw the minds of men too weak to comprehend such things and that they stood in need of a Divine Teacher as Clemens Alexandrinus * L. v. Stromat p. 548. speaks was pleased in his infinite condescension to send one from the very place his own dear Son from heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both the Teacher and the Giver of that possession of Good the secret holy token of that great Providence which took care when men had lost themselves in vain imaginations to lead them right by Him who is the Way the Truth and the Life Who hath made that certain which was dubious and that plain to every body which was the hardest thing in the world to know before and bids us lift up our Minds to God himself with whom he dwells and to whom he will bring us that we may rejoyce in his Love for ever in the happy company of Angels and good men and in that place of which the Divine Majesty is the glory And it was but needfull we shall see he should send us such a Conductour when we consider how little even they who were instructed by God himself understood of this Eternall Life before our Saviour appeared It cannot be denied that the greatest part of the Jews before our Saviour's coming did expect the Resurrection of the dead and Eternall Life v. Joh. 39. xxvi Act. 6 7. And their pious Ancestors before the giving of the Law xi Heb. 9 10 16 26. as well as after ver 35. sought an heavenly country and had respect to the recompence of reward and refused deliverance from their tortures that they might obtain a better resurrection And their Writers in all Ages have spoken much of the World to come whereby they understand sometimes the days of the Messiah and sometimes the future State which we expect after death All this is true but it is as certain I. That they had no such express promises of these things either in the Law or in the Prophets as we have in the holy Gospell Where do you reade one such saying as this which we frequently meet withall in the whole Law of Moses Verily verily I say unto you He that believeth on me hath everlasting life I am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world vi Joh. 47 51. Promises indeed of the good things of this world are very rife to those that diligently keep God's commandments to whom he says I will give you the rain of your land in due season that thou mayest gather in thy corn and thy wine and thine oil And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattel that thou mayest eat and be full xi Deut. 14 15. Which is repeated again more largely xxviii Deut. 2 3 c. And all these blessings shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field Blessed shalt thou be in the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground c. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out But in what place do you find any such promises as these BLESSED are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall SEE GOD Blessed are they that doe his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life with such like of which the New Testament is so full that a little time will not serve to number them all v. Matt. 3 4 8. xxii Rev. 14. Alas when their Writers undertake to prove the life of the World to come out of their Law it is out of places so far from the purpose that this endeavour is a plain confession they have no express promises of it but are fain to squeez the words to speak that which is not in them Shall I give a few instances of this truth Joseph Albo a famous man of that Nation and of good reason from that place xiv Deut. 1 2. Ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead For thou art an holy people c. thus fetches about his discourse Behold one would think the quite contrary should be concluded They should the rather mourn and grieve because they are the children of God as the Son of a King is more to be lamented when he is dead then the child of an ordinary man But the true interpretation is as if he had said Seeing the most Blessed God is holy and his Ministers are holy thou also art an holy people All things are joyned to that which is like themselves and therefore without doubt your Soul is joyned to the Angels because it is holy as they are holy for which cause you must not cut your selves for the dead nor mourn more then is fit And this teaches us that there is a blessed immortality for the Soul after death Such is his conclusion from those words which rather teach us how hard it is to find anything in the Law to that purpose and how much we are bound to magnify the love of God for the revelation of his blessed will in the Gospell He argues something better when he gathers it from those words xxxii Deut. 47. where he saith there is a twofold happiness or reward spoken of one spirituall it is your life the other corporall because it is said through this ye shall prolong your days And yet so weak and infirm are their reasonings that at another turn they shall prove Eternall Life from this promise of prolonging their days though it be expresly added in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee For there being the letter Jod wanting in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Fifth Commandment where God promises to prolong their days they conclude that there is no prolongation of days in this world but it belongs to the next Nor can he find any clearer place to prove the Resurrection of the body then that in the same book xxxii Deut. 39. I kill and I make alive Nay our Lord himself alledges a place for it which was but dark till he illustrated it and proved by consequence not an express promise that Abraham Isaac and Jacob should be rewarded by him who called himself their God But we cannot I think learn this truth better from any then from Philo a
man much excelling all the modern Jews who could find no places to this purpose plainer then those cited by Albo some of which he alledges and adds others * in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no less weak and obscure Such as that iv Deut. 4. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord are alive every one of you this day They that were good says he Moses onely acknowledges for the living and he witnesses to them immortality by adding ye are alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this day For this to day is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 world without end If he could have met with any plain promises who can think that a man of his parts would have used such sancifull proofs as this And yet this place I find R. Gamaliel most relied on when after a long dispute with the Sadducees who would not be satisfied that the Resurrection could be proved out of the Law he at last referred them hither * Manasseh ben Israel L. i. de Resur c. 1. But he explained the words thus As ye are all alive to day so you shall live also in the world to come For he supposes some of those whom Moses speaks of were dead and yet the text says they were alive because their union with God by cleaving to him made them immortall Which is not much better then the next proof which follows in Philo who fansies that in x. Lev. 2. where it is said Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the tokens of their immortality is proclaimed And that to say they died before the Lord is as good as to say they lived for it was not lawfull to bring a dead thing into the presence of God And this says he is that which the Lord presently adds I will be sanctified of those who draw nigh to me for the dead as it is in the Psalms praise not God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is the work of the living Just thus he proves in another Book * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 164. with the like force that Abel lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an happy life in God because the Scripture saith the voice of his bloud cried out against his wicked Brother Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how could he be able to speak if he was not in being An argument which rather proves Moses spake nothing clearly of these things for if he had this Writer would not have contented himself with such slender inferences Which are as weak as that of R. Johanan who proves the Resurrection from that in xviii Num. 28. where they are commanded to give the Lord 's Terumah to Aaron the Priest Who did not live saith he to enter into the land of Canaan and therefore must be raised again to receive the portion of the Lord in that good Land And yet this is as strong an argument as that of R. Solomon who concludes it merely from the two Jods in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ii Gen. 7. where it is said the LORD God formed man c. This signifies says he that man must be formed twice once in this world and once in the next at the resurrection of the dead There are more of this nature in the Gemara of the Sanhedrin * Vid. Coch. c. xi n. 2 3 9. which I shall not trouble the Reader withall but onely note that the weakness and uncertainty of these proofs make the Samaritans brag of the advantage they have of the Jews because they say in their Pentateuch which therefore they would have to be the true copy of Moses his Law there is an express text to prove the Resurrection and the Life to come which the Jews cannot shew So desirous were all that had the possession of these Books to find these Truths plainly recorded there which even those words which the Samaritans pretend to be a part of their Law do not contain All is dark and doubtfull after their best glosses and inferences and we can conclude nothing certainly but that God did not reveal these things to Moses who was sent to make a covenant of another nature with the Israelites Whence it was that they were so much disputed by a great party among the Jews as every body knows the Pharisees affirming and the Sadducees denying Which left the minds of the multitude in much doubt while they saw these two Schools so resolutely opposing one the other And if we pass from the Law to the Prophets especially to the Prophet Isaiah who as Abarbinel says in his Preface to him speaks more clearly of the Resurrection of the dead then all the rest we shall not receive much greater satisfaction For the places from whence it is deduced do so evidently belong to another sense in the first intention of the Prophet that it forces us to confess this Doctrine was but obscurely delivered in those days and that we could not have been certain of any other sense without the benefit of a Revelation The proofs which Abarbinel brings are xviii Isa 4. xxiv 18 21 22 23. xxv 8. xxvi 19. lxvi 8 14 24. and such like which when we have seriously examined it will excite us with the greater admiration to acknowledge the infinite grace of God towards us who do not see these things through shadows nor have need of long discourses to extract this heavenly Doctrine out of our Books but in express terms reade So God loved the world that he gave his onely-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life iii. Joh. 16. And this is the promise that he hath promised us even ETERNALL LIFE 1 Epist ii 25. What is there in all the Prophets like to this I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die xi Joh. 25 26. The clearest place is that in Daniel xii 2. And yet if we reade the words going before not to say Mr. Brightman * Ib. in xx Rev. 11. Grotius and other learned Writers upon the place we shall not be able to deny that he is speaking of a particular Resurrection from exceeding great oppression to a long state of prosperity Which typified indeed in a very admirable manner as Ezekiel's dry bones and many other things did the state of the Generall Resurrection and eternall Blessedness but did not plainly reveal it This was reserved for our Lord Jesus Christ who brought life and immortality to light by his Gospell and openly proclaimed that ALL not MANY as it is in Daniel that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation v. Joh. 28 29. II. But we shall see more reason to bless the infinite goodness of God towards us Christians
then all the glorious host of heaven are such things as they had no imagination of who expected the coming of Christ Much less did they think of being so promoted by him in his heavenly Kingdome that they should at last arrive at the same glory and this clod of earth should be lifted up to the dwellings of Angels and there be fashioned like unto the glorious body of Christ himself These are things as St. Austin you heard said before which are proper to the revelation of the Gospell wherein we reade this unheard-of love so plainly that every child may understand it But without this revelation even they that have got the words sink into the dullest and most gross apprehensions of the future State The Mahometans use these very words to express the felicity they expect in their Paradise saying God hath prepared for his servants such things as eye hath not seen nor the ear heard nor have come up into the heart of man * D. Pocock not ad Gregor Abul Pharaj p. 292. But they mean onely as they themselves explain it virgins with fairer and larger eyes then ever they beheld in this world and such like things which I am ashamed to name beyond which these blockish vicious Arabians were not able to lift their minds They are the words of Maimonides upon this occasion who talks more rationally I shew'd in the beginning of this Treatise then many of his Brethren in whom we find conceptions of the state of the other life little less sensuall then these of Mahomet Blessed be God therefore should we say who hath revealed these unseen unheard-of inconceivable things to his Apostles by his Spirit and made us understand what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints We can never thank him enough who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his leve By whom we understand that flesh and bloud cannot inherit the kingdom of God but we shall be changed and made spirituall and heavenly after the image of him who is the Lord from heaven III. And we are bound to the love of God above all other men in another regard also because he hath given us such Records such Witnesses of this Eternall life far greater then ever the World had seen or heard of before When men saw Abel that first-fruit of righteousness as Theodoret calls him hastily pluckt by the hand of violence before it was ripe and his murtherous Brother Cain survive and take root and build cities there was great danger that men should be tempted to think it was in vain to serve God faithfully there being as yet no hope of the Resurrection to 〈◊〉 mars Souls And therefore God was 〈◊〉 for this reason as * 〈…〉 Theodoret thinâ—â— to manslate Enocâ— a man whose play â—â—â—dingly pleased him to the othere world de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might comfort the hearts of thâ—se who resolutely opposed vice and coâ—â—â—nded for vertue in a wicked Age. And this was apt to revive in all mâ—â—s minds a belief of his Providence and perswade them that piety never went unrewarded but that he who thus honoured Enoch had taken care to recompense righteous Abel Such was the grace of God to men before the law And afterward when the Israelites were greatly degenerate and faln into Idolatry Elias their Prophet was carried in a chariot of fire by a whirlwind into heaven These things were mighty incouragements to good men and were apt to confirm all in the belief of a future life But who is there whose name stands upon record to testify that he saw Enoch snatcht from this mortall life and taken up to God And of Elias his transportation what witness is there more then one till our Saviour's time when three of his Apostles beheld him and Moses too which was more then they knew of appear in glory Whereas we have no â—â—ss then Six Witnesses three in Heaven and three on Earth who many ways testify to us that Jesus is gone into heaven and which is more is on the right hand of God Angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. iii. 22. All his Apostles likewise saw him ascend thither and he hath appeared to more then one of them since his supereminent exaltation What a vast difference hath his goodness made between us and former times They beheld something of the life to come in Enoch justorum translationem praemonstrans as Irenaeus * Lib. v. cap. 5. speaks who foreshewed the translation of the just but we see it clearly in the Son of God who hath promised to take us up to himself They saw a few beams of this glory in the face of Moses which shone on them when he came down from the Mount but we in the face of Jesus Christ who all the time he was among men shone in such illustrious works that they beheld his glory the glory as of the onely-begotten of the Father and after he ascended to heaven appeared severall times from thence in a light above the brightness of the Sun at mid-day What a vast difference is there between our times and theirs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For faith then was in Shadows as St. Greg. Naz * Orat. xx p. 366. speaks of Enoch's translation and they had not the things themselves clearly revealed to them as we have by the grace of the Gospell which when it appeared was so bright and full of glory that it scattered nay consumed as the other Gregory * Gregor Nyssen Hom. v. in Cantic p. 642. speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all that duskish umbratick representation in types and figures and inlightned all places with the beams of that true light of life and immortality And more then this there is not the least evidence no syllable of any record which testifies that any of these persons had life in themselves to give to their friends or so much as help them forward to Eternall Life No nor do they say that others who fear God shall have the same felicity to which they were carried though their very going thither put pious men in hope of being happy with them in heaven Whereas we have abundant testimonie in so many words that Jesus hath life in himself and is the Resurrection and the Life that we shall live by him and with him that none shall perish who believe on him nor any be able to pluck them out of his hands that He himself will raise them up at the last day and give unto them eternall life v. Joh. 26. vi 57. x. 28. xi 25. vi 40 44 54. Then indeed in those old times was the Infancy of the World and being little Children though they were heirs yet they differed not much from Servants They knew not what their Father intended for them nor understood the inheritance to which they
were born no more then a child does what the enjoyments of a man are till he come to that estate Unto that growth we are now arrived who have the knowledge of God's grace in Christ Jesus We are now the Sons of God and though it do not appear as I said before how we shall be his Sons hereafter yet this we know that we shall be like him when he appears for we shall see him as he is And therefore we cannot refrain from crying out again Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us Let us admire it let us adore it for never was there such love III. But it is not sufficient onely to admire this incomparably transcendent love which naturally excites in the hearts of those that consider it such an ardent reciprocall affection as leads them to an universall chearfull obedience to God's will That 's the proof our Saviour justly expects of our unfeigned love to him He would have us if we be truly sensible of the kindness he hath done us not labour so much for the meat that perisheth as for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life which he will give unto us Take any pains that is to be so happy as he designs to make us which no man can refuse who hath once set his affections not on things beneath but on those which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God And this he may well expect we will doe now that he hath so clearly demonstrated where our Happiness lies and given us such assurance that he lives for ever to bring us to it This will move us if any thing in the world can do it to come when he invites us to take his yoke upon us and stoop to his burthen so shall we find rest to our Souls This Eternall life as the Divine Record tells us is onely in the Son of God part of the meaning of which words is that onely by the Religion which our Lord Jesus hath taught us is this great Good to be obtained This is testified to us by God as much as any thing else that there is no way to be happy but by his Son Jesus who hath shewn us the onely means to obtain glory honour and immortality is by patient continuance in well doing True Vertue is the preparation for it without which nothing is good for us neither health nor riches nor beauty nor strength nor power no nor immortality as Plato * L. ii de Legibus p. 661. excellently discourses should we suppose it added to all these but it is best that an evill man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should live as little a while as may be Which demonstrates again the incomparable love of God in revealing those things to us which are so necessary for the securing and promoting our present happiness in this World Where as we could not be safe without the belief of a Life to come so this alone is sufficient to make the whole World most happy if it were deeply planted in it We are infinitely therefore indebted to the Almighty goodness for making this so certain For this World would be a place full of nothing but confusion disorder and mischief were not the evill inclinations of men over-ruled by a belief of something to follow in another life This restrains them from those outrages which their power many times inables them to commit with impunity while they are here Their bold and violent spirits are check'd and curb'd whensoever they think there is a greater Lord then they who will call them to an account Blessed be God therefore we have all reason to say who hath so evidently demonstrated there is a Life to come after we go from hence and by the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead assured us he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness This belief not onely restrains men from doing evill but which is much more will even force them to doe well It alone is sufficient as I said to make the World happy did we throughly entertain it Let a man but believe stedfastly there is a Life to come in another world and you need not instruct him how to behave himself here That one Principle will teach him to make an exact difference between good and evill and awaken his Soul to attend to those directions which he finds there for the regulating his actions towards God and man And this it doth with such a force that as a man cannot be ignorant if he think of this what he ought to doe on all occasions so neither his naturall propension to sin nor his evill customs nor corrupt doctrines nor the common received fashions among men nor meanness of parts nor multitude of business nor the conceived difficulty of Religion will be able to hinder that man from doing as he ought whose breast is possessed with the thoughts of immortall life Neither nobility nor meanness of birth riches nor poverty of estate freedom nor servitude of condition thirst of glory nor fear of contempt the praise of some nor the scorn of others the company of our equals nor the commands of superiours no gain no loss nothing that we desire nothing that we dread can stand before the force of this single argument if it be settled in the heart For the love of life it self which is the first of all goods that we receive and the last of all that we lose is overcome by this and submits to the disposall of this Eternity of life So that this is an Universall Medicine to purge us of all vicious humours to strengthen and fortifie our Nature and to revive and comfort the most languishing and fainting spirits It is an Engine strong enough to remove the most ponderous impediments that lie in our way an unanswerable reason for any duty and such a demonstration as not onely perfectly satisfies our mind but being once seated there will never go out again The truth of this will be apparent to those that consider 1. That this Motive alone contains all other whatsoever in it there being more in these two words ETERNALL LIFE then kingdoms and thrones and treasures and glory and joy and a thousand such like words can express By which we may judge what force there is in that to make us doe well in which the strength of all other arguments from greatness honour riches pleasure to engage our affections are concentred and united There is as vast a difference therefore between this and all other perswasives to the will as between the beams of the Sun when they are gathered in a glass which set all combustibles that approach them on fire and the same beams scattered and dispersed in the air when they work onely by their single virtue By reason of which excellency it is that it meets with every man's desires and hath something in it agreeable to his hopes And to every one of those men of
and the way to it This was the great end of our Saviour's appearing who brought that glimmering light that was in mens minds of the other world to a more perfect day And upon this errand the Apostles were sent as you have heard to call men to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess ii 14. Which made the Jews so unexcusable that they would not come unto our Lord that they might have life v. Joh. 40. though there was the greatest reason in the world to believe this Record that God hath given us Eternall life and this life is in his Son A voice from heaven I have shewn you often testified as much and so did the Holy Ghost which descended on our Saviour at his baptism and the many signs and wonders whereby God the Father sealed him and set as it were his mark stamp and character upon him that all might know who he was and believe his word as undoubtedly as if they heard God the Father himself speaking to them continually with his own voice out of heaven From thence our Saviour came it was apparent and therefore did not pretend to discover things of which he had no certain knowledge but onely revealed that happy Country from whence he descended So he professes to a very wise man among the Jews who was convinced by his many Miracles that he was a Teacher come from God iii. Joh. 2. Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen ver 11. For as he came down from heaven as he farther tells him ver 13. so at that very moment he was there and had a most intimate familiarity and communication therewith and therefore might well say he had seen the things he reported from thence What they were you may reade in the following verses 15 16. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. The very same as I have likewise shewn John Baptist testified ver 36. And so did Moses and Elias who appeared in glory and discoursed with him concerning his return to the other world after he had done the will of God here ix Luke 30 31. At that time our Saviour was transfigured an evident token of the glorifying even of our bodies in the other state as three persons of integrity witness who saw his glory and the two men that stood with him ver 32. and were themselves overshadowed with a bright cloud an emblem of the glory to come in another World and so ravisht with the sight that they wisht they might always remain in that happy place Neither was this onely a sudden transport but it made such a lasting impression upon their minds that ever after they lookt upon it as a notable proof of the majesty and glory of our Saviour 2 Pet. i. 16 17. And so did the ancient Christians as appears by the Syriack Translatour of the New Testament who before the Epistle of St. James takes notice that now follow the Epistles of the three Disciples before whom our Lord was transfigured This we are to mark diligently and take it for an eminent token of the glory to which our Lord was to go and which he should be able to give For it relies upon the report of those who were persons of known worth and uprightness of heart who had no design in the world to serve but onely to promote such an important truth of which they were fully assured They appeal to all that had any acquaintance with them whether ever they saw or had reason to suspect any false or double dealing in them and had not rather been witnesses of their honesty and simplicity in the whole course of their Ministry For we are not as many saith St. Paul 2 Cor. ii 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that sell the word of God and make merchandize of it to inrich themselves thereby such might not stick to corrupt God's word as we render it and mix their own dreams with it but with all sincerity as men who are authorized by God and have him before our eyes to whom we must give an account of our actions we publish the Gospell of Christ Whom they accounted it a great mercy and favour from God to serve And therefore having received this ministry saith he iv 1 2. we are not sluggish in doing our duty nor do we perform it in a base unworthy manner but have so renounced or thrust away far from us all secret devices of inriching our selves that we do not blush to think of our designs for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such practices as for mere shame men hide and cover pretending for instance onely the good of Souls when they intend nothing but to get their money nor do we walk in craftiness appearing one thing and being another nor corrupt the word of God by mixing any of our own inventions with it but in a free open and plain manner we commend our selves to all mens consciences as having God looking on us All that know us cannot but approve us if they be not led by passion more then reason and if they do not God doth This he repeats again Chap. vi where he gives a proof of their sincerity in the exercise of their Ministry from these two things first that they got nothing by it but many afflictions and then that they did nothing but good to others in recompence for all the trouble they gave them Of the former he speaks ver 4 5. of the second ver 6 7. and then returns to the other again Which argument he handles also at large towards the conclusion of the same Epistle xi 23 24 c. and once more xii 10. And thus he writes also to the Church of Thessalonica 1 Thess ii 4. who knew very well how faithfully they had discharged their trust and that they did not accommodate themselves to any man's humour but plainly delivered the message which God had committed to them No body could say that they had used any flattering speeches to sooth them up in a vain conceit of themselves ver 5. nor used any colours to hide a covetous design no as to their words and addresses the Thessalonians could testify the contrary and as to their mind and heart which God onely could know they call him to witness it never entred into their thoughts Nor did they seek glory and fame either from them or any body else but despised it as much as riches unless it were the honour of obliging them by communicating the blessings of the Gospell to them and receiving no reward from them ver 6. They might indeed have put them to charge and lived upon their cost as other Apostles of Christ did and that honestly too But He and his companions were among them with more gentleness ver 7. they parted that is from their own undoubted right to spare the Thessalonians and as a good nurse cherishes her children so they
What pretence is there now for unbelief Why do we not slight all those who by Philosophy and vain deceit set themselves against a simple faith and stick to this naked confession that there will be a resurrection of the body to Eternall Life And to make our holy belief more acceptable to all Christian Souls let me briefly adde That Faith being as certain a way of knowing as any other Believers must needs be the most knowing men in the world Which is a very great motive to Faith whereby we are informed of a great many things and those the most excellent of which other mens minds are perfectly ignorant It gives a new light to the Soul whereby to see things invisible There is no less then a whole world of things that Believers are acquainted withall which are hid from their eyes who remain in darkness by continuing in unbelief While the thoughts of such Souls are confined within the narrow bounds of this visible world and know but little of it neither the Minds of Believers are inlarged beyond the limits of all things seen to behold another and far more glorious world in which Jesus is the Sun and the Angels and Spirits of just men are the Stars and the brightness of the Divine Glory is the Light and splendour In this the ancient Christians justly made their boast And there being a company of vain men who pretended to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowers men of intelligence beyond all others but indeed unbelievers Clemens Alexandrinus reproves their folly L. v. Stromar and tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are they who believe that which is incredible to others and therefore are they who know that which is unknown to others None so knowing as they that believe the Gospell and therefore let us not shut this Faith out of our Souls and thereby exclude the greatest Good Nor let us think our selves unhappy because we do not see that which we expect For this would be to complain of our privilege and preeminence above those that depend merely on Sense and will not be wise beyond the narrow confines of their eyes Faith is that divine gift whereby God raises our minds above the pitch of vulgar Souls He brings us acquainted by this means with the most noble and glorious objects and illuminates us with the most comfortable knowledge without which we shall remain notwithstanding all our other wisedom in a sad dull night of ignorance and darkness And if this Faith touch our hearts also it will raise us to as excellent a temper of spirit and make us truly heavenly and divine We shall feel it altering the very frame of our thoughts designs and desires It will lead us to such a pitch of Vertue that we shall adhere to God and goodness whatsoever befalls us and solely depending on his promises trust our selves with him both when all other things fail us and when we have the greatest supports that they can lend us Which is no easie thing to flesh and bloud as Philo * L. Quis rerum Divin haeres p. 493. excellently observes for that inclines us to trust in riches and power and dignity and friends and strength of body and a number of such things but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the work of a great and heavenly Mind which cannot be inticed by any thing on earth to rely upon it An example of which we have in Abraham who believed God and obeyed his voice when he called him from his own country and his father's house and he went out not knowing whither he went Divers such instances there are of the power of divine Faith in him and in others in the xi Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews From which we may certainly conclude that nothing can be too hard for the Faith of Christ which is built upon surer grounds and a stronger foundation then theirs was It is of such mighty force I have shewn that one would think there needs no more to be done to make all the World good but onely by such means as I have declared to implant this Faith in all mens hearts But such is the perverseness of humane Nature that our work is not done when the judgement is convineed There must be new arts of insinuation used by those convictions to awaken and ingage the affections The Motives are certain and sure strong and powerfull but Men are weak and impotent careless and unconcerned about their own good After they know how things are they must be made to consider lest a quickning Motive lie in a dead hand or a cold heart which draws forth none of its virtue And there is no way that I can think of to stir them up to consideration but by propounding a few sensibly-affecting Questions to them which shall be part of the business of this last Chapter V. I. Let him therefore that believes this Record that God hath given us Eternall Life in his Son Jesus ask himself what he thinks in his Conscience is the way to this supreme Felicity May we live here just as we list and yet hope hereafter to live with Christ Or can we reasonably think to come to him without any thought about it and to be received up to his heavenly Kingdom though we mind nothing now but what we can get in this World Strange that Christian people should imagine Piety and Vertue to be things superfluous and take the mortifying the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life to be nothing else but a piece of Monasticall austerity and melancholick devotion a thing which mere black choler and a peevish disposition makes men trouble themselves and the world withall Are we so blind as to think that a carefull endeavour after an inoffensive life towards God and towards men is but a precise Nicety which may be commended in those that have nothing else to doe but is of no necessity to our living eternally with God We cannot sure be so forsaken of our reason No nor think that the business of Religion is onely to hear the word of God and to be frequently on our knees and that we need not be so solicitous how to live and walk in the ways of God's Commandments What man instructed in the Gospell can be so senseless as to think by knocking often at heaven gates to get an entrance though otherwise he stands idle Do the Holy Books inspire us with any such conceits Do they tell us some holy breath will waft us safe over the dangerous Sea of worldly affairs troubles pleasures and temptations of various kinds Needs there no labour at the sails or the oars no wise guidance and steerage of the vessel no guard and defence against pirates but a man may confidently commit himself to the winds and let his vessel run whither they will carry it May he live I mean just as the course of the world hurries him and as he is driven by the
the victory by mere railing at his enemy but as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. ii 3 c. endures hardness and entangles not himself with the affairs of this life And it is the labouring husbandman as it there follows who partakes of the fruits All things in the world as Solomon saith are full of labour And do we think that our Souls onely are exempted and may be saved by doing nothing that Vertue will grow there without our care or that an eternall harvest of joy will spring up to us without labouring to doe vertuously It is a great shame to say it but such are the hopes of foolish men who are perfectly like the Israelites of whom God says x. Hos 11. Ephraim is an heifer that is taught to plow but loveth onely to tread out the corn That is as D. Kimchi glosses they were taught the Law and instructed to doe good but minded nothing else but merely to enjoy the promises in a fat and fruitfull Land which God had given them Let such remember for a story sometimes sticks longer in their minds then the greatest reason what a Wise man among the Jews said to a Friend of his whom he met exceeding sad and dejected about some affairs which went cross to his designs What 's the matter said he that thou goest so heavily doth any thing of this world trouble thee Yes said the other And what hast thou got said the Wise man again by all thy care solicitude and vexation Alas replied his Friend thou seest by my troubled countenance how little I have got Then said the Wise man consider if of this World which thou hast followed with such diligence thou hast got so little what art thou like to get of the other World which thou mindest not at all A very good Meditation for those who after all their labour and thoughtfulness are like to leave no great matters to their posterity and for those whose greatest cunning and industry is not able to bring about their ends And it may lead us to another profitable Meditation how unequall we are in our dealing while we lay out so many thoughts and so much labour upon things we are not sure to obtain and so few and so little upon those which as sure as God is true shall be the portion of them that diligently seek them The Souldier is not sure to win the victory after all the hardship he has endured And the frost may nip and the bitter winds blast the laborious Husbandman's fairest hopes There is no design save onely that we have for Heaven but after our best diligence may miscarry What madness then is it thus to misplace our endeavours by imploying them so seriously about those things which frequently avoid us and fly from us in the mean time neglecting those of infinite more value which earnestly court us and are desirous to bestow themselves upon us But there is no need of so many words to awaken our thoughts to judge aright in these matters And yet this is all we have to doe for our Salvation when we believe the Gospell to think often what we believe and expect to receive from the bounty of Heaven II. Which if every one did it might spare me the labour of asking again whether we think in our conscience it is any great matter God demands of us when he bids us if we will obtain eternall life obey his will revealed to us by Christ Jesus Review the Christian Doctrine a brief account of which I gave in the former Book Chap. v. and when you have seen all that you are to doe or to deny and suffer for righteousness sake consider to what it will amount If we take it comparatively and cast it into the scales against immortall Life and the weight of Glory it will presently seem so little light and inconsiderable that we shall not think it worth the speaking of But let us wave that advantage and onely consider every thing in it self absolutely 1. What great matter is it that we find God expects we should doe for him Had he bid us govern the World and rule the Nations of the earth he had set us a difficult task indeed But when he requires us onely to govern our selves to set in order our affections and to subdue our unruly passions which give us no small trouble and expose us to great danger what a reasonable demand is this and upon what easie terms does he offer Eternall life We might have complained if he had but required every one of us to be rich and to get great estates much more if he had expected we should be Philosophers and be able to give an account of the secrets of Nature and resolve all the questions we meet withall about the air and the water and the rest of the Elements But when he onely bids us be content with our portion and stay for what his wisedom will dispense to us and make a sober use of it and be so wise as to acknowledge him in all things and to discern good from evill and live vertuously in the enjoyment of him and of our selves and give a reasonable account of all our actions one may well wonder what men would have God to say if they call this a very heavy burthen But what if he should command us with Abraham to offer up an onely Son or to feed all our life upon bread and water or with the Anchorets dig our graves in the wilderness and have no other tools but our nails to doe it should we not think it very hard though we cannot say as we may of the former that it is impossible And yet comparatively speaking Heaven would be a great bargain after all this What a purchace then is it when he calls for no Sacrifice but that of our own bodies which we are to present him holy chast and pure with true devotion and humility of spirit together with the sacrifice of praise continually giving thanks unto him for all his benefits and not forgetting to doe good and to communicate which are all reasonable services and sacrifices with which God is well pleased xii Rom. 1. xiii Heb. 15 16. At what lower rate can Eternall life be set then this that we will not be unreasonable When will we be pleased if it will not satisfie us to know that God will give us Eternall life provided we will live soberly and be gratefull to him who is the giver of all good things and doe to others as we would that they should doe to us Is God beholden to us when we accept of these terms of Salvation They that imagine this too great a mortification and that they doe some mighty matter when they take this course to go to heaven must mortifie that conceit or it is not likely they will come thither 2. But let us proceed to consider what it is we must deny and suffer to attain this Felicity and see to what the reckoning will come If
we put our sins into the number of those things we must forsake it is apparent already it would be a trouble to keep them We are required indeed to crucifie the flesh which seems an hard saying But when we have enquired the meaning of it there is no severity to be found in it For it doth not oblige us to destroy or so much as to impair any faculty belonging to us neither to weaken the Understanding nor dull the Apprehension nor overload the Memory no nor consume our spirits nor deform our bodies nor prejudice our healths nor spoil our beauty or any thing else that God hath made There is no true pleasure of which he deprives us unless it be sometimes for a better and more excellent end He onely abridges our unjust liberty and limits the hurtfull excesses of our desires and passions which we are not to gratifie against our reason to the injury of our selves or our neighbours and to the indangering the loss of some better good In brief He allows us to please our selves so that every part of us be pleased our Judgment and Conscience as well as the lower Appetites And what now doth all this amount unto but the doing our selves a reall and intire kindness But in some state of things God will have us forsake all our worldly goods and possessions for the kingdom of heaven's sake as he required the Apostles and the first Disciples to Christianity True But do we not set too high a price upon these things if we value our obedience at a great rate upon this account I will let alone the comparison we ought to make between our loss and our gain Weigh things impartially by themselves and consider what it is we part withall should we suffer all our worldly goods to be taken from us rather then part with our Religion Do we lose any more then a Philosopher hath left of his own accord for the convenience of his study and that he might not be incumbred in his contemplations And while we had them were all those things necessary for us Doth Nature require so much Did not a great many of them lie by us unused What a small matter now does the account come to when we have made this abatement And how little reason is there that the parting with these things should make such a noise as if we had made some exceeding rich present to God's almighty love from whom we received them But let us look upon them again together with the loss of life and consider Are they things which we could have kept very long Do we any more then part with them a little before the time And what difference is there between their leaving us and our leaving them but the advantage we have by living a while after them to give a proof of a little very short patience and of intire trust in God and absolute resignation to his will Let the things we leave for God's sake be rated as high as we please all that can be made of them comes at last to this that in obedience to God we let them go a little before we could not enjoy them And suppose we be required to die it is but to go another way out of the world then we must shortly perhaps presently have done There is no difference at all but onely as much as there is between a sword and an acute disease between the flames of fire and those of a burning fever But we may endure many torments perhaps in the world before we die which are worse then death it self It may be so and there is a possibility it may not be so Now supposing we do not suffer any torments what a small matter is it that God asks that we may go to Heaven where we shall have an Happiness so great that we may well if need be as St. Peter speaks consent to endure something that looks more like self-deniall then any thing I have mentioned to obtain it And yet when that necessity comes this will arise to no great expense It is no more then we may naturally suffer by the stone or the gout or by some such disease which may seize upon us and not carry us to heaven neither And it is likewise considerable that wicked men many times take more pains and endure a great deal more then this comes to to go to hell Do we not see what attendance their lusts require from them and that they make provision for their satisfaction with much solicitude and trouble Nay do not their expences frequently run very high to gratifie some worldly or fleshly desire One man breaks his sleep another pines his body a third consumes his estate a fourth nourishes loathsome and foul diseases a fifth breeds cruell and tormenting pains which set him upon the rack a sixth ventures his life and runs the hazzard of the gallows or of a severer death And all sinners contrive and plot and trouble their brains to find opportunities and are often vexed with disappointments and as often put to shame and always troubled with their desires till they meet with some satisfaction and being never satisfied are always troubled with their restless desires Let all these things be considered soberly and then tell me whether God demands great things of us to obtain Eternall Life and doth not rather wonderfully oblige us in accepting so graciously our poor services nay carries us from the happiness of doing his will here to the happiness of having it rewarded with a most glorious recompence in another world And cast in this consideration also which Clemens Alexandrinus * Admon ad Gentes p. 55. propounds to the Gentiles how much many men would be willing to give if it were set at a price to purchase everlasting Salvation And therefore what account can they give of their unwillingness to accept of that on such easie terms which cannot be bought with all the gold if we had it of the fabulous Pactolus We may purchase this most precious Salvation if we will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our own Treasure which we have within our selves viz. Charity and a lively Faith This is its just price saith he which God will gladly accept For we hope in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of the Faithfull But it cannot be obtained by any other means For they that stick to this World as weeds do to the rocks in the sea slight immortality and judge themselves unworthy of the other World which at so low a rate offered it self to their Faith and Charity But we have just reason to proceed a great deal farther then all this and supposing a man could alway live here without the least trouble and in the fullest contentment that either his Soul or body can now enjoy I ask again whether a man that believes the Gospell would be willing to have his Eternall life in this World and not rather chuse to go thither
where both Soul and body shall be so wonderfully improved as to be capable of more solid pure and durable pleasures then this Earth can ever afford He that considers how weak humane Nature is in this state and how unable to entertain it self long with any of those things which please our senses will not take much time to resolve this question Should we be furnished with the best delights that Nature can crave in the most perfect health and vigorous strength still we should find either fulness and satiety or lassitude and weariness follow the enjoyment This is a great part of man's vanity in his best Estate that all his fruitions either suppose or make a consumption of his spirits And how short our understandings are and will be while we apprehend by the brain and are forced to spend so much time in serving our bodily necessities we cannot but be sensible and therefore shall always be possessed with desires which cannot here be satisfied and long to know those things of which should we stay never so many Ages here we must remain ignorant Who would not then that hath any hopes in another world freely consent to a dissolution in order to a better conjunction of Soul and body in a state of greater strength and spriteliness to enjoy a fuller good with greater constancy without any weariness or dejection of appetite with perfect satisfaction and an eternall pleasure in enjoying the same again And if we agree to this judge then what reason there is to be exceeding solicitous to attain that heavenly Bliss which so inconceivably transcends all that we can fansy to our selves but are never like to enjoy in this world And judge again how unworthy then this short this troublesome life which is but like a dream full of distracted thoughts and cares and fears is to come into any competition with that Eternall life which we expect And once more how mad they are who prefer a brutall wicked life which mere rationall men have hissed out of the world before that happy state which far exceeds even the life of innocence in a Paradise upon earth VI. And let us hence take occasion to consider again if it be not desirable alway to stay here on this Earth how far distant are they from the happiness of the other World who have their thoughts very rarely there What shall we think of such careless believers as love not to have their minds troubled with the thoughts of Death and of Eternall Life with which they desire to have as little acquaintance as may be till they come thither Are they afraid of believing it too strongly for fear it should spoil all their earthly delights and make them lose the relish they have of bodily pleasures or hinder their business and make them have no list to follow it There is no danger of this for a lively belief of the Life to come heightens all our other joys by making them innocent and furthers our affairs by making us diligent but not too solicitous But some such fancy possesses the hearts of men who have no inclination to entertain any familiarity with Heaven till they think they are shortly to leave this Earth For if we desire them to think often and seriously of Eternall Life they return such an Answer as Antipater made to a man that presented him with a Book concerning Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not at leisure Tell me of this when I have nothing else to doe now I have other more weighty imployments This is the sense of mens gross negligence and their seldom retiring to look up unto Jesus Who justly expected not onely that greater multitudes upon the publishing of such an incomparable glory and happiness should become Religious but that their Piety should arrive to a greater height of Vertue by perpetuall contemplation of it Christians one would think should love Vertue more dearly and be more intirely devoted to the study of it now that it hath such a dowry then any Philosophers ever were who loved it for it self and thought it to be its own price and portion And so they would if they did not lay aside all consideration and suffer the thoughts of Eternal Bliss to slip out of their minds It is a saying among the Jews that when God first created Man his stature was so tall that he reached from heaven to earth and could grasp all this world in his arms as a very little thing But post peccatum Deus eum minuit ad centum cubitos after he sinned God took him down to the height of an hundred cubits And still as men grew worse and worse they sunk lower till they dwindled away as we see by our selves almost to Nothing The Morall of it is very true And if the Christian Faith like the breath of life wherewith God inspired Man at the first did throughly possess and renew our Souls we should grow up again to such an excellent pitch as to be above all the Earth and tread it under our feet At the very entrance of it we should be inflamed with a most vehement desire and hope to grow till we be above the heavens and made associates with the Angels and sit down with our Blessed Saviour in his Throne And the lively hope of this will make us presently discharge our selves of all those evill affections which have degraded us and sunk us so low that many men can scarce be discerned from the brutes that perish They can speak indeed but that too is so sottishly unreasonable as it onely serves to proclaim into what a pitifull condition they are faln Out of which nothing but the Christian Faith can raise us which delivered the Gentile world from their Idolatry and purged their hearts when they lay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen often speaks in the most confused mixture of all filthiness and impurity It retains its virtue still did we but inliven it by such affectionate considerations as these Which make us so ashamed to continue wallowing in the mire that they will not suffer us to content our selves with a mean degree of purity but as he which called us is holy so they press us to be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. i. 15. V. And can any man now imagine there is no danger at all in resisting so mighty a motive as this to all well-doing or that a man shall be no more miserable after his neglect of such great Salvation then he would have been if no such proposall had been made to him Where have those men lived what have they been thinking of all their days into whose hearts such a belief can enter that Christians may sin at as easy a rate as heathens What will despite done to such astonishing love of God to men as is manifested to us not at all inflame the reckoning Can a man see the Kingdom of Heaven set open before his eyes and offered to him and after he
being separable from obedience that this is essentially included in it and freely flows from it if it may be but suffered to have its course and not be crossed in its clear intention and design If you be not convinced of this by what you feel you may learn it of S. John who tells you here what the natural issue of our faith is and what duty it exacts for it is the scope of these words which I have expounded to lay such a foundation of belief as may unavoidably inforce obedience unless we forget what our belief is He begins you know this Fifth Chapter of his Epistle with this Principle that every one who believes Jesus to be the Christ is born of God and from thence infers in that and in the second Verse that such a person cannot but love God and all his Brethren which Love cannot be discerned by any thing but by keeping his Commandments FOR THIS IS THE LOVE OF GOD ver 3. THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDEMENTS Here is the natural fruit of Faith This is its Progress if you do not stop its motions It begets in our heart a great Love and Love is to be Obedient and that to all God's Commandments which respect either our duty to him or to our Neighbour It is in vain to say we believe in Jesus if we do not heartily love God who sent him to us And it is in vain to pretend love to God if we keep not his Commandments And it is as vain to say we have a dutiful respect to his Commandments if our neighbour have any cause to complain of us For he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment we have from him that he who loveth God love his Brother also iv 20 21. Here now they who have less understanding of the grounds of Faith may make up what is wanting in their knowledge by the heartiness of their Devotion to God and the unfeignedness of their love to all their Brethren If they be mightily affected with what they believe and out of an honest love in their hearts to his holy Precepts be very diligent in their obedience it will supply the defect that is in their understanding of the Reasons why they believe in Jesus For if a small argument in a weak and dull understanding does the same work with a strong argument in a quick and piercing where lies the difference but only that the One can serve Religion more with his mind and discourse the other meerly with his good will and his pious life But will any man presume to be so impious as to imploy his will to find out ways to excuse his Obedience to him whom he acknowledges for his Lord He should rather consider seriously how reasonable and how necessary it is that he who knows so well what Jesus is and how he came should above all other Men do him the most faithful and zealous service For if we do but observe how many arguments here are to perswade us to this Faith in Jesus with what Authority he was sent and with what power he came to us we shall think it was for some very great work and fell it impossible while we are sensible of this not to do what he requires though now perhaps it seem impossible to be done He is not come of himself but hath the mark and stamp of the Supreme Lord upon him He evidently shows that he hath a Commission from God and brings as I may say the Broad-seal of Heaven with him to warrant what he demands though it be never so great a tribute of Obedience Here are Witnesses to him above all exception and they all bid us behave our selves submissively towards him and not deny to do any thing that he would have us Him hath God the Father sealed as he tells us vi Joh. 27. and by his Voice from Heaven commands us to HEAR HIM Which was as if he had said If you will believe him that cannot lye then Jesus is the TRUTH to every word of whose mouth we ought to hearken that is faithfully obey and observe For as God is said to hear us when he grants our desires so we hear him or his Son when we fulfill his pleasure The WORD likewise 2. when he appeared to S. Paul made him an Apostle for obedience to the faith among all Nations i. Rom. 5. And told him expresly that he appeared to him for this end that he might send him to the Gentiles to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God xxvi Act. 16 18. The HOLY GHOST likewise 3. is a Witness of this which was given to those that obeyed him v. Act. 32. But lookt upon all wickedness as an high affront to it at which it was grieved and by which it was quenched nay forced to depart as not induring to dwell in the same House with filthiness and impurity Unto which the Water 4. or the Holy life and purity of our Saviour in all his actions as well as his Doctrine was directly opposite And tells us that we must be obedient if there were no other reason for it but this alone that the Son of God himself was so in every thing Did God exact obedience of him that he might demand none of us Will he set us free from that duty and service to which his dearly beloved Son was strictly tyed He fulfilled all righteousness and observed even that Law of Ceremonies to which we have no obligation And do we think to be hereby excused from paying all those respects which are naturally due from Creatures to the author of their being and which we cannot but owe to those who are of the same kind with us What is it that hath so perverted the understanding of Christian People as to possess them with apprehensions quite contrary to common reason What ailes us that we cannot see the end of Christ's coming nay that we overlook the plain words of his holy Scriptures which tell us that he left us an example and expects that we should follow it and be made conformable to him and be renewed after his image in righteousness and true holiness without which no man shall see the Lord This the Bloud 5. speaks still more effectually For he would dye rather than disobey God He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross ii Philip. 8. which was the reason why God so highly exalted him and gave him that Name which he hath above every Name There was no other way whereby he could ascend up into Glory And therefore it is madness for us to think to leap up thither and skip over the holy life of Jesus Especially since he declares that his Bloud was shed to which perhaps we trust for redemption though we remain in our impurities that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of
spitefull Pharisees he imputed all his Works to the Devill Which blasphemy I have shewn in the former Book is so manifestly confuted by his holy Doctrine and Life that they must be no less foolish then malicious who regard it We ask no more but to allow such things were done as the Gospell reports which they dare not deny us and then their great uncertainty what to say against them shews how forcible they are to convince all indifferent men that he came from God whose finger they were pointing them to him as the Person whom they should hear and obey And that they were a plain demonstration of his power to give Eternall Life to all his followers will appear from these following considerations I. If they confirmed all his Doctrine to be the Will of God then we ought to look upon this as firmly establisht by them for it was a known part of his Doctrine that God sent him to proclaim his purpose of giving everlasting life by him to all those who should believe on him vi Joh. 38 39 40. iii. 16. There is nothing in this assertion needs proof but that they confirmed his Doctrine this being it is apparent to all a constant part of it in which the Blind man thought he could presently satisfy any reasonable person when he said If this man were not of God he could doe nothing ix Joh. 33. That is no such Miracle as that was of opening the eyes of one born blind a thing the world had never heard of since it was first created till that time He preached nothing but piety and holiness He lived as he preached both his Sermons and his Conversation were above all that ever had been for Sanctity And his Works being so also much beyond the most famed Prodigies the world had ever boasted of it was an unanswerable argument that God was in him who was never known to have let such things be done before in the compass of so many Ages and therefore would not let them now doe their first Service to the countenancing of a lie And therefore to these our Lord often refers them as there was reason for a proof of his Divine Authority For if a false prophet could doe such wonders how should there be any possibility of ever knowing a true Reade x. Joh. 37 38. xiv 10. xv 24. That which is most proper for me to note is that in that xiv of St. John when he bids them look upon his Works as the best glass that then was wherein to see his Divinity he was discoursing on this very subject that He was the Life ver 6. and that He was going to the Father to live with him and to prepare a place for them c. ver 2 3. Of this he could not give them a better evidence then the Wonders he had wrought untill his Resurrection After which indeed he saith ver 12. they should doe greater works then these which would more plainly tell them that he was with the Father It will not be unprofitable if I open the whole discourse from vers 2. where he tells them with a solemn profession he would not abuse them that in his Father's house are many Mansions and that he was going away indeed from them but it was in order to prepare a place for them He departed he would have them believe not merely to go to rest himself after all his labours but to take up lodgings as one may say for them in that blessed Rest prepared for the people of God Now the consequence of this he tells them in the next words ver 3. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto my self that where I am there ye may be also He assures them that is he would not lose the pains he had taken to procure such a happiness for them but see them safe there where they should have their share with him in that very bliss which he was about to receive And where I go ye know and the way ye know ver 4. As if he should have said You understand well enough what I mean for I have often spoke of these things I go to Heaven to live with God and to give life to those that believe on me which that you may not miss of I have shewn you both by my doctrine and my example the way that leads to it Alas replies one of his Apostles who seems to be the slowest of all other to apprehend his meaning or give credit to him Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we find the way ver 5. No saith our Saviour to him again that is strange I my self am the Way from whom you might have learnt how to arrive at this happiness And that this is the true way which I have described you need not doubt for I am the Truth that is the teacher of truth who have demonstrated severall ways that what I declare is the very mind and will of God And the same arguments which prove me to be the Truth evidently shew also that I am the Life who will conduct you to that bliss unto which I am now going And no man cometh to the Father and that Eternall life which is with him but by me that is by believing my words and following my steps ver 6. And therefore if you had minded me and my words as it follows ver 7. If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also you would have known it is my Father's purpose to give you Eternall life And from henceforth sure you will not doubt of it now that I have revealed it so plainly that I may say you know him and have seen him Upon this Answer of our Saviour another of his Apostles wisht they might but see the Father and that would be sufficient ver 8. He desired that is there might be some such Divine appearance to them as there was to Abraham and others of the Patriarchs in old time and they would trouble him with no farther questions about this matter How saith our Saviour have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip that is understood what kind of person I am Dost thou not see that I am the onely-begotten of the Father full of grace and truth the express image of his person and the brightness of his glory Was there ever such an appearance of God in the world as thou seest in me All the Fathers enjoyed was but a little glimpse of the Divine glory in comparison with that which now shines upon you in my face And therefore why dost thou ask to see the Father as if there was nothing of him in me I tell thee He that hath seen me hath seen the Father And so it follows ver 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me the words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self but the Father that