by those particular Sufferings upon the Cross for his Father accepting that Price so paid down Christ as Man Heb. 7.25 acquired that Power as to be able to save to the utmost all those that come to God by him and therefore his humane Nature is immortal that he may always be capable of exerting such a Power But the Socinians would prove their position by that Heb. 8.4 That if Christ were on Earth he should not be a Priest seeing that there are Priests which offer Gifts according to the Law but here they are vastly wide from the Apostle's meaning for the Apostle writing there to Jews and arguing the matter with them concerning the Messiahship of Christ shows them that though he asserted Christ's High-priesthood yet he pretended not that he was any Successor of Aaron or the Legal High-priests for says he 7. 13. 14. it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which Moses spake nothing concerning the Priesthood therefore our Saviour was a Priest according to Prophecy after the order of Melchisedech and not only after that Order but for ever so a High-priest never to die never to be succeeded in that sacred Office by any other now being after that Order and under a necessity of having somewhat to offer as a Priest for so we are taught and 8.3 as a Priest having no right to offer any Jewish Sacrifices or Gifts the Order of Melchisedech not having any relation to them Christ offered himself the greatest the noblest Offering in the World having made that glorious Offering he soon left Earth having there no further immediate concern for could he have made his Title to Priesthood never so plain and offered himself never so freely among the Jews to execute the Priestly Office it had been to no purpose they having Priests of their own of the Aaronical Line of whom by Divine prescription they were to make use in things pertaining to God those Priests properly officiating so long as Sacrifices were legally necessary and when they were render'd unnecessary by the perfection of our Saviour's Sacrifice there being no need of any Priests at all to offer such external Sacrifices or Gifts the Apostles of Christ and their Followers succeeding their Master onely in the Instructing Governing and Interceding Parts of his Sacerdotal Function As for some part of their Argument to prove that Christ was not a compleat High-priest till his Entrance into Heaven it 's more dark and unintelligible to me than all those Mysteries in Religion which they pretend to explode for say they since the Apostle asserts that he ought in all things to be like his Brethren that he might be a compassionate and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God and for expiating the Sins of the People it 's plain that so long as he was not like to his Brethren in all things i. e. in Afflictions and in Death so long he was not a compleat High-priest well is the Consequence from all this therefore he was not a compleat High-priest till he appeared in Heaven before his Father nothing less It will only follow on their own Principles that upon his Death without that Consequence the expiatory Sacrifice was compleated for there was no need of sanctifying the highest Heavens with his own Blood nor does this at all abate the necessity of Christ's Resurrection or Ascension into Heaven since without these that Faith fixt in one who had been false to his own Promises concerning himself who could neither have rais'd himself nor others who could neither have possest those eternal Mansions in his own Person nor have prepared them for his Followers who could neither have protected nor assisted them to the end of the World could have been no way justifiable but Christ's assimilation to his Brethren could proceed no further than to the end of his Sufferings which ended with his Death upon the Cross since none of his Brethren had been so glorified or had so risen as he did or so ascended into the presence of God to make Intercession for Sinners but indeed Death it self was not so essential to that Resemblance as they imagine for whosoever is liable to common Infirmities and obnoxious to Sufferings must of necessity be obnoxious to Death on the same reason though he should actually be translated with Enoch or carried up into Heaven with Elijah for though those holy Men after such a Translation were no more in a mortal state yet all that was no greater Privilege than all are Partakers of who after their final Resurrection die no more or than those who shall be found alive at the day of judgment for though such shall only be subjected to a change and not really die as others yet that hinders not but that in their own Natures they shall be mortal and as liable to Distempers so to Death as well as others To say truth our Saviour during the whose course of his Life and in all its particulars liv'd as Men do and being a Partaker of real and not fantastical Flesh and Blood it was not probable he should live otherwise only in his exemption from Sin he was beyond that general Rule the Deity not being capable of an Union with any thing imperfect or impure But having liv'd as real Man and suffer'd as such and having by himself throughly purged our Sins Heb. 1.3 he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high the Socinians indeed seem to point at somewhat of an Interstice between his Ascension and his Session at the right hand of God that 's not at all grounded upon Scripture for though we know he convers'd some time with his Disciples before he left them that was not the time of presenting himself before his Father and for any thing of a formal presenting himself before his Father as a Suppliant with his own Blood it 's an irrational Dream neither becoming Men pretending to Scriptural nor to Philosophical Reason for since we must to please their Fancies make an exact Parallelism between the Annual Sacrifice and that of Christ we must consider that the High-priest entring into the Holy of Holies had really with him the Blood of the Victim already dead and in that state of Death to continue till consumed by fire without the Camp and so never capable of a Resurrection but our Saviour rose again from the dead and though those of Rome would persuade us some of his Blood was gathered from under the Cross and preserv'd as a venerable Relick by some very Pious and Devout Persons and may be seen at this day by those who have Faith enough yet we doubt not but that Blood so shed was re-united to his Body being easily gathered by Almighty Power from that Diffusion it had suffer'd at his Crucifixion so that though our Lord had died yet his Blood after his Resurrection existed only as in a living Body therefore it could be presented before God only as in such a
whom we believe is the Son and Messenger of God who being the Word before had sometime appear'd in the resemblance of fire sometimes in the form of Angels now at last by the Will of God was made Man for the sake of mankind and for their sakes suffered whatsoever Jewish cruelty and malice could inflict upon him who while they own'd it was God the Creator and maker of all things who spake to Moses in the bush and yet He that there spoke was the Son the Angel the Messenger of God indeed they laid themselves open to that just reproof of our Lord that they neither knew the Father nor the Son We argue too from hence that if it were our Christ who appear'd to Moses in the Bush as Justine affirms and Scripture sufficiently evidences if it were our Christ what name soever he might be call'd by he then was pre-existent or had a real being before he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin therefore he could be no meer Man unless the Socinians can find out the way to satisfie the question of Nicodemus by asserting positively that a Man a meer Man may be born when he is old that he may literally enter again into his mothers womb and be born a-new and can prove it when they have asserted it He could be no Angel that 's denyed in Scripture the Apostle assures us Heb. 2.16 He took not upon him the nature of Angels a speech very idle if he had been an Angel originally if therefore he neither was a meer Man nor a created Angel he was and must be the supreme God Again the same Justine in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew Dial. cum Tryph. Jud. p. 267. l. B. C. when Trypho urges him with his absurd assertion That Christ was God before all ages and yet had condescended to become Man Justine answers him The truth would not therefore be lost if he should fail in his proofs that Christ was the Son of the world's Creator and that he was God because however it had been foretold by the Prophets that he should be so but if I do not prove that He had a being before and then condescended to become Man and took flesh according to his Father's design and determination p. 275. dcinceps it 's only proper to conclude that I am a weak disputant not that he who bore that Character is not the Christ When Trypho afterwards bids him prove that there was or could be another God besides the maker of the Universe the Martyr stumbles not at the proposition but proceeds to prove the thing by that instance of the Lord before whom Abraham stood when the two Angels went forwards towards Sodom and falls again upon the forementioned instance of Christ speaking to Moses in the Bush by both which he proves that the Son is God as well as the Father is God and yet he asserts not two Gods but one God because if two or three Beings are partakers of one divine Nature they must of consequence be one God the divine Nature being indivisible and incapable of degrees or diminution After a large discourse with the Jew he tells him that in the several arguments he had brought he had sufficiently proved that Christ was Lord and God and the Son of God who had appear'd both as a Man p. 357. D. and as an Angel in the burning Bush and at the destruction of Sodom And Trypho all along looks upon him as engag'd in that design of proving Christ to be God not by a figure but in reality He concludes the Scriptures were very express in their evidence that that Christ who had suffered so much at the Jews hands was to be worshipped and was God had he not prov'd the last well that He was God to have asserted the first that he ought to be worshipped would have sounded very harshly in the ears of a Jew But even Trypho himself who thought it prodigious and incredible that God should be born and should condescend to become Man tho' none of the most tractable persons in the world was brought to Agrippa's condition by the zealous Martyr and almost perswaded to be a Christian About the same time lived S. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France one who had been a Hearer of blessed Polycarp who had been himself an Hearer of the Apostles He had certainly the advantage of knowing what was sound and true Doctrine with relation to our Saviour and that from very authentick hands his writings were originally Greek as himself was by Birth tho' employed to preach the Gospel in the parts of France but those Originals are almost all lost and we must necessarily content our selves with their Translation This excellent Father then tells us first what the general Faith of the Church is That the Church believes in one God Iren. adv Haer. l. 1. c. 2. the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. and in one Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate for our Salvation and in the Holy Ghost who among other things has taught us that according to the good pleasure of the invisible Father every knee of things in Heaven and of things on Earth and of things under the Earth should bow to Jesus Christ our Lord our God our Saviour and our King and that every tongue should confess to him and this passage we have in the genuine original and it seems satisfactory enough as to the Faith of the French Church in those days and doubtless was look'd upon by him as the Faith generally embraced by all the true professors of Christianity C. 3. and indeed so he assures us in the following chapter of the same book That the Church spread through the whole world diligently maintains this Faith and observes it as exactly as if they all inhabited in one house they believe it as if they had all one heart and one soul and with a wonderful consent preach it as it were with one mouth We then are safe enough while we believe Jesus Christ to be God since holy Martyrs nay the whole Church of God believed the same truth so long since and making it a part of their publick Creed declared their judgment that so to believe was necessary to eternal Salvation Having afterwards told us what the Apostles have preached and how they have prov'd Him true and that there was no falshood in him he proceeds in the next chapter thus Therefore neither our Lord himself nor the Holy Ghost nor the Apostles would have called any one God absolutely and definitively unless he had really been true God nor would they have called any one Lord in his own person l. 3. c. 6. but only Him who is Lord of all things God the Father and his Son and so he proceeds to enumerate several Texts wherein the name of God and Lord is indifferently given to both the Father and the Son and elsewhere he teaches us c. 18.
shall not depart from Judah Page 241 Exod. 4.16 Moses a God to Pharaoh and Aaron his Prophet Page 343 7.1 Moses a God to Pharaoh and Aaron his Prophet Page 343 14.21 They believed in the Lord and in his Servant Moses Page 329 25.22 The Propitiatory or Mercy-seat Page 721 34.7 Forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin Page 699 Levit. 16.12 13. Censer of Burning Coals in the Holiest Place Page 726 v. 16. To make an Atonement for the most Holy Place Page 725 2 Kings 3.26 27. King of Moab offering his Son Page 105 2 Chron. 30.18 19 20. Hezekiah's Prayer for the Vnprepared Page 603 Psalm 40.6 7 8. Sacrifice and Burnt-Offerings not desired Page 225 45.2 Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Page 314 82.6 7. I have said Ye are Gods Page 342 Isaiah 9.6 Vnto us a Child is born a Son is given Page 320 Jeremiah 23.5 6. I will raise unto David a Righteous Branch Page 321 Micah 5.2 Thou Bethlehem Ephrata c. Page 323 Haggai 2.8 The Glory of the Second House greater c. Page 753 Matth. 1.23 Thou shalt call his Name Emanuel Page 325 18.23 The Parable of the Debtors to their Lord. Page 651 28.18 All Power is given to me in Heaven and Earth Page 407 v. 19. In the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Page 328 Luke 4.29 30. They led him to the Brow of the Hill Page 382 24.45 He open'd their Vnderstandings Page 395 John 1.1 In the beginning was the Word Page 332 3.13 No man hath ascended up into Heaven c. Page 337 5.23 The Father hath committed all Judgment c. Page 202 10.30 I and my Father are One. Page 354 10.34 35 36. Is it not written in your Law Page 558 17 21. That they all may be One as Thou c. Page 358 20.28 My Lord and my God Page 360 Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Page 524 Rom. 2.6 God will render to every Man c. Page 124 3.24 25 26. Justified freely by his Grace c. Page 649 703 8.19 20 21 22. The earnest Expectation of the Creature Page 490 9.5 Of whom as concerning the Flesh Christ came Page 370 10.13 Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord c. Page 203 1 Cor. 1.14 15. Lest any should say I had baptized in my own c. Page 402 10.2 All were baptized into Moses c. Page 329 15.3 Christ died for our Sins Page 693 2 Cor. 5.19 20. Reconciling the World c. Page 648 719 12.7 8 9. For this cause I besought the Lord thrice Page 527 Gal. 3.19 In the hand of a Mediator Page 711 Philip. 2.5 11. Being in the Form of God c. Page 374 Col. 1.24 What was behind of the Afflictions of Christ Page 694 1 Thess 5.17 Pray without ceasing Page 505 Heb. 1.8 9 10. c. When he bringeth his First-Begotten c. Page 314 5.5 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Page 549 6.1 2. Leaving the Principles c. Page 184 8.4 If on Earth he should not be a Priest c. Page 733 c. 9. c. 10. Page 689 727 728. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for c. Page 87 1 Pet. 2.24 Bore our Sins in his own Body on the Cross Page 698. 3.18 He suffered for our Sins the just for the unjust Page 697 1 John 2.1 2. He is the Propitiation for our Sins Page 719 5.7 There are Three that bear Record in Heaven Page 458 v. 20. This is the True God and Eternal Life Page 205 ERRATA PAge 3. l. 5. after Salvation dele p. 5. l. 20. put a Period after Text. l. 30. after Attentatam d. ◠p. 6. l. 3. r. Wissowatius p. 130. in the Margent r. Serrarii p. 142. l. 19. r. seem'd p. 148. l. 31. r. Posterity p. 200. l. 14 r. One p. 209. l. 26. r. really and indeed p. 221. l. 7. r. Paradisiacum p. 239. r. this p. 139. l. 21. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 149. l. 21. d. And. p. 289. l. 29. r. those p. 312. l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Margent r. Sandii Hist Eccles Enucl p. 318. l. 6. r. for p. 332. l. 16. r. those p. 336. l. 25. r. Stranger p. 364. l. 29. r. at p. 413. l. 21. r. far p. 448. l. 20. r. Libraries p. 467. l. 22. r. Separation p. 492. l. 26. d. One p. 511. l. 10. r. deliver p. 539. l. 3. r. Lazarus p. 552. l. 31. in Marg. r. Epistolarum p. 602. l. 12. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 609. l. 13. r. Sacrifices p. 666. l. 1. he be p. 690. l. 29. r. Levitical p. 700. in Marg. r. Brixian l. 3. r. curing p. 704. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 720. l. 11. r. Catiline p. 752. l. 10. r. Administrator Several smaller Mistakes especially in the Pointing the Reader will easily observe and pass by or correct as fitting Books Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard TEN Sermons with Two Discourses of Conscience By the Lord Archbishop of York 4 to 's Sermon before the House of Lords Nov. 5. 1691. 's Sermon before the King and Queen on Christmass-Day 1691. 's Sermon before the Queen on Easter-Day 1692. Henrici Mori D. D. Opera omnia Bishop Overal's Convocation-Book 1606. concerning the Government of God's Catholick Church and the Kingdoms of the whole World 4 to Dr Falkner's Libertas Ecclesiastica 8 vo 's Vindication of Liturgies Ibid. 's Christian Loyalty Ibid. Mr. Lamb's Fresh Suit against Independency Ibid. Mr. W. Allen's Tracts Ibid. Bishop Fowler 's Libertas Evangelica Ib. Jovian or an Answer to Julian the Apostate Ibid. Animadversions on Mr. Johnson's Answer to Jovian In Three Letters to a Country Friend Ibid. Turner de Angelorum Hominum Lapsu 4 to Mr. Raymond's Pattern of Pure and Undefiled Religion 8 vo 's Exposition on the Church-Catechism Ibid. Mr. Lamb's Dialogues between a Minister and his Parishioner about the Lord's Supper Ibid. 's Sermon before the King at Windsor 's Sermon before the Lord Mayor 's Liberty of Humane Nature stated discussed and limited 's Sermon before the King and Queen Jan. 19. 1689. 's Sermon before the Queen Jan. 24. 1690. Dr Hickman's Thanksgiving-Sermon before the Honourable House of Commons Oct. 19. 1690. 's Sermon before the Queen at Whitehall Oct. 26. 1690. Dr Burnet's Theory of the Earth 2 Vol. Folio 's Answer to Mr. Warren's Exceptions against the Theory of the Earth 's Consideration of Mr. Warren's Defence 's Telluris Theoria Sacra 2 Vol. 4 to Bishop of Bath and Wells Reflections on a French Testament Printed at Bourdeaux 's Christian Sufferer supported 8 vo Dr Grove now Lord Bishop of Chichester his Sermon before the King and Queen June 1. 1690. Dr Hooper's Sermon before the Queen Jan. 24. 1690 1. Dr Pelling's Sermon before the King and Queen Dec. 8. 1689. 's Vindication of those that have taken the Oaths 4 to Dr Worthington of Resignation 8 vo 's Christian Love Ibid. Religion the Perfection of Man By Mr. Jeffery Ibid. Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man 12º The Fourth Edition Kelsey Concio de Aeterno Christi Sacerdot 's Sermon of Christ Crucified Aug. 23. 1691. Mr. Milbourn's Sermon Jan. 30. 1682. 's Sermon Sept. 9. 1683. An Answer to an Heretical Book called the Naked Gospel which was condemned and order'd to be publickly Burnt by the Convocation of the University of Oxford Aug. 19. 1690. With some Reflections on Dr Bury's new Edition of that Book to which is added a Short History of Socinianism by W. Nichols M. A. c. Two Letters of Advice I. For the Susception of Holy Orders II. For Studies Theological especially such as are Rational At the end of the former is inserted a Catalogue of the Christian Writers and Genuine Works that are Extant of the First Three Centuries By Henry Dodwell M. A. c.
is a Law-giver as a King on his Throne who has no superiour and therefore what he there decrees has the force and sanction of a Law the Lord is our Judge Isa 33.22 says the Prophet the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King he will save us As our Saviour was Man he too tho' superiour to Moses and peculiarly faithful in all the house of God had no authority to make alterations in that original Moral Law and as he was one with his Father and so conscious of every determination of his it was impossible he should vary from himself i. e. from his blessed Father or should openly in the world act as if it were possible any thing imperfect should come out of the hand of God Hence we rationally believe that if salvation be a thing really attainable it must be attained by the same means by all persons whether Jews or Gentiles Of the Patriarchs several have that testimony given of them in Scripture that they pleas'd God now there being no variableness nor shadow of turning with God but he the same yesterday to day and for ever whatsoever pleas'd God in those the same and nothing else can please him now And whereas our blessed Saviour in the days of his flesh made it his business to please his Almighty Father and did so by performing every punctilio of the Mosaic Law so we who are to follow his example must perform the same but whereas the very circumstantial appendages of a Law tho' nothing essential to it but the meer evidences of the Sovereignty of the Lawgiver are not yet to be cancell'd but by a power equal to that which gave them their first obliging authority therefore it was necessary that Jesus Christ in and by whom the ceremonial sanctions of Moses's Law were vacated should be God and so have the same original Divine Authority in himself and his fulfilling and re-confirming all the substantial parts of that Law made it yet the more publickly authentick and taught his followers to have their due respect to him which was due to both an Almighty Lawgiver and an infallible Interpreter And whereas that insupportable burden of Ceremonies is taken off from the necks of Christians it being laid upon the Jews partly for the hardness of their hearts and partly for to shadow out to them their expectations of a Messiah who being himself come in the flesh has now no need of types and shadows to prefigure him so the old Natural Law is urged upon them with the greatest strength and reason in the world and the force and intent of it is more clearly shew'd them from whence the Apostle S. John who tells those he writes to that he gave them no new commandment but the old which they had heard from the beginning yet in the very next verse subjoins 1 John 2.7 8. Again a new commandment I write unto you the substance of which is that you love one another this was an old commandment in that Nature injoyn'd it and it was co-incident with that Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self it was a new Commandment in that it was re-inforced and inculcated so very often by our Saviour in that He gave so many powerful reasons why his followers should practise it and yet the result of all amounts only to this that the design of Religion being to restore Nature to its first happiness and that being rationally concluded to be the best and purest Religion which has the greatest effects in that design if those who were his Disciples would but take care to evidence their Discipleship by that mutual love and endearing charity they would at the same time convince the world that the Lord whom they follow'd was truly authoriz'd by Heaven that the Doctrine which He preach'd was really agreeable to the Will of God and that Love being the first intention of pure and uncorrupted Nature That which raised and encouraged men most powerfully to it must needs be the most suitable to that original purity of Nature And hence it is that we observe many are prejudiced against Christianity by those cursed feuds and animosities to be found among Christians they having an eye generally to the restauration of Nature but quarrels and contentions being wholly barbarous brutish and unnatural hence it appears farther too that whereas the Apostle seems to distinguish between the Gospel and the Mosaic dispensation as if the first were the Law of Faith the last the Law of Works and that such a Law as by which Salvation could never be obtain'd The works the Apostle reflects on are not the duties of the moral Law but the Ceremonial punctilio's of the Levitical Law which as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews agreeably to what I asserted before assures us were not able to make any man perfect but for the Moral Law he 's so far from invalidating it that where ever he dehorts from any vices such as he calls the works of the flesh Gal. 5.19 24. which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations strife wrath seditions heresie envyings murders drunkenness revellings and such like of which he tells us that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Again wheresoever he exhorts to any virtue such as Love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against which there is no Law Wheresoever he does thus He enforces the Moral Law with expressions as strong and reasons as weighty as the Holy Ghost could inspire him with and where the same Apostle assures us that in Jesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision Gal. 5.6 he shews what works are excluded from any efficacy in our Salvation for Circumcision is put for the whole Ceremonial Law and where he adds that Faith working by Love is available he shews the inefficacy of all pretences to Faith without good works agreeing with S. James that Faith without works is dead James 2.26 and with his own severe reflection elsewhere upon those who profess they knew God while in their works they deny him Tit. 1.16 being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Since then it was the great end and design of the Gospel to confirm the Moral and eternal Law of God and so by just degrees to reduce fallen Man again to the rules of perfect reason to make him sensible of the noble nature and spiritual inclinations of the Heaven-born Soul that so he might the more fully apprehend how much below himself he falls in yielding himself a slave to Sin and how much he retrenches his own true liberty by that unbridled exorbitancy he aims at the Gospel being intended to set Man's natural misery in a true light and withal to shew the sole remedy for that misery in the undertakings of a Saviour It remains an inquiry still whether Man could in the state he is in at present arrive
to set up their Master for the Son of God who had justly suffered before for blaspheming that Divinity he pretended so near a relation to But tho' what I have said already may go a good way toward the proof of that That Jesus was the Son of God yet for the farther clearing this matter we may enquire Into the promises and predictions concerning his birth or appearance in the world as an Intercessor for it Into the manner and circumstances of his Birth Into the intent and design of his Doctrine Into that influence Scripture history in these cases ought to have upon all those who own the being of a God whether they be Christians or not It 's our business to enquire into those promises and predictions current in the world concerning such an Incarnation of the Divinity or its extraordinary appearance in the world for the restauration of its bliss before by the encrease of wickedness perverted and ruined for Promises and Prophecies concerning a person yet unborn and these publick and obvious to an inquisitive world are wont to signifie such a person wholly extraordinary especially when the same spirit which imparts the fore-knowledge of him gives his very name to the world so we find when the Man of God cryed against the Altar in Bethel 1 Kings 13.2 he prophesied That a child should be born unto the house of David Josiah by name who upon that Altar should offer the Priests of the high places themselves and pollute it with dead mens bones that Josiah spoken of there so long before his birth made good the Prophets word to the utmost and has that admirable character bestowed upon him by the Holy Ghost 2 Kings 23.16 25. That like to him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like him So the name of Cyrus was foretold long before his birth by the Prophet Isaiah He 's there stil'd God's shepherd his anointed the man whose right hand God himself had holden but he was to be a perfect Hero and such heathen as well as sacred Historians represent him and God by Isaiah predicts his glory Isai 44.28.45.1 2. even That he should perform all his pleasure saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built and to the temple thy foundations shall be laid which Cyrus so named by the Prophet was indeed a type of our Jesus our Saviour and deliverer How numerous and how plain soever the Prophecies of him in Scripture were we shall more particularly consider hereafter but some principal passages we must on this occasion take notice of And first of that foundation of humane hopes the Proto-evangelium Paradisiicum or that promise made to our first Parents in their lapsed state tho' before their expulsion from Paradise for it was a promise to them tho' a threat to the Serpent to whom the speech was more immediately directed Gen. 3.15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel This being by all Christians and antient Jews interpreted of the Messias was the first glad tydings of hope to those who were just fallen into a ruinous condition this supported our great Parents spirits when otherwise nothing could present it self to them but fears terrors and desperation after this we find God promising as a peculiar blessing to Abraham and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed Gen. 22.18 which the Jews too of old understood of the Messias to be of the stock of Abraham according to the flesh nor could it otherwise have been made good for the Jewish nation tho' they were partakers of particular and infallible oracles yet were but an obscure nation in respect of the rest of mankind and tho' they were active in the degeneracy of their Church to make Proselytes to their Law yet the numbers were not great and if that of our Saviour be truth That they made their Proselytes two fold more the children of wrath than they were themselves Matt. 23.15 that care of theirs was no very great blessing to the world Therefore S. Peter in the close of that Sermon he preached on occasion of the lame man's cure Acts 3.25 26. applyes this promise to our Jesus and more distinctly and determinately S. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made He saith not unto seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ And further we have in the early ages of the world that famous and indisputable prophecy of dying Jacob The Scepter shall not depart from Judah Gen. 49.10 nor a Lawgiver from between his feet until Shilo come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be the exact accomplishment of which as Shilo means the Messias that is the Christ we shall afterwards take notice of It were no difficulty to shew how many of those institutions and Ceremonies of the Jews prefigured this same Saviour but I shall rather confine my self to prophetick words than actions as tending more directly to my purpose Famous was that prediction of Balaam Numb 24.17 I shall see him but not now I shall behold him but not nigh there shall come a star out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth. And afterwards Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have the Dominion and shall destroy him that remaineth of the City by which general destruction is onely meant that Idolatry and those Idolaters which the Doctrine of the Gospel should confound and this as Christians have all along applied to Christ So the Jews prov'd sufficiently they understood it so by their eager following the Barcochab whom they thought pointed out by this Text as I hinted before Nor did the Jews till afterwards when they came to seek subterfuges for their obduracy question the meaning of their Law-giver when he told them The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet Deut. 18.15 from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him ye shall hearken this could onely be made good of Christ since Moises Ben Maimon the most learned of Jewish Writers of late has largely prov'd the disparity between Moses and all other Prophets mention'd in Scripture and Scripture it self asserts That there arose not a Prophet since in Israel like unto Moses Deut. 34.10 whom the Lord knew face to face Our Saviour onely spoke out Divine Mysteries in the day time and in the face of the whole world he needed not as others the mediation of Angels or of Dreams or of Visions to make him understand the will of God but saw and
and the worlds everlasting head and governour with respect to the time to come to be a David a man after God's own heart who should do all his will after David's natural death to be infinitely happy just compassionate Anointed by the sacred Spirit of God to have the greatest of those born of a woman his harbinger and by him acknowledged for a God tho' shaded from vulgar eyes by a cloud of humane frailty the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace yet a child a Son brought forth in the world and given to us To be born of a pure and spotless Virgin so Man yet the hopes of all the ends of the earth and of those that remain in the broad Sea and so God To be despis'd by the great and wise yet the great Center of Vnity for all the Nations in the World To be at once David's Son and David's Lord and seated at the right hand of God To terminate all material typical sacrifices in his own flesh and unlimited obedience yet to be own'd by God himself as his only begotten Son and heir to the government of all things To surpass their admir'd Moses as a Master his Servant in the Prophetick gift and an intimate familiarity with God To be the utter ruine of Idolatry that seed which should be the blessing and therefore the desire of all nations that seed which should break the head ruine the policy and Tyranny of that old Serpent the Devil To be a real and visible Man yet our Immanuel God with us which is the summ of all those Prophecies and Promises To be all these things is not consistent with a temporal Monarch whose breath is in his nostrils tho' all the nations in the World ador'd him The absolute conquest over prevailing wickedness the triumph over Death and Hell and all the obstacles of a blessed Immortality the redemption of a guilty world from impendent vengeance by a swift and entire obedience to the Almighty Will the making up that prodigious Chasme between an infinitely pure and holy Deity and a depraved and provoking world are thoughts and enterprises too vast and glorious to be undertaken by any child of Man therefore whosoever it was that all those mighty things should be accomplished in whosoever should be so infinitely beloved by Heaven and so prodigious a Benefactor to mankind must be according to those titles fixt upon him the Son of God his Son in a true literal sence and as such he may really be capable of doing more for us than we our selves can ask or think The blessed Jesus as I intimated before was not only the expectation of Israel but the desire of all nations and therefore promis'd to all nations in the forecited passages as well as them and tho' the Jews were not so good natur'd as to be very Communicative of their divine treasures yet the Gentiles who had their concerns in so just an hope had their predictions too and tho' not so clearly foresaw the approaching days of their Redeemer the elder Prophecies such as that to our first Parents in Paradise or that to Abraham might get abroad into the world the prophecies themselves being originally known to others as well as those whom they more immediately concern'd and that passage of Job I know that my redeemer liveth Job 19.25 26.27 and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and tho' after my skin worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for my self and mine eyes shall behold and not another tho' my reins be consumed within me is a sufficient evidence that those who lived without the pale of Jacob's family were sensible of what they wanted and that their hopes were reasonable that those wants should be supplied and Balaam's predictions being heard by Moabites strangers to Israel were without all question taken great notice of by the heathen nations Hence arose the fame of the Sibylline Oracles talked of so much by antient writers and by what we find spoken of 'em by Tully De Divinat l. 2. and transcribed from them by Virgil sufficient to raise mens expectations and desires for some very great and happy event hence grew those common discourses of the Gods descending in humane shapes to converse with and instruct men Which shewed mens general apprehensions of the love of the Deity to mankind of the possibility of an Incarnation and the useful consequences it might have for the reformation of corrupt nature Hence that prophetick advice of Confutius the famous Chinese Philosopher who liv'd 550. years before our Saviour's birth tâ—â— Prince to be virtuous Huetii Demonstr Evang. Prop. 7. c. 32. for says he The actions of a good Prince ought to be agreeable to the Laws of God and Nature and he should not doubt but that when that expected holy One shall come his virtue shall then be as much honour'd as it was before while he lived and reign'd And I cannot but think it reasonable to conclude that Balaam's prophecy might be known there and better preserved by their learning so antient among them than in other places and that excited by that the wise Men came from thence to worship our Saviour at his birth especially since the length of a journey from thence seems most agreeable to Herod's calculation when to be sure of reaching the new born King He killed all the children in Bethlehem and its coasts Matth. 2.1 2 9 10. from two years old and under according to the time that he had diligently enquired of the wise men About our Saviour's time and before and after for a while a rumour was spread abroad every where that One should be born in Judea who should be the Vniversal Monarch as Suetonius in the life of Augustus and in that of Vespasian and Tacitus in the fifth book of his Histories tells us which fame Josephus the Jewish Historian laid hold on to flatter with Vespasian and to get his own liberty by perswading him the prophetick rumour pointed him out for the Roman Empire Here again That ever-living Redeemer that glorious child who should reduce the frame of Nature to so happy a condition after all the disorders it had suffered who should banish sin and wickedness That look'd for Holy One who should give virtue its due reward that Jewish native who should command the humble world must of necessity be concluded somewhat more than Man by the longing Expectants He must be God to effect such wonders and yet must be a Man to be a native of Judaea he must have humane nature to be born with into the world and to converse with men and to take away the very smallest footsteps and tracks of Sin he must at least be partaker of Divinity thus all the Prophecies both among Jews and Gentiles conclude in a necessity that the worlds Redeemer from that misery and those dangers it lay under must at least be the
Moses and the Holy Ghost linked together as if there were an equality among them We are told indeed by Wolzogenius that that passage after the Israelites having gone through the red Sea is a parallel Exod. 14.31 Having seen that great work which God had done upon the Aegyptians having drowned them while themselves were safe we are told the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord or in the Lord as your Margin reads it and in his servant Moses but that 's indeed no parallel for there 's distinction enough made between God and Moses one is the Lord the other but the servant but there is no such distinction in the Text no servant no intimation of an inferiority but only the order of nature followed and the Father put before the Son and both before the Holy Ghost which proceeds from both Then whereas Enjedine tells us That to be baptised into Moses was not to believe that Moses was the most high God and consequently That to be baptised into the name of the Son of God is not to believe any such thing of him he forgets that to be baptised into the name of the Father is to declare our belief of His being the most high God by his own confession yet that belief is the very Character by which those Hereticks distinguish themselves from us whom they call Trinitarians and if that be own'd our baptising in the name of Christ must infer our acknowledgment of his Divinity since the Father and the Son are joyned together in the same expression and we are baptised alike and as much into the name and belief of one as of the other But they would prove that Christ is not here made equal with his Father because S. Paul afterwards ranks him but with himself and others as in his reproof of the Corinthians for saying 1 Cor. 1.12 I am of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Cephas and I of Christ Here indeed they confess there is a real superiority in Christ to any of these mentioned with him That acknowledgment was inevitable But farther tho' the Apostle condemn the Corinthians for calling themselves by his name or the name of any of his fellow labourers yet he approves their calling themselves by the name of Christ for so he tells them with respect to Creatures and their circumstances 2 Cor. 3.22 23. All are theirs whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are yours but then he changes his stile and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods and so he was the Messiah the Anointed sent by God into the world In conclusion they tell us that these words were never designed as a formulary of Baptism which they prove because there is no account in Scripture particularly in the History of the Acts of any baptised by this form but will they assert there was no form at all no significant words made use of in the administration of that ordinance that would be to leave the meaning of the outward Ceremony uncertain and to take away the Sacramental nature of baptism if there were any words used either they must allow these or assign some other which none that I know of have attempted It 's true they say the Eunuch only declared to Philip before his Baptism Acts 8.37 that He believed Jesus Christ was the Son of God and there was no need of more Philip questioned not his belief of a God He was a Jewish Proselyte and if he owned the Son-ship of Christ he would by consequence believe whatsoever should be revealed to the world by him But we read not of any words used by Philip in the act of baptising him they say this silence proves the words in the Text we are treating of were not used I say no but Christ's particular institution being very well known and his disciples using to obey his commands S. Luke's silence infers that Philip used those very words so instituted otherwise the Evangelist would have taken notice of some other and thus after all God the Father Son and Holy Ghost being joyn'd together in the words of institution in Christian Baptism without any mark of inferiority these words prove the Son of God to be God equal with his Father The next place we shall insist upon is that remarkable beginning of S. John's Gospel In the beginning was the Word John 1.1 2 3. and the Word was with God and the Word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made where we have these two great men Erasmus and Grotius agreeing with us That they are an unanswerable argument of the Divinity of the Son of God who yet are apt enough to betray that article of our Faith by weakning other considerable evidences of the same truth As for the person here meant by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word the Socinians themselves as far as I can find excepting the Annotator on the Racovian Catechism acknowledge that it is the Son of God to tell all their discourses for the eluding the force of this Text would be a work too tedious only this we may observe they tell us That whereas Moses begins his History of the Creation with a like expression to this of our Evangelist its rational to believe that the Evangelist here is only going to describe a second or a better Creation or rather the renovation of all things by Jesus Christ which had been ruined by the fall of our first parents which renovation of things began at the time of our Saviour's Incarnation and therefore the Evangelist means no more by that phrase In the beginning was the word but that Jesus Christ the word of God had a being when the Almighty God first set upon this work of re-creation or renovation of all things And that indeed the design of the Evangelist is only to obviate an objection that might be made on the behalf of John the Baptist who stood fair to have been taken for the Messias because he first entred upon his office and preached repentance and baptised which were truly Evangelical works whereas Christ himself lay hid and wholly undiscovered to the world But to my best apprehension there was very little need of all this care for tho' some such thoughts might have entred into Men's heads when they were all full of expectation of a Messias that John whose holy and severe life and whose very useful doctrine was generally known might be that Messias as we see by that message which the Jews sent to him from Jerusalem Art thou the Christ or Elias or that Prophet or who art thou tho' men might entertain some such thoughts the Evangelist represents John the Baptist as very careful to prevent any such dangerous mistakes therefore he not only answers negatively to their particular enquiries viz. That he was not
after he earnestly asks that Question Wherefore then are not we all wise embracing the knowledge of God which God is Jesus Christ and presently after asking the Apostle's question Where is the wise Man where is the disputer where is the glorying of those who were reputed men of Vnderstanding He subjoyns For our God Jesus the Christ was conceived of Mary according to divine order of the seed or line of David by the Holy Ghost I durst now appeal to all Mankind whether they would not conclude that whosoever should speak of any Being whatsoever at this rate would not be thought to account the Person he spoke of in such broad terms Real God and whether a good rational Deist would not conclude that if He so spoken of were no more than a meer Creature He who should so speak of him ought not to pass at least for a Borderer upon Idolatry For it 's rationally expected that in such weighty matters Mens Words should be the proper interpretation of their Thoughts and not pester'd with dubious or uncertain or unintelligible phrases In the same Epistle he calls our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God appearing humanely or in the same manner as men do clothed with flesh and blood and endued with a rational soul which is but another way of expressing the Text God was manifest in the flesh Would you then have his pre-existence as God before he was conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin our Ignatius asserts that too in his Epistle to the Magnesians Ad Magnes p. 33 34. viz. That He was with his Father before all time and in the end or in the fulness of time at last he appear'd and afterwards There is one God who manifested himself by his Son Jesus Christ who is his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his eternal word agreeably to S. John in the beginning of his Gospel Again in his Epistle to the Trallians and twice in the Inscription of his Epistle to the Romans He gives the title of God to our Saviour nay of our God and toward the end of that Epistle He begs of the Romans that they would not go about to hinder his Martyrdom then at hand no Permit me says he earnestly to be an imitator of the sufferings of Christ my God and again Ad Romanos p. 60. he calls him My God twice over in the subsequent two or three lines The Prophets frequently reflect upon it as Idolatry to say to an Image thou art my God and I am not yet convinced by any Socinian argument that it is not Idolatry to say the same to any created Being whatsoever At best the Apostles themselves and those eminent Apostolical men if our Lord be no more by nature than a meer man must needs be condemned of extreme imprudence and uncharitableness who when they might as well have express'd their minds otherwise would yet make choice of such words as were â—nly apt to deceive and impose upon Men â—o give them false notions of God and Jesus Christ and either make them Idolaters at â—â—st or at least very near borderers upon it Words that are figurative may be easily misunderstood by very good Men in ordinary cases as we see his Companions concluded S. John should never die only from our Saviour's words to S. Peter If I will that He tarry till I come what is that to thee How much more dangerous then must such Words be especially when continually used in matters of the greatest weight It were easie to give more of the same nature from Ignatius his Epistles if we 'd meddle with those spurious or interpolated but we need no such precarious assistances The next of the Fathers of the Greek Church in order of time is Justine commonly stiled the Martyr because he dy'd such for his obedience to the Faith of Christ He liv'd about one hundred and forty years after the birth of our Saviour I shall not go about to prove the Divinity of our Saviour out of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Exposition of Faith printed as his among his Works tho' it would afford us a great deal because the credit of it is doubtful and learned men think they have reason to believe our Justine was not the Author of it I shall therefore only examine what 's of unquestionable authority in him In his Apology for the Christians presented to the Roman Senate Apolog. 1. p. 44. l. D. among other things he tells them The names of Father and God and Creator and Lord and Master are not the proper names of God but names derived from his Works and those favours he has extended towards Men but his Son who alone is properly called his Son the Word who was with him and begotten of him before all creatures because in the beginning God created and adorned all things by him was called Christ he being anointed and God beautifying every thing by him here then we have what the Evangelist had taught us before literally understood and confirmed That the Word was in the beginning with God and that by him all things were made the holy Martyr thought of no figure or ambiguity in the discourse The same Martyr in his second Apology for the Christians presented to Antoninus Pius the Roman Emperour in asserting the Justice and Reason of that Faith in Christ which He and his Christian brethren profest lays down a clear proof of Christ's being God and consequently of the reasonableness of their service to him in giving an account of that burning Bush which Moses saw and out of which he heard a voice for at that time when Moses as he was feeding his Father-in-law's sheep was ordered to go into Egypt and to bring out from thence the people of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Christ spoke to him out of the bush under the resemblance of fire and bids him loose his shooes off his feet and attend him and receiving abundance of strength and courage from that Christ with whom he discours'd He went down and glorious and terrible with a thousand miracles led that people from their bondage Apolog. 2. p. â—5 l. B. The Jews themselves confess says he that it was that God whose name was unknown or unutterable who then discoursed with Moses but the Martyr himself says it was our Christ therefore if the Martyr's opinion were true Our Christ is the Lord Jehovah the most high God The Martyr urges his argument yet farther with reflections upon the Jewish incredulity That Angel which spoke to Moses out of the burning bush said to him I am that God the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob the God of thy Fathers Go down therefore into Egypt and lead forth my people A Socinian himself will own that that Name was never due to any but to the most high God tho' they fly to figures there too We urge this says the Father only that we may prove that that Jesus Christ in
farther than as it laid him open to Sufferings but only to his Death and Passion and the Preliminaries to them that absolute Innocence reigning in his Humane Nature rendering all those Sufferings to which Humane Nature alone was liable the more meritorious and that inexpressible Condescension of the Eternal Son of God to take our Nature upon him join'd with his consequent Sufferings made one entire sufficient Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World But to suppose as Socinians do that one great meaning of the Death of Christ was that God by that means might give Men a pledge of that Favour or Pardon he intended for them is idle those who had any thing of a true Notion of a God would have depended upon his Word authentically revealed without any such extraordinary Pledge those who had perverse Notions of him would take very little notice of such a Pawn given for the Argument would be very obvious to a Sceptic If God be such as some define him infinitely Wise Good Powerful True there 's no need of such extraordinary Methods to confirm Men in an opinion of his Veracity if he be of a different or less perfect Nature a thousand such Strategems can give us no sufficient reason of Confidence in him We find indeed the Ancients upon Leagues or Compacts between them offering Sacrifices to their Gods and with their Hands laid upon the Victim's Head calling their Gods to witness their Sincerity in such Leagues and making their solemn Protestations one to another to observe propounded Articles the design of that Ceremony seems to be onely to intimate the agreeing Persons serious Imprecation that their own blood might be shed in the same manner as that of the dying Victims in case they falsified that Contract then made but we can imagine nothing of this nature to have pass'd between God and man in the Death of Christ Men were so far consenting indeed as to shed the blood of Christ but far from promising Faith and Obedience to their God at the same time no they acted in plain defiance to those Revelations God had made of himself and those very Persons who pretended to the most immediate Dependance upon Christ had very little Confidence in him till such time as his Resurrection from the dead reconfirmed their fading Hopes and made them believe he was capable of being their Saviour and Redeemer But if at last it were necessary that Almighty God should so seal the assurance of his Pardon to Mankind a meaner Victim might have serv'd than that of his onely Son since nothing could possibly create in guilty Men a greater Diffidence in God's Mercy than so severe a procedure on so very slight and impertinent a Reason with that Son concerning whom he profest that he was well pleased with him After all the Socinians would flamm us off with a metaphorical Redemption the Consequence of which I fear must have been but a metaphorical Pardon of our Sins in spite of which we might still be really and properly damn'd St. Peter drawing the parallel between ours and a proper Redemption teaches us to believe that our Redemption is proper too forasmuch as we were not redeem'd with corruptible things as Silver and Gold the ordinary means of redemption for Criminals or Captives 1 Pet. 1.18 19. but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without Spot which precious Blood being of infinitely more value than Silver or Gold could and did effect as proper a Redemption for them for whom it was offer'd as the greatest Summs of Treasures paid down for their Ransom possibly could To convince us yet further of Christ's Satisfaction for our Sins the Scripture represents him to us as a Mediator but our Adversaries reply to this that Moses is called a Mediator too yet Moses never satisfied for the Sins of Israel to prove that Moses is so called they allege that of the Apostle That the Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Gal. 3.19 yet it 's well known that Ancient Writers and Interpreters generally understand that Passage of Christ whom they certainly and truly conclude to have been that God more particularly appearing to the Israelites in their passage from Aegypt to Canaan and so he delivered the Law to them by his own power or with his own Hand as we may well express it the Decalogue the great binding part of the Law being written with the Finger of God as Moses informs us and so put into the Hands of Moses and the blessed Angels as ministring Spirits attending their Lord in the Solemnity and this Interpretation is not easily to be eluded But if by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediatour we only understand with Suidas one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Peace-maker it then is applicable to Moses or to any other who goes between contending Parties to make up any quarrel or breach that may be between them But in this case we must always consider the Persons between whom matters are to be rectified their Natures and the nature of that Offence which may have caus'd a breach between them and he who undertakes such a Work had need to have a considerable Interest in both the Parties who are at odds for an Vndertaker in such a case who is liable to any exception on either side is like to mediate to very little purpose Now it 's no very hard Task to find Persons fit enough to take up quarrels between Men and Men all Men agreeing in one and the same Nature and Offences between them generally arising from both sides but that breach there is between God and man is not so easily made up their Natures are infinitely different one absolutely pure and unchangeable the other miserably corrupt and humourous man continually offending God continually obliging man proud haughty disdainful insensible God kind condescending essential Love and Goodness yet a Mediator such as should be able to procure Peace between God and man must have a very great Influence on both sides to which purpose it 's indispensibly necessary he should be compleatly Innocent Moses was uncapable of such a Mediation though he interceded for the People of Israel by his Prayers and was earnest and importunate with God to turn from that fierce Anger he had justly express'd against a stubborn and ungrateful Generation but Moses himself at the very time of his zealous Interposition for Israel was as other Men obnoxious to God's anger and felt the effect of it when for his Transgression at the Rock he was deny'd entrance into the Land of Canaan so that in effect he did no more than what 's particularly incumbent on God's Priests in all Ages i. e. to offer Prayers and Supplications for the People they live among and by such means to the utmost of their ability to stand in the Gap and to divert threatning Judgments from guilty Heads Our Saviour as necessity required was Holy
Harmless Vndefiled separate from Sinners one that needed not first to pray for Pardon for his own Sins and afterwards for the Sins of others and therefore he might be and is properly called the one Mediator between God and Man exclusively of all others 1 Tim. 2.5 as we are told in the same Text there is One God exclusively of all other Deities which could not be if Moses had been a Mediator of the same kind and in the same manner as Christ was and it 's further added of our Mediator That he gave himself a ransom for all which Moses never did and tho' in the heat of his charitable Zeal he was willing to have been blotted out of the Book which God had written that God by that means might have been reconciled to his People that Offer neither was nor could be accepted because it could be no Satisfaction to Divine Justice to punish one Sinner and on account of that punishment to pardon another for why should I pretend to satisfie that Justice on behalf of another which should it proceed severely would pass upon me without any such pretence but he who conscious of his own Innocence is secure from any legal Danger may with reason interpose vigorously for another In our present Case our Lord endeavours to put an end to that difference there is between God and Man arising from Sin God is the Supreme Law-giver and has in his own hand the uncontroulable Power of punishing Trespassers upon his Laws Man is the continual Transgressor having by that means wholly forfeited all pretences to Grace and Favour therefore his Case being it self desperate the Mediation begins on God's part our Lord not being stil'd the Mediator between man and God but between God and man the whole Mediation arising not from man's hopes but from God's mercy and goodness which found out the means of reconciling us to himself by his Son Perhaps a Socinian would find it difficult to give a satisfactory reason why seeing the first Covenant or that between God and Israel could be made by the Mediation of Moses and confirm'd with shedding the Blood onely of ordinary Victims the Evangelical Covenant managed by the Blessed Jesus a Person very much superiour to Moses could not be confirm'd with Blood of like Sacrifices as the former We 'll own freely the Covenant of the Gospel is a better Covenant the Promises in it more plain and numerous the Hope 's rais'd in Men by it stronger and more vigorous but all these things are accounted for in the Dignity of the Undertaker and why Christians should not confide in God upon the same terms on which the Jews did is not easie to determine I am sure they are generally represented as the most tractable Persons Besides this there appears a vast Difference between the Mediatorship of our Lord and Moses on these accounts our Saviour by virtue of his Mediatorial Power was able to remit sins was able to give eternal Life to Believers but Moses could do no such thing he was only a Suppliant to God for Pardon for Israel and Socinians will scarce allow he gave them so much as a Promise of Eternal Life throughout the whole Systeme of his Laws so that though we allow there ought to be some resemblance between the Type and the Anti-type yet we must allow a mighty distance between a Common Man and one on whom the Title of the Son of God his onely begotten Son was fixt and the resemblance must be between Circumstances capable of being represented and not between those which are incapable of it The Death and Passion of our Saviour as an external Accident attending his Humanity might be represented by the Death of those Creatures offer'd in Sacrifice frequently to God the Intercession of our Saviour with his Father for a sinful World by the Intercession of Moses for a sinful Nation but that Satisfaction by Christ given for Sinners to his Father's Justice was so great a thing as nothing could make any proportionable adumbration of it the Confession of the Peoples Sins over the Victim's head and laying their Iniquiries on the Head of the Scape-Goat as a devoted Creature might keep up somewhat of an Idaea of what the Messias was afterwards to do and suffer and the manner how but the Symbol was so dark that even the prophecy of Caiaphas pointing at the Anti-type made very little Impression upon the Jews and made them expect very little from Christ though they saw frequent evidences of his Divine Mission and his Death as a Person devov'd and made Sin as the Apostle expresses it for the safety of the Nation But there 's another Fetch as subtle as the rest that supposing a Mediator ought to partake of the Nature of both the Parties between whom he is to make peace yet this touches not our Saviour for his Mediatorship was only to be employ'd in reconciling men to God for so say they we find God reconciling the world to himself in Christ but there 's no mention of reconciling himself to the World supposing this assertion true is it therefore impossible that God should be angry with a sinful World If so how comes it to pass he sends so many Judgments particular and general upon Men Cities and Countries does he lay his Rod on Mens backs at randome without any displeasure against their Crimes or without any respect to their Demerits did he drown the old World without being angry with them burn Sodom and Gomorrha with their neighbouring Cities and yet not displeased with them these things are incredible That he was often angry with the People of Israel we find frequently attested in Scripture that as an evidence of his Anger he punish'd them severely too we meet with upon record there If he could be angry with the Sins of a particular People he may certainly be angry with the Sins of the whole World for Sin loses not its odious Nature by being more diffusive If God be angry with their Sins he must be angry with the Sinners too especially if they be active and obstinate in their Sins for tho' Man as created at first in the likeness or in the image of God be good yet Man wherein that sacred Image is defaced by Sin is odious and detestable a proper object of God's Displeasure and of himself incapable of avoiding it but if God may be displeased with Sin and Sinners and if his Nature being pure and his Laws holy just and good he must be so then he must be reconciled to Man or Man must be eternally miserable and though we find God frequently in Scripture calling upon Men to turn to Him as if all the Work lay on their hands yet he promises withal that He will turn to them Mal. 3.7 and those kind repeated Calls are only evidences that He who has a great deal of reason to be averse to it will yet be as ready to be reconciled to them as they can be to
as well as Man all the difficulty vanishes at once his Person was more august his Power and Authority greater his Will uncontroulable his Holiness and Dignity incomparable Moses was but the Servant he the Lord and therefore without any Impeachment to the Fidelity and Honour of Moses he might reverse every Institution of his as he pleas'd since he as God was able of himself without any circumstantial Delay to give the World a more compleat and perfect Rule whereby humane Happiness and God's Glory the great ends of all divine Institutions might be more directly promoted the great work he undertook was proper to the Deity it self but superiour to any humbler Being this requiring so much the Satisfaction of God's Anger rais'd against a stupid sinful World cannot be suppos'd more easily brought about for the weight of God's Anger against Sin being insupportable to meer Flesh and Blood Help must of necessity be laid upon One mighty to save or else Mankind who had so long subsisted upon the lively Hope of a glorious Deliverance must have perish'd without Remedy at last and finally the Justification of our Faith Pardoning of our Sins and the bestowing upon us Everlasting Life are things compatible only with God yet really and properly ascribed to our Saviour therefore He must be God therefore He that was incarnate or made Flesh for our Salvation must be God But now if we observe the Nature of this great Work for which God was manifested in the Flesh we shall find it was wholly the effect of Immense Love and Pity to Mankind and of extraordinary Interest and Power with the great Father of all things therefore an Undertaking more peculiarly proper to God the Son than to any other Person in the Trinity Man's Redemption was an Effect of the Father's Love the Deity it self is Love the Design of saving such Sinners as should make use of Means to be offer'd in due time to that purpose was an Effect of Love the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost were all consenting in the Design from the Father as the beginning of Order must the first motions of Eternal Love and Goodness and Will take its Original not as if there were any Interstice of time between the Actions of Eternal Minds for Time can have no place or consideration in Eternity but we must speak of such things suitably to Humane Apprehensions by which kind of Expressions tho' our Idea's of God's Acts cannot be adequate or proportionable yet they may be true and safe so we speak of God the Father as propounding of God the Son as declaring his readiness to execute what 's propounded of God the Holy Ghost as consenting so to influence the Objects of Love and Mercy that neither the Proposal nor its Prosecution should be frustrated all these though the distinct Acts of Three distinct Substances are yet all one uninterrupted Act and Determination of one Infinite and Eternal God for where Infinity or Eternity or any other Attributes peculiar only to God are given to Three distinct Substances yet those Substances which are infinite howsoever really distinct must of necessity be inseparable therefore they must of necessity be One for be the Substances never so much distinct and never so perfect in themselves yet Vnity must follow upon Inseparability But according to our common way of speaking God the Father designing the greatest Goodness to Men could shew that Love and Pity to them by no other effectual Means than by giving them his onely Son the very relative Term of Father and Son implies the greatest Nearness and Love in the World and the kinder and more loving a Father is to his Son the greater of necessity must that Favour and Love be which can be content to part with a Relation so dear for the Advantage or Satisfaction of another hence God accepted it as an Effort of compleat Love and Obedience in Abraham that he had not with-held his Son his onely Son from him but was ready without any murmuring to sacrifice him at his Creator's Command and if our blessed Redeemer was the Son of God the Son of his Love the Son in whom he was well pleased the Apostle urges it home and excellently He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all Rom. 8.32 how shall he not with him give us all things the Gift of his Son was the greatest Effort of Tenderness that was possible therefore when Men had receiv'd that Gift from the Father's hand there could be no reason of doubting whether they should receive any thing else that was fit for God to bestow or for Man to receive Indeed when the Father had determined to express the greatest Love and Pity to his Creatures there did remain nothing else to be done but to send his Son into the World upon that Occasion for he was still to move so as not to impeach his Justice Justice could not be free and universal without Satisfaction in every respect Man was so soon as fallen a continual Criminal therefore Man was the Object of that irresistable Justice the acquitting him from the stroke of Justice was the effect of the greatest Love yet Justice not being perverted must be and was satisfied on that particular account therefore it must be and was satisfied by the grant of God the Son to put himself into a passible state and to suffer a Punishment equivalent to that due to Sinners and this could be effectually performed by none other but the only Son of God for The Redemption of trespassing Mankind from the stroke of Justice according to the Father's Intention required the most absolute Obedience the greatest Interest and the most extraordinary Compassion and Tenderness towards Mankind Now these things were all most naturally to be expected from the Son for Identity or Sameness of Will in God the Father is Command and Determination in God the Son is Submission and Obedience in God the Holy Ghost is Concurrence and Assistance Now if we consider the Severity of the Condition on which Man was to be redeem'd from sinking under Wrath to the utmost and without which it was impossible Man should be redeem'd at all if we reflect upon the weight of God's Displeasure due to Sin the infinite Power of the Being displeas'd the extream Provocations whereby it 's continually exasperated these Considerations must convince us that it required the greatest Obedience possible in the Undertaker such an Obedience as could be startled by no Difficulty diverted by no Temptation nor conquered by any Extremity it could engage with Of such an Obedience Isaac was a considerable Type who though so dear to his Father so vigorous and strong as he might have been able enough to have secured himself from the violent Zeal of his Aged Father though Nature must have had some Reluctance against Death against Death by the hand of his own Father by his hand from whom he had deserv'd all Kindness and Love by his
how depraved By the Jews Page 127 Sadducees what and their Opinions Page 129 Essenes what Page 131 Pharisees what and how character'd by Jews Page 133 By the Gentiles Page 140 Their Philosophers what Ibid. Things essential to Religion unchangeable Page 145 Therefore the Law of Regular Nature neither changed by Moses nor our Saviour nor any thing as essential added to them Page 148 And therefore Mysteries not taken away either in Faith's Foundation or Symbolical Rites Ibid. Advantages of Religion founded on Mysteries 1. From them Men learn the Imperfection of their own Reason Page 160 2. Fundamental Mysterious Truths the distinguishing Characters between several Religions Page 168 3. Mysteries in Religion create a due Reverence for it Page 177 The Conclusion from all That Mysteries are essential to Christianity as well as to any other Religion Page 190 It 's then Essential to Salvation to know Christ is God Page 193 Scripture conclusive of it Page 201 II. Jesus Christ was truly and properly the Son of God Page 209 This prov'd 1. By the Promises and Predictions concerning his Birth c. Page 219 Several instanced in Page 221 c. Christ expected by the Gentiles Page 234 2. By the Manner and Circumstances of his Birth Page 237 3. By the Doctrines of himself and his Minister Page 259 The gentle and peaceful yet prevailing Nature of his Doctrine Page 267 Scripture prov'd the Word of God to Deists Page 283 God necessarily perfect in all his Attributes Page 287 His Love in particular Page 289 Which obliges him to reveal his Will to those intelligent Creatures from whom he expects Obedience to it Page 294 Scripture such a Revelation of his Will and has all requisites in it Page 299 III. Jesus Christ the Son of God was God equal with his Father Page 309 Prov'd 1. By the Old Testament Page 311 The first Chapter to the Hebrews occasionally cleared Page 315 2. By the New Testament Page 324 3. By Actions done by himself in Person or in his Name Page 381 By himself while on Earth Ibid. By his Apostles in his Name Page 400 4. By the Faith of the Ancient Ante Nicene Church Page 409 Fathers alledged Greek Clemens Romanus Page 411 Ignatius Antiochenus Page 415 Justine Martyr Page 420 Irenaeus Lugdunensis Page 425 Clemens Alexandrinus Page 427 Origen Page 430 Latin Tertullian Page 439 St. Cyprian Page 447 Arnobius Page 452 Lactantius Page 457 Zwicker alledges Socinus rejects the Ante Nicene Fathers Page 462 Why the Fathers suppose a Difference between God the Father and God the Son Page 466 The Confessions of the Ante Nicene Councils Page 470 The Judgments of Eusebius and Constantine the Great Page 477 5. By the generally allowed Practice of Praying to our Saviour he is prov'd true God Page 481 Vnder this Head is prov'd 1. That all Worship terminating on any but the One True God is Idolatry Page 483 The Ancient Notion of Idolatry Page 486 Vnitarians divided about Worshipping our Lord. Page 496 Their Vindication reflected on Page 515 2. That Christians worshipping our Lord are no Idolaters Page 518 Therefore our Lord is True God Page 536 The Summary of the precedent Discourse Ibid. The Filiation of the Son of God enquired into Page 541 The Racovian Lushington's Account and that of Thoughts on Sherlock c. prov'd insufficient Page 542 Therefore a Necessity of Eternal Generation Page 550 IV. It was necessary that God the Son should be Incarnate Page 562 1. That he might destroy the Works of the Devil Page 563 He was Tyrannical over Mankind 1. With respect to their Bodies Page 566 Possessions by the Devil not bodily Diseases Page 567 The Devil permitted to possess Bodies 1. For Tryal of Faith and Patience and to excite the greater Longings for a Messias Page 573 2. For the Glory of the Incarnate Son Page 577 2. He was Tyrannical over Mens Souls corrupting them 1. With false Interests Page 583 2. Violent and unreasonable Prejudices Page 588 3. Prodigious and unaccountable Laziness Page 592 A Second Reason why the Son of God was Incarnate 2. That he might repeal the Mosaic Law by a just Authority Page 595 The Law of Moses though Divine yet repealable prov'd 1. By its general Import it being wholly Typical and referring to somewhat Future Page 601 2. The Ceremonial Law was not essential to the Being or Well-being of a Church Page 610 3. God always put a great Difference between the Ceremonial and the Moral Law Page 617 Hence necessary that the Repealer should be equal with the first Maker of that Law Page 625 3. The Son of God was Incarnate that in our Nature He might fulfil the whole Law for us and give us a compleat Example of Holiness and Obedience Page 632 God's Mercy not diminished by what Christ merited or suffered on our behalf Page 639 Crellius his Notion of Infinite Justice considered Ibid. Justice in God no hindrance to his Mercy and vice versâ Page 645 Christ's Sufferings Proportionable or Equivalent to our Demerits necessary Page 646 Satisfaction consistent with free Remission Page 652 Christ not necessarily to suffer Death Eternal his Temporary Sufferings sufficient and equivalent to what was our Due Page 658 Why so much of Christ's Blood shed as to procure his Death Page 666 Our Lord's Satisfaction no Encouragement to Sinners Page 668 But a greater Encouragement and Obligation to Holiness than the Socinian Hypothesis Page 674 Confest by the Defender of the Unitarians Page 676 Christ a Real and Effectual Sacrifice for us Page 688 Christ's Obedience in his Exinanition not necessary but on our account Page 707 His Sacrifice Expiatory Page 722 Compleated before his Ascension Page 724 His Dying for our Sins prov'd positively Page 731 From the Circumstances of that Death Page 738 Otherwise His inferiour to the Sufferings of Martyrs Page 739 God the Son therefore necessarily the World's Redeemer because that Redemption was 1. An Effect of the greatest and Divinest Love Page 758 2. It required the greatest Interest in God the Father and the greatest Tenderness toward Mankind Page 761 3. He who made all things was fittest to restore them Page 767 The Image of God not founded in Dominion of Man over his Fellow Creatures Page 768 The Conclusion of all in two Practical Inferences 1. We learn from the whole to admire God's wonderful Love and Compassion in condescending so far to us as to be Incarnate and to die for us Page 772 2. We ought to adhere constantly to that Faith by which we believe Jesus Christ our Lord to be the Eternal Son of God true God himself and the Propitiation for our Sins Page 778 Places of Scripture more particularly Explained and Vindicated GEnesis 3.1 2 3 4. Cain and Abel's Sacrifice Page 98 3.15 I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman Page 607 18.2 Abraham stood still before the Lord. Page 311 32.28 Jacob wrestling with the Angel called Israel Page 313 49.10 The Sceptre