〈◊〉 As the LXXII render it That is let Pharaoh make and appoint Officers and not as we have rendred it Let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint Again It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron or made as it is in the margent of 1 Sam. 12.6 And we usually speak after this manner when men are advanced to dignity and office they are said to be made what they are afterwards called To make a Consul a Captain or General signifies no more than to appoint them and raise them to those dignities and offices So that the meaning of these words is as if the Apostle had said let all the Israelites therefore be assured of this great and very evident truth that that Jesus whom the Jews have Crucified is by God the Father who hath raised him from the dead and taken him up to his right hand constituted and appointed head of the Church and instated in the Kingly office of the Messiah That Jesus is the Christ or Messiah that was foretold is that which the Apostle would have the Jews be assured of And this was the Doctrine which the first preachers of Christian Religion did mainly insist upon It being not onely an article of the Christian faith but such an one as is the foundation of the rest Who is a Liar says St. John but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ 1 Joh. 2.22 We read that Saul confounded the Jews which were at Damascus proving that this is very Christ Act. 9.22 He preacheth the same Doctrine at Thessalonica Acts 17.3 And at Corinth Acts 18.5 And of Apollos we read that he mightily convinced the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ v. 28. A DEMONSTRATION OF THE MESSIAS CHAP. I. The CONTENTS Of the name Jesus That this name by which our Saviour was called and distinguished from other men is no objection against the Prediction Isa 7.14 The importance of the name Jesus In what sense our Lord is said to be a Saviour His Salvation compared with the deliverances mentioned in the Old Testament Of the word Christ Of anointing things and persons and the design of it Of the anointing of Jesus Some account of the Jewish constitutions about anointing with their holy Oil. BEfore I proceed to shew that Jesus is the Christ I shall shew what is meant by Jesus what by Christ Jesus was the name by which our Lord was commonly known among men the name which Joseph his reputed Father gave him Matt 1. v. 25. And it was given him at his Circumcision Luk. 2.21 And that too not without the particular command of the Angel of God This was the name by which he was called commonly by those that spake of him Thus he that was restored to Sight said A man that is called Jesus made clay c. Joh. 9.11 This was a name in use among the Jewish people and a name which others had as well as our Jesus and we have mention of several men to whom that name was given Col. 4.11 Heb. 4.8 And the Jewish Writers mention him by the name Jesus indeed they call him by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They cut off the last letter Eli. Levit. This bit p. 151. as Elias Levita tells us because they do not acknowledge him to be a Saviour But yet they do not deny that he was known and commonly called by the name Jesus which he received at his Circumcision It is true indeed it was foretold that a Virgin should bring forth a Son and 't is said they shall call his name Emmanuel Matt. 1.23 That these words are meant of our Saviour is also undeniable And though the Jew object against us from this place that either the words were never meant of our Saviour as the Evangelist will have them or that they were never verifyed in him because he was called by the name Jesus and not Emmanuel though I say they may thus object yet they do but trifle in it For if they look into their Prophets they will find that being called Orig. contra Cels l. 1. or called by such a name does not infer that the thing or person so to be called shall be commonly known by that name as a man is by the name by which he is known and distinguished from other men 'T is enough that they shall be that which they are called and that what is foretold shall truly belong to them as will appear from the following places Isa 1.26.60.14.62.4 Jer. 3.17 Ezek. 48.35 Zech. 8.3 There are many things said of our Saviour which serve to describe his office and acquaint us with his perfections and relation and were never intended for his name by which he was to be known among men His name shall be called wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace Isa 9.6 That is the Messiah shall be all this Theophylact in Matt. 1. v. 23. though not commonly known and called by these names For the word Jesus if we consider its Hebrew Original it signifies a Saviour And for that reason this name was given to our Lord because he was to save his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 And the Angel tells the Shepherds unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour Luk. 2.11 And the Apostle says no less when he says God hath raised up unto Israel a Saviour Jesus Act. 13.23 This word Saviour imports very much and is very agreeable to the great design of our Lord 's appearing Lactan. Institut l. 1. c. 11. Lactantius observes that the name Jupiter that the heathen gave their God was unbecoming a Deity For Jupiter being no more but Juvans pater an helping father it was a term of diminution For one man may help another And 't is no great matter to help but to save and deliver imports much Non intelligit beneficia Divina qui se tantummodo à Deo juvari putat He hath too mean and low an apprehension of the Divine benefits that thinks God does onely help him This is to attribute too much to our selves and too little to God He that helps me adds his strength to mine but he that saves shews his own power onely We were without all help and hope too Our Lord rescued us and saved us we contributed nothing toward our deliverance He is the Saviour of mankind Our intire deliverance is to be ascribed to him And 't will well become us to consider how justly this name of Jesus belongs to him and to meditate awhile upon the greatness of that Salvation and deliverance which our Lord hath wrought for us Now our Lord might well be called Jesus a Saviour 1. As he hath published and made known to us the Gospel which is the power of God unto Salvation Our Lord hath brought life and immortality to light and hath shewed us the way to eternal life There was no
I shall now shew Gen. 22.4 Hosea 6.2 Mat. 12.38 39. That Jesus did rise the third day after his death Where I shall clear this relation from the Cavils of the Jews It is certain that there could be but one whole day and two nights between the death of Jesus and his Resurrection and yet Jesus had foretold that the Son of man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Again he said after three days I will rise again and destroy this Temple and after three days I will raise it up And elsewhere Jesus is said to have risen again the third day Mat. 12.40 ch 27.63 Joh. 2.19 1 Cor. 15.4 The day on which he dyed is to be reckoned for one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or natural day and that on which he rose for another And thus the Hebrew Writers commonly reckon in other cases The Hebrew Child was to be Circumcised the eighth day but then the day of it's birth and of it's Circumcision were both counted And the Pentecost was the fiftieth day from the day of the Wave-offering but then both the one and the other are reckoned in this account This is but the Phrase of the Old Testament We have a remarkable instance to this purpose It came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah which was the seventh year of Hoshea Son of Ela King of Israel that Shalmaneser King of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it And at the end of three years they took it even in the sixth year of Hezekiah that is the ninth year of Hoshea King of Israel Samaria was taken It is evident from hence that that is said to be done at the end of three years which from it's beginning could be but two whole years distant Again the Priests in their courses were to minister one Week as is well known And yet Josephus tells us they were obliged to minister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiqu. l. 7. c. 11. i. e. eight days from one Sabbath to another This will justifie us when we say that the appearance of Christ mentioned Joh. 20.26 happened on the first day of the week or on that day seven-night after his first appearance on the day of his resurrection though it be thus expressed after eight days c. And this will help us with ease to reconcile St. Luke with St. Matthew and St. Mark when he says that happened about eight days after which the other express by after six days For supposing six days compleat St. Luke might well say about eight days after Luk. 1.59 ch 2.21 1 King 18.9 10. Joh. 20.26 Mat. 17.1 Mark 9.2 with Luk. 9.27 I shall consider this third day on which Jesus rose as the first day of the week Abravenel in Legem fol. 282. col 2. ad finem which was a day very famous among the Jewish writers upon twelve accounts which I do not think my self obliged to reckon up in this place It is plain that Jesus rose upon the first day of the Week The day of his death is called the Preparation because then the Jews provided what was needfull against the approaching Sabbath When the even was come because it was the Preparation that is the day before the Sabbath says Mark. St. Luke says that day was the Preparation and the Sabbath drew on It was a preparation to a remarkable Sabbath which fell within the solemn festivity of the Passeover The Jews therefore because it was the preparation that the bodies should not remain upon the Cross the Sabbath day for that Sabbath was an high day besought Pilate c. Mat. 27.62 Joh. 19.42 with Exod. 16.5 Mark 15.42 Luk. 23.54 Joh. 19.31 42. That Christ rose on the first day of the week is a particular which all the four Evangelists do relate and therefore the more carefully to be heeded by us Matt. 28.1 Mark 16.2 Luk. 24.1 Joh. 20.1 The Israelites were obliged when they reaped their harvest to bring a sheaf of their first fruits unto the Priest This sheaf was to be waved on the morrow after the Sabbath This sheaf hollowed all the rest and God's acceptance of this gave the Jews a title to the rest As that was waved the morrow after the Sabbath so was our Lord at that time raised to life as the first fruits of them that slept And his Resurrection infers ours and is the great reason why we instead of the Sabbath day which was buried with our Lord keep holy the first day of the Week in memory of his Resurrection Levit. 23.10 11 12. CHAP. IX The CONTENTS Of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven That the Messias was to ascend thither This proved from Psalm 68.18 which is justly applied to this matter by St. Paul Eph. 4.8 Psalm 110.1 considered The Jews grant that Psalm to belong to the Messias An eminent type of Christ's ascension That Jesus did ascend into Heaven There were eye-witnesses of it Of the distance of forty days between his Resurrection and Ascension That Christ is not a Metaphorical Priest shewed against the followers of Socinus That this ascension into Heaven was typified by the High Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies That the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews does ch 9.24 and elsewhere infer this from the avowed principles of the Jewish Writers That the High Priest was an eminent type of the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is acknowledged by Philo. Three remarkable places of that Author to this purpose That the Sanctuary was a representation of the Vniverse and the Holy of Holies of the highest Heavens proved at large from the Modern Jewish Writers and from the more Ancient Of the Veil of the Temple which rent when our Saviour suffered Mat. 27.51 What Veil that was and what was imported by the renting of it Of the effects which followed upon the exaltation of Jesus Of the miraculous gift of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost That that gift was an argument that Jesus was a true Prophet and that he had that power which he had professed to be given to him Of the success of the Religion of Jesus in the world Success barely considered is no good argument of a good Cause and truth of a Religion yet the success of the Christian Doctrine is a good argument of it's truth if it be considered what the Authour and first Preachers of this doctrine were and what is the nature of the doctrine it self and after what manner it did prevail HAving proved that Jesus rose from the dead and shewed that his Resurrection is a great proof that he is also the Christ I shall now proceed to the consideration of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven and his being concerned there on our behalf and the mighty effects following from thence as a farther proof that Jesus is the Christ And in order hereunto I shall proceed in the following method First I shall shew that the Messias was to ascend
of Jordan when the Holy Ghost at his Baptism descended upon him 'T will be easie now to understand what Christ imports For that word denotes the offices of our blessed Saviour to which he was appointed by God and enabled to discharge by the Holy Ghost which was plentifully poured out upon him And as of old publick persons were set apart to their respective offices and dignities by being first anointed with a certain Oil prescribed for that purpose so was our Lord sanctified and fitted to teach and govern the Church of God to be the great mediatour between God and man and the redeemer of mankind by the Holy Ghost which he plentifully received Joh. 3.34 And he that confesses that Jesus is the Christ does thereby acknowledge him to be his Prophet Priest and King and is consequently obliged by virtue of that profession to obey his laws and give himself up to his government as well as to hope for pardon from his bloud God hath made it very plain that our Jesus is the Messias that was promised Who is a Liar says St. John but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ 1 Joh. 2.22 This was that great truth that the Jews opposed vehemently They agreed that if any man confessed him to be Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue What hath been said will be of use to the better understanding the words of St. John Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 He puts Christians in mind of that affusion of the Holy Ghost which he calls the Vnction from the holy one which God hath bestowed on them according to Christ's promise This Holy Ghost did lead them into all truth and the plentiful effusion of this Spirit did bear a clear testimony that Jesus was the true Messias and that the doctrine which he taught came from God This Holy Spirit was the defence which those Christians had against being seduced As it follows These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things and is truth and is no lie and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him 1 Joh. 2.26 27. I shall onely add that from Christ we are all called Christians and that blessed name ought to influence our practice 'T is a great thing to be a Christian 'T is a dignity and honour to the greatest among us and the best of all our titles We may well glory in this blessed name and value it above all our other titles and properties But then we must remember what this name requires at our hands When we name the name of Christ we are obliged to depart from all iniquity Let us consider how well this name becomes us Are we like our blessed Saviour have we that unction from the holy one Does the spirit of Jesus dwell in us If that Holy Spirit be not in us ' we have a name to live and are dead we may fondly conceit what we please of our selves but if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 CHAP. II. The CONTENTS It is agreed between Jews and Christians I. That there was a Messias promised and II. That there was such a person as our Jesus and III. That there was at that time when Jesus lived a general expectation of the Messias That hence it was that there appeared so many Impostours about that time An account of some of them from Josephus Of the promises of the Messias and the gradual revealing of them A Passage in Maimon concerning the Afternoon-Prayer misrepresented by a late learned writer Several particulars relating to the Messias predicted THus having shewed what is meant by Jesus and what by Christ I come next to shew you that our Jesus whom the Jews crucified is the Christ or Messias And before I proceed to consider the several arguments that do confirm this truth I shall premise the following particulars First that there was a Messias promised in the old Testament is not onely affirmed by the Christians but granted by the Jews There is no dispute about this matter Secondly that there was such a person as Jesus that he lived at such a time as we say he did and died as the Gospels report is not denied by the Jews They often mention him in their writings though with scorn and disdain they speak of the time and manner of his death and the names of his Disciples and they are far from denying the matter of fact Thirdly that when Jesus did appear in the world there was a great expectation of the Messias among the Jews Thus we read of Simeon's waiting for the consolation of Israel Luk. 2.25 And that Simeon was no mean person he was the Son of Hillel the great and a man of great place among the Jews Again one Anna a Prophetess a devout and aged Widow who served God with fastings and prayers night and day spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem v. 38. The Woman of Samaria had heard of this fame and general expectation of the Messias among the Jews at that time and that he should be a great Prophet I know says she that Messias cometh which is called Christ when he is come he will tell us all things Joh. 4. 25. Hence the Jews at that time being under a general expectation of the Messias were very prone to take others for him that did then appear And because John Baptist was a man of great vertue and fame and that was greatly followed by the people and that in the very time when the Messias was expected Casaubon Exercit. ad Apparat Baronii Annal. n. 5. they sent Priests and Levites to know who he was Joh. 1.19 That is to know whether or no he were the Messias as appears from what follows And he confessed and denied not but confessed I am not the Christ v. 20. And there have been those that have thought that Herod was by some taken for the Messias also by them who upon that score are called the Herodians in the Gospel I shall not need to dispute that so much is certain that the Jews did expect the Messias at that time And I shall afterwards shew what ground they had so to doe It shall be enough at present to add that as there was a general expectation of the Messias about that time so there were a great number of Impostours that took that occasion to delude the people and draw followers after them Gamaliel names two Theudas and Judas of Galilee Act. 5.36 37. Josephus gives us a farther account of these men He tells us that under the government of Fadus Antiqu. l. 20. c. 2. a certain Magician called Theudas perswaded a great number to follow him to the river Jordan pretending himself
School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith Whoever duly considers what hath been said above of the nature of many of the Mosaical precepts which were of their own nature things very minute of their symbolicalness and reference to better things to come of the malediction to which the transgressours of the Law were subject and the defectiveness of the Legal Sacrifices and the slender hope of pardon which that Law afforded will easily understand that the Law was a School-master to bring men to Christ The Law shewed men their disease but did not cure and heal them but referred them to some better provision which our Lord hath made for us in the Gospel What hath been said does sufficiently prove that the Christian Religion does very much surpass that of the Jews And also that our Jesus is that very Christ who was promised from the beginning and was the hope and expectation of the faithfull in the Old Testament FINIS Places of Scripture Explained Chap. Ver. GEnesis IX 6. Whoso sheddeth man's bloud by man shall his bloud be shed for in the image of God c. Page p. 400 Chap. Ver. XII 3. with XXII 18. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed And in thy seed shall the Nations c. Page 51 52 Chap. Ver. XXII 4. And on the third day Abraham lift up his eyes c. Page 300 Chap. Ver. XXXV 21. And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar Page 63 64 Chap. Ver. XLIX 10. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet untill Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be Page 74 75 82 Chap. Ver. Ib. 18. I have waited for thy salvation O Lord. Page 14 15 Chap. Ver. Exodus XII 6. And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening Page 214 Chap. Ver. Numbers XIII 16. And. Moses called Oshea the Son of Nun Jehoshua Page 11 Chap. Ver. XVI 5. And he spake unto Korah and unto all his company saying even to morrow the Lord will shew who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him even him c. Page 136 Chap. Ver. XXI 9. And Moses made a Serpent of brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a Serpent had bitten any man when he beheld the Serpent of brass he lived Page 210 Chap. Ver. Deuteronomy XVI 6. But at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name in there thou shalt Sacrifice the Passeover at even at the going down of the Sun at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt Page 222. Chap. Ver. XVIII 18. I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him Page 87 88 Chap. Ver. XXIII II. But it shall be when evening cometh on he shall wash himself with water and when the Sun is down he shall come into the camp again Page 217 Chap. Ver. 2 Samuel II. 4. And the men of Judah came and there they anointed David King over the house of Judah c. Page 38 Chap. Ver. XI 2. And it came to pass in an evening-tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the King 's House c. Page 217 218 Chap. Ver. 1 King XIX 16. And Jehu the Son Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be King over Israel and Elisha the Son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah shalt thou anoint c. Page 31 32 Chap. Ver. Job I. 21. And said Naked came I out of my Mothers Womb and naked shall I return thither c. Page 287 Chap. Ver. Psalms II. 7. with Act. XIII 33 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Page 285 Chap. Ver. XIX 7. The law of the Lord is perfect c. Page 404 Chap. Ver. XXIV 9. Lift up your heads O ye Gates even lift them up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Page 309 Chap. Ver. LI. 16. For thou desirest not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in burnt-offering Page 28 Chap. Ver. LXXXIX 30. to 37. If his children forsake my law c. Page 60 Chap. Ver. CX 1. The Lord said unto my Lord c. Page 311 Chap. Ver. CXLVII 19. He sheweth his word unto Jacob his statutes and his judgments unto Israel Page 407 Chap. Ver. Isaiah VII 14. Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign Behold a Virgin shall conceive c. Page 70 Chap. Ver. IX 1 2 3. Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation c. Page 95 96 Chap. Ver. LIII 9. And he made his grave c. Page 260 Chap. Ver. LXI 3. To preach good tidings unto the meek Page 104 112 Chap. Ver. Joel II. 28. I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh c. Page 129 Chap. Ver. Micah V. 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah c. Page 78 Chap. Ver. Ib. 9. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former c. Page 83 84 Chap. Ver. Zechariah IX 9. Rejoice greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Jerusalem c. Page 203 204 Chap. Ver. Malachi III. 1. Behold I will send my Messenger c. Page 100 Chap. Ver. St. Matthew I. 23. Behold a Virgin shall be with Child and shall bring forth a Son and they shall call his name Emanuel c. Page 7 8 Chap. Ver. II. 5 6. And they said unto him In Bethlehem of Judaea for thus it is written by the Prophet And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah c. Page 66 67 Chap. Ver. IV. 14 15 16. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying The land of Zabulon c. Page 98 99 Chap. Ver. XI 4 5. Jesus answered and said unto them Goe and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see The blind receive their sight and the lame walk c. Page 106 107 Chap. Ver. XII 31. Wherefore I say unto you all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men but c. Page 461 c Chap. Ver. Ib. 32. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him but c. Page 461 463 Chap. Ver. Ib. 39 40. But he answered and said unto them An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign c. Page 293 Chap. Ver. Ib. 40. with Chap. XXVII 63. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth Page 30â— Chap. Ver. XXVII 51. And behold the veil of the Temple was rent in twain c. Page 333 Chap. Ver. Ib. 63. After three days I
A DEMONSTRATION OF THE MESSIAS In which the truth of the CHRISTIAN RELIGION is proved especially against The Jews PART I. By Richard Kidder AUGUSTIN Epistol VOLUSIANO Venit Christus complentur in ejus Ortu Vita Dictis Factis Passionibus Morte Resurrectione Ascensione omnia Praeconia Prophetarum LONDON Printed by J. Heptinstall for B. Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill MDCLXXXIV To the Right Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London one of the Lords of His MAJESTY's most honourable Privy Council My LORD THE following Discourse such as it is I do with all humility present to your Lordship The argument it treats of commends it self and challengeth regard from all the Disciples of Jesus The design of it is to prove our Jesus to be the Messias This is a truth of the greatest moment and as such was much insisted upon by the first preachers of the Christian Religion and deservedly placed in our ancient Creed in the head of the other Articles of our Christian faith and next after the Article in which we own the belief of a God And whatever defects there may be found in the following Tract yet as I am certain that I have chosen a most excellent Subject so I have pursued it with a sincere and honest intention If any should find fault with this well-meant Discourse and condemn me even for that for which I am not able so much as to accuse my self it shall be so far from creating me any trouble that it will not surprize me as any thing that is new and strange is wont to do Whatever my mistake or my faults may be I shall be so far from being pertinacious in either of them that no man shall be more welcome to me than he who shall assist me in discharging me from them Nor do I desire to live any longer in this world than whiles I am disposed both to find the truth and to follow it I think my self more especially obliged to give your Lordship an account how I spend my time And that consideration moved me to prefix your Lordship's name to this following Discourse But that was not the onely motive which induced me to it All that have the honour to know your Lirdship have great cause to bless God for you The Clergy of this great City are very sensible of their happiness They look upon your Lordship as a great Blessing and a good presage The Jews have a saying in their books that when the Shepherd is angry with the sheep he placeth over them a blind guide Those who are under your Lordship's care justly look upon you as bestowed upon them as a token for good they think themselves favoured greatly in your Lordship by the great Bishop and Shepherd of their Souls I was willing to take this opportunity of testifying my most unfeigned thankfulness to God for your Lordship That God would long preserve your Lordship and assist and prosper your endeavours for the good of his Church that he would pour upon you the blessings of this life and preserve you to the unspeakable glory of the next is the most hearty Prayer of My LORD Your Lordship 's most dutifull and obedient Servant Richard Kidder THE PREFACE IT is said of our blessed Saviour upon his healing a withered hand when the Jews watched him whether he would heal on the Sabbath-day that they might accuse him that he looked round about on them with anger being grieved for the hardness of their hearts Mark 3. v. 5. He looked on them with anger and with compassion at the same time Thus have all the sincere Disciples of Jesus been affected towards that people ever since our Saviour's time and very fit it is that they should imitate their great Lord and Master He that loves his Lord and his holy Religion cannot but be moved with some degree of anger when he considers how that people persecuted Jesus and his followers and have ever shewed an unplacable hatred against the incomparable Religion which they planted in the world They do in their books which we have in our hands reproach our Blessed Saviour and with great bitterness disparage and calumniate those holy writers which give us an account of our Saviour's birth of his life and Doctrine and these practices of theirs have been an occasion of many evils which have befallen them and have drawn upon them the anger of the Christian States or Kingdoms where they have lived Nor is it strange at all that Christians should be moved with some degree of indignation against those men who Scoff at that Jesus whom they worship But how excusable soever this indignation be yet it ought to be attended with pity and compassion This we may learn from the example of Jesus who was grieved for the hardness of their heart and did to the last breath pray for these men who had no pity or compassion upon him And the Apostle of the Gentiles who had been greatly persecuted by the Jews was so far from being unconcerned for them that he most solemnly professeth that he had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart upon their account And so great was his charity that he could wish himself accursed from Christ for their sakes Rom. 9.1 2 3. And whatever opinion Christians may have entertained concerning the conversion of the nation of the Jews it must be granted that it is our duty to doe all we can toward the gaining so good an end And whatever is done to this purpose by any Christian States or particular Persons however it may miss of its desired effect will not fail of a reward It is very well known where the Jews are obliged to hear the Sermons or Lectures of the Christians And there are those charitable persons in the Church who would much rejoice to find them under the same obligation in other States and Christian Kingdoms also A lecture for this very end and purpose might have good effects For though it be not effectual where it is used yet it is no hard thing to assign very considerable reasons how that comes to pass Thus much is certain that if we would gain the Jews it will become us to doe all in our power to that purpose And though some men have other obligations yet every Christian is obliged in his dealings with them to use them with great humanity to trade with them with exact Justice and simplicity and to adorn our Religion by an exemplary life and conversation For the following discourse I am to acquaint the Reader that I do not send it abroad as a just Tract designed onely against the Jews Had this been my design I should have taken other Methods I intended the advantage of the Christian Reader also and hope that the younger among them may receive some benefit thereby It is our common Christianity which I here defend and I have attempted to explain some difficult places of the holy Writ which have
been perverted by some men and scoffed at by others In all that I have done I have sincerely pursued after truth if I have any where mistaken I shall most readily and thankfully hearken to him who shall shew me my Error I do intend a second part in which I design to examine the objections which we find in the Jewish writers against the truth which I have defended in this first and against the Religion which Jesus taught I shall in that particularly consider their pretenses for their unbelief And they are such as these viz. That their law is of perpetual obligation that the promise of the Messias was conditional and the time of his coming not fixed that there are some Prophecies relating to the Messias and his times not fulfilled in Jesus c. I do very well know that there are in the Church of England a great number of men who are better sitted for such an undertaking than I am I should be so far from esteeming it a disappointment if any of them would prevent me in what I design farther that it would be matter of rejoycing to me And if what I have done already may be but an occasion to excite some other person to doe better I shall think my time well spent and be very well content that what I have here offered should be laid aside or overlooked The Contents of the several Chapters contained in this Book CHAP. I. Of the name Jesus That this name by which our Saviour was called and distinguished from other men is no objection against the Prediction Isa 7.14 The importance of the name Jesus In what sense our Lord is said to be a Saviour His Salvation compared with the deliverances mentioned in the Old Testament Of the word Christ Of anointing things and persons and the design of it Of the anointing of Jesus Some account of the Jewish constitutions about anointing with their holy Oil. pag. 5 6. CHAP. II. It is agreed between Jews and Christians I. That there was a Messias promised and II. That there was such a person as our Jesus and III. That there was at that time when Jesus lived a general expectation of the Messias That hence it was that there appeared so many Impostours about that time An account of some of them from Josephus Of the promises of the Messias and the gradual revealing of them A Passage in Maimon concerning the Afternoon-Prayer misrepresented by a late learned writer Several particulars relating to the Messias predicted pag. 42. CHAP. III. Of the birth of Jesus Of his lineage and kindred Of the place of his birth The seeming difference in the account of Bethlehem by the Prophet Micah and St. Matthew reconciled Of his being born of a Virgin A particular explication of 1. Tim. 2.15 She shall be saved in Child-bearing The time of his birth agreed with the predictions and general expectation of some great Person Several testimonies to this purpose The miserable shifts and evasions of the Jews pag. 58. CHAP. IV. That the Messias was to be a Prophet Deut. 18. v. 18. considered That our Jesus was a Prophet like unto Moses shewed in sundry particulars That the Messias was to converse much in Galilee according to the prediction Isa 9.1 2 3. That place more particularly considered That our Jesus did so Several other Characters of the Messias belonged to Jesus That the Messias as was predicted was to doe stupendious works pag. 87. CHAP. V. The works of Jesus Mat. 11.4 5. considered Of the miracles which Jesus did The vanity of the Jews in attempting to disparage them The opinion of Maimonides that the Messias would not work miracles considered and the Authour of Tractatus Theolog Polit. What a Miracle imports That the Messias was to work miracles proved against Maimonides That they are a good argument of the truth of a Doctrine That Jesus did work true miracles This proved at large pag. 105 106. CHAP. VI. The Miracles which Jesus did compared with those which were really wrought by the hands of Moses with the pretended ones of the Church of Rome and with those storied of Apollonius Tyanaeus and some other Heathens Of the sufficient assurance which we have that Jesus did those works which are reoprted of him pag. 161. CHAP. VII That the Messias according to the predictions of him was to suffer This proved against the Jews Of the vanity of their twofold Messias the Son of Joseph and the Son of David The reason why the Jews make use of this pretence That Jesus did suffer That he suffered those things which the Messias was to suffer Luk. 24.26 46. and Act. 3.18 considered Zech. 9.9 to be understood of the Messias this proved against the Jews at large Of the kind of Christ's death Crucifixion was none of the Jewish capital punishments Of the Brazen Serpent Numb 21. St. John ch 3.14 considered The Jewish Writers acknowledge that the brazen Serpent was symbolical and spiritually to be understood Of the time when Jesus suffered that it did exactly agree with the type of the sufferings of the Messias A large digression concerning this matter Exod 12.6 considered Castalio justly censured for his ill rendring that place Of the two Evenings among the Jews The ground we have for it in the Scriptures The testimony of R. Solomon Of the practice of the Jewish Nation as to the time of offering their evening Sacrifice and the Passeover This shewed from their best Authours An objection from Deut. 16. v. 6. answered Jesus died at that time when the Paschal Lamb was to be slain Of the place and many other particulars relating to the sufferings of Jesus Of the great causes and reasons of the sufferings of Jesus Of the Burial of Jesus pag. 191 192. CHAP. VIII Of the Resurrection of Jesus That we have sufficient evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead That we have the most unexceptionable humane Testimony Why the same number of men are called the eleven and the twelve elsewhere when they were but Ten John 21.14 Explained This confirmed by the Testimony of an Angel and by Divine Testimony That Jesus removed all cause of doubting of the truth of his Resurrection That there were a select number of Men chosen to be witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus That these witnesses as also the Evangelists are worthy of belief That it was foretold that the Messias should rise from the dead The words Ps 11.5 This day have I begotten thee are justly applied to this matter This proved against the Jews at large That Jesus rose from the dead is an undeniable proof that he is the Messias and of the greatest importance to us Of the time when Jesus rose from the dead Why on the third day And how he could be said to rise on the third day who was but one whole day in the Sepulchre and how this agrees with Matt. 12.40 where Jesus said he should be three days and three nights in the heart of the
another Saviour of the World and of my posterity That Shilo should come to whom the gathering of the people shall be Agreeable to what hath been said are these words of Zacharias who said of the Lord God of Israel that he had raised up an Horn of Salvation for us in the house of his servant David Luk. 1.69 By Horn of Salvation for us is denoted the Kingdom and Power of our blessed Saviour And for the better understanding of this expression it is to be remembred that Dominion and Power is expressed by Horn among the Hebrew Writers Thus in the Prophet Daniel the ten Horns are said to be ten Kings c. 7. v. 24. Again I will make the Horn of David to bud Ps 132. v. 17. Instead of Horn the Chaldee Paraphrast hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious King Kimchi in Psal 132. v. 17. And one of the learned Jews and a bitter enemy to Christianity confesses that that verse speaks of the Messias that was to come So that the Horn of Salvation does intimate to us the greatness of that deliverance which our Lord hath wrought Besides 't is said of Simeon that when he took Jesus into his Arms and blessed God he said Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Luk. 2.29 30. Which agrees well with the words of Jacob I have waited for Thy Salvation O Lord. Indeed Aben Ezra tells us from R. Isaac Aben Ezra in Gen. 49.18 that Jacob having likened Dan to an adder by the path did thereupon fall into a fear and then as fearfull men are apt to call for help and deliverance he added I have waited for thy salvation O Lord And another of the Jewish Commentators would have those words to contain the prediction that Sampson's eyes should be put out by the Philistines R. Solom in loc and then that they imply that prayer of Sampson at the last O Lord God remember me I pray thee and strengthen me I pray thee onely this once O God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes Judg. 16.28 It is enough that I have named these opinions I shall not need refute them for besides that their authority is not great who are the Authours of them they are not backed with any reasons at all But to return As those deliverances of Joshuah and the other Worthies were but temporal whereas our Lord 's was eternal So They were but Carnal but our Lord's is Spiritual They delivered their people from thraldom and bondage the yoke of a Tyrant the tribute of an Oppressour the chains and fetters of some potent Prince But our Jesus saves his people from their sins Mat. 1.21 He was manifested to take away our sins 1 Joh. 3.5 And to destroy the works of the Devil v. 8. Or as Zacharias expresses it we are delivered out of the hands of our enemies that we might serve God without fear In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 74 75. This is the deliverance that our Lord hath wrought He sets us free from our sins and hath redeemed us from the wrath to come This Jesus does for all them that will obey him He destroyed the Devil's Kingdom stopt his mouth in his Oracles overturned his Temples dispossessed him of his Idols destroyed his Worship and baffled him in all his Designs He cast him out not of the bodies onely but of the souls and hearts of men and wrested from him that Kingdom which he had so long and so unjustly got the possession of The World was over-run with Idolatry and Superstition with violence and oppression with ignorance and prophaneness Men were proud and covetous unchast and intemperate full of envy and malice But Our Lord came and by his life and doctrine by his death and divine grace he sent away that darkness that overspread the World he knocked off those Chains in which men were shackled and restored Mankind to the Worship of the true God and to his image and likeness Let 's hear the excellent words by which the Apostle expresseth all this For we our selves says he also were sometimes foolish disobedient deceived serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hatefull and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward mankind appeared Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour Tit. 3.3 Such was the deliverance which our Jesus wrought For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.11 Moses delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians he brought them from the bondage of those Infidels but he did not save them from their infidelity For we see they could not enter into the promised land because of their unbelief Heb. 3.19 Joshua brought them into Canaan but left them on this side heaven Others delivered them from the men of Midian and the Philistines but none of them delivered them from the evil men themselves They were saved from their enemies frequently but not from their sins They fell into their folly and their misery again But our blessed Redeemer saves us from our sin He gives repentance and forgivenss of sins Acts 5.31 And turns us from our iniquities Acts 3.26 This exalts him above Moses and Joshua this speaks him the great Redeemer and Shepherd of our Souls The Jews expected a Temporal Messiah one that would restore them their Kingdom and advance them to worldly splendour and greatness But our Lord came to erect a spiritual Kingdom in the hearts and minds of men He came to vanquish our lusts and destroy the power of sin in the hearts of men This was a design worthy of God and becoming our Lord Jesus And that which the greatest Kings and Princes were never able to doe Our Lord hath wrought the greatest deliverance Others have conquered their Enemies Our Lord hath done more He hath reconciled them and made them friends Others have killed the bodies of men our Lord hath done more he has saved their souls Others have gotten wealth and worldly greatness our Lord does more when he enables his followers to despise these things Others have saved their followers from dying our Lord delivers us from the fear of death He kills our pride destroys our covetousness purges away our lust plants in us the love of God and the contempt of the World
〈◊〉 LXXII si voluisses Sacrificium dedissem utique V. L. For says he thou desirest not sacrifice else would I give it Psal 51.16 i. e. Thou hast allowed no sacrifice for such an high offence as mine is This agrees well with the Text the ancient Versions and the Jewish Expositors R. David Kimch in Ps 51.16 In eundem sensum R. Solom Aben Ezra in loc One of the Jewish Commentators upon this place expresses himself thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is And although God says he commanded oblations together with confession and repentance the blessed God did not command oblations unless it were for him who sinned ignorantly But he the Psalmist was a presumptuous sinner and for this sin there was no oblation but onely repentance with a broken and contrite heart But the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers a pardon for all sins upon the sinners saith and repentance No sinner is excluded from hope that does not by his impenitence exclude himself This seems to be the meaning of these words of St. Paul Be it known unto you men and brethren that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. I come now to explain what is meant by Christ Now so it is that the word Christ does denote our Saviour's office Christus non proprium nomen est Lactant. Institut l. 4. c. 7. sed nuncupatio potestatis regni Says Lactantius Christ is as much as Anointed it being but the Greek of Messias Andrew telleth Simon Peter we have found the Messias which is being interpreted the Christ Joh. 4.41 And the woman of Samaria said I know that Messias cometh which is called Christ Heb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chald. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 4.25 Thus our Lord is called Ps 2.2 Dan. 9.25 Now for the better understanding of the importance of this word Christ or Anointed we shall doe well to reflect upon the usage that obtained among the Jewish People where we shall find frequent mention of the Ceremony of Anointing That which was anointed was thereby separated to some particular and special use whether it had relation to things or persons Thus was the Pillar anointed Gen. 28.18.22 And the Tabernacle and all its Utensils They being by that means set apart to the Service of God But this Ceremony of anointing had relation to persons also Thus the most publick Persons and Ministers among the Jews were by this Ceremony set apart to their publick Offices and Dignities As for example Kings were anointed whence it is that a King is expressed in the sacred Dialect by the Lord 's anointed Thus were Saul and David anointed by Samuel according to the Divine appointment 1 Sam. 10.1.15.1.16.3.13 And Zadok anoints Solomon that there might be no dispute who should succeed David 1 King 1.39 And these Kings when they were thus anointed were then God's Vice-gerents over the Jewish People who were under a Theocracy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Hist l. 1. c. 3. And when the Prophets did by anointing them make them Kings they made them Typical Christs as one of the ancients does express it And so indeed they were They did typifie the Messias who was to be Lord and Governour of the Church as these Kings were of the Jews Priests were anointed also Aaron and his Sons that they might minister unto God in the Priest's office Exod. 40.13.15 For Prophets the like cannot be said We have not that express Law nor the Practice upon record which we have for the other 'T is true indeed that Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha to be a Prophet in his room 1 King 19.16 And at the same time he is commanded to anoint Hazael to be King over Syria and Jehu over Israel 'T is probable that no more is meant by that expression than this that he should constitute Elisha to be Prophet in his room and because men were set apart to great offices by the Ceremony of anointing therefore that expression is used there And that Person who is constituted and appointed by God to some great office or employment is said to be the Lord 's Anointed though he were not set apart with material oil to that office because these publick Persons were wont by the holy oil to be set apart to their Dignities and Employments Thus Cyrus is said to be Lord's anointed Isa 45.1 He being appointed by God for the destruction of Babylon and the return of the Israelites And we find that all that we reade Elijah did when he came to Elisha to perform what he was commanded was that he passed by him and cast his Mantle upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. S. B. Mel. Michal Jophi in 1 Reg. 19. R. D. Kimchi in Isa 45.1 1 Kings 19. v. 19. Upon which Elisha arose and ministred to Elijah v. 21. For Kings and Priests the Precept is plain and the practice unquestionable I shall from the Jewish writers give you a more particular account of the right of anointing Kings and Priests as well as of the reasons of it Now the reasons of it are said to be these two First this was to be a sign of the Divine election and choice He that was thus set apart was to be received as chosen of God I have exalted one chosen out of the People I have found David my servant With my holy oil have I anointed him Psal 89.19 20. This holy oil was a composition of God's prescribing wherewith certain things and persons were to be set apart and separated to holy uses and 't is expresly said whosoever compoundeth any like it or whosoever putteth any of it upon a Stranger shall even be cut off from his People Exod. 30.33 Secondly that he that was thus anointed might thereby be prepared to receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine influx And thus we read of Saul that when Samuel had anointed him and told him that the spirit of the Lord would come upon him and that he should be turned into another man That the spirit of God came upon him and that he prophesied 1 Sam. 9. We are moreover told from the Jewish writers that those that were anointed were anointed on their heads Vid. Maimon H. Melach Abravenel in Exod. 30.23 Kings with the figure of a Crown Priests with the figure of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sign of a Crown denoting the Regal dignity and the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being the first letter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Priest denoting the Priesthood That the high Priest was anointed but not the inferiour Priests That a Son succeeding his Father in the Kingdom was not anointed Indeed Solomon was but that was because there was a competitor in the case namely his Brother Adonijah
And in that case the anointing of Solomon decided the difference Buxtorf Lexic Rabbin in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the Priest that succeeded his Father was always anointed The high-Priesthood being not successive as the Kingdom of David was Rabboth fol. 176. The Kings of Israel were not anointed with the holy Oil. Jehu indeed was anointed but not with the holy Oil of Moses but with a certain Balsam Pesikta fol. 10. c. 1. Maimon H. Kele Hammikdash c. 1. Siphra fol. 17. c. 3. That during the second Temple the High Priests were not anointed the holy Oil having been hid and lost and that the sacerdotal garments served instead thereof That the Kings of the house of David were to be anointed by a fountain of water for which they ground themselves upon 1 King 1.38 and in the day time Lev. 6.20 Thus had the Jews under the law of Moses the shadow of good things to come but these excellent things which they had in type we have in substance The law was given by Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 Our blessed Saviour is both Prophet Priest and King He is the great Prophet who hath taught us the will of God Our great High Priest who made attonement for us and is entered into the Holy of Holies He is our King to rule and govern us and from him we expect the great and unspeakable blessing of eternal life And as the Priests and Kings of old were set apart to their offices and dignities by a certain Oil prescribed in the Law of Moses so was our Blessed Saviour by a better anointing of which that Oil was but a shadow namely by the Holy Ghost which did not onely design him and set him apart to these great and important offices but also enable him for the performance of them Thus the Apostle tells us that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power Act. 10.38 Now our Saviour was anointed with the Holy Ghost First at his Conception Thus the Angel tells the blessed Virgin The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luk. 1.35 Secondly at his Baptism at the river Jordan Matt. 3.13 Mark 1.9 Now when all the people were baptized it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was opened And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said Thou art my beloved Son in thee I am well pleased Luk. 3.21 22. Then did the Holy Ghost descend visibly upon Jesus and as of old as I said before anointing was used among the Jews as a sign of God's election and choice of the person anointed so was it now And for the greater assurance of it a voice came from Heaven saying Thou art my beloved Son c. Thus was Jesus declared to be chosen of God by the descent of the Holy Ghost And to this I may add the words of the Prophet to the same purpose Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him c. Isa 42.1 And St. Luke tells presently upon the Baptism of Jesus that he being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the spirit into the wilderness Luk. 4.1 And after he was tempted in the Wilderness he tells us that Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee ver 14. And when he was in the Synagogue at Nazareth he opened the book which was delivered him and found that place where 't was written The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor c. And said unto them This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears v. 21. Our blessed Saviour though he were sanctified from the Womb and was anointed by the Holy Ghost yet when he was baptized in Jordan and about thirty years of age he was again anointed by the same divine spirit more publickly and openly than before He was now entring on his great ministry and about to be tempted by the Devil and is now filled by the Holy Ghost and thereby enabled and prepared for that work which he was going about In a word he who was at his Conception anointed with the Holy Ghost was also at his Baptism Matt. 3.16 17. when he was entring upon his ministry not onely by a voice from heaven proclaimed the beloved Son of God but declared to be so by the descending of the spirit of God like a Dove Vid. Exod. 28.41 29.21 Lev. 8.12 with v. 30. See also Abravenel on Exod. 29.21 and lighting upon him It is observed of Aaron the first High Priest and type of the Messias that he was also twice anointed with the holy Oil. And for David who was a most eminent type of the Messias He is said to be twice anointed also Once at Bethlehem during the life of Saul by the hands of Samuel upon which it is said And the spirit of the Lord came upon 1 Sam. 16.13 David from that day forward After this he is said to have been anointed at Hebron by the men of Judah 2 Sam. 2.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodorer in 2 Reg. Quaest 8. I do grant and it cannot be denied that David was but once anointed with the holy Oil and that where it is said afterward that the men of Judah anointed him the meaning is onely this that they chose him and openly owned and acknowledged him for their King as appears by comparing 2 Sam. 2.4 with chap. 4.3 17. It is enough to my present purpose that David who was more privately anointed at Bethlehem was afterward so publickly owned and acknowledged to be the King that he is said again to have been anointed For in this he was eminently a type of our Lord Christ who was from his Conception anointed with the Holy Ghost and when he was upon his Baptism entring upon his administration was publickly declared to be the Son of God by a voice from heaven and by the descent of the Holy Ghost Among the Jewish Constitutions this was one That the Kings of the house of David were to be anointed by a fountain of water This was a tradition from their Elders grounded upon what we read of Solomon that when he was to be anointed King Zadok and Nathan and the rest that attended upon him brought him unto Gihon 1 King 1.38 This Gihon was a place of waters as appears 2 Chron. 32.30 Let this tradition be as old as you will suppose it came from Moses and was delivered from Mount Sinai as the Jews say their Oral law was so it came to pass that our Jesus the great King of the house of David was anointed by the waters
purpose in hand in shewing that this Doctrine is in it self false When God was about to send Moses to the Israelites in Egypt Ex. 4.1 we find Moses objected and said they will not believe me Hereupon God bids him cast his rod upon the ground and the rod was turned into a serpent And this that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers v. 5. c. hath appeared unto thee saith God to Moses After this the hand of Moses was turned leprous and restored again upon which Moses is told that if the Israelites would not believe him upon the first v. 8. that they should believe the voice of the latter sign Moses tells Pharaoh that at his request the plague of frogs should be removed Ex. 8.10 that thou mayst know says he that there is none like unto the Lord our God So far it is evident that Moses wrought signs to procure belief But let us follow Moses out of Egypt into the Wilderness and see whether it be true which Maimon affirms that those Miracles were not wrought to gain belief to his Prophecy I shall content my self with one of the Miracles which Maimon himself mentions as a work that Moses did to serve a present necessity and not to gain credit to his Prophecy And that is the Miracle which was wrought upon occasion of the rebellion of Corah and his company Now it is very evident from the Text that that Miracle was wrought to assert the Prophecy of Moses as well as the right of Aaron as will appear from the words of Moses to Corah and his company Numb 16.5 To morrow says he the Lord will shew who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him Again when those evil men were about to be swallowed up we find Moses saying Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to doe all these works for I have not done them of mine own mind If these men dye the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me v. 28 29 30. But if the Lord make a new thing and the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them and they go down quick into the pit then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Hence it is evident that the Miracle confirmed the Mission of Moses and so had a direct tendence to gain credit and belief unto his Prophecy and that a Miracle is a good confirmation of a Doctrine No wonder then that we find our Saviour frequently appealing to his Miracles as the evidences of his commission I have says he greater witness than that of John for the work which the father hath given me to finish Joh. 5.36 the same works that I doe bear witness of me that the father hath sent me Again we read elsewhere to the same purpose Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him how long dost thou make us to doubt If thou be the Christ tell us plainly And thereupon it follows presently Jesus answered them Joh. 10.24 25. I told you and ye believed not The works that I doe in my father's name bear witness of me Again Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me or else believe me for the very works sake And in another place our Saviour says Joh. 14.11.15.24.10.37 38. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin Again if I doe not the works of my father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him Besides we find that men were greatly convinced by the Miracles which Jesus wrought when he had miraculously fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes as it is said then those men when they had seen the Miracle that Jesus did said Joh. 6.14.2.11.23 this is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world And when he had turned water into wine 't is said that his disciples believed on him And when he was at Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles which he did The works of Jesus were very convictive and great was the evidence that they were attended with When our Saviour raised the widows son of Naim There came a great fear on all Luk. 7.16 and they glorified God saying that a great Prophet is risen up among us and that God hath visited his people To this purpose Nicodemus tells our Lord. Joh. 3.2 Rabbi say he we know that thou art a teacher come from God And then follows that which gives him the ground of this perswasion of his For no man can doe those Miracles which thou doest except God be with him And the blind man who was restored to sight speaks to the same purpose Joh. 9.32 33. Since the world began says he it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind If this man were not of God he could doe nothing whence it appears that the people were greatly convinced by the works which they saw Jesus doe Indeed our Saviour appeared in a mean and poor condition in the world he was reproached and traduced and accused by evil men But then the works which he did which were the works of the spirit did clear and justifie our Saviour 1 Tim. 3.16 And to this sense I understand the Apostle's words where he tells us that God was manifested in the flesh and adds that he was justified in the spirit Or justified and cleared from false accusations by the spirit ' Ev signifies by Matt. 17.21 ch 23. v. 16. Luk. 4. v. 1. Heb. 1.1 Matt. 12.28 For so those words may be rendred which we render in the spirit It was we know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the spirit of God that Jesus cast out Devils His miraculous works did proceed from the spirit of God And he was justified by that spirit when he wrought miracles This is no new interpretation We find it in one of the ancient Fathers He was justified by the spirit i. e. by the divine spirit he wrought miracles But if I cast out Devils by the spirit of God says he It was therefore demonstrated and plain by miracles that he was true God Theodoret in 1 〈◊〉 c. 3. v. 16. and the Son of God Thus the Centurion by the Cross when he saw the earthquake and the darkness said This of a truth is the Son of God The Holy Spirit did acquit our blessed Saviour from the aspersions which were cast upon him And may very well be said to be an Advocate to our
entrance into the world to his going out The meanness of his Birth did not protect him from being persecuted by Herod He was after this a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and there hath been no sorrow like unto his sorrow He fasted and was tempted he was acquainted with hunger and with thirst with great poverty and contempt He met with false friends and implacabe enemies He was always doing good and recieveing evil And after all at the close of his life he was a most eminent sufferer If there be any suffering in great pains and agonies in being scoffed and derided in being buffeted and scourged in a bloudy sweat or a bitter cup In a crown of Thorns in the Spear and in the Nails He suffered if to be forsaken and betrayed to be unpitied in trouble and to be denied to be flouted and scoffed at be any thing of a suffering He suffered if to die be to suffer and to die upon a Cross among malefactors If the bloud of the Cross if the shame and curse of it if the pain and scandal of it speak any sufferings our Lord did indeed suffer From the sufferings of our Jesus it does appear that he is the Christ I do not mean that the bare sufferings of Jesus are an argument that he is the Christ For sufferings are not a sufficient argument alone And though the Messias were to suffer yet so might and so did Impostors also But as the Messias was to suffer so it was predicted what he should suffer and we shall find that our Jesus did suffer those very things which the Messias was to suffer and all things duely considered we shall find this especially in conjunction with what hath been and is to be said a very good proof that Jesus is the Christ And this I take to be the meaning of our Saviour's words to his Disciples going to Emmaus Ought not Christ to have suffered These things And of his words to the Apostles afterward Thus it is written and Thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24.26 46. St. Peter tells the Jews that those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled Act. 3.18 Our Saviour himself said Thus it must be Mat. 26.54 56. To the same purpose we find the Disciples saying For of a truth against thy holy Child Jesus whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together for to doe whatsoever thy hand and thy Council determined before to be done Act. 4.27 28. We shall find afterward that Jesus did suffer all that which the Christ was to suffer And some of these sufferings were such as were not likely to have been the portion of Jesus But so it was though Herod and Pontius Pilate though the Jews and the Gentiles had an hand in the sufferings of Jesus they did at the same time though they designed it not fulfill some Prophecies of old and this was so eminently done that we have from hence a very great proof that Jesus is the Christ I shall not look over all the sufferings of Jesus from the time of his birth to the moment of his death I shall begin no sooner than the last week of his life and shall more especially consider those particulars which attended upon his death We have a remarkable Prophecy in the Prophet Zechariah and the words are these Rejoice greatly O Daughter of Zion shout O Daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy King cometh unto thee He is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an Ass and upon a Colt the foal of an Ass That this place is a prophecy of the Messias no Christian can doubt and the Jew ought not to deny R. Solomon confesses frankly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It is impossible to interpret it but of King Messiah R. Solom in Zech. 9.9 And as it is very agreeable to the words to expound them of the Messias These words of R. Solomon are translated by Raymundus in his Pugio fidei pag. 656. in to words which contradict the sense of them viz. Non potest hoc exponi de Rege Messia when he affirms that they ought not to be expounded of any other person And that the Jews do understand these words of the Messiah is â—â—â—ved at large by Bochart de S. S. Animalibus lib. II. c. 17. so it well agrees with the sense of the Ancient Jews too For it was the sense of the Jews that this place was meant of the Messias and we find among the writings which we have of theirs plain intimations of it There is a fabulous relation that the Ass which Abraham sadled Gen. 22. was created on the evening of the Sabbath Pirke R. Eliezer cap. 31. and that Moses rode upon the same Ass when he came into Egypt and farther the Son of David shall ride upon the same they say hence it is said Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion c. From this fabulous relation it is evident that this place was understood of the Messias Beresith Rabb in Gen. 49.11 To the same purpose the words are understood by another ancient writer who represents it as the sense of their Rabbins It was upon the tenth day of the first month when our Saviour rode upon an Ass into Jerusalem and fulfilled this Scripture and in the Passeover-week in which he suffered Our Saviour was now ready to be Sacrificed for us and as the Paschal Lamb in Egypt was taken up on the tenth day so did our Lord our Paschal Lamb on that very day present himself in that City where the same week he was sentenced to death For the rest of the words of the Prophecy they do very well agree to our Jesus as it is certain they were meant of the Messias Thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly Never were there any persons to whom these words could so duely belong as our blessed Saviour He was a King indeed and denies it not before Pontius Pilate though he professed that his Kingdom was not of this world As such a person the Messias was promised of old and it was foretold that he should erect an everlasting Kingdom in the Prophet Daniel The Jews expected a temporal Prince indeed they being themselves a carnal people Our Lord did not appear like an earthly Prince but as one born from Heaven and that would erect an heavenly and spiritual Kingdom in the world A King he was in the best and the highest sense and when he was crucified the main of his accusation written on his Cross was that he was King of the Jews That he was just malice it self cannot deny of our blessed Saviour He was for giving both God and Caesar their due He paid Tribute when it was demanded and would not excuse himself from the publick payment to which he was not yet strictly obliged And
inconsiderable employments attend upon and publish the Resurrection of Jesus and do also secure the empty Sepulchre from the Jews that they are not able to place another body in the room of that of Jesus which was risen Matt. 28.6 Luk. 24.2 with Joh. 20.12 3. We have a divine Testimony and that a most irrefragable one a Testimony greater than that of men and Angels Our Lord had promised the Holy Spirit who should be with respect to his disciples a Comforter and with respect to our Lord himself an Advocate to plead his cause and defend his innocence Now this promise is fulfilled and this holy Ghost did bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus After Jesus was risen he breathed on his disciples and said receive ye the Holy Ghost and after his Ascension at the day of Pentecost we find the Holy Ghost more plentifully bestowed on his Disciples And from thence the Apostle argues against them who derided them as those who were full of new Wine that God had raised up Jesus who being exalted had shed forth this which they now saw and heard and afterwards concludes therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The effusion of the Holy Ghost was a witness of the Resurrection of Jesus And this Testimony of the Holy Ghost was a divine one it was from Heaven St. Peter tells the Jews that God had raised up Jesus and exalted him at his right hand and says he we are witnesses of these things so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him Joh. 14.16 ch 16.7 8 9 10 11. ch 20.22 Act. 2.4 36 ch 5.32 4. Jesus did after his resurrection take away all cause of doubt concerning the truth of his Resurrection He gave sufficient proof that the very same body which was fastened to the Cross dyed there and was buried was raised again to life The Disciples were at first affrighted and supposed that they had seen a Spirit But our Saviour put them out of all doubt Behold says he my hands and my feet Handle me and see for a Spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have He shews his hands and his feet And whereas at his first appearing to his Disciples Thomas was absent and did not believe that he was risen from the dead and said moreover except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hard into his side I will not beleive our Lord convinced this doubting Disciple and gives him the utmost evidence and assurance of the truth of his Resurrection Reach hither thy finger says Jesus to Thomas and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless but beleiving upon which Thomas was convinced and forced to cry out my Lord and my God Our Lord gave his followers insallible proofs of his Resurrection in the space of forty days He are and drank with them exposed his body to their view and touch behold says he my hâ—nds and feet that it is my self and when after this they believed not for joy and wondred he took broiled fish and honey comb and did eat before them Greater assurance they were not capable of Luk. 24.37 39 40 41 42. Joh. 20.25 27 28. Act. 1.3.10.41 Luk. 24.39 40. 5. That the truth of the Resurrection of Jesus was abundantly confirmed by those who were the witnesses of it So it was and it was highly fit it should be so that there were a select number of men who were to be the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus these were men whom God had appointed and set apart for this purpose and such who upon the account of their knowledge of Jesus and their readiness to part with all for the sake of the truth were sitted and disposed for this purpose Thus St. Peter tells us Him God raised up the third day and shewed him openly not to all the people but to witnesses chosen before of God even unto us who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The Apostles were now the witnesses of the Resurrection of Jesus this they preach and testifie upon all occasions and this is their Character and their Office Act. 10.41 chap. 1.22 and ch 3.15 and chap. 4.2 33. ch 5.30 32. ch 10.30 31. ch 13.31 chap. 17.18 Now these witnesses did abundantly confirm the truth of this Doctrine which they preached every where both by signs and wonders which God wrought by their hands and by an exemplary and holy life And at last by laying down their lives in confirmation of their Doctrine Upon which account they were witnesses beyond all exception For we cannot beleive that men would part with their lives in Confirmation of a lye or that God would assist them to do miracles for so vile and base an end and purpose and they must be very profligate wretches who would affirm a matter of fact of which they had not good assurance The Resurrection of Jesus was a truth of the greatest moment and consequence whatsoever upon the truth of this our hope and all our Religion does depend It was fit that this truth should be sufficiently attested by persons of undoubted credit The death of Christ was publick the whole multitude were witnesses of his Crucifixion But they were not vouchsafed the honour of being the witnesses of his Resurrection the truth of his Resurrection was too valuable to be concredited to an unconstant and malicious rabble And therefore God who raised up Jesus and shewed him openly or gave him to be made manifest as the Greek hath it did not do it to all the people but to certain select and chosen witnesses These men who conversed with him before his death and after his Resurrection who had known his life and heard his Sermons and been taught by him before that he must dye and rise again these men who had power to confirm this truth with Miracles and were prepared to confirm it with their bloud and did persist in it to their last breath were witnesses indeed beyond all manner of exception I say beyond all exception for there can be no reasonable exception brought against them And if we will give our selves the leisure to consider the thing before us with due application we shall find no cause to except For if there were any such thing it must be because of the thing it self or matter of fact which is attested or the persons who do report it For the thing it self viz. that God raised up Jesus there lies no shadow of reasonable exception against it For that a man should be raised from the dead implyes no contradiction either moral or natural He that beleives that God made the World cannot think it impossible to him to raise a dead man to life again Multò minus
man before was laid The Virgin and the Sepulchre were both undefiled And however a several Joseph were related to each yet they had not made any use of either Our Lord was miraculously born of the Virgin and raised from the dead Without the help of a man he was born at first and was raised from the grave without humane assistance and maugre all the endeavours used to prevent it He received life upon the first conception and a new life when he rose from the dead They were both effected by the H. Ghost and published by Angels Heb. 5.5 Luk. 1.35 with Rom. 1.4 chap. 8. v. 11. Luk. 23.53 But we have another prediction of the Resurrection of the Messias that cannot belong to the person of David at all viz. Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption This must belong to the person of the Messias for David dyed and was buried and his flesh consumed and it is therefore an unexceptionable proof of that truth which it is brought to Confirm Ps 16.10 Act. 2.29 We have another Prophecy that assures us that the Messias after his resurrection shall dye no more viz. The promise of the sure mercies of God which we find the Apostle applying to this matter and inferring from it that Christ who rose from the dead was no more to return to corruption Isa 55.3 Act. 13.34 If what hath been said be duly considered we shall find that God hath given us sufficient assurance that Jesus did rise from the dead For what greater assurrance can we desire of this matter of fact unless we think Our Saviour should have dyed in every age and Country and risen again to satisfie our unreasonable infidelity What is there that the Jew can object against this doctrine thus confirmed will they undertake to prove a negative against so many positive proofs and witnesses what possible ways are there left them of doing this They cannot deny the possibility of the thing who believe a Resurrection to come or that God made the world Or will they say as once they did who watched his Sepulchre and were hired to say it that his Disciples came by night and stole him away while they slept Is it probable that this should gain any belief among men what temptation could they have to do this Or is it likely that they who for fear forsook him when he was living should adventure upon the Guard to retrieve his dead body which was honourably interred If these Souldiers knew this to be true why did they not hinder it if they knew it not how could they Testify what could hinder them who had power that they did not prevent it Or what reason have we to believe those Competent witnesses who confess that they were a sleep when it was done Thus having shewed that we have sufficient Evidence that Jesus did rise from the dead I shall now proceed to shew That this is an unexceptionable proof that he is the Christ and consequently of the truth of the Christian Religion I need not enlarge upon this head For it is very evident and plain and the Jews themselves cannot deny it And for that reason they who deny not that he lived and dyed do what they can to stifle the belief of the Resurrection This they do because they are sensible that his Resurrection from the dead is a proof beyond exception that he is the Messias They Endeavoured what they could to hinder his resurrection and when they could not doe that they laboured to hinder the belief of it And that which makes the Resurrection of Jesus so unexceptionable a proof that he is the Christ is this that Jesus did in his life time not onely profess himself to be the Christ the Son of God but also foretell the manner of his own death and that he should not onely rise again but rise again the third day and does referr the unbelieving Jews to his Resurrection as to the great sign and proof of his being sent from God When the Scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign He answered and said unto them an Evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a Sign and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of the Prophet Jonas For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Our Lord had done many miraculous works among the Jews and still they require a Sign or a more plain and clear proof that he came from God Our Saviour referrs them to his Resurrection as that which would be a most unexceptionable one and sufficient to remove any but a perverse and incurable unbelief And this he calls the Sign of the Prophet Jonas That Prophet was sent to call the Ninevites to repentance and was successfull in his undertaking and his miraculous escape from the belly of the Whale was a Competent proof that he was sent by God and very fit to gain him credit with the Ninevites And very probable it is that the fame of what had befallen the Prophet had come to the men of Nineveh and that it made way for the reception of the doctrine which he preached The Resurrection of Jesus was a greater sign and that which made way for the Entertainment of his doctrine in the World For it did confirm the truth of his Doctrine Matt. 16.21 Joh. 2.19 ch 3.14 ch 12.32 33. Matt. 12.39 40. There have been those who have been raised from the dead besides Jesus And many besides him have professed themselves to be the Christ also But none in the world but Jesus professed himself to be Christ and confirmed it by his Resurrection Maimon Epist ad Judaeos Marsilienses Maimon tells us of one who deceived the poor Jews under a pretence that he was at least the forerunner of the Messias who having boasted vainly that he would rise again after his death in token that he came from God was indeed beheaded by a certain Arabian King but returned not to life again He was not able to give the proof that Jesus did who rose from the dead And though there have been others who have been raised from the dead yet none of them ever professed to be the Christ the Son of the living God as our Jesus did This being a truth upon which the truth of the whole Christian Religion depends no wonder that the belief of this Article should be accounted for a faith in the whole Religion That is the word of faith says St. Paul which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For he that believes that Jesus rose from the dead does believe the other Articles of Religion which are all confirmed by this He that believes that Jesus is risen does at
as Kings and Priests are for their people whom they govern or for whom they intercede 1 King 2.19 Matt. 26.64 Heb. 1.3.8.1 Ro. 8 34. For the Typical representations of this great truth I doubt not but I might find many However I shall take notice but of one but that a most eminent and illustrious one and that which the divine Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews takes a more particular notice of viz. The going of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies on the day of expiation to make an atonement with bloud which was shed without for the sins of the people Lev. 16.2 This was an exact type of our Saviour's entring into Heaven and his being concerned there on our behalf Heb. 9.11 12. Christ beiâ—g come an High Priest of good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building Neither by the bloud of Bulls and Calves but by his own bloud he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us But of this I shall have occasion to speak at large afterward I shall shew that our Jesus did ascend into Heaven and that he is there concerned in behalf of his people In speaking to which I shall not enlarge at present because afterward I shall have occasion farther to confirm this truth from arguments in their own nature the most powerfull and unexceptionable By Heaven is meant the highest heaven and it is very reasonable to suppose so because the Holy of Holies into which the High Priest onely entred was the type and shadow of the Heaven into which the Messias was to enter And as the most holy place in the Sanctuary was of all others whatsoever whether in the Sanctuary or elsewhere the most separate and holy place so it is but reasonable to suppose that when Christ ascended into Heaven he did not take up in any of the lower parts of Heaven but was exalted to the highest of them all The Sanctuary was divided into three parts The Courts the holy place and the most holy each of these are frequently called the Sanctuary or the Temple though the third of these were the most holy place And so the Air and the place of Planets and Stars are called Heaven and yet there is a third or higher Heaven into which St. Paul was caught up and into which our Lord entred Our Saviour is said to be received up into glory i. e. into the highest Heavens the Anti-type of that holy place where God did more especially presentiate himself and where the Ark stood the symbol of his presence and which was called the Glory Jesus is elsewhere said to have passed through the Heavens and to be made higher than the Heavens and to have ascended up far above all Heavens and to be entred into that within the veil And as he humbled himself greatly so God highly exalted him and set him at his own right hand in the Heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named 1 Tim. 3.16 1 Sam. 4.22 with Rom. 9.4 Heb. 4.14.9.5.7.26 Eph. 4.10 Heb. 6.19 Philip. 2.9 Eph. 1.20 21. That Jesus did ascend into Heaven is plainly taught Luk. 24.51 Act. 1.9 10. and there were eye-witnesses of it His Disciples stood by when he went up into Heaven They did not doe so when he rose from the dead Not that his Resurrection did not need attestation as much as his Ascension into Heaven His followers had need be assured of the truth of that and indeed they had the utmost assurance and did upon all occasions bear witness to it and were particularly the witnesses of his Resurrection But in order to their being so it was not needfull that they should be the eye-witnesses thereof as they were and indeed ought to be before they could be competent witnesses of it of his Ascension into Heaven It was enough to make them competent witnesses of his Resurrection that they saw him that was risen they need not see him rise For it being certain and granted so to be even by the Jews themselves that he died it was not needfull that they should see him rise from the dead it was enough if they saw him who died alive again But then he ascended in the view of his Disciples and 't was in this case needfull that there should be eye-witnesses and so it was that nothing might be wanting to the strengthning of our faith And as we are by eye-witnesses assured of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven so those witnesses were unexceptionable also For besides that they knew his person and had of a long time conversed with him so they had done it a competent time after his Resurrection from the dead Act. 1.3 To them he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs beiâ—g seen of them forty days c. This was a sufficient time to give them abundant proof that it was the same body which was nailed on the Cross and was buried that was risen from the dead And this distance of forty days which were between his resurrection and ascension to heaven Act. 13.31 Luk. 2.21 22. with Levit. 12.2 4. is the very same space of time which did intervene between his birth of the Virgin and his being presented according to the Law of Moses in the Temple Our Saviour was twice born and twice presented He was born of the Virgin and raised out of the grave And he was twice presented too first at the Temple at Jerusalem and afterwards at the Temple above or Heaven And forty days after each birth he was presented After the first in the Temple below after the second in Heaven or the Temple above the Anti-type of that which was made with hands Just so many days did he continue upon earth after his Resurrection as Jonas who was a type of him allowed the Ninevites to repent in So exactly did he answer the type The Jews had the sign of the Prophet Jonas forty days though they repented not as the Ninevites did Again they were allowed a year for a day likewise from Christ's Resurrection to the destruction of Jerusalem Such was the Lenity of God so great his forbearance Their Forefathers wandred forty years in the Wilderness for their Rebellion God allowed the Jews the same time for repentance But this will be thought too great a digression But as Jesus is entred within the Veil so he is for us entred also as our high Priest and Patron with God And as his Ascension was not figurative and metaphorical but real so is his Priesthood He is now concerned for us there He ever lives to make intercession for those who come unto God by him Again who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us
Again if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Again he appears in the presence of God for us Heb. 7.25 Rom. 8.35 1 Joh. 2. 1. Heb. 9.24 After this manner is that care and concern expressed which Jesus hath for his followers Shall he after all this be called a Metaphorical Priest onely Heb. 8.2 Shall he that is the Minister of the true Tabernacle be himself but improperly a Priest shall Aaron the type be truly a Priest and shall the Anti-type be one improperly so called Can any thing be said by the followers of Socinus upon weaker grounds than this There need to have been no change of the Law if the change of the Priesthood had onely been into that which is figurative Heb. 7.11 12.8.4.8.3 Christ might have been a Metaphorical Priest upon earth and very consistently with the order of Aaron What need had this High Priest as well as those of the order of Aaron to have something to offer if he had been onely Tanquam Pontifex Crellii Paraphras in Heb. 9.14 as it were an high Priest for such an one never can want an offering Spiritual Sacrifices are always at hand to every good man Shall the High Priest of this order of Melchisedeck not deserve this name which was justly due to the Sons of Aaron And the Anti-type be less real than the Type is It is evident that Jesus is a Priest of the highest order and nothing is wanting to speak him so in the most perfect sense For he wants not power with God nor compassion for his people and then he ever lives and is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck And the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on the day of expiation was but a Type of our high Priest and his concern in Heaven for us And this leads me in the next place To shew that the divine Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews does chap. 9.24 and elsewhere infer this truth from the avowed principles of the Jâ—wish writers For we find he spends much time in discoursing of the Priesthood of Christ and of his concern for his people now he is in Heaven and infers this from what the High Priest among the Jews did in the Holy of Holies and it will appear that this discourse of his is so far from being inconsequent and impertinent that it is founded upon principles allowed by those Jews to whom he directs that Epistle and especially upon these two First that the High Priest under the law of Moses was a type of the Messias Secondly That the Holy of Holies was a type of the highest Heavens into which Christ entered he being said to have entred into that within the veil Heb. 6.19 First that the High Priest under the law of Moses was a type of the Messias And that he was so and a most eminent one no Christian can deny and it would be no hard task to prove it at large and shew a great many correspondences between the type and the anti-type But to doe that is no part of my present business All that I am to doe at present is to shew that the Jews have no reason to quarrel with the way of arguing which the divine Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews makes use of because the high Priest was among them esteemed a type of the Messias To this purpose I shall not trouble my self in searching after the opinions of the latter Jews touching this matter I shall content my self with the Testimony of one of their ancient writers who for his antiquity for his singular wit and learning for his being unsuspected of any bad design and interest in the question we are now speaking of is more valuable than some scores of their later Authours and that is Philo the Jew And I find in that Authour three considerable Testimonies to my present purpose Phil. Jud. de Profugis This Authour discoursing of the Cities of refuge under the law of Moses inquires the reason why the man-slayer was not to be released till the death of the High Priest and thereupon he does expresly affirm That the High Priest was not a man but the divine word free from all sin both voluntary and involuntary The meaning of which can be no more nor less than this that he was in this the type of the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ph. Jud. de Victimis by whom alone we obtain our redemption which he hath wrought for us by his death The same Authour elsewhere speaking of those words Lev. 4.3 if the Priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people tells us that the latter part of those words do insinuate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That he who is truly the High Priest and not falsely so called is free from sins And he adds that if he do chance to slip that it happens to him upon the peoples account and not upon his own And in another place speaking of the vestments of the High Priest he adds That it was necessary that he who was a Priest to the Father of the World and bore the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on his breast Ph. Jud. de Vita Mosis l. 3. of which he speaks just before should make use of his most perfect Son as an advocate to procure pardon of sins and a plentifull supply of good things Secondly that the Holy of Holies was a type of the highest Heavens into which Christ entred he being said to have entred into that within the veil I shall consider what the Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews says of this matter and afterwards shew how agreeably he discourses of it to the Hebrews and their sense of this matter Christ is not entred saith he into the holy places made with hands Heb. 9.24 which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us By the holy places made with hands rendred by the Vulgar in that place Manufacta Sancta is meant the Holy of Holies or the Holiest of all as it is v. 3. And if we compare v. 8. and v. 12. with what we read Levit. 16.2 16 20. We shall find the Holy of Holies is sometimes expressed by one word viz. the Holy or Holies which we render here by the holy places and might perhaps as well have been rendred by holies onely This holy place is said to be made with hands and indeed the whole Sanctuary was made by the hands of men and the name of the workmen are upon record and it is called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ph. Jud. de Vita Mosis l. 3. the Sanctuary made with hands And is by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews called a worldly Sanctuary Heb. 9.2 ch 8.2 and that in respect to the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man These holy places
he is brought in speaking in the Book of Wisedom of the Temple which he built in these words Wisd 9.8 Thou hast commanded me to build a Temple says he upon thy holy mount and an altar in the City wherein thou dwellest a resemblance of the holy Tabernacle which thou hast prepared from the beginning To what hath been said I shall add this that as the Holy of Holies was by the Jews allowed to be a type of Heaven so it was the fittest representation of that holy place where God dwells into which no unclean thing shall enter Rev. 21.27 Maimon Beth Habbechir c. 7. Maimon tells us that though the whole land of Israel was more holy than other lands yet there are ten degrees of holiness one above another in that holy land 1. Walled Cities were more holy than the rest of the land and hence Lepers were shut out of them and dead bodies were buried without their gates 2. Jerusalem was more holy than other Cities within the Walls of which were eaten holy things and the second tithes 3. The mountain of the Lord's house was more holy than the City from which were excluded those who were unclean by issues or fluxes upon Child-bearing or on account of menstruous impurities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The inclosure or intermural space about the Court was holier still which would admit of no Gentile nor of any that were defiled by the dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. The Court of Women was holier than that for it excluded him who was defiled with such an uncleanness onely as required his washing and the setting of the Sun 6. The Court of Israel was holier still for that admitted not of a man that wanted expiation 7. The Court of the Priests was holier still for that did not ordinarily admit any Israelite unless upon necessary service 8. The space between the Porch and the Altar admitted of no blemished Person of the Priests nor any of them bare-headed or with garments rent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. The Temple still was more holy no man might enter into it with unwashed hands and feet 10. The Holy of Holies was more holy still no man was permitted to enter in thither but the High Priest once a year on the day of Expiation From what hath been said it appears that the Holy of Holies in the sense of the learned among the Jews was a type of the highest Heavens into which Christ is entred And this being so great a truth and so Universally acknowledged that the Sanctuary below was a sign or type of that which is above it is not strange that it should be put for it It being very usual to put the sign for the thing signified and represented Thus says the Psalmist The Lord is in his holy Temple v. Kimchi in Psalm 11.4 Psal 18.6 i.e. he is in Heaven as it follows the Lord's throne is in Heaven Again he heard my voice out of his holy Temple i.e. Out of Heaven And conformably hereunto Jesus is said to have entred within the veil Heb. 6.20.9.23 and we are said to have a liberty of entring into the holiest by which Heaven is meant the type being put for the anti-type I shall take this occasion to give some account of a passage in S. Matthew relating to my present argument He tells us that upon the death of Jesus the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom Matt. 27.51 This is a particular that requires a distinct consideration This rupture of the veil not being the effect of the earth-quake mentioned in the next words for then it would rather have been rent from the bottom to the top it not being reasonable to suppose that a rent from the top to the bottom should be the consequent and effect of an earth-quake or renting of the Rocks And for that reason I suppose it mentioned here before the mention of the earth-quake and renting the Rocks as that which was not the effect of them and was of a separate consideration from them It will be worth our while to inquire what veil it was that was rent and what the renting of it did import and by that time I have done this it will appear that this passage hath a relation to the argument I am now upon Maimon tells us Maimon Beth Habbechirah cap. 4. that in the first Temple there was a Wall between the holy and the most holy place of the thickness of a Cubit and that when they built the second Temple there arose a doubt among the builders whether the space that this Wall took up were to be allowed out of the holy or most holy place and that for that reason they left a space between the one and the other of the extent of a Cubit and built no Wall but instead of that they made two Veils one towards the Holy of Holies and the other towards the holy place leaving a space between them of the thickness of a Cubit where the Wall was supposed to stand in the Temple of Solomon Of this partition between the Holy and Holy of Holies the words of the Evangelist are to be understood There were indeed two Veils in the Sanctuary One at the entring into the holy place Exod. 26.37 Another which divided the holy from the most holy place Exod. 26.35 Which is called the second Veil Heb. 9.3 And that the words of the Evangelist are to be understood of this second Veil is evident from the words themselves For he uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the very word the LXXII make use of Exod. 26.35 Where that Veil is mentioned they having another word for the other Veil v. 37. Besides Ph. Jud. de Vita Mosis l. 3. this being the principal Veil the Greek word with the Article prefixed where the Subject matter will bear it will determine the sense to this Veil But besides all this Philo the Jew when he mentions both these Veils does call that which divided the most holy from the holy place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas he calls the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or covering It will not be hard to understand what this imported The Veil rent asunder and the most holy place is thereby laid open which was shut up before and none had access to it but the High Priest once a year Jesus hath opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all beleivers he hath brought life and immortality to light and made manifest the way into the holiest of all into which we have a liberty to enter by his bloud Heb. 10.20 by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Veil that is to say his flesh I shall make it appear from the effects following upon the exaltation of Jesus in Heaven that he did indeed ascend thither and was there concerned on our behalf and that therefore our Jesus is the Christ
I shall mention two which were great proofs of our Saviour's Ascension into Heaven and of his power there and his being concerned on the behalf of his Church The first is the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost at the day of Pentecost Act. 2. Our Saviour had promised to his sorrowfull Disciples a Comforter who should abide with them for ever This he did before his death and the better to support them under the sorrow which his death would occasion Joh. 14.16 18. ch 15. v. 26. and ch 16. v. 7. He repeated this promise after his Resurrection Luk. 24.49 And before his Ascension he commands them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me Act. 1.4 This promise he made good Act. 2. To the great amazement of the multitude which from several nations were come together to Jerusalem at the feast of Pentecost The Holy Ghost which was then miraculously bestowed upon the Disciples of Jesus was his Advocate and pleaded his cause Our Saviour had foretold that he would bear witness of him And this the Holy Ghost did Joh. 15.26 1. As he testified that Jesus was a true Prophet when he promised this heavenly gift to his disciples and did thereby bear Testimony to his veracity and make it appear that he was not an impostor or cheat They were now convinced abundantly that Jesus had made his word good Joh. 16.7 10. And now there was no suspicion left of his being a false Prophet or deceiver 2. Of the power and autority which Jesus had He told his followers that all power was given him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28.18 This he told them after his Resurrection and a little before his Ascension into Heaven He gave at the day of Pentecost an undeniable proof of it Jesus had said before his death to the elders and chief Priests and Scribes that asked him if he were the Christ Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God Luk. 22.69 The meaning of which words is plainly this that they should be convinced e'er long of his great power which he had in Heaven upon his exaltation to that place and at the day of Pentecost he gave a great demonstration of this power of his And St. Peter does conclude from it that he is the Christ This Jesus saith he hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear And presently afterward he concludes as he very justly might do Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have Crucified both Lord and Christ Act. 2. v. 32 33 36. Secondly another great effect following the exaltation of Jesus was the success of his Religion in the world which was a farther argument of the power of Jesus in Heaven and of his being concerned for his Church and an evident proof that this Jesus is the Christ But for the better speaking to this I shall shew First that according to the prophecies of old all nations were to serve the Messias Secondly that these prophecies have been in great measure fulfilled in our Jesus whose Religion did greatly spread over the world Thirdly that this success of the Religion of Jesus is an unexceptionable proof that Jesus is the Christ According to the prophecies of old all nations were to serve the Messias and consequently that the partition-wall between the Jew and Gentile should be thrown down Thus in those words of Jacob which the ancient Jews understand of the Messias it is said that unto him shall the gathering of the people be Gen. 49.10 That is the nations or Gentiles should obey and serve him No less is promised than this I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for a possession Ps 2.8 The Prophet Isaiah foretells also that it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all nations shall flow unto it Isa 2.2 And again In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people To it shall the Gentiles seek Isa 11.10 And again the same Prophet tells us The Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet chuse Israel and set them in their own land And the strangers shall be joined with them and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob Isa 14.1 And farther we read It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my Servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou mayst be my Salvation unto the end of the earth c. 49.6 To which we may add Isa 54. as also what he tells us afterwards The Gentiles shall come to thy light and King 's to the brightness of thy rising The abundance of the Sea shall be converted to thee the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee c. 60.3 5. We shall hear what the Prophet Hosea also tells us I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy and I will say to them which were not my people thou art my people Hos 2.23 No less perhaps is meant than this in that vision of Zechary where Jerusalem is not permitted to come under a measuring line and that because she should be inhabited as Towns without walls for the multitude of men and Cattel therein Zech. 2.4 However sure I am that the same Prophet speaks plainly in these words Many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem and to pray before the Lord c. 8.22 And as plainly still afterwards in these words Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Jerusalem Behold thy King cometh unto thee he is just and having Salvation lowly and riding upon an Asse and upon a colt the foal of an Asse And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem and the battel bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace unto the Heathen And his Dominion shall be from Sea even to Sea and from the river even to the ends of the earth c. 9. v. 4 10. To which I shall add the words of the Prophet Malachy From the rising of the Sun unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the Heathen saith the Lord of Hosts Mal. 1.11 By which we may see that the Gentiles according to these prophecies were to submit to
the Messias and to be taken into the Common-wealth of Israel which because it could not be unless they forsook their Idolatry we find the Prophets foretell also that they should put away their Idols Thus the Prophet assures us And the Idols he shall utterly abolish In that day a man shall cast his Idols of Silver and his Idols of Gold which they have made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats Isa 2.18 20. And another Prophet tells us It shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hosts that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land and they shall be no more remembred Zech. 13.2 These are very plain words as can be So that it must be in the days of the Messias that the Gentiles should no longer be strangers and aliens from the covenant of grace This difference between Jew and Gentile is now to be removed God will not onely be known in Judah but among all the Families of the earth We find Philo the Jew speaking of God's governing the Universe discoursing to the same purpose Philo Jud. de Agricultura He tells that God rules his creatures according to right and law as a Shepherd and a King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. Setting over them his right Word his first begotten Son who as his Substitute or Vice-gerent of him the great King shall take upon him the care of this holy Flock For it is somewhere said behold I will send my Angel c. Exod. 23.20 That these prophecies were in great measure fulfilled in our Jesus I say in great measure For I cannot but hope that there are still many prophecies relating to the Kingdom of the Messias in this world in great measure to be fulfilled Now if these prophecies are already in great measure fulfilled then is this Jesus the Christ That they were in great measure fulfilled is very evident For though Jesus himself lived and died in Jewry yet did not his Doctrine stay there There he lived indeed but yet in Galilee of the Gentiles not far off from the poor Gentiles whom he came to save also He tells the Jews no less I saith he if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me Joh. 12.32 That is after his death his Doctrine should greatly prevail upon the world so that all men should come after him And thus we find after his death and Resurrection he gives his disciples commission to go and teach all nations Mat. 28.19 or as it is in St. Mark go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature Mark 16.15 And to that purpose they have the gift of tongues bestowed on them that so they might be able to teach all nations as their Lord had commanded them Act. 2. Now we shall soon find the Gospel preached to the Gentiles we read of the Ethyopian Treasurer and Cornelius the Centurion baptized into the Christian faith But what shall I need speak of them when St. Paul is made a preacher to the Gentiles who tells us of the fruit of his preaching also viz. the obedience of the Gentiles Rom. 15.18 In so much that he is able to say that the Gospel was preached to every creature which is under Heaven Col. 1.23 And his success is so great that the Idolatrous Gentiles turned from Idols to serve the living and true God 1 Thes 1.9 Tertullian tells us in his time Tertull. Apolog. c. 37. those early days of Christianty how far Christianity had prevailed Externisumus vestra omnia implevimus urbes insulas castella municipia conciliabula castra ipsa tribus decurias palatium senatum forum Sola vobis relinquimus templa Cui bello non idonei non prompti fuissemus etiam impares copiis qui tam libenter trucidamur Si non apud istam disciplinam magis occidi liceret quà m occidere Nay the mouths of the Oracles are now stopped which made so great a wonderment in the Gentile world The head of the Serpent that so long had deceived the nations is now broken by the seed of the Woman In a word those Cities and Provinces that lately were full of Idols and Superstition receive the Doctrine of Jesus and with it the worship of the onely true God Nay and 't is not long before we have Christian Kings also in the world So that the Religion of Jesus spreads it self over the world and rides triumphantly and in great conquest like the rider of the white Horse in the Apocalypse that went forth conquering and to conquer But I proceed to shew That this success of the Religion of Jesus is an unexceptionable proof that Jesus is the Christ Not that I would be thought to make success the measure of truth or affirm that the most prosperous cause is always the best For then the Religion of Mahomet would bid fair for the truth and the greatest outrages and rebellions would become innocent and good Success is no certain sign of a good cause and therefore not of the truth of a Religion unless it be such a success as all things considered must onely be imputed to the force of truth and a miraculous providence that makes it prosperous I shall shew then that the success of the Gospel was such as does necessarily infer that Jesus is the Christ and that the Religion which he preached and planted in the world did come from God where as we go along it will be easie for us to understand that Mahumetism can have no share in this argument now it will appear that Jesus is the Christ and also that the Gospel which he and his disciples preached comes from Heaven in a word that the Christian Religion is not onely true but the onely true Religion if we do but well consider its success and progress in the world Now this will appear 1. If we consider the first Authour and first preachers of this Religion and 2. The Doctrine it self and 3. The manner of its spreading in the World 1. For the first Authour or teacher of this Doctrine it was Jesus the Son of a Poor Virgin and the reputed Son of a Carpenter One would have thought him very unlikely to have done any great things He was one that was born in a stable at Bethlehem brought up in the obscure Countrey of Galilee set at nought by his Countrey-men and after many sufferings and calamities condemned to a Cross and hanged among thieves and malefactors where he gave up the Ghost after a short and painfull life He came into the world with no grandeur he made no noise in it and he left it by a death most ignominious and disgracefull And yet did his Doctrine spread and his Religion prevailed against all oppositions and threw down all superstitions and false Religions whatsoever This could not have been if Jesus had not been the Christ I will make use of the words of one of
example the several specialties contained under the general prohibition of theft where Abravenel reckons up no less than ten are called Judgments and so are those precepts called which we find in Exod. ch 21. c. and that whole Section of the law is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judgments containing several Judicial laws or laws which respected the Hebrews as they were a Commonwealth or civil Society These statutes and judgments contain the Laws of their Church and State And Judaism as considered in Contradistinction to Christianity consisted in the solemn profession of and obedience to these Laws which God had given to the Jewish Nation I shall now proceed to what I mainly intended to speak to viz. to shew First the defects of that Law which was given by Moses Secondly that these defects are made up and supplied by the Gospel of Jesus Christ Thirdly the use and application of this Doctrine The defects of that Law which was given by Moses For it will appear that it is defective if compared with the Gospel The Divine Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews argues very strongly to this purpose For if that first Covenant bad been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second For finding fault with them he saith Behold the days come saith the Lord c. This he infers from the very words in the Prophet where God declares himself in this matter and it is very evident that the words of the Prophet are by this Divine Authour truely applied to the times of the Messias whose miraculous birth is predicted in the very same Chapter in those words a Woman shall compass a Man For it is evident that those words do refer to the stupendious manner of the birth of the Messias Vid. Dr. Pocock Not. Miscel in Portam Mosis pag. 348. I shall therefore proceed to shew the defects of the Law of Moses as compared with the Gospel and that in the following particulars Heb. 8.7 8. with Jer. 31.31 and with v. 22. 1. In its Precepts and Commands as it was a rule of life These Precepts are not such as perfect humane nature and as make men better who obey them and obedience to them was necessary because it was commanded But they were not such things as tend immediately to make men better in their tempers and inclinations They were good because they were commanded they were not therefore commanded because they were antecedently good We doubt not but that God commanded them for wise ends during the Minority of his Church but as they were not to endure for ever of which I may have occasion elsewhere to speak more largely so are they far from being of equal moment and value with the Laws of Jesus These Laws of Moses were given to the Jews Cosri par 1. and not intended to oblige mankind The Jews themselves frankly confess this And several of them were of that nature that they could not be supposed to concern any of the rest of mankind Such were all those Laws which were founded upon something which had happened to that People and of which the observances required were but Memorials or Testimonies Thus the Passover being appointed in remembrance of their deliverance out of Egypt was a peculiar Law to that People who were delivered thence The other Nations were not under the same obligation nor do we find that the Jews went about to impose their Law upon the Neigh bouring Countries The world had continued considerably above two thousand Years before the Law of Moses and there were in the World very considerable examples of Piety in that time when the Law was given it was given to the Jews indeed but they admitted of Proselytes to live among them who did not undertake an obedience to the Laws of Moses The things themselves which Moses requires are not things in which all men are concerned Indeed generally speaking they are of that nature that they cannot belong to any but to them onely to whom they were revealed All men are bound to be just and to speak the truth to worship God and to be chast and the like But for wearing fringes on Garments or frontlets between the Eyes for eating or forbearing such or such meats and drinks c. no man could be obliged to these Laws but those persons who had received them from Heaven For the Jews do confess that the reason of their Laws is not always to be found out and consequently the Laws themselves cannot be supposed to oblige mankind For though the Will of God be reason enough for our obedience yet it is so onely to them to whom it is made known And therefore those Laws of Moses which were not founded in any other reason than the Will of God could never be designed to oblige all the World Cicero de Leg. l. 2. Cicero affirms it to be the opinion of the wisest men that a Law is something eternal wisely governing the whole World by its affirmative and negative Precepts and that the prime and ultimate Law Mentem esse omnia ratione aut cogentis aut vetantis Dei i. e. is the Divine mind governing all things with reason We do not question the wisedom of God who by Moses gave Laws to the Jews we onely say that they were not intended for the whole world which would have been concerned in them if they had been agreeable to the needs and the best improved reason of all mankind and had been written in the heart of all men And as these Laws were onely given to the Jews so many of these Laws did not oblige them in any place besides their onw Land to which they were annexed which they would have done if they had been Laws good antecedently and such as had been founded upon the eternal reason of things The Jews do allow that so it was and do frequently in their Writings distinguish between those Laws which obliged them within the Land and those which obliged them without the Land of Israel And a very great number of Precepts they are which were annexed to that very Land in which they lived and to which they were not obliged any longer than they kept the possession of that Land So that what was their duty while they lived together in Canaan ceased so to be when they were dispossessed of it and were scattered abroad in other Countries I shall not goe about to number up the Precepts which were annexed to that Land I should too much enlarge if I should give in the full number of those Precepts I shall however name some of them The Jews acknowledge that the sheaf that was first reaped must be of the gowth of Canaan and so must also the first-fruits be which are elsewhere mentioned in their Law and the Loaves of Shew-bread must be made of the Corn of that Countrey The Laws which concerned Tithes the Sabbatical year their year of Jubilee their Festival rites their Cities of Refuge their
hath a mighty force and influence upon men but it is onely upon carnal worldlings that it hath this influence and the love of this world is generally so far from advancing piety that it obstructs it and is the root of all evil The Jew obeyed the law of Moses for the sake of worldly prosperity and when he had obtained it that would be a temptation and snare to him The very reward of obedience was a temptation to rebell And though plenty and prosperity be promised often in the law of Moses as a reward yet it is often mentioned as a snare too The Jews are often cautioned against Sinning against God when they are blessed with worldly prosperity Such promises might have some influence in inclining men to obey the letter of the law they did not move men powerfully to obey the inward and spiritual meaning of it 3. Another great defect in the law of Moses was that it did not furnish the Jews to whom it was given with power and ability to obey It did rigorously command obedience but did not help men to obey They had not that power assured to them from God's promise by which they might be enabled to obey the Moral precepts which they had received The plentifull effusion of the Holy Ghost was a blessing reserved for the times of the Messias or the latter days and is therefore promised as a future blessing by the Prophets themselves The law was written which Moses gave it was not kept from the Jews but the writing it upon their Hearts was promised as a part of the new covenant which God would make with them The Letter of the Law was that which the Jews regarded they did not give obedience to the inward and spiritual meaning of it The law of Moses made nothing perfect it did not reform as well as teach They who were exercised in the precepts of Moses were not renewed by them The law was weak and ineffectual and that which did not give life and power to obey Hence it is that it is called flesh in the New Testament to intimate the weakness of that law It was a shadow of good things to come and consequently was not attended with the power which accompanyed those better things when they were exhibited v. Isa 35.7 with ch 44.3 Joel 2.28 with Act. 2.17 Jer. 31.33 with Heb. 8.10 Heb. 7.11 18 19. Gal. 3.21 Rom. 7.8 ch 8.3 Gal. 4.9 Heb. 10.1 4. The law of Moses was defective compared with the Gospel in that it gave not the assurance of pardon nor laid that foundation for the easing and quieting the consciences of men which the Gospel of Christ is attended withall The law of Moses was a yoke which the Jews were never able to bear They were subjected to the curse of that law who confirmed not all the words of it to doe them It consisted of very many precepts and they were very nice and operose such as required great attention and heed cost and great labour very uneasie to be observed and yet the neglect of any of them exposed the neglecters to the curse of that law Hence it is that the law is called by the Apostle the ministration of death and of condemnation And that State in which the Jews were under the law of Moses is represented not onely as a State of minority but as a State of bondage and Slavery also Act. 15.10 Deut. 27.26 with Gal. 3.10.2 Cor. 3.7 9. Gal. 4.3 24. And indeed it must needs be such a condition that the Jews were under and it will be evident that such it was when it is considered that they were greatly straitned between the great difficulty in keeping and the great danger of breaking those laws They must be uneasie in their own minds who are perpetually in danger of offending and of being punished There was no way left for them for perfect ease and quiet to their conscience if the law were considered as a covenant of works There was not that provision made then for peace of mind which was made afterwards in the time of the Messias It is true there were Sacrifices allowed and prescribed in that law for the atonement expiation of the offender but there are many things to be considered which do speak the defectiveness of Sacrifices under the law and shewing the need of some better provision And to that purpose I desire the following particulars may be duly considered First that for some sins there was no expiatory Sacrifice allowed in the law of Moses and consequently the offender was left without hope of pardon notwithstanding the provision made under the law by Sacrifices for the obtaining of it In many cases the Sinner was to bear his own iniquity and could hope for no pardon from any Sacrifice whatsoever And there are very many sins of this sort Such were wilfull murther and blasphemy and many other sins of which we may see Levit. 20. And indeed all those sins which were committed with an high hand were of this sort And whatever hope there might be for the sinner who was surprized and sinned ignorantly yet if he did it presumptuously and were guilty of those sins which admitted no atonement he was left without hope from the law of Moses and was to dye the death And if the Supreme Magistrate did not condemn him God declared that he would set his face against him and cut him off But of this I have before discoursed p. 27.28 Ps 51.16 Levit. 24.17 and v. 13. Numb 35.31 32. Levit. 20.5 Secondly that where Sacrifices were not onely allowed but prescribed by God himself yet they were not things of their own nature pleasing unto God And God did to the Jews frequently declare this and did it after such a manner as might well beat them off from relying upon the Sacrifices which they brought to procure their pardon and atonement I might heap up Scriptures to this purpose I shall content my self with these that follow I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt-offerings to have been continually before me I will take no Bullock out of thine house nor He-goats out of thy folds Again I desired mercy and not Sacrifice And I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt-offerings or Sacrifices But this thing commanded I them saying obey my voice c. Again To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts And I delight not in the bloud of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats bring no more vain oblations c. Again He that killeth an Oxe is as if he slew a man He that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he out off a Dogs neck He that offereth an oblation as if he offered Swines bloud He that burneth incense as if he blessed an Idol Ps 50.8 9. Hos 6.6 Jer.
was weak and had not this promise of the Spirit annexed unto it Rom. 7.5 Gal 4.9 Phil. 3.3 with Rom. 8.3 Gal. 3.3 Heb. 7.16 And upon the account of its weakness it is very frequently called flesh in the new Testament as the Gospel is called the ministration of the Spirit upon the account of that power enabling us to obey with which it is attended And the legal ordiances are called weak and beggarly elements or rudiments And indeed the law of Moses might be justly called weak as compared with the Doctrine of the Gospel for the law was not able to effect what the Gospel hath done it gave not life Gal. 3.21 Rom. 7.5 8. Act. 15.10 it did not furnish men with power to yield an inward and spiritual obedience Sin was forbid indeed by the law but not kept under and restrained It directed mens obedience but did not powerfully assist them It was a yoke but not an easie one as that which Jesus puts upon us but such as the Jews knew neither how to bear or to break Gal. 4.3.24 And hence it is that they who were under the law are represented as in a State of Slavery and Servility Whereas the law of Moses was weak and they to whom it was given did transgress it and were obnoxious to a curse God does promise to the Jews to enter into a new and better convenant with them Jer. 31.33 after those days saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people I shall in the next place take into consideration The assurance of pardon of sin which the Gospel gives and consequently the foundation it layes for the quieting our consciences far beyond what was done by the law of Moses I have before shewed the defectiveness of that provision by Sacrifices which was made in the law of Moses I shall shew that this is supplied in the covenant of grace made by Christ And this was foretold very particularly as a special and peculiar grace belonging to this new covenant as it is distinguished from that between God and Israel by the mediation of Moses which God had promised to make God promises not onely to write the law upon their hearts and consequently to work in them the saving knowledge of himself but more especially assures them of their pardon and remission Jer. 31.34 For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more There is nothing bears so hard upon a man as his guilt does And in many things we offend all We are all guilty more or less and consequently obnoxious to the horrors of our conscience and the wrath of God This is the great torment of life and there is no trouble like it A guilty mind bears harder upon us than any outward trouble And then he that hath sinned is anxious and suspicious he is not easily assured of his pardon he that broke the Law of Moses was liable to the Curse of it And though Sacrifices were allowed I have shewed the defects of that provision But the Gospel gives us the utmost assurance of our pardon upon terms that are gentle and reasonable and by no means to be refused What-ever our sins have been yet upon our repentance and sincere obedience for the future we are sure of God's favour and of his being reconciled to us He beseecheth us now to be reconciled to him upon these gentle and easie terms This is the Tenor of this new covenant or covenant of grace of which Jesus is the Mediator He hath procured this for us he hath purchased this by his merits sealed it by his own precious bloud assured it to us by his Resurrection and powerfull intercession he confirmed it by stupendious Miracles proclaimed it to all the world by his messengers and given us the signs and evidences of it by his holy Sacraments and solemn institutions There is nothing wanting to ensure this our pardon unto us Here 's no shadow left for our doubt or anxious fears we have all the possible assurance which we can desire Rom. 5.8 9 10. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath through him For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life These last words contain an argument invincible and altogether unanswerable and such as affords the strongest consolation If God looked after us when we were his avowed enemies if even then he gave up his most dear Son to death and at so great an expence restored us to favour surely he will now not abandon us to destruction He that was so kind to his enemies will not now forsake his friends So great and dear a love will not be extinguished It was a great price and an instance of the greatest love by which we were reconciled when we were enemies 't was by the death of the Son of God We had little reason to expect this favour and this expence But now we may be saved without his giving up his Son again to death and need not therefore doubt that we shall be saved by his life The Jew under the law of Moses had great cause to fear for when he transgressed and that he did when-ever he continued not obedient to all the words of that law he put himself under the rigour and curse of the law But God hath now made a better covenant with us and given us the greatest hopes of pardon upon our repentance and sincere though it be not sin-less obedience to the laws of Christ Here is pardon to be had for all manner of sin There were many sins under the law of Moses as hath been observed for which no remission was to be had from any Sacrifice allowed by that law He that was guilty was liable either to death or to excision Mat. 12.31 We are better provided for by this covenant of grace All manner of sin and blasphemy says Christ shall be forgiven unto men Blasphemy as hath been observed before was one of those sins for which there was no expiation allowed under the law of Moses But even for this sin there is pardon in this covenant of grace For our Soviours words do not speak of the event of things but of the provision which is now made Blasphemy shall be forgiven 1 Tim. 1.13 16. i. e. there is pardon to be had for it And he who was himself a Blasphemer tells us that he obtained mercy nor does he onely tell us that but also that he therefore obtained mercy for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe Our Saviour goes on whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man it shall be forgiven him Matt. 12.32 There were those who spake against Christ The Person
will rise again Ibid. Chap. Ver. St. Mark VIII 11. And the Pharisees came forth and began to question c. Page 144 Chap. Ver. St. Luke I. 69. And hath raised up an horn of Salvation for us in the house of his Servant David Page 16 Chap. Ver. II. 49. Wist ye not that I must be about my Fathers business Page 101 Chap. Ver. IX 12. with Mat. XIV 15. And when the day began to wear away c. Page 218 Chap. Ver. Ib. 28. with Mat. XVII 1. About an eight days after c. Page 303 Chap. Ver. XXII 69 Hereafter shall the Son of man c. Page 337 Chap. Ver. XXIV 13. And behold two of them went that same day to a village c. Page 267 Chap. Ver. Ib. 33. And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem c. Ibid. Chap. Ver. St. John I. 17. For the law was given by Moses but grace and truth c. Page 477 Chap. Ver. II. 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee c. Page 125 Chap. Ver. III. 14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even c. Page 209. Chap. Ver. X. 41. And many resorted unto him and said John did no miracle c. Page 133. Chap. Ver. XI 9. Jesus answered are there not twelve hours in the day Page 216 Chap. Ver. Ib. 39. Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days Page 299. Chap. Ver. XV. 24. If I had not done among them the works c. Page 166 Chap. Ver. XVI 8. And when he is come he will reprove the world of sin c. Page 140 Chap. Ver. XVII 19. And for their sakes I sanctifie c. Page 236 Chap. Ver. XIX 36. For these things were done that the Scriptures should be fulfilled A bone of him shall not c. Page 232 Chap. Ver. XX. 19. Then the same day at evening being the first day of the Week c. Page 267 Ib. 26. And after eight days again his Desciples were within c. Page 303 Ib. 31. But these are written that ye might believe c. Page 114 Chap. Ver. XXI 14. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his Disciples after that he was risen from the dead Page 273 The Acts of the Apostles Chap. Ver. I. 3. To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs c. Page 317 Chap. Ver. II. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly c. Page 2 3. Chap. Ver. III. 1. Now Peter and John went up together into the Temple at the hour of Prayer c. Page 220 Romans Chap. Ver. IV. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification Page 467 Chap. Ver. V. 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled c. Page 459 Chap. Ver. VI. 14. For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under Grace Page 455 Chap. Ver. X. 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus c. Page 295 Galatians Chap. Ver. III. 21. Is the law then against the promises of God God forbid for if there had been a law c. Page 478 Ib. 2â— 23 But before faith came we were kept under the law c. Page 478 Ib. 24. Wherefore the law was our School-Master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith Page 478 Ephesians Ib. 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance c. Page 470 Chap. Ver. I. 19 20. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power c. Page 297 Chap. Ver. II. 14 15. For he is our peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us Having abolished in his flesh the enmity even the law of commandments c. Page 448 Chap. Ver. IV. 8. with Psal LXVIII 18. Wherefore he saith when he ascended c. Page 308 Ib. 9. Now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended c. Page 287 Ib. 30. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed c. Page 471 1 Timothy Chap. Ver. II. 12. But I suffer not a Woman to teach c. Page 72 73. Ib. 15. She shall be saved in Child-bearing Ib. Chap. Ver. III 16. And without all controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. Page 139 Hebrews Chap. Ver. III. 5. a Testimony of those things which were to be spoken after Page 478 Chap. Ver. VI. 20. Whither the four-runner is for us entered even Jesus made an High Priest c. Page 332 Chap. Ver. VII 19. For the law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did c. Page 450 Chap. Ver. VIII 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless c. Page 409 Hebrews Chap. Ver. IX 6 7 8. Now when these things were thus ordained the Priests went always into the first Tabernacle accomplishing the Service of God But into the second c. Page 451 Ib. 13. For if the bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling c. Page 437 Ib. 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands c. Page 320 Chap. Ver. X. 29. Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the bloud c. Page 248 Chap. Ver. XI 39 40. And these all having obtained a good report through faith received not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they c. Page 400 Chap. Ver. XII 24. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel Page 466 Chap. Ver. XIII 12. Wherefore Jesus also that he might Sanctifie the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Page â—37 c. 1 John Chap. Ver. II. 20. But ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things Page 40 Chap. Ver. III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy c. Page 141. THE END