he actually forgave sins Matth. 9.2 compared with the sixth where he doth not only pronounce to one that was sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee but declares that he did it by that power and authority which he had upon earth to forgive sins All which being acts of Regal power do sufficiently manifest that even whilst he was upon Earth he was vested with Royal Authority and that by assuming our nature he did not divest himself of his ancient Royalty but still continued King of the Iews so long as they continued a Church Sixthly That though the main body of the People of Israel rejected Christ and were thereupon rejected by him yet there was a Remnant of them that received and acknowledged him for their rightful Lord and King. For so as S. Paul observes it is foretold of Isaiah concerning Israel Though the number of the Children of Israel be as the sand of the Sea a remnant shall be saved Rom. 9.27 and accordingly it proved in the event For though the much greater part of the Jewish Nation obstinately persisted in their Infidelity and Rebellion against the blessed Iesus their King notwithstanding all those powerful Arts and Methods he had used to reclaim and save them yet there was a great number of them that willingly received and loyally adhered to him For not only the Disciples which he gathered whilst he was upon Earth but also the first Converts after his Ascension into Heaven were generally of the Iewish Nation within which not only his own Personal Ministry was confined but also the Ministry of his Apostles for some time after his Ascension For so S. Paul and Barnabas tell the Jews that it was necessary the Word of God should first have been spoken to them Acts 13.46 But this Proposition is so manifest from the whole Gospel that I shall not need to insist any farther upon it Seventhly Therefore that this Remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved For it still remained upon the same basis with the former as having the self-same Covenant for its Charter which is the form that Identifies all Societies and notwithstanding the perpetual change and renovation of their parts still continues them the same individual Politick bodies Since therefore that remnant of Israel who believed in Christ continued still in the same Covenant with that whereupon the old Jewish Church was founded it necessarily follows that they were not a new or distinct Church but still remained the same individual sacred society with the old So that they were the unbelieving Jews that revolted from their old Church by rejecting the Mediator of that Covenant by which it was formed and constituted but as for the believing Jews who imbraced and acknowledged him they still continued in it and so remained the same continued Church as being still united and incorporated by the same Charter But though it was the same continued body with the old Jewish Church yet was it very much reformed and improved by our blessed Saviour For in the first plâ—ce whereas before it was extremely corrupted through the many false glosses and superstitious traditions of their Elders and like an unâ—â—est Garden was all overgrown with Thorns and Weeds its Religion being almost dwindled away into Ceremonies and outward observances and evaporated into a dead shew and formality our blessed Saviour repaired its ruines and decays removed its rubbish and reformed its disorders and restored it to its primitive beauty and purity For the great design of all his Sermons and Parables was to explain the Laws of it into their Genuine sence and to rescue them from the false Glosses and Comments of the Scribes and Pharisees to reprehend and expose its hypocrisie and formality and to refine its Religion from all those corrupt and heterogeneous mixtures with which it was dasht and sophisticated That Remnant of the Jews therefore who believed in Christ and submitted to his Doctrine when all the rest of them finally rejected him were the same individual continued body with the Old Jewish Church as purified and reformed from its errors and corruptions For by submitting to our Saviour's regulations they did not commence into a new Church but still continued the same body only with this difference that whereas before it was distempered with sundry corrupt humours now it was throughly purged and recovered And as our Saviour restored that Church to its ancient purity so secondly he advanced and improved it to a far more perfect state than it was in even under its primitive Constitution It is true as for the Religion of that Church it was for substance the same with that which our Saviour and his Apostles taught it proposed to them the same Covenant and the same Mediator and the very same Doctrines and Articles concerning this Mediator to create in them the same belief and oblige them to the same practice only with this difference that whereas it proposed him to their belief as hereafter to be incarnate and sacrificed to rise and to ascend into heaven it proposes him to ours as actually incarnate and sacrificed and as actually risen and ascended but this is only a circumstantial difference since that as to all the purposes of his Mediation his future Incarnation and Sacrifice c. had the same vertue and influence with his actual But though as to the main the ancient Iewish Religion was the same with ours yet in respect of clearness and easiness and amplitude there is a vast difference between them For first as to clearness it is evident that it was much more darkly and obscurely revealed to the ancient Iews than it is to us for to them it was revealed only either in general Promises out of which they were fain to argue and deduce particulars or in temporal Promises that carried a mystical sence with them and obscurely implied the spiritual blessings which the Gospel proposes or in dark Types and material Figures and Emblems which were Prophetick Pictures or as the Apostle calls them shadows of good things to come For thus in that general Promise In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed was included Christ and all those particular blessings which we receive by and through him under those temporal promises of deliverance from their enemies and peaceâ—ble possession of Canaan was couched their deliverance from sin and hell and their eternal rest and happiness in heaven and under their legal Sacrifices the all-sufficient Sacrifice of the blessed Mediator was exhibited and represented to them and in a word under the High Priest's offering the bloud of the Sacrifice in the Holy of Holies was intimated the Mediator's intercession for them in heaven Thus both the Promises and Types of the Iewish Religion were all of them obscure revelations of Christianity which is nothing but Mystical Judaism or Judaism explained into its spiritual sence and meaning And accordingly
the Apostle makes a Iew according to the spiritual sence of the Iewish Religion to be the same with a Christian for he is not a Iew saith he i. e. in a spiritual sence that is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Iew who is one inwardly i. e. who is a Jew according to the inward and spiritual sence of Judaism and Circumcision is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose praise is not of men but of God Rom. 2.28 29. and if the spiritual Iew be a Christian then the spiritual Iudaism must be Christianity But though this obscure revelation of Christianity was sufficient to enable men that sincerely attended to it to grope out their way to eternal happiness yet it is impossible it should ever give them without some farther revelation a distinct and explicite understanding of it In general they understood that there was a rich vein of spiritual sence running all through the Letter of their Law that there were glorious mysteries wrapt up within those weak and beggarly elements like precious Diamonds under a rough coat For so not only the Author to the Hebrews but also Philo the Jew in his Allegories of the Law and almost in all his other Writings makes the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Religion to be Types and Figures of Divine and Moral truths and particularly the High Priest and his Vestments to be a figure of the eternal Word and his perfections And as they understood this in general so from sundry passages in the book of the Psalms it is apparent that the good Jews had a prospect beyond the outside and letter of their Law even into the Mystical sence and meaning of it and that through its dark shadows they saw a great deal of the substance and reality of the Gospel Hence David observes in Psal. 25.14 that the secret i. e. mystery of the Lord is with them that fear him and he shall shew them his Covenant which implies that there was something of a Cabala of the spiritual sence of the Law among the true Israelites by which they were instructed a great deal farther than the bare Letter and outside of it especially considering that Prayer of David Psalm 119.18 Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law which is a plain argument that under the literal sâ—nce of that Law which was plain and obvious and had noâ—hing of depth or mystery he saw a spiritual and mystical sence in which some very wonderful truths were included For if there had bâ—en no more in it than the literal meaning it is not to be imâ—gined he would have prayed as he doth ver 19. Hide not thy Commandments from me and ver 27 Make me to understand the way of thy Precepts so shall I talk of thy wondrous works which plainly shâ—ws that there were mysteries coâ—â—hed under the Letter of the Law which were both wonderful in themselves and very difficult to be understand and accordingly ver 69. he tells us that he had seen an end of all perfections but that God's Commandments were exceeding broad which shews that he had discovered something in that Law beyond the literal sence of it which was far from being exceeding broad even a vast Mine of mystical sence whose bottom he was not able to reach Now this mystical sence as hath been shewed was Christianity which under that dispensation of it was so overcast with clouds and darkness that in all probability the most pious and inquisitive minds had but very imperfect and confusâ—â—â—ppâ—ehensions â—ppâ—ehensions of it But when our Saviour came into the World he unveiled the Jewish Religion and decyphered all â—hose mystical Characters wherein its spiritual sâ—â—ce was expressed and what he had revealed before only in obscure generals and mysterious types he now delived to the world in plain and explicite Articles of Faith. And having unriddled all those Types and Shadows and turned them inside outwards and revealed their hidden sence to the world in plain and naked Propositions he utterly repealed and abrogated them as things of no farther use those sacred truths which they contained and darkly intimated being now made manifest and set forth to open view in a far more clear and glorious light For the proper use and design of all those Types was to teach the Gospel so the Apostle the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ Gal. 3.24 but it is evident they were designed to teach it but darkly and mysteriously For the Iews being bred among the Aegyptians who were wont to express their dâ—vine and moral Doctrines by sensible Images or Hieroglyphicks God in compliance therewith the Jews being infinitely fond of the manners of Aegypt thought it meet at first to express the Gospel to them in the same typical manner i. e. to represent the whole method and Oeconomy of it in visible signs and figures which he intended only for a rude draught of the Gospel which he purposed afterwards to draw to the life and express more clearly and exactly When therefore our Saviour had fully revealed to the World the sence and meaning of those Types and expressed what they did so mysteriously signifie in plain and clear Propositions they from thenceforth became altogether useless and for that reason were repealed and utterly expunged out of the Rubrick of divine Worship So that now the Gospel which hitherto ran under ground in a dark and mysterious Channel broke forth into a visible stream from underneath that surface of Types and Shadows which had hitherto covered and in a great measure concealed it from the sight and view of the world And therefore we need no longer grope after it among Shadows and Vmbrages as the good Jews were fain to do under the Mosaick Dispensation those Doctrines of it which before were all Mystery and overcast with Types and Shadows being now brought forth from behind the Curtain into open view and presented barefaced to our understandings in a most plain and easie and familiar sense Since therefore the Types of the Law and Iesus Christ taught the same Religion and only he taught more plainly and clearly what they taught more darkly and mysteriously it hence necessarily follows that those believing Jews who received and acknowledged Christ espoused no new Religion but still adhered to that good old Religion which the significant Rites and Ceremonies of their Law had all along preached to them and that it was only the unbelieving Jews who rejected Christ's Doctrine that were the true Apostates from the ancient Judaism which preached and exhibited to them all those holy mysteries of which the Religion of our Saviour is composed but as for those of them who believed in Jesus they continued stedfast in the mystick and spiritual sense of their ancient Religion and though they forsook their old School-master the Law under which they had been trained and educated yet
are all equally obliged not to Communicate with any Church upon sinful terms of Communion and that Church which excludes all parts of the Catholick Church from its Communion must in so doing separate it self from the Communion of the Catholick Church And so on the other hand that Church which refuses the Communion of any other Church upon lawful and Catholick terms doth thereby separate it self from Communion of all parts of the Church Catholick because it separates from a part that is in Communion with all the parts of it for that Church which may be lawfully Communicated with is in Communion with all other Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and therefore that Church which separates from its Communion cannot be in the number of those Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and how then can this separating Church be in the Communion of the Catholick Church when it is out of the Communion of any one of those Churches of which the Catholick Church consists All those particular Churches therefore into which the Catholick Church is distributed must be in Communion with each other otherwise they are so far from being distributions of the Catholick Church that they are only so many Schisms and divisions from it For if every Christian is obliged by his Baptism to Communicate with the Catholick Church and if he can no otherwise Communicate with it than by Communicating with some particular Church which is in Communion with the Church Catholick and lastly if no particular Church can be in Communion with the Church Catholick which is not in Communion with all the Churches of which the Church Catholick consists then it is absolutely necessary that all those Churches into which the Church Catholick is distributed should maintain a Catholick Communion with one another Eighthly and lastly The Communion which these particular Churches into which the Catholick Society of Christians is distributed hold with each other is threefold 1. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith 2. In all the Essentials of Christiâ—n Worship 3. In all the Essâ—ntials of Christian Discipline I. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith By the Essentials of Christian Faith I mean those Doctrines the belief of which is necessary to the very being of Christianity for as in all Arts and Sciences there are some first Principles upon which the whole Scheme of their Doctrines depends and the denial of which like the removing the foundations of a building dissolves and ruines the whole structure so in Christianity there are some Principles so fundamental to it as that the removal of them shakes the whole Scheme of it in pieces Now the great Fundamental as the Apostle tells us is Jesus Christ for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 so that by removing the belief of Iesus Christ from the Christian Religion we necessarily sink and dissolve the whole structure and accordingly the Apostle pronounces those men Apostates from Christianity who hold not the head which is Jesus Christ Col. 2.19 but yet the bare belief of Iesus Christ or of this Proposition that Christ came from God and was his Messias and Anointed is not all that is essential to the Christian Faith which includes not only his Mission from God but also the end of his Mission viz. to be a Mediator between God and Man. For Christianity as it is distinguished from Natural Religion is nothing but the Religion of the Mediator as consisting wholly of the Doctrine of the Mediator together with the duties thence arising so that whatsoever Proposition the Mediatorship of Christ necessarily and immediately implies it is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith which no man can deny without innovating the whole Religion and turning it into a quite different Doctrine from true and real Christianity For this Proposition that Christ came from God to Mediate between God and Man includes the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and therefore whatsoever Proposition is either so necessarily included in it or so inseparably conjoyned with it as that the denial of it doth by necessary and immediate consequence overthrow the Mediation of our Saviour it must be essential to the Christian Faith and the more necessary Connection there is between any particular Doctrine and this all-comprehending Doctrine of the Mediation the more necessary and essential it is to the Christian Faith. Now whosoever believes not or at least denies any Essential part of the Christian Faith is not a Christian and that not only because he wants a part of that Faith which denominates men Christians but also because by disbelieving that part he doth by necessary consequence overthrow the whole of Christianity for so Tertul. de Praescr c. 37. expresly asserts Si Haeretici sunt Christiani esse non possunt i. e. they who are Hereticks cannot be Christians and hence it is that Hereticks who are such as obstinately deny any fundamental Article of Christianity are in Scripture ranked in the same Câ—ass with Heathens and Infidels for all true Christians are required to shun and avoid them as unclean persons the very touch of whose conversation was enough to defile them Rom. 16.17 and the Governours of the Church are required to anathematize or exclude them from all Christian Communion Gal. 1.8 to reject them Tit. 3.10 and withdraw themselves from them 1 Tim. 6.5 that is to treat them as Heathens and Infidels who have no right or title to Christian Communion and if Heretical persons are to be thus treated then much more are Heretical Churches and if every single Heretick be condemned of himself as the Apostle affirms Tit. 3.11 i. e. excommunicated by his own Sentence or Doctrine whereby he voluntarily departs from the Church and so cuts off himself from its Communion then certainly so is every Heretical Community and therefore as such must be utterly unqualified for Christian Communion And if Heresie excommunicates not only Heretical Persons but Heretical Societies then a common Agreement in all the Essentials of Christian Faith which is the opposite of Heresie is necessarily included in Catholick Communion and accordingly the Scripture frequently presses all Christian People to this common agreement as to a most essential part of their Communion with each other For so they are required to mind or think one and the same thing Phil. 2.2 to stand fast in one spirit with one mind 2 Cor. 13.11 to walk by the same rule and think the same thing Phil. 1.27 to be joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1.10 To hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 and to keep that which is committed to us 1 Tim. 6.20 which is that one form of Doctrine which was delivered to us Rom· 6.17 The meaning of all which is not to oblige us to be of one mind and judgment in all points
fourfold first from base and humble into glorious bodies 511. secondly from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and Heavenly 513. thirdly from weak and passive into active and powerful 514. fourthly from corruptible and mortal into incorruptible and immortal 517. They will differ in degrees of Glory proportionably as they differ in degrees of perfection 518. Of the woful change which the bodies of the wicked will undergo 521. The third and last of these regal Acts of Christ is his judging the World where first the thing is proved that he shall judg the world 523. Secondly an account is given of the signs and fore-runners of his coming to judgment 524. Thirdly the manner and circumstances of his coming 526. as first the place from whence he is to come ibid. 527. secondly the State wherein he is to come 528. thirdly the Carriage on which he is to come 530. fourthly the train and equipage with which he is to come 533. fifthly the place to which he is to come 536. Fourthly the process of this judgment 538. And first of the judgment of the righteous wherein is implied first their citation or summons 539. secondly their personal appearance 540. thirdly their trial 54â— fourthly their sentence 543. fifthly their assumption into the clouds of heaven 545. The Iudgment of the wicked implies also first their citation 547. secondly their personal appearance 548. thirdly their trial 549. fourthly their sentence 551. fifthly their execution 552. SECT XII Concerning Christs surrendring his Kingdom Christ hath a twofold Kingdom viz. His Essential Kingdom which is co-eternal with him and can never be surrendred and his Mediatorial Kingdom which is founded upon a solemn compact and agreement with the Father and this is the Kingdom which shall be surrendred p. 556 c. At the conclusion of the day of Iudgment the whole Mediation will cease the end of it being fully accomplished 557. An account of the cessation of the Mediatorial Kingdom from 1 Cor. 15.24 25 26 27 28 558. the whole passage resolved into five propositions ibid. First that the Kingdom there spoken of was committed to him by God the Father 559. secondly that he is to possess this Kingdom so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued unto him 560. thirdly that during his possession of this Kingdom he is in a state of subjection to the Father 561. fourthly that when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now 562. fifthly that he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall be thenceforth immediately exercised by the Deity 565. SECT XIII Of the Reason and Wisdom of this Method of Gods governing sinful men by his own Eternal Son in our Nature Five reasons of this Method assigned First that he might govern us in a way more accommodate to this degenerate state of our nature 567 c. secondly that he might the more effectually cure and prevent the spreading contagion of Idolatry 573 c. thirdly that thereby he might give us the more powerful encouragement to Obedience 582. fourthly that he might the more powerfully excite our Gratitude and Ingenuity 585. fifthly that he might thereby give us the more ample assurance of our future Reward 588. SECT XIV That Jesus is this Mediator of whom we have been treating Three ways by which God hath testified that Iesus is the true Mediator First by Prophesie secondly by Voice from Heaven thirdly by Miracles 591. The last of these only insisted on as being that to which our Saviour most commonly appeals 592. This together with the goodness of his Doctrine a most certain evidence of his being the Mediator ibid. The Miracle of his Resurrection was that which both our Saviour and his Apostles most insisted on 594. The reality of this attestation capable of being proved only by credible Testimony 596. The Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection accompanied with all the most credible circumstances which are six 597. First they who testified it were most certainly informed whether it were true or no 598. secondly there was a concurrence of several Witnesses to the truth of the Fact 600. thirdly there was no visible reason to suspect their honesty and integrity 603. fourthly there was no apparent motive to induce them to testifie falsly 609. fifthly they gave the greatest security for the truth of what they testified 612. sixthly they gave certain signs and tokens that what they testified was true 614. What a most convincing argument this of Miracles and particularly of Christs miraculous Resurrection was of the truth of his being the Mediator shewn in four particulars First that it was the most proper and convenient Evidence 622. secondly that it was the most certain and infallible Evidence 625. thirdly that it was the plainest and most popular Evidence 629. fourthly that it was the shortest and most compendious Evidence 631. OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART II. VOL. II. CHAP. VII Of the necessity of acknowledging Jesus Christ to be the one and only Mediator between God and Man in order to our Leading a Truly Christian Life HITHERTO we have treated of the common Principles of Religion in General but as for this last it is the great Principle of Christian Religion strictly so called as it is distinguished from the Religion of Nature and as such is properly the Religion of the Mediator as containing only the Doctrines which concern the Mediator and the Duties which result from those Doctrines and owe their Obligations to them both which being taken away all the remaining Religion is purely Natural and Moral So that this Principle we are now treating of contains in it all that Religion which is strictly Christian without believing of which and practising upon it we cannot be truly said to lead a Christian Life how well soever we may live For there is no doubt but upon the Motives and Principles of natural Religion a man to whom Christianity was never sufficiently proposed may upon due consideration and a hearty endeavour reclaim himself to a very pious and vertuous life as it is apparent many of the Heathen Philosophers did but no man can be pious or vertuous in the Christian sence who is not so upon the Christian Obligations for the Principles from and by which we act are the very life and soul of our Religion and therefore as it is the Rational Soul that specifies the Man a Rational Animal so it is our Christian Principles that specifie our Religion Christian Religion Wherefore though the Piety and Vertue of an Heathen may be materially the same with that of a Christian yet it is impossible it should be formally Christian unless it be animated and acted with the belief of Christianity So that if we leave out this and practise only upon the above-named Principles we are at best but wise and honest Heathens and there is nothing in all our Religion but the simple Dictates of mere natural reason 'T is
true to live according to meer Natural reason is all that God expects from those to whom Christianity hath never been proposed for how can he expect that they should live by Principles which they either never heard of or have not sufficient reason to believe But where Christianity hath been made known and sufficiently proposed we cannot be good men unless we believe it and if we believe it we cannot be good Christians unless we practise upon it And since Christianity hath improved the duties of Natural Religion upon new Principles and enforced them with new Obligations to render our Piety and Vertue strictly and properly Christian it is necessary we should believe these new Principles and act upon these new Obligations otherwise we are at best but meer Natural men in the true sence of the Apostle i. e. men who are meerly conducted by the light of natural Reason and have not received the things of the Spirit of God that is the new Principles and Obligations which Christianity superadds to natural Religion 1 Cor. 2.14 In handling therefore of this great and necessary Principle of Christian Life viz. the belief and acknowledgment of Christ's being the one and only Mediator I shall endeavour these three things First To shew what it is that we are to believe in general concerning the Person and Office of this Mediator Secondly What are the particular Parts and Offices of his Mediation Thirdly What Evidence there is to induce us to believe him to be this one and only Mediator SECT I. What it is that we are to believe in general concerning the Person and Office of this Mediator THE Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Mediator signifies one that interposes between two Parties either to obtain some favour from the one Party for the other or to adjust or make up some difference between them And this undertaking of his is either first of his own head and voluntary undertaking without any Warrant or Authority from the Parties between whom he interposes in which case he acts altogether precariously and as a meer Orator and can only perswade and intreat on both sides or secondly it is Authoritative and this is two ways first when the Person who mediates is Authorized thereunto by the consent and designation of both Parties both being equal and consequently having an equal right to Authorize him For when the Parties are equal he must be authorized by both before he can pretend to any right to oblige and determine them but when once both Parties have agreed to put their case into his hands and refer themselves to his determination he from thenceforth commences a Mediator by Office and is the Legal Representative of both as being Authorized by them to act in their stead in all those points that are referred by them to his determination So that whatsoever he doth in the matter before him is in effect the act of both Parties who having both submitted their wills to his and voluntarily impowered him to will for them both are thereupon as effectually concluded and determined by what he doth as if it were their own personal Will and Action And in this sence a Mediator is the same with that which we in English call an Vmpire who is one that acts for both Parties by Authority from both and in whose judgment and determination both have obliged themselves to consent and agree But then secondly the Mediation is authoritative when he who mediates is Authorized thereunto by a superiour Party who hath a just Authority and Dominion over the inferiour For when a Mediator acts the part of two unequal Parties whereof the one is superiour and hath a just dominion over the other it is sufficient that he be Authorized by the appointment of the superiour and the subject or inferiour Party will be as much obliged by his determination as if he had voluntarily referred himself to him For a Mediator between a Superiour as such and a Subject is one who is Authorized to act on the part of the Superiour in requiring the Subjects Duty and Obedience and to act on the part of the Subject in impetrating the Superiour's favour and protection and there can be no doubt but every absolute Superiour hath right to Authorize a Mediator between him and his Subjects to act for him in ruling them and for them in soliciting his favour For he who Mediates between a Sovereign and Subject is the Sovereign's Vicegerent and the Subject's Advocate and he who without our consent hath a right to our duty and to all the favours he bestows upon us may whether we consent to it or no demand our duty by what Vicegerent and bestow his favours by what Advocate he pleases And as for the Subject he will be obliged whether it be by his consent or no to abide by the Mediator whom the Sovereign appoints and by the terms which he shall impose on him otherwise he will be justly liable to punishment Having given this short account of the general Notion of a Mediator I proceed to shew what it is in the general that the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning the Person and Office of this great Mediator between God and men the whole of which I shall reduce under these six heads First That he is Designed and Authorized to this Office by God who is our absolute Lord and Sovereign Secondly That this Office to which he is authorized consists in acting for and in the behalf of God and men who are the parties between whom he Mediates Thirdly That this his Mediation proceeds upon certain terms and stipulations between God and men which he obtained of God for us and in his name hath published and tendered to us Fourthly That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and men so he partakes of the natures of both Fifthly That as he partakes of the natures of both so that he might transact personally with both he was sent down from Heaven to us and is returned again from us to Heaven Sixthly That upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate personally for Men with God he substituted the Divine and Omnipresent Spirit personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. I. That he is Designed and Authorized to this Office by God who is our absolute Lord and Sovereign For since God for just and excellent reasons was resolved not to converse with sinful men immediately they having rendered themselves through their woful degeneracy utterly unsit for and unworthy of any such near and close access to his most holy Majesty and since his tender mercy and compassion towards us would not permit him utterly to reject and abandon us there was no expedient at least that we know of in which the holiness of his Majesty could so fairly accord with the tenderness of his Mercy as this of transacting with us by a Mediator by whose inter-agency he though a most holy Sovereign may
thenceforth to reside and make his constant abode and from whence and by whom he would for the future communicate himself to Mankind And accordingly the sign which God gave to Iohn Baptist by which he might know the Messias when he saw him was this Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost i. e. who from himself or from his own fulness shall communicate the Holy Ghost to the World Ioh. 1.33 For so full was Jesus of the Holy Ghost that he not only prophesied himself and did miracles by it whensoever he pleased but he also communicated it to his own immediate Disciples and impowered them to communicate it to others and hence it is said that God gave not the Spirit by measure to him John 3.34 i. e. with limitations and restrictions to such particular times or ends and purposes but in that unlimited manner as that he could not only act by it himself whensoever or howsoever he pleased but also communicate it to others in what degree or measure soever he pleased For so Ioh. 20.22 it is said that he breathed upon his Disciples and bid them receive the Holy Ghost and Acts 8.17 we are told that upon their laying their hands upon others they also received the Holy Ghost And by this unlimited fulness of the Holy Ghost which our Saviour received at his Baptism he was perfectly accomplished for his Prophetick Office. For the Holy Ghost abode in him after that visible glory in which he descended disappeared even throughout the whole course of his Ministry and hence Luke 4.1 we are told that being full of the Holy Ghost he returned from Iordan and after he had finished his forty days Fast in the Wilderness he returned from thence in the power of the Spirit into Galilee ver 14. where in his own City of Nazareth he began to Prophesie declaring and manifesting that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him vers 18 to 23. and at Cana in Galilee he began to work Miracles and thereby to manifest forth his Glory Joh. 2.11 Thus by Prophesying and confirming his Prophecies by Miracles he exerted that fulness of the Holy Ghost which was communicated to him at his Baptism And now since before he came down to Prophesie to us he was from Eternity in the bosom of the Father and since when he came down he was clothed in humane nature and in that nature was inspired with such an unbounded fulness of the Holy Ghost as that he could not only Prophesie himself and confirm his Prophecy by Miracles when he pleased but also communicate these his Gifts to others in what measures and proportions he thought fit to enable them to Prophesie for him wheresoever he thought meet to send them what can we imagine farther necessary to compleat and accomplish him for the Prophetick Office I proceed therefore in the next place to shew how throughly and effectually he discharged this Office which will plainly appear by considering briefly what those things were which as a Prophet he performed all which are reducible to these six Heads First He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World. Secondly He proved and confirmed what he had declared by Miracles Thirdly He gave a perfect Example of Obedience to what he had declared and proved to be his Father 's Will. Fourthly He sealed his declaration with his own Bloud Fifthly He instituted an Order of men to preach what he had declared to the World. Sixthly He sent his Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain to those men what he had declared and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles I. He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World viz. in those Sermons Parables and Discourses of his which we find recorded in the four Evangelists in which the whole Will of God concerning the Way and Method of our Salvation is fully and perfectly revealed For thus S. Paul declares to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that he had kept back nothing that was profitable for them but had testified both to the Iews and Greeks repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 20.20 21. and ver 27. he tells them that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the Counsel of God. Now it is certain that this whole Counsel of God which he had preached was only that account of our Saviour's Discourses and Actions which S. Luke gives us in his Gospel who as Irenaeus tells us was a follower of S. Paul and did compile into one Book that History of our Saviour's Life and Doctrine which S. Paul had taught and delivered and if so then the whole Counsel of God must be contained in this Gospel and accordingly S. Luke tells his Theophilus in the beginning of his Gospel That forasmuch as many had set forth a declaration of those things that were surely believed among Christians it seemed good unto him also having had a perfect understanding of all things from the first to write them down in order that he might know the certainly of those things wherein he had been instructed From whence I infer that supposing that S. Luke performed what he promised his Gospel must contain a full declaration of the Christian Religion For first by promising to give an account of those things that were surely believed among Christians he engaged himself to give an entire account of Christianity unless we will suppose that there were some parts of Christianity which the Christians of that time did not surely believe Secondly In promising to give an account of those things of which he had perfect understanding from the first and in which his Theophilus had been instructed he also engaged himself to give a compleat account of the whole Religion unless we will suppose that there were some parts of this Religion which S. Luke did not perfectly understand and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed And the sâ—me may be said of the three other Evangelists viz. that their Gospels do severally contain all the necessary Articles of Christianity though the last of them seems to have been wrote upon a more particular design viz. more fully to explain than any oâ— the former Evangelists had done the Article of the Divinity and eternal generation of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And if the whole of Religion be contained in these Gospels which are only Histories of our Saviour's Preaching and Actions then it cannot be denied but that he made a full revelation of God's Will to the World. It is true there are sundry other divine Writings annexed to these Gospels which together with them compleat the New Testament viz. the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles but these pretend not to declare any new Religion to the world For as for the Acts of the Apostles it is only an Historical account of the Preparations
in the matter and circumstances of what they did attest which had it not been true must have been morally impossible For how could so vast a number of men have so punctually agreed in the same Story had it been a lye Especially when they were so narrowly sifted so craftily examined and cross examined as doubtless these men were or at least would have been had there been any just ground to suspect them by the Jewish Magistrates who were all of them profest Enemies to our Saviour and his Doctrine For had their Testimony been forged it is not imaginable how they should foresee what Questions the Magistrates would propose to them nor consequently how they should agree what Answers to return to their several Interrogatories so that when they came to be examined they must of necessity have thwarted and contradicted one another at least in some circumstances of time or place or the like by which means the whole forgery must have soon been unravelled and the credit of it for ever dasht out of countenance But that no such thing ever hapned is evident by the credit which their Testimony found even among those who had the best opportunities of examining whether it were true or false for the truth of Christs Doctrine depending upon the truth of this Story of his Resurrection there can be no doubt but the Jewish Magistrates whose interest made them Enemies to Christ would not have been wanting had they thought it feasible to try all ways to disprove the truth of it and if they did not no other reason can be given of it but only this that the truth of the thing was so notorious that it would have been Ridiculous for them to attempt the disproving it but if they did it had been a very easie matter for them had it been a lye to have detected it for the number of the Witnesses being so great and the Jews having every day opportunity of conversing with them they might have easily trapt them in their relations it being impossible that among a great number of conspiring Impostors there should be always an exact harmony and agreement For suppose that such a Story as this were told in London that a certain man dwelling at Westminster and pretending himself to be the Son of God and the lawful Heir of the Crown of England had preached up a new Religion requiring all people under pain of damnation to embrace his Doctrine and submit to his Government and that as a sign of the truth of all this he had publickly declared that three days after his death he would rise again whereupon the last Friday was seven night he was put to death by the Magistrates and notwithstanding he was buried and his Sepulchre dammed up with a huge Stone and a guard of Soldiers set to watch it left his Proselytes should steal him away yet the Sunday following he arose and hath since been seen by several hundreds if not some thousands of the neighbourhood many of whom had touched and handled him eat and drank and conversed familiarly with him among whom there was Peter such a one Thomas such a one and Iohn such a one naming some twenty or thirty persons well known among the neighbours who could give a more particular account of the matter and tell the names of most of the persons that were eye-witnesses with them why now it cannot be supposed but that as soon as ever this formal rumour began to spread especially if it found credit among the multitude and the pretended witnesses of it should be so bold as to go and assert it before the King and Council as the Apostles did before the Rulers of the Jews I say it cannot be supposed but that care would be taken that the matter should be immediately sifted and the several neighbouring Justices required to call these Witnesses to account who by pumping and examining promising and threatning them could not fail of extorting the truth from them in a very little while For it is impossible but they must have found them faltering in the relation of their Story and counter-witnessing one another Iohn would have told it with this Circumstance and Peter with the contrary and Thomas would have thwarted and contradicted them both so that when they came to compare their several relations with one another in all probability they would have found as great a confusion among them as there was in the language of the Bricklayers of Babel And therefore though at first perhaps the Story might have seemed plausible and a great many credulous people might have believed it yet every day would have rendered it more suspicious and the truth must at last have triumphed and prevailed but yet though the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection were thus sifted and examined over and over their relation every one day got ground and credit even in Ierusalem it self where the thing was transacted and where every one might easily inform himself concerning the credit of the Relaters and the circumstances of their relation insomuch that forty days after it was so far from being dashed out of countenance that at one Sermon of S. Peters there were no less than three thousand persons converted to the belief of it and so it still grew and increased till at last in despite of all the wit and malice of its opposers it was imbraced and acknowledged throughout all the World which is an undeniable evidence of the exact agreement there was in the testimony of the several Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection III. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is when there is no visible reason to suspect the honesty and integrity of the Attestors which circumstance did also concur to credit the Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection For that the first testifiers of it were men of a clear and unsuspected honesty will appear to any man that seriously considers either the Doctrine which they taught or the Genius of their followers or the manner of their testimony or the success it had among those who were best able to satisfie themselves whether they were honest or no. First as for their Doctrine there is nothing can be more contrary to lying dissembling and Hypocritical reservation it strictly requires plainness and simplicity of speech and that our words should be the Images and Interpreters of our minds it brands and stigmatizes all deceit and falshood with a most infamous Character and irrevocably consigns all wilful Lyars to the miserable portion of the Father of Lies If then they believed their own Doctrine it is not to be imagined they would ever have defended it with frauds and impostures and whether they believed it or no it is hardly supposable that they would have so loudly declaimed against dishonesty had they been at least visibly dishonest themselves since by condemning it in others they must have libelled themselves and imblazoned to the World their own shame and infamy And then secondly As for the
resolved right or wrong not to believe it So that this way of Christs proving his Doctrine by his Miracles and particularly by his Resurrection being the best and most proper if we will not believe it upon this evidence we are incurable Infidels whom no reason in the World can convince or persuade II. This evidence of Miracles is the most certain and infallible Medium to prove the truth of any pretence to Revelation For if God give a man power to do Miracles in token that what he says is true he thereby sets his own Seal to the truth of it and if we are satisfied that the Miracle was wrought by the Power of God and yet will not believe the Doctrine it seals we do in effect give the lye to God himself for a real Miracle wrought to confirm a Doctrine gives as great a certainty of the truth of that Doctrine as we can have of the truth of God which is the foundation of all the certainty in the World because if once it be granted that God may work a Miracle to attest a lye we can have no security of his truth but for all that we know every thing that he saith or doth may be an Imposture and if so for all we know he may have deceived our faculties too and then there is nothing can be certain to us The Miracles of Christ therefore and especially this of his Resurrection gives us as great a certainty of the truth of his Doctrine as we can have of any thing For that he was raised by the power of God is evident because he was really dead his heart was pierced and the vital bonds were broken which rendered him utterly incapable to raise himself and supposing that there be some Agent in Nature besides God that was powerful enough to raise him yet we are sure the Devil would not do it because as was shewn before he must thereby do a thing infinitely contrary to his own temper and apparently destructive to his Interest and Kingdom nor would any holy Angel have done it without a special command and Commission from God which is the same thing as if God himself had done it immediately So that it 's plain Christ's Resurrection must be effected either by the immediate Will or by the immediate Power of God and whether it was one way or t'other 't was a most certain evidence of the truth of his Doctrine because it cannot be imagined that the God of truth would either way have raised him from the dead had he been an Impostor since in so doing he must have taken the most effectual course to impose a Cheat upon mankind For whilst he was alive he promised to rise again the third day and gave this as the great Sign to the World whereby they should know that he came from God upon the hearing of which all unprejudiced minds especially considering the nature of his Doctrine had abundant reason to conclude thus with themselves If this Man make good his word we can no longer doubt but that he was sent from God for to be sure he cannot rise unless God raise him and it can never enter into our thoughts that the God of truth will raise him on purpose to delude and deceive us When therefore he was actually risen they could not without being guilty of the most unreasonable obstinacy make any farther scruple of his truth and veracity There was about six hundred years ago a certain Iew called El David who gave out that he was Christ and drew a great many Proselytes after him upon which he was apprehended and brought before an Arabian Prince who asked him what Miracle he could do to convince him that he was not an Impostor to which he answered Sir Cut off my Head and in a little time you shall see me alive again which he said to prevent some greater torments which he feared would be inflicted on him for deluding the People Whereupon the Prince replied A greater sign than this thou canst not give and therefore if after I have beheaded thee thou recoverest to life again both I and all my People and all the World sure will acknowledge thee to be a Messenger from God and presently he commanded him to be beheaded and there was an end of the Cheat and so there would doubtless have been of the Christian Religion if Jesus had not been raised from the dead for he said just as this El David did Kill me if you please and when you have done so you shall see I will live again and upon this I stake all the credit of my Doctrine And therefore since it came to pass according to his word we have all the Reason in the World to resolve with that Arabian Prince to believe and acknowledg him to be sent from God. For if there be a God that loves sincerity and truth as we are sure there is we are equally sure he will not conspire with an Impostor to cheat and delude the World and yet this he must have done had Jesus been a deceiver when he fulfilled this miraculous sign of his Resurrection upon which he suspended all the credit of his Doctrine So that now we have the same certainty of the truth of our faith as we have of the truth of our knowledg for the truth of our knowledg supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer us to be deceived in those things which we clearly apprehend and the truth of our faith supposes that there is a God whose Goodness will not suffer him to deceive us in such things as he hath given us sufficient reason to believe for he who gives me a sufficient reason to induce me to believe a false Proposition is guilty of seducing me into a false belief and therefore since God in raising Christ from the dead hath given us a sufficient Argument to induce us to believe that he sent him it necessarily follows either that he did send him or that he is guilty of deceiving and abusing us III. This evidence of Miracles is the plainest and most popular to confirm a Revelation If the Principles of revealed Religion were to be proved by natural Reason and Philosophy the Arguments of it would be too thin and subtile for vulgar capacities and men would never be fit to be Catechized into their Religion till they had been trained up in the Schools and there instructed in the intrigues of Logick and Discourse for the generality of men are capable of no other notices of things but what are immediately impressed upon them by the objects of sense nor have they skill enough so exactly to compare simple terms as to connect them into true Propositions and from these to deduce their true and natural Consequences These are things that require far more leisure and skill than Mens Education and Affairs will ordinarily afford them so that had there not been some plainer and easier way found out to prove the truth of Christianity
still they retained their old Lesson For the Doctrine of Iesus was the standing Doctrine of their Legal Types which they taught darkly and obscurely but he most clearly and distinctly and therefore though those believing Jews still continued in the same Doctrine yet they had very good reason to change their Teacher and from being the Disciples of the Law to become the Disciples of Iesus under whose instruction they were sure to improve far beyond what they had hitherto done under their old Master Since therefore Christianity is nothing but the ancient Judaism explained and unriddled it hence necessarily follows that the believing Jews by embracing it did not commence a new Church distinct from the ancient Jewish one but were the same Church still continued and improved the same Church because founded on the same Religion but the same Church improved because enlightened with a far more distinct and explicite knowledge of that Religion And as our Saviour did very much improve the Religion of the Jewish Church in respect of clearness and perspicuity so he did also in respect of easiness For besides those many Rites and Ceremonies which the Law of Moses superadded to it as Types and Shadows of the Gospel there were sundry others superadded to it by the same Law partly in conformity to the more innocent Rites of the Aegyptians among whom the Jews were educated and of whose Rites and Manners they were pertinaciously fond and partly in opposition to their Magical and Idolatrous ones vid. Vol. 1. p. 45 46. For the Primitive Jewish Religion was that which the Patriarchs and their Posterity professed and practised before the giving of the Law and to which the Ceremonial Law was but a superaddition but by reason of the vast number of Rites and Ceremonies which this Law contained which yet considering their state and temper was very necessary for them their Religion was rendered exceeding cumbersom and grievous to them and therefore the Apostle justly calls it a yoke which neither they nor their fore-fathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 But our Saviour when he came into the World who was the substance and accomplishment of all those Ceremonial Types and Prophetick Pictures unloaded it of all those burthensom appendages and thereby restored it to that ancient ease and liberty in which it was before that yoke of bondage was imposed on it nay and not only so but also render'd it more easie than ever for whereas before the Law it had annexed to it that painful Rite of Circumcision which was the Primitive Seal of that Religion or Covenant our blessed Saviour exchanged it for a much gentler and easier viz. that of Baptism For whereas Circumcision was not only an infamous Rite among the greatest part of the Gentile World and upon that account unfit to be the sign of initiation into the Church of Christ which was now to be enlarged and propagated through the World but also a bloudy and painful one and upon that account more apt to affright men from than to iniâ—iate them into his Church Baptism was a Rite that both Jews and Gentiles reverenced and that is very easie and practicable in its own nature So that whereas the ancient Judaism was rendered a yoke of bondage as the Apostle calls it Gal. 5.10 through those numerous Rites and Ceremonies that were superinduced upon it our Saviour disburthened it of them all and thereby rendered it an easie yoke as he himself calls it Matt. 11.30 Since therefore Christianity for the main is nothing but the ancient Judaism released from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law and restored to its Primitive easiness and freedom it hence follows that by embracing Christ and his Doctrine the believing Jews did not turn to a new Religion nor consequently constitute a new Church but still continued in their Old Religion which our Saviour only bettered and improved and rendered far more easie and practicable Thirdly and lastly Our Saviour very much improved the Jewish Church and Religion in respect of the extent and Amplitude of it It is true the Gentiles who embraced the Jewish Religion were always allowed admission into the Jewish Church For so at first not only Abraham himself and his Children but his Servants also were admitted into Covenant with God and thereby made his Church and People And in the Reigns of David and Solomon as Mr. Selden de Iure l. 2. cap. 2. observes there were vast numbers of Converts to the Jewish Church out of all the Neighbouring Nations and in Ahasuerus's Reign many of the People of the Land of Media and Persia became Iews Esther 8.17 and afterwards in Hyrcanus's Reign the whole Nation of the Idumeans embraced the Jewish Religion all which and many more as the true Children of Abraham's faith were by Circumcision initiated into the Covenant God made with him and his Posterity and thereby became Co-members with them of the same Corporation and Coheirs to the same Promises But though the Gate of the Jewish Church was never shut against the Gentiles yet as I shewed before there were sundry of the Rites of that Church instituted on purpose to divide and separate the Jews from the Gentiles to create a distance and mutual strangeness between them that thereby the Jews might be preserved and secured from mingling with the Gentile Idolatries Now by these distinguishing Rites which begat an inveterâ—te mutual prejudice between the Jews and Gentiles the Jewish Church was very much narrowed and contracted For in the first place thâ—se distinguishing Rites by prejudicing the Iews against the Gentiles restrained them from all free converse and communication with them and thereby from propagating their Religion among them and secondly by prejudicing the Gentiles against the Iews they also prejudiced them against the Jewish Religion and rendered their minds extremely averse to the entertainment of it Thus as these Ceremonious singularities of the Jewish Church were to the Iews great preservatives against the Idolatries of the Gentiles so to the Gentiles they were very great hinderances of their conversion to the Religion of the Jews And therefore our Saviour in order to his design of propagating Christianity among the Gentiles which is the true Spirit and Mystery of Iudaism found it necessary to remove from it these offensive Rites which lay as so many stumbling blocks in the way to the conversion of the Gentiles to it and so by pulling down this middle Wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles and abolishing this enmity of Ordinances which created such a vast distance between them he opened and prepared the way to the conversion of the Gentiles and took a most prudent and effectual course to make peace between them and the Jews and to reconcile them both into one body in the Cross and and hereby to extend and enlarge the Church into an universal Corporation In short therefore Christianity being nothing else but only Judaism separated from all those Appendages of it which rendered it