severally to every man as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 And not only so but such things and actions are attributed to him as can in no sence be attributed to the Father which would be non-sence if he were only the vertue or power of the Father and not a real Person distinct from him Thus the Holy Ghost is said to come as sent from the Father in the name of Christ Iohn 14.26 and in Iohn 16. he is said to come as sent from Christ verse 7. And when he comes Christ promises them that he shall guide them into all truth for he shall not speak of himself saith he but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak ver 13. Again he shall glorifie me saith Christ for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you verse 14. And to name no more the Holy Ghost is said to make Intercession for the Saints according to the Will of God Rom. 8.27 none of which things can in any tolerable sence be said of God the Father Since therefore not only personal actions but such personal actions also as cannot be attributed to the Father are frequently attributed to the Holy Ghost it hence necessarily follows that he is not meerly the vertue or power of the Father but a distinct principle of action from him that acts from and by himself and consequently is a real person or subsistence It being evident therefore from what hath been said that the Spirit of the Lord in the Old Testament is the same with the Holy Ghost in the New and that the Holy Ghost in the New is a real person distinct from the Father it hence follows in the second place that this Holy Ghost is a divine person because in the Scripture-forms of Baptism and Benediction he is always ranked with divine persons viz. the Father and the Son thus Baptism is in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Matth. 28.19 And the Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ and the love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all is the usual form of Benediction 2 Cor. 13.14 Now that the Father is a divine person all acknowledge and that the Son is so too hath been proved at large and therefore since the Holy Ghost is ranked with the Father and the Son both in our Baptismal Dedication and form of Benediction that is a sufficient evidence that he is a divine person also For what likelihood is there that in such solemn acts of Religion a meer Creature should be taken into copartnership with the divine Father and Son But besides both in the Old and New Testament divine actions and perfections are attributed to him Thus in Iob 33.4 Creation is ascribed to him The Spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life So also Iob 26.13 By his Spirit he hath garnished the Heavens Since therefore to Create is a divine Act and since every Act flows from the Essence of the Agent it follows that the Essence of this Spirit from which this divine Act of Creation flows is divine Again in Psal. 139.7 Omnipresence is attributed to this divine Spirit Whither shall I go from thy Spirit And if there be no place whither we can go from him as the Question plainly implies there is not then he must necessarily fill all places and be Omnipresent So again 1 Cor. 2.10 Omniscience is attributed to him for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God and that by searching here is not meant Enquiry but Knowledge and Comprehension the next verse will inform us For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Even so the things of God knoweth no man save the Spirit of God. If then the Spirit 's search be knowledge and his Knowledge comprehends all things what else is this but Omniscience And as the Actions and Attributes which the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost are divine so are the Honours also For so 1 Cor. 6.19 our bodies are said to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in us now since there is nothing can make a Temple which as such is the house of God but only the Inhabitation of a divine Person and since no person can have right to the honour of a Temple which as such is made for divine Worship but he to whom divine Worship is due it will hence necessarily follow both that the Holy Ghost is a divine Person and that he hath right to divine Worship and accordingly 1 Cor. 3.16 the Apostle makes the Inhabitation of God's Spirit in us to be that which constitutes us Temples of God but how could his Spirit 's dwelling in us constitute us Temples of God unless he himself were God Besides all which he is in express words affirmed to be God. So in 2 Cor. 3.15 16 17. Even unto this day when Moses is read the Vail is upon their hâ—arts nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the Vail shall be taken away now the Lord is that Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty in which words the Apostle as all agree refers to Exod. 34.34 When Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him he took the Vail off until he came out from whence I argue that Lord whom Moses went in to speak with was Iehovah the true God this Iehovah the Apostle tells us is that Spirit this Spirit he also tells us is the Spirit of the Lord or the Holy Ghost therefore the Holy Ghost is Iehovah the true God. So also Acts 5.3 4. Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie unto the Holy Ghost c. Thou hast not lied unto men but unto God i. e. in Lying to the Holy Ghost who is God for if he were not God as we are sure he is not man it might as well have been said thou hast not lied unto men only no nor to the Holy Ghost only but unto God and indeed it ought to be so expressed supposing that by the Holy Ghost and God he did not mean the same thing because the design of the words was to aggravate Ananias his crime from the consideration of the greatness of the Person against whom it was committed and therefore had the Holy Ghost been any thing less than God as we are sure the Apostles were to whom the lye was immediately told he ought to have pursued the 〈◊〉 as well to the Holy Ghost as to men and then it must have been it was not meerly to men that thou didst lye no nor to the Holy Ghost meerly but unto God himself since therefore he places the Aggravation of his lying to the Holy Ghost in this only that he lyed not unto men but unto God it is plain that by the Holy Ghost and God he meant the same thing From all which Testimonies it is very apparent that this great
Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain to his Disciples the Doctrine he had taught them and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles For as Elias the Great Prophet of Israel when he was snatched up into Heaven let drop his Mantle and with that derived that holy Spirit on his Disciple Elisha by which he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles so Iesus the Great Prophet of the World when he ascended into Heaven derived that divine Spirit upon his Apostles and Disciples by which he himself Prophesied and confirmed his Prophecies by miraculous Evidences while he was upon Earth Vid. supra p. 66 67 c. For in all likelihood the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost not only on the Apostles but also upon all the rest of the hundred and twenty Disciples of whom we read in Acts 1.15 For of these consisted the Prophetick School of our Saviour who in all probability separated them while he was yet upon Earth from the rest of his Followers to be the Heralds and Preachers of his Gospel to the World and if so we may reasonably conclude that the Holy Ghost fell on them all as well as on the Apostles to qualifie them for that work which together with the Apostles they had been fore-ordained to Indeed as the Apostles were placed in a higher station than any of the rest as being authorized by Christ to superintend and preside over them so they received a peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost in which none of the rest communicated with them and that was conferring by imposition of hands the Holy Ghost upon others For so in Acts 8. we find that when Philip had converted the People of Samaria he could not confer the Holy Ghost on them but Peter and Iohn are sent thither for that purpose who laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost verse 17. Now by thus deriving his Holy Spirit on his Apostles and Disciples the blessed Iesus still proceeded by them to Prophesie to the World till through their Ministry he had fully consummated his Prophetick Office and revealed and explained the whole Doctrine of the Gospel For till such time as the whole New Testament was compleated his Ministers generally preached by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost who as I have shewn at large p. 67 c. not only recollected to their memories those Doctrines which Christ himself had taught them but also explained them fully to their minds and thereby enabled them to explain them fully to the World and when this was once finished and the whole Doctrine of the Gospel committed to Writing and collected into a Volume the Spirit of Prophecy was withdrawn from the Ministers of Christianity who were from thenceforth obliged to supply the want of it by their own study and industry For now the Gospel being fully revealed there needed no farther Revelation and for the Holy Spirit to reveal over again to mens minds what he had plainly enough revealed already and set before their eyes would have been but actum agere to multiply actions to no purpose Whilst the Gospel lay hid in the Eternal Counsel of God out of the reach and prospect of humane understandings it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should immediately reveal it to the minds of those who were to declare it to the World otherwise it is impossible it should ever have been known to Mankind but when once he had fully revealed it to them and declared it by them and transmitted their declaration by a standing Scripture to all succeeding Generations to what end should he still proceed to make new Revelations of it unless it were to gratifie mens sloth and idleness and excuse them from the trouble of searching and studying that Scripture in which he had taken care to transmit his Gospel to them But though that blessed Spirit hath never been wanting to Mankind in any necessary assistance yet when once he hath put things within our own power he always expects that we should do them and not sit still with our hands in our Pockets expecting that he should do them for us Since therefore by transmitting to us the Scripture he hath put it within the power of its Ministers to understand and teach the Gospel he expects that they should exercise that power in a diligent study of those things which lead to the true understanding of Religion and not depend upon new Revelations for the understanding of that which he hath already sufficiently revealed to them For thus till the whole Old Testament was finished God continued the Spirit of Prophecy in the Iewish Church after which he immediately withdrew it and wholly remitted his People to the conduct of the Priests and Levites who in their forty eight Cities which were so many Vniversities for their education in divine Learning diligently read and studied the Law and thereby accomplished themselves to preach and explain it to the People And in like manner God continued the same Spirit of Prophecy in the Christian Church till the whole New Testament was revealed and written and Copies of it dispersed through all the Churches and from thenceforth the Spirit of Prophecy ceased and in the room of its first inspired Ministers there succeeded an ordinary standing Ministry who by their Learning and Industry and diligent search of Scripture were to supply the defect of immediate Revelation and to qualifie themselves to teach and instruct the several Flocks that were committed to their Charge In short therefore the Spirit of Prophecy remained upon the Ministers of Christ till such time as it had fully revealed and clearly explained the Gospel to them and when this was done and they had transmitted its Revelations to writing there could be no farther need of it unless it be supposed either that he had not sufficiently revealed the Gospel to them or that he hath some new Gospel to reveal And thus you see what it is that our Saviour hath done in the discharge of his Prophetick Office. And considering all I know not what farther he could have added to compleat and perfect it and to render his Prophecy effectual to teach and instruct the World. So that if after all these mighty performances we still remain in darkness and ignorance the blame of it wholly redounds upon our selves for he hath in all respects abundantly performed his part towards the enlightening of the World and chalked out to us the way to our happiness with such plain and visible lines that if we are but willing to walk in it we cannot mistake or wander from it but if we will be so supine and negligent as to concern our selves no more about it than if it were only a Fanciful description of the Road to Vtopia or the High-way to the World in the Moon it is impossible we should be throughly acquainted with it how plainly soever it is described It is true there are some Doctrines in
obscure and burthensom and narrow it hence follows that that Remnant of Jews who received and embraced it were so far from renouncing their old Religion that they still admitted and professed and adhered to it under its greatest advantages and improvements that they renounced nothing of it but only its comparative defects and did only admit of these new reformations of it by which our Saviour advanced it to its utmost lustre and perfection and rendered it infinitely more clear and easie and extensive and since it was their old Religion thus reformed and improved that they still embraced and continued in upon their turning Christians it necessarily follows that they did not become a new distinct Church but were only a continued succession of the Old one And hence it is that Christians in the New Testament are sometimes called Iews Rev. 2.9 i. e. reformed Jews or which is the same true Christians and sometimes the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and sometimes the Children of Abraham Gal. 3.7 and sometimes a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people which is the proper Character of the Iews because by their Faith and Religion which is nothing but the true spiritual and mystick Judaism they were Iews and Israelites and the Children of Abraham though they were not all so according to the Flesh as the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 10.18 and hence also it is that the Christian Church is called the new Ierusalem Rev. 3.12 because it is nothing but the Old Ierusalem or Jewish Church renewed and enlarged Eighthly and lastly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity When the main body of the Jews had rejected our Saviour his Kingdom was reduced to a very narrow compass and consisted only of one single Congregation of Christians in Ierusalem which through the blessing of God upon the indefatigable industry of his Apostles and Disciples was by degrees spread and dilated over all the World. For this single Congregation was the Primitive root out of which the vast stock of the Catholick Church sprung which hath since branch'd forth it self into particular Churches to all the ends of the Earth for it is of this Church that the Apostle speaks Acts 2.47 when he tells us that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved So that all that were converted to the faith of Christ were but so many additions to this Primitive Church so many living stones incorporated into this spiritual building which by the industry of its builders did soon encrease and multiply into several other Congregations and these Congregations though they were several yet were not separate or independent but continued all of them united to the first as Homogeneous parts growing out of the same body or distinct Apartments superadded to the same building So that the Christian Church began in one Congregation and by degrees enlarged it self like a fruitful stock by branching forth it self into other Congregations in a continued unity with its own body which for the convenience of Worship and Discipline were afterwards formed into several though not separate particular Churches under the conduct of their particular Pastors and Governours And thus all the particular Churches that are now in the World are only so many Lines drawn from this Primitive Centre and united in it and it is upon this account particularly that they all of them constitute but one Catholick Church because they all grew out of one and so are but comparts of the same body and branches of the same root and are only that one Primitive Church multiplied into several Churches living in the same Catholick Communion and Vnity And accordingly the Gentile Converts are said to be grafted into the Jewish Church which the Apostle calls the good Olive tree in Rom. 11.17 18 For if some of the branches that is the unbelieving Jews be broken off i. e. rejected from being any more the Church and People of God and thou being a wild Olive Tree growing in the wild common of the World without the Pale and Inclosure of God's Church wert grafted in among them i. e. incorporated with the believing Jews and made a member of the body of their Church and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree i. e. communicatest with them in all the blessings of God's Promise to Abraham which is the foundation of their Church boast not against the branches but if thou boast consider thou bearest not the root but the root thee i. e. the Jewish Church grew not out of thee but thou out of that she is no branch of thee but thou of her as being ingrafted into her Stock and added to her Communion By which it is evident that the converted Gentiles were all but so many superadditions to that Primitive Church of Ierusalem which was the only remainder of the ancient Jewish Church and which from one single Congregation did by degrees increase and multiply it self into an infinite number of particular Churches in Vnion with it self from one end of the World to the other And this in short is the Progress of Christ's Kingdom which from Adam to Abraham consisted of all such as were true Worshippers of God of whatsoever Kindred or Nation from Abraham to Jesus Christ principally of the Iewish Nation and when the greatest part of that Nation had revolted from Christ and renounced their relation to him his Kingdom extended no farther than to the small Remnant of the Jews that adhered to him who made up but one single Congregation which Congregation by the diligence of its Ministers and the blessing of God increased and propagated from it self vast numbers of other Congregations and these were formed into particular Churches which like so many conquered Provinces were still united to that Primitive Kingdom till at last by a continued accession of new Conquests it was spread and enlarged into an universal Empire SECT VIII Of the Nature and Constitution of Christ's Kingdom THE Kingdom of Christ and the Church of Christ are phrases of a promiscuous use in holy Scripture and do import the same thing Thus Matth. 16.18 19. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same thing And thus to be translated into the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 and called to the Kingdom of Christ 1 Thess. 2.12 imports no more than to be made a member of the Church of Christ. And thus also by the Kingdom Matt. 13.38 by the Kingdom of God Matth. 21.31 by the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 11.12 and by the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 11.15 no other thing can be intended but only the Church of Christ. I confess the Kingdom of Christ taken in the largest sence extends a great deal farther than the
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
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
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
illumination of the Spirit Secondly Another of these ordinary operations of the Spirit is Sanctification which consists in the purifying our Wills and Affections from those wicked Inclinations and inordinate Lusts which countermand God's Will in us and set us at enmity against him and this also the Scripture attributes to the Holy Spirit So Tit. 3.5 For according to his mercy he saveth us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost and in 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of our Lord Iesus and by the Spirit of our God. And this is the meaning of our being sealed by the Spirit so often mentioned in the New Testament viz. our receiving his Image or Impression from him which consists in holiness and righteousness and by this Image or Impression we are discriminated and set apart from the rest of the World as a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation and a peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 and made Kings and Priests unto God Rev. 1.6 upon which account we are said to be anointed by the Spirit 1 John 2.20 and by the same Image we are also intitled to and secured of all the blessings of the New Covenant upon which account it is called The earnest of the Spirit and the first-fruits of the Spirit And this Image of himself the Holy Ghost produces in us by suggesting to our minds the powerful Motives and Arguments of Religion and by often reiterating imprints them upon us with all their native force and efficacy in the most lively and affecting Characters and by these his blessed suggestions he by degrees perswades and bends our stubborn Wills mâ—lts and mollifies our hard hearts reduces and tempers our wild affections to a willing compliance with the Will of God and at length to a hearty complacency in all those instances of Piety and Vertue wherein our Sanctification or this Image of himself consists Which operation of the Spirit we frequently experience in our selves For how often do we find good thoughts injected into our minds we know not how nor whence which are many times improved into such strong and vehement convictions of the folly and danger of our sin as even in the midst of our loose mirth and jollity and in despite of all our endeavour to chase them from our minds and rock our selves into a deep security cease not to follow and haunt and importune us till they have scared us into wise and sober Resolutions and though we like ungrateful Creatures do oftentimes stifle the good motions of the Spirit and turn a deaf Ear to his Calls and gracious Invitations yet doth he not presently give us over but still as we are running away from him we hear a voice behind us calling after us to return and though we still run on yet still he follows us with his importunities through the whole course of our sinful life till either he hath brought us back or sees us past all hope of recovery And indeed such is the degeneracy of our Natures the vanity of our Minds and the prejudice of our Wills and Affections against God and Goodness that without this sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost it is certain no man ever was or ever will be reclaimed to a state of Piety and Vertue For though our Religion furnishes with such Motives as are infinitely sufficient to perswade us and though our Minds and Wills are not so depraved but that still we are naturally capable to consider and naturally free to follow those Motives yet so vain and roving are our Minds so averse to all serious and spiritual thoughts so stubborn and inflexible are our Wills to those spiritual duties which those Motives perswade to so cankered and prejudiced against them that did not the Holy Ghost frequently impress them on our Minds and Pathetically urge and apply them to our Wills and Affections we should never of our selves so throughly consider them as to be conquered and perswaded by them but either our thoughts would presently fly away from them and rove into sensual cares or pleasures or our Wills and Affections by objecting their prejudices and the interest of their Lusts against them would infallibly bâ—ssle and defeat them So that it is to this sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost that all the Graces and good Dispositions of our Minds are owing Thirdly Another of thâ—se ordinary operations of the Spiâ—it is Quickning or Exciting us in the ways of Piety and Vertue For as by his sanctifying influence he first inspires us with spiritual life so he still proceeds to cherish and invigorate it and to quicken it up into Activity and Motion wheâ—ever he perceives it droop or languish Hence the Apostle Gal. 5.25 If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit i. e. if we have recâ—iâ—ed spirituâ—l life from him let us move and act by him and hence also we are said to be led by the Spirit of God i. e. to be moved and conducted in our motion by him Rom. 8.14 And this he also doth partly by admonishing and putting us in mind of our duty which in the Câ—â—ud and Hurry of our Worldly occasions we are too prone to forget and partly suggesting to our minds such considerations of Religion as are most apt to quicken ouâ— sluggish endeavour to allure our hope or alarm our fear or â—ffâ—ct our ingenuity and by thâ—se to excite our zeal and render us more active and vâ—gorous in the ways of Piety and Vertue and of this operation of the Holy Spirit there is no good man but hath frequent experience For thus when our thoughts are squandered abroad among our worldly cares and pleasures we are many times assaulted with unexpected temptations which â—inding our minds in a careless forgetful and incogitant posture are apt to surprise and hurry us into sinful actions before we are aware in which nick of time a good thought is suddenly shot into our minds to warn and admonish us of the precipice of sin and guilt we are falling into by which if we are not wilfully deaf and inadvertent to it the temptation is discovered and baffled and defeated and thus also when through the many temptations that do here surround us our zeal for God and goodness doth at any time languish and we begin to grow cold and indifferent in Religion we find a world of good thoughts pressing so hard upon our minds as that without doing violence to our selves we cannot avoid listening and attending to them and when they have almost forced themselves into our attention there they do so vigorously struggle with our reluctant Wills so Pathetically address to our listless affections that without equal violence to our selves we cannot avoid being moved by their perswasions and at last conquered by their powerful importunities Now these good thoughts are many times the immediate inspirations and whispers of the Holy Spirit to our minds
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