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
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
than this it had been a Religion fit only for the Schools of Philosophers and the Vulgar who are not capable of close and strict discourse and have neither time nor skill enough to trace the footsteps of truth through all the intricacies of reasoning and discourse must have been damned to eternal infidelity and this without doubt was one main reason why the Moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence upon the People because the Arguments by which its Principles were proved and demonstrated were too fine and subtile for vulgar apprehensions insomuch that there were but few in comparison that could comprehend the strength and force of them and in all probability as little effect would Christianity have found in the World had it not been proved and demonstrated by such evidence as is adapted to all capacities As for instance the immortality of the Soul is one great Principle of the Christian Religion but now had we no other way of proving this Principle than by Philosophical Arguments how impossible would it have been to convince the Vulgar of the truth of it For first we must have proved that the Soul is immaterial by shewing that its operations such as Free-will and Reflection are incompetent with Matter from hence we must have inferred that it is immortal by shewing that what is immaterial hath no quantitative extension and consequently is incapable of division and corruption Now I beseech you what Iargon what unintelligible Gibberish would this appear to vulgar understandings What an insignificant noise would such fine Speculations make in the ears of an honest Plowman But now the miraculous Resurrection of our Saviour is so plain and intelligible a proof of it that every man may apprehend the force of it that hath the free use of his own faculties for it is but arguing thus and the thing is clearly proved Christ told the World whilst he was alive that the Soul is immortal and that there are everlasting habitations of weal or woe prepared for her in another World and in token that what he said was true he promised that the third day after his death he would rise again which he could never have verified had not God given him power to do it and to be sure God would never have given him this power had not his saying been true wherefore since God did impower him to rise again it is plain that he thereby approved the truth of his saying and justified his Doctrine to the World. This is such a plain and intelligible way of arguing that the shallowest minds may easily apprehend the force of it wherefore since God designed Christianity to be a Religion as well for the Vulgar as for the more refined and elevated understandings it was highly reasonable that the way of proving its Principles should be plain and intelligible to all capacities of men IV. And lastly This evidence of Miracles is the most short and compendious way of proving the truth of Revelation One reason why the moral Philosophy of the Heathen had so little influence on the Vulgar was because their way of proving the Principles of it was so long and tedious for they were fain to prove them by parcels and when they had convinced their Auditors of the truth of one Proposition they proceeded to another and so they were fain to prove them all singly and apart by distinct and different arguments which was so tedious a way that the vulgar had not leisure enough to attend to so great a variety of reasonings nor yet capacity enough to retain them but he that works a real Miracle in token that such a Doctrine is true proves it all at once and needs not trouble himself to demonstrate one Proposition after another for by giving a miraculous sign of the truth of such a Doctrine God doth openly approve every Proposition contained in it because it cannot be supposed that the God of truth would approve any Doctrine in the gross if any part or Proposition of it had been false since in so doing he must necessarily have abused our understandings and wittingly betrayed us into a false belief which to affirm of God is equally absurd and blasphemous When therefore God raised our Saviour from the dead he did by that one Act openly avow the truth of his whole Doctrine and proclaim to all the World that every Article in it is as true as truth it self So that now we need not trouble our selves to hunt out for several Arguments to prove the several Articles of our Faith for this one Argument serves instead of all that God by sundry Miracles and particularly by raising Jesus from the dead hath given Testimony that the Doctrine which he taught is a true revelation of his Mind and Will to the World. And thus you see what a clear and excellent evidence Christs Miracles and especially his Resurrection is of the truth of his Doctrine No wonder therefore that the Apostle doth so much prefer it above all other evidence as we find he doth 1 Cor. 2.4 For saith he my speech and my teaching was not with the enticing words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of spirit and of power that is I did not go about to convince ye with Rhetorical Harangues or fine Philosophical Reasonings but I clearly demonstrated the truth of what I preached by the Miracles which through the power of the Divine Spirit I wrought amongst you So that whether we consider the certainty of Christs Miracles but especially of his Resurrection or the powerful evidence which they give to his Doctrine I doubt not but upon an impartial view of the whole it will appear that we have all the reason in the world firmly to assent to the truth of Christianity and consequently to this Article which comprehends it all that Iesus Christ is the Mediator between God and Man. FINIS NOTES Page 35. Line 18. a FOr thus Tertullian hunc i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zeno determinat factitorem qui cuncta in dispositione formaverit eundemque fatum vocari Deum animum Iovis Apologet. 36 Pam. i. e. this Word Zeno declares to be the Maker of the World who formed all things in a due temper and is called Fate and God and the Soul of Iupiter And the Ancient Orpheus calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the divine Word and immortal King Câ—em Strom. l. 5. p. 60 So also Numenius the Pythagorean as he is quoted by S. Cyril cont Iul. lib. 8. calls the Father the First and the Word the Second God. So also Plotinus Enn. 5. l. 5. c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of this divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. and this nature is God a second God and as for the Jews it is evident from the Septuagint and Philo and the Chaldee Paraphrase that by the Word they meant a divine
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
which he very often imprints on us with that life and vigour and repeats and urges with that efficacious Ardour and restless Importunity that unless we are strangely obstinate we cannot find in our hearts to repel or resist them Fourthly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on mens minds is comforting and supporting them or inspiring their minds with such joys and refreshments as are necessary to support them under the difficulties and temptations they are here exposed to For this operation of the Spirit is a standing provision against such Difficulties and Temptations as are too great for an ordinary patience and courage to conâ—est with and is not ordinarily vouchsafed to us but only at such times when we are called to do or suffer something beyond our selves and above our own strength and ability in which cases we are secured of this supporting influence of the Spirit by that Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer ye to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it For thus we read of the Primitive Church that they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 i. e. had the constant supporting influence of the Spirit of God to strengthen and bear up their minds under that mighty work and grievous persecutions they were to undergo and the Apostle makes it his earnest Prayer to God for his Christian Romans that he would fill them with all joy and peace in believing that is in their profession of the Christian Faith and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 And accordingly we find the Ages of Persecution abounding with remarkable instances of this operation of the Holy Ghost For whereas constant Persecutions never failed to exterminate false Religions from the World witness the Heathen Religion and the Christian Heresies the Priscillians Arians and Donatists which whilst they were tolerated or connived at did mightily encrease and multiply but under vigorous persecutions immediately shrunk and in a little time dwindled into nothing the true Christianity on the contrary bore up its head under the heaviest oppressions and triumphed in the midst of flames and was so far from being vanquished by all the barbarous cruelties of its Persecutors that the more they persecuted it the more it conquered and prevailed which doubtless is in a great measure to be attributed to this supporting influence of the Holy Spirit which still accompanied its Confessors and Martyrs For how was it possible that a company of tender Virgins delicate Matrons and aged Bishops could ever have endured those long and dolorous Martyrdoms as many times they did when their Tormentors took their turns from morning to night and plied them with all kinds of cruelties till they were oftentimes forced to give over and confess that they had not heart enough to inflict the Tortures which those poor Sufferers had courage enough to endure How could they have sung in the midst of Flames smiled upon Racks triumphed upon Wheels and Catastaes and there challenged their Executioners as they often did to distend their Limbs to the utmost stretch to tear their flesh with Vngulae to scorch their tender parts with fires and rake their bowels with Spikes and Gaunches How I say could they have endured all these miserable harrasings of their tender flesh with the most witty and exquisite Tortures and this sometimes for sundry days together when for one base and cowardly word they might have been released when they pleased had they not been supported with an invisible hand and refreshed with such strong consolations as not only abated but sometimes quite extinguished their pains And the same comforts though not perhaps in the same degree other good men have frequently experienced sometimes upon their undertaking some great and Heroick Office of Piety or Vertue sometimes in their conflict with some great Temptation sometimes when they have been sorely oppressed with some mighty sorrow or affliction and sometimes in the hour and extremities of Death for it is only upon these or such like extraordinary occasions that the Holy Spirit usually administers these great Consolations to our minds And this he also performs in the same manner as he doth the aforenamed operations viz. by suggesting to and vigorously impressing comfortable thoughts upon our minds for there is no doubt but that as he can impress on us what thought soever he pleases so he can also impress it with what strength and vigour soever he pleases and accordingly as he impresses a comfortable thought on us more or less vigorously it must of necessity be a greater or a less consolation to us if he think fit and our state require it he can imprint a comfortable thought on us with that strength and vehemence as that it shall even ravish us from our sense and so ingross all our attention to it as that we shall be altogether mindless and insensible of any pain or pleasure of the body For thus it is usual for serious Contemplators in their profound Muses to collect and call together all their animal spirits to attend that work so as that many times there are none or not enough at least remaining to supply the Offices of their sense and carry on the inferiour operations of Nature and if we our selves by intense thinking can thus alienate our minds from sense we may easily suppose that the Holy Ghost who hath the command of our minds can when he pleases stamp a joyous thought so vigorously upon them as that it shall instantly transport them into an ecstasie and ravish them from all Corporeal sensation And that thus he hath done is notoriously evident in the above-named Martyrs whose Senses were many times so intranced by the rapturous contemplations their minds were seised with that they lay smiling and sometimes singing under the bloudy hands of their Tormentors without any apparent sense of those long and exquisite cruelties that were practised upon them And though the blessed Spirit seldom applies these strong and powerful Cordials to pious minds but in such great and urgent extremities it being much more for their interest to be kept humble and lowly than to be ravished with continued comforts yet ordinarily he administers a standing peace and satisfaction to them and when ever their necessities call for it he inspires them with such degrees of joy and consolation as their case and condition requires Fifthly and lastly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on Men's minds is Intercession by which he enables us to offer up our Prayers to God with such ardent and devout affections as are in some measure sutable to the matter we pray for For Prayer being the immediate converse of our Souls with God wherein our minds are obliged to withdraw themselves from sense and sensible things and wholly to retire themselves from those Objects to
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
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
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
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
essentially due to their Sovereignty and whatsoever the Laws and Customs of Nations had before determined to be their Right but also by acknowledging before Pilate the Right of the Civil Tribunal to call him to account Ioh. 19.1 where he confesses that the Power by which Pilate arraigned him was given him from above and by reprehending S. Peter for endeavouring by force to rescue him out of the hands of the Civil Powers Put up thy Sword saith he into his place for all that take the sword shall perish by the sword Matth. 26.52 in which words it was far from his intention to prohibite the use of the Sword either to Governours who as S. Paul tells us bear not the Sword in vain or to private persons in their own lawful defence for he commands his own Disciples to buy them swords to defend themselves against Robbers and lawless Cut-throats who as Iosephus tells did very much abound in those days Luke 22.36 but all that he intended was to forbid drawing the Sword against lawful Authority in any case whatsoever though it were for the defence and security of his own person for this was S. Peter's case who in the defence of his Saviour resisted the High Priests Officers who came armed with a lawful Authority to seize and apprehend him in which our Saviour plainly owns himself accountable to the Civil Authority of his Country for if he had not been so it could be no fault in S. Peter to endeavour to rescue him from its Ministers and if Christ himself while he was upon Earth were subject to the Civil Authority what an high piece of arrogance is it for those who are at most but his Vicars and Ministers to claim or pretend an exemption And if it were so great a fault in S. Peter to draw his Sword against lawful Authority though it were in the defence of his Saviours Person then doubtless it is no less a fault in his Successors to pretend a Right from S. Peter to draw their Swords against Sovereign Princes though it be in the defence of their Saviours Religion And as our Saviour owned himself subject and accountable to the Civil Tribunal so S. Paul's injunction is universal Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers and surely every Soul must include the whole body of the Clergy as well as of the Laity unless we can produce some clear and express exception to the contrary and as the Command extends universally to all so doth the reason of it also for the Powers that are are ordained of God and if we must be subject to them because they rule by God's Authority then it is certain there are none that are subject to God but are under the force and obligation of this Reason And then he goes on Whosoever resisteth the Power of whatsoever Degree or Order of men he be resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and if according to the Law of our Saviour it be a damnable sin for any person or persons whatsoever to resist the Civil Authority then it is a plain case that our Saviour hath not at all depressed the Sovereignty of the Secular Powers by subjecting it to any Superiour Tribunal but hath left it as absolute and unaccountable as ever it was before it was subjected to his Empire And thus having proved that Sovereign Princes are not devested of any natural Right of their Sovereignty by their subjection to the Mediatorial Scepter of our Saviour I proceed in the Second place To shew what those Ministries are which they are obliged to render to our Saviour by vertue of this their subjection to him In general it is foretold that upon their Subjection to Christ they should become nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers to his Church Isa. 49.23 that is that they should tenderly cherish protect and defend it and liberally minister to it whatsoever is necessary for its support and preservation and to be sure Christ expects of them that they should accomplish this Prediction by doing all those good Offices to his Church which the relation of a foster Father or Mother imports For when God Predicts any good thing of men it is plain that he would have them be what he foretels they shall be so that in this case the Prophesie carries Precept in it and doth not only signifie what shall be but also what ought to be When therefore God Prophesies of Kings that they shall be nursing Fathers to his Church he doth as well declare what they should be as what they shall be and so he foretels of them and commands them in the same breath If therefore we would know what those Ministries are which Christ now requires Sovereign Powers to render to his Church our best way will be to inquire what those Duties are which are implied in the relation of a foster Father to his foster Child Now the Duties of this Relation may be all of them comprehended under these four particulars First To protect and defend it against harms and injuries Secondly To Cultivate its manners with good Precepts and Counsels Thirdly To correct and chasten its faults and irregularities Fourthly To supply it with decent Raiment and convenient Sustenance answerable to which Sovereign Powers being constituted by our Saviour the foster Fathers of his Church are by vertue of this Relation obliged I. To protect and defend it in the Profession and exercise of the true Religion II. To fence and Cultivate its peace and good Order either by wholesom Laws of their own or by permitting and requiring it to make good Laws for it self and if need be inforcing them with Civil Coercions III. To chasten and correct the irregular and disorderly members of it IV. To make provision for the Decency of its Worship and for the convenient Maintenance of its Officers and Ministers which answers to the decent Raiment and convenient Sustenance with which the Foster-Father is oblig'd to supply his Foster-Child These Particulars I shall but very briefly insist on it being none of my Province to instruct Princes and Governors I. One of those Ministries which Princes by virtue of their Subjection to Christ are obliged to render to his Church is to Protect and Defend her in the Profession and Exercise of the true Religion that is not only to permit her openly to Profess the true Religion and to perform the publick Offices of it without disturbance or interruption but also to fence her with legal securities and guard her with the Temporal Sword against the power and malice of such as would disturb and persecute her and therefore Sovereign Powers are concerned above all things impartially to inquire and studiously to examine what the true Religion is lest being imposed upon by false pretences they misemploy that Power in the Patronage of Error which was given 'em for the Protection of the Truth II. Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged by virtue of their
every day spread and increase even in Ierusalem it self where the thing was acted and where the reporters of it lived and that not only for a few days or months but from year to year even till Ierusalem it self was destroyed since I say all this is so evident what greater argument can we desire of the truth and integrity of those that attested it And supposing them to be honest their testimony must be true because it was not matter of opinion in which it is possible for the wisest men to be mistaken but matter of Fact of which they had certain information from their own senses and he who says that he saw such a thing and it 's evident that his senses were not imposed on lies against his own conscience if it be not true that he saw it IV. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that there is no apparent motive to induce the Attestors of it to testifie falsly For whether they are honest or no we cannot well suppose that in a matter of importance they will testifie falsly without some great motive inducing them thereunto but as for the witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection had they not been certain of the truth of it they could have no imaginable motive to induce them to attest it for they could never hope to reap the least advantage from it either here or hereafter not here for their Lord had told them beforehand that if they would be his Disciples they must suffer persecution and they themselves could not but foresee that by testifying his Resurrection they must infallibly alarm all the World against them because the Doctrine which they confirmed by it was extremely opposite both to the present Religion and Interest of the Iews and to the common Theology of the Gentiles and that therefore by going about to establish it they must in effect proclaim War against all the World and consequently expose themselves to the utmost Rigor and Severity that the wit and malice of men could invent or inflict which must be a very sorry motive sure to induce men in their wits to undertake the propagation of a known Imposture But perhaps it may be thought they did all this for the glory and reputation of being the founders of a new Sect. But from whence I beseech you could they promise themselves success not from their Master Iesus who if their testimony was not true they could not but know was still detained under the power of the grave not from God whom if they testified falsly they were conscious they wickedly belyed in suborning his power and veracity to bear witness to a falshood not from the force and charms of their own Eloquence or Sophistry for that they pretended not to not from their Riches for their Staves and Scrips were all the Treasure they carried with them nor from any Authority or Power they had or ever were like to have for how could such poor illiterate persons as they ever expect to arrive to an Authority great enough to contest with all the power and wisdom of the World which was armed against them in a word not from any proneness they found either in Iews or Gentiles to imbrace the Doctrine which they designed by this their Testimony to confirm and assert that being every where gainsaid and opposed by the interests and affections of both and if their Testimony was not believed as 't was very unlikely it should if it had not been true what could they expect but to be branded to all posterity as a company of infamous Cheats and Impostors So that unless they had been assured that their testimony was true they had all the reason in the World to expect that it would prove the most fatal and unprofitable Lye that ever was invented or broached among mankind since it was so far from promising them any worldly advantage that it visibly exposed them to all the miseries and calamities of human life And then if they knew this Story of Christs Resurrection which they attested to be a Lye they had a great deal less reason to expect any advantage from it in the World to come for either they believed that Religion which they sought to confirm by attesting this story or they did not if they did not how could they hope to fare ever the better in the other World for endeavouring to propagate a false Religion in this if they did how would they hope to be made happy hereafter by telling a Lye for that Religion which excommunicates Lyars out of the Kingdom of Happiness Since therefore if their testimony had been false they could expect to reap no advantage from it in either World doubtless they would never have been so mad as to assert and attest it had they not known it to be true for what man in his wits would ever tell a lye that hath no reason to expect any other fruit from it but only to die for it here and to be damned for it hereafter V. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the testifiers of it do give some great security for the truth of what they say and therefore it is required by human Laws that in all great matters of Fact the Witnesses should give the security of their Oaths or of some great pledge to be forfeited by them in case their Testimony prove false But never did any men give greater security of their truth than the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection for they sealed their Testimony with their Blood and rather chose to undergo the most witty and exquisite torments than to recant any part or circumstance of what they had seen and testified concerning it For of all the Apostles who were the chief Witnesses of it there was only one that escaped a violent death and he as the Ecclesiastical Story tells us had not been delivered from it but by a Miracle And doubtless those other Disciples who saw and conversed with our Saviour after he was risen and together with the Apostles bore witness of it to the World did proportionably run the same fate And how is it imaginable that so many men should all turn so mad together as to lay down their lives for a pledge of the truth of a Story which they knew to be all a mâ—re cheat and imposture Some men indeed have suffered Martyrdom for professing Propositions that were false but then they thought them to be true but no man in his wits ever died in the defence of an Assertion which he knew to be false But as for the testifiers of our Saviours Resurrerection they did all of them witness upon certain information and did assuredly know whether their Testimony were true or false so that if Christ did not rise as they reported they died in the defence of a known Lye which is such a piece of folly as doth exceed all instances of extravagance Suppose that Aesop should have died a Martyr to