to the Jews of whom we acknowledge that they had no such distinct notions of the Trinity as we by the Gospels assistance have at present but yet both among Jews and Gentiles he was declar'd by other names than that of God the Father and if according to our common Logical notions Relatives do mutually suppose or remove one another if Jesus Christ was not really and actually the Son of God pre-existent to his incarnation the name of Father could not properly have been apply'd to the supreme God nor he be preach'd to the World under that character so that in fine we conclude that the preaching of God the Father to the World was no part of the Mystery of Godliness Nor is it properly so to say that God the Father was believ'd on in the World for that too was nothing newly effected by the appearance of our Saviour the World in general from its first original believ'd there was a God if there were any who from those apprehensions they had of the existence of a God set themselves to live virtuously as considering that God under the notion of a knowing and severe Judge and one capable of rewarding men according to their works such Persons believ'd in God according to our own sense when we repeat the Creed Now that some did thus believe before our Saviour's appearance in the flesh is unquestionable all those who liv'd religiously before the promulgation of the Mosaic Law did thus believe in God and are some of them remembred as the great Heroes of Faith in the beginning of the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews If then this were a Mystery it was of a very ancient standing and discovered long before the coming of Christ The application of the particulars thus far failing we have some reason to believe that neither will the last agree any better to that imposed sense He was received up in glory or into glory Here our adversaries flie to God's will again so confounding God and God's will as if they were not to be considered as distinct but this we have consider'd before where we observed that contradiction the Gospel met with in the World As to God the Father where or when or how or by whom was he receiv'd up in glory the holy Scriptures give us no intimation of his having descended at any time from Heaven to Earth and He that 's receiv'd up into glory ought to be so receiv'd by some Being superior to himself which a Socinian knows God the Father cannot have now as the Apostle teaches us He that descended Eph. 4.10 is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things but God the Father never that we hear of in Scripture descended therefore God the Father who ever of himself was surrounded with infinite glory never was by any receiv'd up into glory And thus have we shown the vanity of those glosses which the Socinians and others have fixt upon this Text we shall now show to whom the particulars in the Text do properly and unquestionably belong And here since Scripture makes it very plain that the whole method of serving God in an acceptable manner is laid down by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ That as himself tells us He is the Way the Truth John 14.6 and the Life and no man comes to the Father but by him The whole mystery of Godliness or of true Christian Religion can consist in nothing but what refers to him who is the author of it that is the blessed Jesus concerning whom and whose doings and sufferings for us there is nothing reveal'd in the Gospel or in the foregoing prophecies but what 's mysterious He was indeed God manifest in the flesh God blessed for ever yet for the sake of wretched Sinners descending to Earth and taking our Nature upon him being cloth'd with flesh and all those incumbrances and infirmities attending upon a mortal state sin onely excepted He is that eternal Word which was in the begining with God nay that Word that was God John 1.1.14 and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us as we learn from St. John Now if Christ really was God the most opinionative of the Socinians would conclude the Text plain enough for that Christ was certainly and literally made flesh but if we cannot read this Text of the Apostle truly without inserting the word God And Smalcius one of the great promoters of the Socinian heresie declares Smalc de verbo incarnato c. 18. Nos Graecum textum Vulgatae longe esse anteponendum censemus is vero habet Deum in carne esse manifestatum We look upon the Greek Text as far to be preferr'd before the Vulgar Latine and the Greek reads it God was manifest in the flesh and if neither the Gospel nor the will of God nor God the Father can properly or truly be said to be made flesh and yet God was manifest in the flesh then that Jesus who was truly and literally cloth'd with our flesh must be that God the farther proof of Christ's real and eternal Divinity belongs to another place but his true and indisputable humanity is the first plain and most obvious assertion of the Apostle here This same blessed Jesus was as plainly justified in the Spirit since not onely the miracles he did justified him in the sight of all Mankind and prov'd that he could be no cheat or Impostor as the Jews were willing to have him thought but at the time of his Baptism by John in Jordan while he was praying the Heaven was open'd and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him and a voice came from Heaven which said Thou art my beloved Son Luke 3.21 22. in thee I am well pleas'd Now the Holy Spirit would not in so open a manner have descended on him who had pretended to that relation to Allmighty God which really never belong'd to him Therefore John the Baptist makes a right inference from that descent I saw says he Joh. 1.32 the Spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him And I knew him not v. 33 34. but he that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God Our Lord himself makes it one of his last instructions to his Disciples that when the Comforter that Holy Spirit whom he would send should come he should amongst other things convince the world of righteousness because He the blessed Jesus went to his Father and the world should see him no more c. 16. v. 8. 10 14. and that that Holy Spirit should glorifie him for he should receive of his and shew it to men And thus effectually that Sacred Spirit when he was so plentifully according to promise pour'd out
tho' it were an inward grace a strengthning of the Soul which they requir'd of him Again when the Disciples were with him on ship-board and during his quiet sleep just sinking by the violence of an angry tempest they in a fright wake their Master and cry out to him Lord save us we perish Mat. 8.25 If our Saviour was a meer Man the Disciples acted with much less sence than Jonah's Mariners who every one in the storm called upon their Gods for help and summoned sleeping Jonas not to save them by His Power but to joyn with them in calling upon his God For was it ever heard before that when a Ship was just sinking or running upon a rock the ship's Crew ran to some poor ignorant Passenger to beg their security from him The Mariners tho' convinced that he was an extraordinary Person made no such application to Saint Paul in a parallel danger it 's God alone who can command the Seas and Winds his permissive Word makes them ruffle the Universe and put Nature into a Consternation the same Word lays them still as in their first Originals ere uncorrupted Nature knew any thing terrible or dangerous In the case before us our Saviour answered them not as that King of Israel did the Woman If the Lord help thee not what can I do But He arose and rebuked the Winds and the Sea and there was a great calm Nature in its greatest hurry own'd his Divine Authority only his Disciples stumbled upon the Question ver 27. What manner of Man is this that even the Winds and the Sea obey him They talked like Men beside themselves with Fear they called upon him for Help as if they had believed him to be God they reflected upon that Deliverance he had given them as if he had been no more than Man but he takes no notice of any error they were in in their first Devotions but by his Mercy encouraged them to do the same again upon a like occasion What the Disciples did here in a storm at Sea that Saint Stephen the first Martyr for Christianity did in a more violent storm of Persecution on Land for when he came to his last Agonies when it was the proper season for a good Man to exert the utmost vigor of his Faith and Charity then for himself and with respect to his own Soul he prays Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The frequent expiring Ejaculation of Holy Saints and Martyrs after him Compare now this with that assertion of the wise Man concerning Death Eccles. 12 7. Then shall the Dust return to Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God who gave it and the consequence will be either that our Lord Jesus Christ was the great Author or Creator and Giver of the Rational Soul or else that this Holy Martyr then when filled in an extraordinary manner with the Holy Ghost in his extreme hours when commonly Mens apprehensions of futurity are most Clear and Rational talk'd in a very Impertinent and sinful manner to devote his Soul to him who could have no right to it if he were a meer Creature and to forget his God Franciscus Davidis would have us believe here that Stephen did not call upon Jesus Christ but upon God the Father and that we should translate the expression O thou Lord of Jesus receive my Spirit but this Socinus has strongly confuted tho' upon their common Principle of our Saviour's being a meer Creature Franciscus undertakes the much more rational part However here his subterfuge is nothing worth It was Jesus the Son of God He who bore that proper name of Jesus from his Circumcision for whose sake Stephen was now persecuted to Death by the malicious Jews it was the same Jesus whom he saw at the right hand of God when the Heavens opened to give him such a view of future Glory prepared for Martyrs as might support and encourage him under his sufferings it was to him therefore that Stephen applyed himself and sitted himself for a glorious and happy Exit by that admirable Resignation But neither did Saint Stephen stop there but as the utmost effort of a dying Martyr's Charity He adds this to his former ejaculation ver 60. Lord lay not this sin to their charge He certainly designed exemplary Charity in this and to imitate his dying Saviour who prayed his Father to forgive his Murderers for they knew not what they did But the Martyr's enemies would have had little reason to have admir'd his Charity had he presented his Prayers for them to one who had no power to forgive them and the Jews would be as ready now to make the Objection as heretofore Who can forgive sins but God only And if God to whom vengeance belongeth in whose sight the Death of his Saints is precious would certainly avenge the blood of his Saints and Martyrs upon their Persecutors to what purpose was it to pray to him to forgive them who not being the most high God himself could have no Power to forgive those who had sin'd against the most high God so as to give them any security but above all He could never have hoped for any acceptance at the hand of God in any Petition whatsoever had he now in his last extremity been guilty of Idolatry Saint Paul had been made partaker of extraordinary Revelations had been snatch'd up into the third heavens where he had seen and heard things not lawful for a Man to utter 2 Cor. 1â— 7 8 9. indeed things unspeakable lest He should have been exalted above measure thro' the abundance of those Revelations there was given to him a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet him This was a very severe humiliation and Saint Paul was sensible of it and at first as appears by the Text very uneasie under it Saint Paul knew well enough that the best remedy for all calamities was Prayer that Prayers presented to the true God with a sincere heart could not return unfruitful but Saint Paul presently applyes himself to Christ For this cause I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me says he and He said unto me my Grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness By the Lord here the Socinians themselves understand our Lord Jesus and therefore alledge this Text as a proof of Pious Mens praying to Christ Now had Saint Paul prayed to Christ for Assistance and Relief in such a case where only the Supreme God could really help him if that Christ were a meer Creature then such a Prayer must be Idolatrous and such Service be called Idolatry wherein the Creature was rather worshipped than the Creator and Christ a Creature must as Lucifer of old have endeavoured to set himself up for a rival God and prosecute a separate Interest of his own and manage and assist his servants in a way of opposition to the most high God and
so he must have Graces of his own and Strength of his own to employ for the use of his own Devotoes for so Saint Paul tells us that Christ referred him not to the Grace of God or to the strength of God for security from the violence of Satan but tells him My Grace and my Strength are sufficient for thee therefore there could be no need of applying himself to any other Now if Saint Paul were in this case guilty of Idolatry all those who follow the pattern of Saint Paul must incur the same guilt but he was not guilty therefore neither were his Imitators guilty of it The Socinians in proof of the lawfulness of Praying to Christ allege farther Saint Paul's joyning him with God the Father in his own Prayer with respect to the Thessalonians to whom he 's there writing â— Thess 3.11 Now God himself and our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto You where he takes for granted that the Father and the Son are both Co-partners in the same directing power and therefore he equally Petitions them both for guidance in his design of visiting the Thessalonians What the Apostle himself did in a Letter sent to Believers for their instruction in matters concerning their Salvation we need not doubt but they 'd be very apt to follow him in so that either this Praying to Christ was lawful and reasonable in it self or else the Apostle must be concluded to have it in his mind only to abuse those he wrote to and to draw them by his extraordinary influence upon them into Sin for a sin it must be to make any meer Creature the Vltimate Object of our Prayers and Devotions That the Apostle in this passage does so is indisputable if at least it's own'd that He makes God the Father such an Object for he joyns them together puts no mark of Inferiority or Subordinacy upon Jesus Christ but what he begs of the Father the same He begs of the Son in one continued expression And the Apostle frequently does the same thing in those Salutations he sends to the several Churches where He wishes them Grace Mercy and Peace equally from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Grace Mercy and Peace are all divine and spiritual Gifts as in possession of the Father so in possession of the Son else it would be very impertinent to Petition them equally for it and of very ill consequence for it would easily bring such a notion into Mens heads as that some created Being might have a power of giving Gifts of a Spiritual nature as well as the Supreme God and that it might be lawful in our most serious Devotions to joyn him who alone is God with one who is no more than a Creature to set them in a rank as equal as words would allow and to conclude a Prayer to the great Creator of all things insufficient to procure any good from him unless it were backt and strengthned by the joyned formality of an Address to a dependent Creature But we need not so much insist on this particular since the same Socinians as a vindication of Prayers addrest to our Saviour take notice of that piece of Religious Worship as being made the very Characteristick or distinguishing note of Christians So Ananias answers the Command of Going to visit and baptize the newly converted Saul Acts 9.14.21 He hath authority from the chief Priests to bind all that call on thy Name And when Saul first began to preach Christ at Damascus all Men ask'd with amazement if it was not He who had lately destroyed all that called upon the name of Christ that is all who believed in him So that it seems from hence that to believe in Christ and to call upon him were used as reciprocal terms every one who believed in Christ would call upon him or Pray to him every one who pray'd to him must believe on him for as the Apostle elsewhere argues How shall they call on him or pray to him in whom they have not believ'd So again St. Paul inscribes his first Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. â— to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ i. e. to all Christians for whose general use and instruction he wrote that Epistle as well as for the Corinthians And the same Christians are described as such 2 Tim. 2.22 who call upon the name of the Lord with a pure Heart These are the evidences drawn by the Socinians themselves out of Scripture to prove the practice of Christians in the very infancy of the Church and they are sufficient for that purpose Now that Those who accompanied with our Lord himself during his converse upon Earth or that those Apostles who were guided by the extraordinary influences of the Holy Ghost or that those first Christians who took the â—oke of Christ upon them when the Gospel was certainly preached to them in its original simplicity that all these should be guilty of abominable Idolatries and that when the Apostles themselves were originally Jews who had an irreconcileable aâ—ersion to any thing that look'd in the least â—ike Idolatry and that our Saviour himâ—elf should have so little regard for his Disâ—iples as to let them commit a gross sin â—f a damning nature without any check or â—eproof that that Holy Spirit which was â—romised to believers on purpose that He might guide them into all truth that both these should so very early not only permit but encourage and perswade men to commit Idolatry and all this at a time when they pretended to promote the Salvation of Souls and when it was notoriously known to all Mankind that Idolatry was a Sin irrational in it self and detestable in the sight of God that the one part should commit and the other promote Idolatry under such circumstances is absolutely incredible They had the Pagan World at that time to reform The Apostles were all willing to spend and be spent to carry on that glorious and merciful work at the utmost hazard of their lives the great and crying sin of the Gentile world was their Idolatry that of which St. Paul particularly took notice with grief and anger among the Athenians but it had been a strange method of reforming an Idolatrous World by advancing the same practice without any other correction but only a variation of the Object as if Praying to a Man had not been as great an Error as Praying to a Genius or the Sun or some other bright Star or an Ox or any other Creature Such things would have rendred the Gospel foolishness with a witness among the Gentiles and none would have wondered that Christ should have culled out poor ignorant Fishermen and other illiterate persons to be the first Preachers since such a senceless Method of procedure was only fit for such dull and unthinking Creatures to prosecute But
and Gentiles the glad Tydings of Salvation they assisted by the Influences of the Holy Spirit did a great many Miracles among them both yet where they were most venerable for their Miracles where most zealous to spend and to be spent for the propagation of the Gospel they met with very unkind Returns and commonly seal'd those saving Truths deliver'd with their own Blood so that when we have turn'd our selves which way soever we can we must of necessity conclude either that the Martyrs were abundantly more exemplary in their Deaths than Christ himself their Lord and Master which is either Blasphemy or very like it or else we must conclude there was somewhat distinct from any thing yet mentioned in the Death of that Lamb of God which made it more terrible and heavy than all those exquisite Tortures expiring Martyrs underwent for is it possible that without any such Circumstances He who was emphatically stiled the Son of God the Son of his Love that Son in whom he was well pleased He who was One with his eternal Father should be afraid of Death of Humane Cruelties or complain of Dereliction is it possible he should be able at any time to send such Assistances to those who believed on him as should make them despise all the Terrors and Furies of a malicious World and yet himself be weak and timid start at the sting of that Death which dying Martyrs smiled at is it possible that He who knew no sin nor had any guile found in his Mouth should tremble before that King of Terrors over whom his own Followers and only by Faith in him so gloriously triumph'd these things are incredible But let us again consider our Dearest Lord as appearing as our Pledge and Surety before his Father as paying in his Death a satisfactory Price to his incensed Father for the Transgressions of Mankind let us consider him as dying for our Sins as being made a Curse for us therefore apprehensive of Divine Displeasure on our behalf as being made Sin for us as being made by God Justification and Redemption for us as having redeem'd us by his most precious Blood as having reconciled us to God by his Death let us remember that he is a Propitiation for us through Faith in his Blood that He bore our Sins in his Body upon the Cross that he was sacrificed for us to take away our Sins for all which Considerations we have the undeniable Warrants of Scripture in short let us consider our Saviour as undergoing those bitter Pains in his last Sufferings which for the Quality of him the Sufferer and for the Immensity of the Sufferings themselves being internal as well as external were equivalent to those eternal Punishments prepared for Impenitent Sinners let us but seriously weigh these things and that the Humane Nature of him who was the Son of God himself should startle and recoil can never be incredible if we look'd upon him as engaged in this dismal work how prodigious was his Patience how inexpressible inconceivable his Charity for him that was originally undefiled to be made Sin him that was the well-beloved Son to be made a Curse him whom an ungrateful World rejected to become an expiatory Sacrifice for that World for him who had never done any Sin nor deserv'd any Punishment to undergo the severest Agonies and Death it self for the sake of obdurate and unconsidering Sinners these are the stupendous Effects of inscrutably mysterious Love such as the more a pious Man meditates on the more he is rapt into Amazement and the more closely he reflects on Humane Demerits his Astonishment grows the more profound that Man so miserable should be consider'd that the Son of Man should be so mercifully visited these things observ'd the sufferings of Martyrs were not worth the naming on the same day with the Sufferings of the Son of God their Agonies were sports compared with his and he dearly purchas'd by taking off that bitter Cup all those Comforts and Joys and Triumphs which they afterwards pretended to He in his own Person conquer'd first those gigantic Monsters Sin and Death and Hell in open field he triumph'd over them upon the Cross He led Captivity captive and how easie was it then for the Sons of Faith to follow the Captain of their Salvation and to wear those Crowns of Righteousness which he had purchas'd for them with his own most precious Blood when they knew God's Anger was aton'd that they had One able to save continually sitting on the Right-hand of God as an Intercessor for them when they were infallibly assur'd those Persons were blessed who were persecuted for Righteousness sake for that theirs was the Kingdom of Heaven it was no wonder that they rejoiced and were exceeding glad nor was it strange that those who suffer'd for the sake of Truth before the Incarnation of our Saviour should express the same Courage they being Partakers of the same Faith and depending as unmoveably upon God's Promises made to them as if they liv'd upon Earth to see their utmost accomplishment so that they too had the same Mediator the same Redeemer the same Saviour the same glorious Hopes and Expectations Having thus largely insisted upon some reasons why it was necessary that God and particularly God the Son should be incarnate and consequently suffer for the Salvation of Mankind we are now to consider the Force and Import of those Arguments as laid together That a Messias was to be sent and on such a saving Errand is a Truth questioned by none but that in a meer Man such things should be made good as were foretold concerning him was impossible for in a meer Man all the Families of the earth could never have been blest though they were all ruin'd in one that was no more for the Repairer of Breaches the Restorer of Ruines the Raiser to Life ought to be greater and more powerful than the ordinary Instruments of procuring one or taking away the other for we see how every little Creature can do mischief where it requires a greater Care and extraordinary Industry to repair that Mischief when once done it was no meer Man who should reign for ever and of whose Kingdom there should be no end for such a Kingdom requires Eternity in the Administration the story of Scripture tells us that when Solomon had finished and dedicated his Temple and the Ark was carried into the Holy of holies upon the Priests coming out from thence 1 King 8.10 11. the Cloud filled the House of the Lord so that the Priests could not stand to minister because of the Cloud for the Glory of the Lord had filled the House of the Lord We meet with no account of any such Glory filling the Second Temple built after the return from Babylon yet the Comfort given by the Prophets to the mournful Elders of Israel when they were dejected on account of the Meanness of that Second Building was that the Glory of the
effectual to Gods glory and the improvers happiness Humane reason no sooner discovers the existence of God but upon a farther pursuit of that notion in enquiry after God's nature it finds it self lost in a vast abyss nothing but immense infinity being the object of a faculty unquestionably finite and limited must of consequence confound it unless there be some guide or director found out for it This made Simonides of old who was not only Poet a suavis verum etiam caeteroâ—â—â— doctus sapiensque Cicero de Nat. Deor. l. 1. p. 27. as Tully calls him a sweet Poet but a man otherwise learned and wise when Hiero King of Sicily ask'd him what God was require a days time to â—onsider of the question when the day after Hiero repeated his question he desn'd two days and when he askt still more and more time and Hiero wondring askt him the reason Quia quanto inquit diutiùs considero tanto mihi res videtur obscurior because says he the longer I consider of the matter the more obscure I find it Tully seems indeed to impute this to his general Scepticism but since he own'd a God and had no other guide but Nature it shew'd his wisdom to acknowledg the deficiency of that principle in carrying him farther It was Socrates's modesty which made him confess he had only learn'd this that he knew nothing And it was Simonides's prudence which made him own his ignorance in so mysterious a particular Reason teaches a man that has lost his eyes how great inconveniences he 's lyable to by that loss when he knows his helpless condition tho' Reason with all its arguments cannot restore his eyes reason can teach him to seek for a guide who can see and will satisfie him how far the kindness of the guide may repair his misfortune The same Reason in matters of Religion tho' it find out a God yet shews Man his natural blindness in relation to the consequences of that principle Now the Soul being always covetous of knowledge hoping â—y it â—o repair in sâ—me measure the ruines of the fâ—â— iâ— a Mâ—â— but follow its iâ—â—â—ation con◠〈…〉 to apprehend the 〈…〉 and to seek for one qu◠〈…〉 pâ—â—â—â—â—â— Here then we must own 〈◊〉 God hâ—s call'd upon mankind so earnâ—â—◠〈◊〉 â—ome to him and has promis'd that those who do so he will by no means reject and that he will assist such by the gifts of his Spirit that they may improve the farther in divine knowledge we must own that it would be inconsistent with these engagements and promises and consequently with Goâ—'s veracity if he should not be ready to rewâ—â—d with sutable assistances all such who accoâ—â—ing to their abilities diligently seek 〈◊〉 As a full proof of his readiness in the case he has imparted his Will to mankind in Scripture the reading of books is the ordinary means of attaining knowledge or at leâ—st a due converse with such who have leisure and capacity to read and understâ—â—d them such reading is useful even to inspiâ—â—d persons 1 Tim. 4.13 14. whence St. Paul advises Timothy an Evangelist to give attendance to reading as well as to exhortation and doctrine and not to neglect the gift that was in him And howsoever some may contemn thâ—â—â—â—â—â—ane learning which they cannot reach we have no reason to believe that S. Paul was prejudiced in his Apostolical abilities by having been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel or by having bestowed some time in reading the Poems of Aratus or Epimenides That God himself might comply with this ordinary means of acquiring knowledge He committed his own Will to writing and that in such a manner that the weakest might not complain the book was wholly unintelligible nor the wisest make their boast that they comprehended every thing contained there The man that seeks to improve his reason by reading in search of books must act very irrationally if he pretermit the Book of God For he that believes there is a God and takes him for a Being infinitely superiour to himself when he thinks it worth his while to converse with humane writings cannot but judge it much more so to examine a book which carries the name of God himself as its Author in the frontispiece Hee 'd read it tho' it were to no other end but to find whether it were agreeable to that august title it bore and what real characters of the Divinity were to be found in it But when such a man comes once to read it seriously tho' he 's not able to comprehend all he reads yet his rational faculty must run very low if he find not more improvements of it there than in all other writings whatsoever It 's observable of the Mariners that carried Jonah for Tarshish that when the storm sent by the God of Israel lay hard upon them the Mariners in their fear called every one upon his God they believ'd in general there was such a being but a multitude being adored by the greater part of the world instead of one every one had his particular idol to address to Jonah 1.4 5 9 10.14 15 16. But when Jonah sensible of his crime and that vengeance which pursued it had confess'd the truth and perswaded them to throw him overboard and they tho' unwillingly complyed with him they before they would do an action so severe and extraordinary applyed themselves to the true God and finding the storm to cease upon their Prayer they offered Sacrifices to him and made vows thus Pagan Mariners grew a kind of converts to true Religion So when Men in consulting Scriptures especially at first find their Souls disturb'd under a sence of former ignorance and meet with advices in that sacred book sufficient to extricate themselves out of that perplexity promises of the true God's readiness to hear and to assist those who desire to know him occur frequently too as particularly that of the Psalmist in the old Testament Ps 69.32 Your heart shall live that seek the Lord and that of Wisdome I love them that love me and they that seek me early shall find me Prov. 8.17 20 21. I lead in the way of righteousness in the midst of the paths of judgment that I may cause those that love me to inherit substance that I may fill their treasures i. e. that I may furnish them with solid knowledge and make them rich in understanding and that more clear yet of our Saviour when the Spirit of truth is come Joh. 16.13 he will guide you into all truth The Reader of these promises though very dubious in himself before will be apt to send up his petitions to that God who made these promises who will be as ready to hear such as he was to hear the ignorant Mariners before Thus light may shine into the Souls of those who are soberly inquisitive and that so great and clear as may be very unaccountable to the receivers of it but extremely
the latter part of the verse for let us with Grotius by the mystery of godliness understand the Gospel as we commonly understand it and which we own does contain the mystery of godliness That the Gospel was preach'd by weak Men we own nay that our Saviour himself in his state of exinanition or in his humane nature appear'd weak and contemptible enough we own too but that the Gospel appear'd in the flesh or cloath'd with flesh which is the proper import of the Apostles phrase we deny as absurd That the Gospel was justified in or by the Spirit the miraculous effusions of that confirming the truth of the Gospel preach'd we may own well enough but that the Gospel was seen of Angels is scarce sence that it was never known before it had been declar'd by Men is false for the Angels could not be unacquainted with the several Prophecies of the old Testament concerning the Messias to come nor could they be so far to seek in the meaning of those Prophecies many of which they had been instrumental in delivering and the Angels themselves were indeed the first preachers of the Gospel So the Angel Gabriel tells Zacharias concerning the Son that should be born to him Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children Luke 1.16 17. and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. The same Gabriel afterwards tells the blessed Virgin Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus v. 31 32 33. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his kingdom there shall be no end It was an Angel that appear'd to Joseph in a dream Matth. 1.20 21. and told him that his espoused wife was with child of the Holy Ghost And she shall bring forth a Son says he and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Again an Angel of the Lord tells the Shepherds who were watching their flocks by night Luke 2.10 11 13 14. Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. To which Gospel a whole Choir of Angels subjoyned their Eucharistical Hymn Glory be to God on high in earth peace good will towards men These instances are enough to prove that Angels knew the Gospel before men preacht it not to mention their administring to our Saviour in the wilderness when entring on his prophetical Office and their publishing his resurrection the great confirmation of the Gospel before his Apostles had any apprehensions of it The Gospel was indeed preach'd unto the Gentiles and believ'd on in the World but it was far from being receiv'd in glory for it was scorn'd and derided and cruelly persecuted both by Jews and Gentiles the Devil raising all the powers in the world as far as possible for the extirpation of what was so great an enemy to his Tyranny the Gospel then will not answer all those particular marks set down in the Text. Neither yet are they applicable to God the Father as several of the Socinians would have them for to say God the Father was manifest in the flesh because his will was preach'd by Men who were but flesh and blood besides that such an assertion quits the Suppositum or Subject which was God the Father unless God and Gods will be one and the same thing which cannot be asserted It 's so uncouth an expression as is no where to be parallel'd either in Scripture or any Ecclesiastical Writer We read not any where that God the Father ever appear'd in the flesh or assum'd Humane nature nor did ever any dream of such a thing unless we recur to the ancient Patropassians so call'd because they believ'd it was really God the Father who being Incarnate suffer'd death on the Cross for the sins of Mankind but of that we have no foot-steps in holy Writ nor was the Deity it self ever made manifest in the flesh but in the flesh of the blessed Jesus Col. 2.9 in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily not in his doctrine as the Socinians would have it but in himself Vid. Schlicktin in loc and according to their own demands on the like occasion we would have them shew us some other clear place of Scripture wherein God the Father is said to be manifest in the flesh or to be manifest in Christ and the Apostles and then we may the better consent to their interpretation Again it 's as odd and unusual to say God the Father was justified in the Spirit for what need was there of any such justification his Eternal Power and Godhead were visible in the Universal fabrick of nature and all the Miracles done by our Saviour which Socinians refer to the influence of the Spirit were done that Men might know he was the promis'd Messias and those done by the Apostles after his ascent into Heaven carry'd along with them the same respect but we never heard of any publick declaration made by the Spirit for a more peculiar conviction of the World that the most High God was God indeed or the true God we may understand things thus as the Socinians say but we may a great deal better let it alone and not run into such interpretations of God's Word as we can neither reconcile to truth nor sense If we go farther the matter is not mended at all when we say God the Father was seen of Angels for what novelty was there in that had not they stood continually before his face from the instant of their first Creation or should we flie to God's will was not that known to his peculiar Ministers till such time as they came to learn it by the preaching of mortal men who can imagine so short a Text of Scripture and design'd to make known the greatest mystery in the world should lash out into such absolute impertinencies but to proceed God the Father was preach'd to the Gentiles but where he 's mention'd often doubtless as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in those Epistles written by the Apostles to their Gentile Converts but the Gospel it self is stil'd the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostles pretend to preach nay to know nothing among their Converts but Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 2.2 and him crucified as St. Paul expresses himself if we must say God the Father was preach'd he was certainly preach'd most to the Antediluvian World by Noah and the elder Patriarchs or he was preach'd
deep ever to be made up It 's true when God himself was mention'd as the undertaker of so great a work even despairing man might entertain some dawning hopes but when they saw a poor Carpenter's Son one who had not so much as where to lay his head assume yet the glorious title of the world's Redeemer and Saviour their hopes slagg'd their almost grasped joys seem'd just vanishing into empty air When the Holy Ghost God too infinitely good and powerful and wise interpos'd and attended that humble Man with so much vigour and constancy that He by a thousand glorious actions and by a close and perpetual correspondence with Heaven visible even to vulgar eyes prov'd the entire Union that was between himself and his Father and that Sacred Spirit and justified himself in the thoughts of very aliens themselves who could not but acknowledge of a truth that for all his mean appearance and his scandalous Passion on the Cross He was the Son of God But could men have doubted still the happy Angels those purer and more discerning Spirits saw him too they saw him and knew him and ador'd him they saw their mighty Lord tho' veil'd in all the rags of poor mortality And tho' sin might have made a former breach between those blessed Spirits and polluted man yet now where their Lord loved they lov'd too and always look'd and always waited on him while he wrought the worlds redemption while he was so justified and so attended on divers gave up themselves absolutely to his service whom he lov'd and taught and protected and endued with miraculous knowledge eloquence and courage and sent them on that blessed errand to preach to the Gentiles the glad tydings of Salvation in his name They boldly undertook the work and tho' they had ignorance and prejudice and malice and cunning to contend with meer men contemn'd before but then inspired broke through all opposition and the forsaken Gentiles heard the gladsome sounds of peace and tho' there were too many enemies to their own good yet those laborious messengers of Heaven preached with that power and efficacy that men began every where to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Nay the more men of perverse minds cross'd the designs of that Gospel preach'd in the name of the Son of God the more those who believed in him were multiplied As for himself when he had finished that stupendous work and by his own Death had conquered Hell and Death He broke those fatal chains and rose again no more lyable to humane rage His Almighty Father who had viewed all the prodigious efforts of his Love to mankind with an ineffable complacency reach'd out his holy arm to receive that very humane Nature in which his beloved Son had done and suffered so much from him the chearful clouds were sent for a Chariot and he went upwards flying upon the wings of the wind while jâ—cund Angels those ministerial flames waited on his triumphs and taught his wondring followers what they were afterwards to expect from their Redeemer These are those mighty mysteries on which our most holy faith is built their truth however unintelligible to us is our security and the sincerity of our faith will necessarily show it self in an holy conversation and godliness The Verse I have explain'd then imports That without Controversie the Mystery of Godliness is great or in more words That the Basis or foundation of that Religion introduced into the World by the Doctrine of Christ's Gospel is indisputably and agreeably to the nature of Religion to Humane reason extremely profound and unintelligible To prove this we shall enquire Into the Vniversal agreement of all persons of what Religion soever That Mysteries are essential to Religion Whether our Saviour intended the entire abolition of all other Religions for the settlement of his own or rather to unite what was good in every distinct Religion into one and to sublime or perfect that so as it might tend most to God's glory and Man's happiness and whether that could be effected Men standing in their present corrupt state without the retaining of old or instituting of new Mysteries in his Religion What considerable advantages can accrue to Religion from those Mysteries it 's founded upon Then we must enquire into that Vniversal agreement of all persons whatsoever that Mysteries or some principles or circumstances of a more secret and abstruse nature are essential to all Religion But here to prevent all mistakes it must be remember'd That so much as concerns the practical part of Religion as contain'd in the Word of God is so clear and evident that the words of St. Paul are justly apply'd to them If they be hid they are hid to those that are lost whose eyes the God of this World hath blinded that the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ should not shine upon them 2 Cor. 4.3 4. The words whereby all things necessary to be done toward the attainment of eternal life are exprest are such and so plain that the simplest Christian may understand them And that person who goes about to involve the practical duty of a Christian whether in respect of his communication with God or man in obscure and mysterious terms crosses the end of the Gospel which is to instruct the weakest understanding in an easie and intelligible way how to live godly righteously and soberly in this present evil world yet it must be acknowledged that even in relation to practice there are some apparent difficulties and notwithstanding all that plainness apparent in God's word a Man has a very hard task sometimes to distinguish between what 's lawful and what 's unlawful such cases are commonly known by the name of Cases of Conscience or such matters wherein so many arguments seemingly strong and plausible appear on both sides to the understanding that it knows not which way to act and all that hesitancy or doubtfulness arises onely from a fear of offending God These generally respecting Christian practice create a great deal of trouble frequently to very good Men for others are seldom troubled with such religious fears and these are sometimes by various and unusual circumstances rendred so very intricate that the wisest and most discerning Men are often at a loss to clear and resolve them to the Querent's satisfaction Here the Jews were order'd to have recourse to their Priests whose lips were suppos'd to preserve knowledge and the Priests when there was any thing of a more inextricable nature had the Vrim and Thummim to appeal to The Heathens had some emergent doubts as to matter of publick management of themselves which sometimes perplex'd them too and they had their imaginary wise Men the Priests attending their desecrated altars who would assume as if they had the art of resolving doubts those who profess Christianity have still a severer task in these matters as having no Oracle immediately to consult and having doubts more numerous and
obscure to contend with But here learning and study a strict familiarity with God's Word and an exercised experience carry the Christian Priest thro' a great many vexatious enquiries and a modest consultation with others who are blest with such qualifications tends much to the settlement of dubious minds but after all these are properly no mysteries for the rules of Scripture by which such inquiries are ultimately determined are very plain and obvious to every understanding their nature being like that of a Light in a dark place which serves to guide and direct Travellers in the way they should go but the occasion of these doubts is the misapplication of rules to matter of fact the misapprehension or misrepresentation of circumstances c. wherein the distempers of the Soul are much like the diseases of the body if the Patient can give a just and rational account of those parts about him which are griev'd and how he finds himself the Physician easily understands the disease and is able to apply the proper medicines but if the Patient gives a broken and uncertain account of his condition even a skilful Physician may grosly mistake the disease and its remedy to the Patient's ruine so when doubting Christians understand not the state of their own Souls nor the first motives or occasions of their fears or where they are afraid or ashamed to lay open themselves with all sincerity to him from whom they expect relief it 's not to be wondred at if excellent advices fail of their proper effect whereas a true insight into a Man's self makes the greatest seeming difficulties easily and certainly determinable As for matters of Faith they are of another nature and tho' matters of practice so far as practice is religious depend upon what the Christian believes altogether and are so very plain as I shew'd before yet those objects of faith are so far beyond the reach of reason as it is from Earth to Heaven nay that very faith without which as we are sufficiently assur'd it 's impossible to please God though it be inherent in the pious Soul is absolutely mysterious and inexplicable We feel the prodigious force of it in those acts whereby it raises the Soul to a contemplation of Divine things but it is as the Prophets of old felt the inspiring energy of the sacred Spirit when they spoke what it dictated but could give no account of the methods of its operation in them the Apostle when he tells us of it that it's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.1 the substance of things hoped for and that it 's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the argumental evidence of things not seen tho' he gives us doubtless an authentick description of that necessary grace yet shows the unintelligible nature of it by his very expressions for what difference is there among Learned Men and how much pains taken to clear the meaning of this description It imports indeed that true faith is of so efficacious a nature that tho' it have respect onely to things which are at a distance yet it represents them to the Soul so plainly and so powerfully that the Soul reaps equal satisfaction from that distant view as it would from an immediate possession Meginhardus the German Monk writes well of it when he says Faith is called the substance of things hoped for by a figure not that it 's really their proper substance but because that faith which works by love by which the just live and by which power is given to us that we should be call'd and really be the Sons of God that faith in the troublesome pilgrimage of this life meditates on the reward of eternal happiness with so firm and certain an hope Vt in corum cordibus qui charitate quae per spiritum sanctum in eis diffusa est dilatantur Vid. Dictericum in voce jam nunc per ineffabile desiderium ea faciat subsistere that even at this time by that ineffable ardency of desire they are possest with it makes them subsist in their hearts who have hearts enlarged with that charity or Love which is pour'd into them by the holy Spirit and Jaeobus Capellus in our Criticks explains the same Apostolical expression thus Fiducia est velut in statione manens ac rem promissam expectans cum animi submissione habénsque simul vim statuminandi sperantem sistendi rem speratam i. e. This faith is a confidence well fixt and setled waiting for the thing promised with a due submission of mind and having a force in it self sufficient to support him that hopes and to bring to hand the thing hoped for Again it 's the evidence of things not seen therefore out-going humane reason in this life for if humane reason were clear enough to prove to us those things undeniably which we expect in a future state there would then be no need of any other evidence at least we should not by the Apostle be referr'd to an evidence naturally more obscure when reason that by which we do or should most commonly act could give us what was much more plain and obvious but our reason being notoriously defective in the case our firm belief that there is an Heaven of joys and an Hell of woes to be met with hereafter is an argument not to be answer'd that there are really such things for the Soul of Man is not easily carried out of it self into violent longings after a meer phantastical good nor is it ordinarily terrified with apprehensions of Mormoes or bug-bears but where it runs out most into fabulous or figurative expressions of its expectations there 's somewhat real and sound in the bottom so those that talk of infernal Judges in Hell and various kinds of sensible pains to be there felt and of Furies torturing Souls c. all agree certainly in that that vengeance does certainly attend ill actions and that tho' Men may escape plausibly in this world they shall certainly suffer terribly in the next tho' they cannot make a tolerable conjecture how a guilty Spirit should suffer to such extremity In the same manner those that tell us of Elysian fields adorn'd with variety of beautiful Flowers blest with a serene Air and a continual Spring where those that have done well happy in each others society shall live in undisturb'd pleasures beyond the reach of fates malice or times consumption All such prove their certain belief that there is and shall be a reward for the righteous that is an unallay'd felicity to be attain'd but what a kind of felicity that is which is infinite and eternal who can tell nay who would value them as the Saints do if they could possibly comprehend them No it is because eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor has it entred into the heart of man to conceive how great those things are which God has prepared for those that love him Therefore the holy and the wise are always panting after those enjoyments
reputation but with as little success And indeed it was almost inconceiveable that a company of mean men looked upon generally with an evil eye should resolve to publish a parcel of notorious falsehoods which every man upon his own knowledge could have confuted and thereby have exposed themselves to the just fury of a deluded multitude it was inconceivable that so many in their writings and preachings could at such different times and such distant places agree together to put a sham upon mankind and to do it so coherently in it self and so agreeably to one another as it was apparent these men did Now in writing a History of immediate transactions there can be nothing fairer in the world than for men who are eye and ear witnesses of the things in question to compile the story and to publish it in their times who knew the same things whether they were true or false as certainly as themselves and an History so written that passes through such an age without reproof may justly pass for authentick nor can any meer humane testimony attain a greater certainty And where the subject of such a History is Divine where many things are declared beyond the reach of humane capacities where they are yet laid down so exactly agreeable to those things obvious to humane understandings and where there appears nothing disagreeable to the common expectances of the world nor to those best and fairest Idea's we have of the Divine Nature there the History grows it self divine and proves it self dictated by a Being superiour to all terrene defects such a History is the History of the Gospel and such an appeal to humane sence and knowledge and carryes such demonstrations of inspiration with it where we find God himself declaring by a voice from Heaven the nature of which the Jews from their ancient records must necessarily apprehend at the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist Luke 3.22 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased which voice as being design'd for the Introducing of our Saviour into the world was audible not only to John the Baptist but to others and when it was repeated at the transfiguration Matth. 17.5 it was audible to all those who accompanied him and John the Baptist himself of whose Commission the Jews seem'd very well satisfied declares John 1.33 34. He that sent me to baptize with water the same said unto me Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and I saw and bare record that this is that Son of God Now tho' the stubborn Jews seem not to have depended at all upon these declarations nor to have been by them convinced of the truth of what was asserted in them yet their acknowledging John the Baptist to have been a Prophet and their never denying the truth of these accounts as here set down are indeed very considerable proofs of their truth especially since nothing could represent them worse than relating such things as truth and describing them as incredulous and refractary still The Evangelical writers as they give us this account concerning voices from Heaven and the testimony of John the Baptist so they inform us of Christ himself that he owned and asserted his own original too so he tells Nicodemus a person of sence and curiosity as appears by his discourse with our Saviour God so loved the world John 3.16 that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believed on him should not perish but have everlasting life Which declaration refers to himself he mentioning that sending of the Son of God as a thing now accomplished which title none assumed nor was it given to any before himself They tell us how justly he rebuk'd the Jews for charging him with blasphemy because he called himself the Son of God John 10.36 for the nature of those works he did openly in the world's view was a sufficient proof of his being sent by God since nothing less than a divine power and assistance could possibly effect such things as the Jews if they had not been resolved upon ruine could not but know But God was not wont to send such on his errands who puff'd up with pride would usurp great and improper titles to themselves or who would impose on the world by daring falshoods the Jews were not wholly irrational in thinking he deserved death for calling himself the Son of God if really he were not John 19.7 No Politicks yet could fairly give a toleration to open blasphemy But the Jews tho' very angry with him for calling himself by so august a name railed at him indeed and accused him and persecuted him but never went about to disprove him nay when he challeng'd them if they could to convince him of sin John 8.46 to shew any crime whatsoever that he had been guilty of they answered him only with an acquitting silence they were excellent at generals but the worst in the world at particulars and yet to be without sin was so extraordinary a quality as could be compatible only with one descending from Heaven Vnclean Spirits terribly sensible of his power frequently howsoever unwillingly confest him to be the Son of God Matth. 8.29 Mar. 3.11 and they were too much his enemies to acknowledge a thing so very disadvantagious to their own designs had it not been truth Nathanael a prudent and a pious man upon discourse with him easily confest Thou art the Son of God Joh. 1.49 thou art the King of Israel The disciples when they saw how with one word Jesus laid that storm which had threatned their destruction confest Matt 14.33 of a truth thou art the Son of God Humane power could not quell the loud and violent storms but he that made them could easily allay their fury The Roman Centurion who was his guard at his Crucifixion when he saw how at his giving up the ghost the earth quaked Matth. 27.50 54. the rocks rent the veil of the Temple was split in twain from top to bottom and the graves opened and long buried bodies arose from their heavy sleep could not but submit his faith to such prodigious visions and profess that truly this was the Son of God Nature was not wont to undergo such dreadful convulsions for the death of an inferiour person but when its great Creator suffer'd it was time to own its sympathetick pangs after these things it was no wonder to hear the Apostles declare Acts 3.13 36. That the God of their fathers had glorified his Son Jesus Christ and again That unto us God having raised up his Son Jesus Christ sent him to bless us in turning away every one of us from our iniquities But after all had either Jews or Romans prov'd as well as call'd Christ a deceiver before it must have been a very unordinary confidence in the Apostles to act over the baffled farce again and
from heaven which all wise men have hitherto believed then the writers of the New Testament had no other way to prove their own inspiration but by agreement with the former lest the holy Spirit to whose conduct both pretended should seem inconsistent with himself or variable as mens humours could apprehend him It 's not now to be doubted but that our Saviour who knew what was in Man therefore all along gave just preventives of those Cavils which the malicious Jews could afterwards raise against him and therefore in his first Sermon upon the Mount he shews himself so far from evacuating what was in its own nature moral and perpetually obliging that he on the contrary clears it from all those putid glosses the Jewish readers or Rabbins had fixt upon it and whereas they had endeavoured to find as many starting holes from the severity of good Morals as the Jesuites of later years have done he gave his hearers the full sense and meaning of the Law that so by pretending to liberty from its rigours they might not run themselves into eternal woes and in plain terms lets them know that whereas they were ready simply to imagine the severities of the Scribes and Pharisees very extraordinary and meritorious they were infinitely deceived and that except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 It was doubtless the full end and design of Moses and the Prophets to advance the honour of that God who employed them to make his Name and his Laws respected not only among the tribes of Israel but among all those nations to whose knowledge their writings were likely at any time to come who by the rationality and tendency of the Laws would certainly judge of the wisdom goodness and integrity of the Law-giver but when those Prophets and others had done their best their endeavours were mixt with so many failures and imperfections that sometimes they fell themselves a great way under God's displeasure as Moses by his infidelity and presumption at the rock The man of God that Prophesied against the Altar in Bethel by yielding to the lying suggestions of the old Prophet Jonah by his frowardness because of God's superseding his prophetical denunciation by his long suffering and mercy extended to penitent sinners c. And besides in all those services those holy Men perform'd they could claim no higher a title than that of undeserving servants for that they had only done what was their plain duty and in case of failure they were obnoxious to very severe penalties and Moses tho' he have that honourable character that he was faithful in all God's house it was but as a servant still and for a testimony of those things that were to be spoken after Heb. 3.5 6. But Christ as a Son over his own house took a more exact and effectual care in all things to promote the glory of his Father It 's natural for the Son to be more sollicitous in such cases than a mercenary servant who does what he does prompted both by a fear of punishment and an earnest expectation of reward above both which things a pious Son always lives and therefore whereas the rest always call God their Lord and King c. the blessed Jesus continually calls him his Father his heavenly father and by that relation he so stands in to the Almighty and by what he has done for us in taking our nature upon him and the consequences of that assumption he has procured the same privilege superiour to what was apprehended by those of old with assurance of being heard to say in our Prayers Our Father which art in heaven But to effect all this in relation to his Fathers honour and our good how many scorns abuses persecutions and barbarous cruelties did he undergo from wicked Men yet as freely as if he had been altogether unconcern'd so long as Men could but any ways be reduced to an acknowledgment of their errors and a serious repentance What he underwent so made him as Man the more fit to prescribe Laws to others who were likely to suffer extremely from the same foolish world for embracing those truths he delivered them as we always esteem an Humble man most fit to teach others humility and a Charitable man charity and a Patient man patience For tho' others may declaim as well in commendation of the same virtues and in reproof of the same vices yet the discourses of exemplary persons are justly expected to make the deepest impressions upon their hearers With this advantage our blessed Lord instructed every one that would receive his Doctrine in the ways of happiness he used all the allurements of irresistible Wisdom and unanswerable Reason all the motives of Mercy and Goodness to procure their attendance and obedience He set them a compleat pattern of obedience to God and of innocence and holiness in his converse and then gives that as a standing rule that his Disciples should follow his example and let their light shine before Men for that very end that others seeing their good works might glorifie their Father which was in Heaven But when the blessed Jesus design'd the reformation of a sinful World the nature of his Doctrine and the manner of its propagation was adapted rightly to so admirable an end And therefore whereas the wretched Heathen part of Mankind did infinitely dishonour their Creator whereas they exactly answer'd that account of the Apostle When they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful Rom. 1.21 22 c. but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkned they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and to four-footed Beasts and to creeping things they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipp'd and serv'd the creature more than the Creator whence they were filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness malice envy c. Whereas this was their real condition infinite numbers of them by this means running head-long into everlasting damnation and yet the ill-natured Jews to whom the Oracles of God were at that time committed took no care for their recovery pleasing themselves onely with a fond conceit of their own righteousness crying to all the rest of Mankind Stand by your selves come not near us for we are holier than you Since they only talk'd of their being the people of God and boasted of his Temple studying more to proselyte Men to an outward Circumcision and a few empty Ceremonies than to real inward holiness and integrity since these very Jews did but abuse their own greater advantages and trample upon the most excellent and obliging part of the Law our Saviour rectified their Error by the dilatation of his own Doctrine and taking exact care to have it spread as far as humane guilt had extended before so
one towards another if we endeavour to promote one anothers Salvation by all those means which by Providence are put into our hands In this argument the Apostle makes use of such expressions as stumble the enemies of the Divinity of the Son of God very much and give them a great deal of pains to shift off and to evade so the form of God they determine to be nothing but a resemblance or representation of God in his Works Christ was in the form of God when he did those many wonderful works during his converse upon earth those Miracles importing somewhat of a divine power but what is there in this peculiar to our Saviour Moses might as well have been said to have been in the form of God since he too did a great many prodigious things and the Skies the Air the Waters the Earth seemed all as obedient to him as to our Saviour afterwards Elijah and Elisha might have receiv'd the same Character and the Apostles much more since Christ himself had promised them that they should not only do the same but greater miracles than he himself did yet Scripture never talks of these at any such rate as their being in the form of God If it be objected that Moses the Prophets mention'd and the Disciples after our Lord's Resurrection did indeed many and great Miracles but they were not done in their own names we acknowledge it but if our adversaries may be believed our Saviour was in the same circumstances for his Miracles were only done in the name of God and so were the Mosaic and Prophetic Miracles done If they 'l own that our Saviour did his Miracles in His own name they grant what they take so much pains to disprove for none can do a Miracle in his own name but he who has an inherent power in himself commanding all the parts of the Creation having no need of leave or assistance from any superiour Being but such a power is and only can be inherent in the most high God therefore if our Saviour had that power he was and is the most high God if he had not he 's in the same rank with other holy and good Men and any of them might have been instanced in as patterns of as great condescension and love to Souls as himself They criticise upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of God as if it signified only an outward shadow and appearance and therefore not the real divine essence and therefore whereas the Apostle makes mention afterwards of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of a Servant they are under a necessity of denying that that signifies his assuming humane nature tho' the words following are indeed an explication of these being in the form of a servant and being found in likeness of men are but explicatory one of another and so Schlicktingius owns it but upon what reason we know not upon that last phrase of being found in likeness of men he writes thus Figurâ i. e. non reipsâ sed apparenter externâ specie tantum in the form or figure of a Man that is not a Man indeed but only to outward appearance and to common view a Commentary to me unintelligible since they own Christ to have been a real man and nothing else the reason of their niceness here is only this They fear that if they own the form of a Servant signifies the humane nature of Christ then the form of God must signifie the divine nature of the same person which they cannot endure to hear of but the Fathers with one current interpret it so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the essence of God so Theodoret on the place Gregory Nyssen Athanasius Chrysostome Theophylact c. and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nature of a servant in the same sence so Theodoret Athanasius Paedagog l. 3. c. 1. Theophylact and Clemens Alexandrinus who cannot well be suspected of partiality in the case and this authority is much better than theirs who only assert the contrary arbitrarily and without reason That Christ thought it no robbery to be equal with God they would have to signifie only this That he thought it not so great an advantage to be in the form of God or like him as to be obstinate in the retention of that likeness but would humbly quit it to be used and suffer like a servant and for this Enjedine runs to some phrases in Heliodorus his Aethiopic Romance where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rapina signifies as much if he interpret it rightly but that 's too modern an authority to interpret Scripture by and too slight a work to teach us how to understand the dictates of God's Holy Spirit After several Cavils they yield that to be like to God is to be equal to God but equality must be between distinct beings for none can be equal to himself We own it and say the Father and the Son are distinct persons but of one nature as Father and Son must be if their relation be real but if God the Father and God the Son be of one and the same Nature they must have one and the same Essence because two infinite Essences are a contradiction our Saviour being in the form of his Father and equal to his Father could not look on it as a crime or think it any Sacrilege or robbery to own that equality as he did by his expressions of himself and by those adorations he permitted to be paid to himself Here then was Love and Condescention indeed that He who was God equal with his father should assume to himself poor infirm servile flesh and blood and in that humble himself and be obedient to death even that scandalous and painful death on the Cross for our sakes This Passion and this Obedience was truly meritorious it intrinsically and in its own real value merited the redemption of all mankind it effectually and in its outward operation merited and procured the Salvation of all those that believe in him As a reward for this Humility and Obedience God has highly exalted the Humane Nature of his Son that 's enclosed in or substantially united to the Divine Nature and consequently partakes of all that bliss that eternal glory and happiness which the Deity it self enjoys by which means it comes to be lawful for Christians to worship Christ as Man tho' not as meer Man as well as as he is God a practice which could never be excused from being the greatest Idolatry in the World if there were no such union as will hereafter be proved in course For that exception to this Text that Jesus is the name of Man not of God and Christ the name of an Office it signifies the Anointed One the Messias and therefore cannot belong to the most high God it 's extremely impertinent they are not our Saviour's names as he is God but as he
be the power of God a virtue flowing out of or from the Supreme Deity under this Notion we may rationally assert that this Holy Spirit can be commanded no way but by the Supreme God himself none else can promise it none can give it for if the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets much more certainly must the Spirit of God be subject to him it subsisting wholly in him and being according to our Adversaries one of those qualifications necessarily in the Supreme God Granting all this if our Saviour was a meer man as they say he could not possibly command this Sacred Spirit this Spirit so much superiour to mankind tho' considered as no more than a meer Appendage to the Almighty Yet our Saviour seems to employ this Spirit as he will that 's no wonder if the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost tho' three persons be all one God That exact concurrence in their eternal wills taking away all difficulties Thus when the Lord met with his Disciples and shew'd them the necessity of things happening with relation to himself as they did then He opened their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures Luk. 24.45 this opening their understandings did not consist barely in explaining some particular Texts to them they were yet but very dull and slow of understanding in themselves and tho' they had heard a thousand Texts authentically explain'd they might have continued very inapprehensive still Nor is it an usual manner of speech to say when a man explains any Author to others that he opens their understandings he may open the meaning of such or such Books or Passages very well yet those who hear him may not improve in their intellectuals this opening their understandings therefore argued some force upon their minds some extraordinary Energy of the Spirit within them whereby their natural and inveterate Dulness went off and they had more of spriteliness and vigour in their Souls than formerly they seem'd as Slaves with their fetters knockt off nimble and active and therefore more capable of apprehending any thing offered to them than formerly This was the first beginning to fit them for that great work they were in a few days to engage in it was to make them capable of satisfying themselves gradually in the Truth and Reason of those things which they were afterwards to preach to the world abroad and which they were compleatly fitted for by the following extraordinary effusions of that Holy Spirit upon them The first operations of it upon them then were gentle and easie but it was the operation of that Sacred Spirit only and of that Spirit as ordered by the blessed Jesus by which their understandings were thus opened We may agree to this the more easily if we consider that Promise Christ makes to his Disciples after this Behold I send the promise of my father upon you Luk 24.49 but tarry ye in the City of Jerusalem untill you be endued with power from on high The Father promises it but I send it Now this uses not to be a task for a man to make good the Promises of God it 's out of his power especially if the Promise be to be made good in some particular wherein God has a more peculiar interest Is my Spirit my breath none then can give it to another tho' my Spirit be not originally my own but breathed into me by an Almighty Creator Is the Holy Ghost the Breath the Spirit the Influence of God none then can dispose of it from him and the rather because it is originated in him and must be one with him it was then a strange presumption in our Lord to take upon him the making good Gods Promises to others since if he were no more than a Man He promised what was not in his power and pretended to make up some defects in his veracity who was the God of Truth and Truth it self But our Saviour went farther yet for making a visit once to his Disciples after his Resurrection His Blessing being bestowed he gives them a Commission of an extraordinary nature As my Father hath sent me even so send I you i. e. Job 20.21 As my Father sent me to reform the World so I send you to caâ—ry on that same work and as my Father's mission of me gave me a sufficient authority to do those things necessary to so great an end so my sending you gives you as great and unquestionable authority in proportion to those things which are laid on you this intimates that Christ had power to send men to govern and manage his Church as his Father had and in the same degree for if our Saviour was only his Father's Ambassador to them and so inferiour to him that sent him this had been an extravagant vanity it was never heard that an Ambassador from a King or Emperor pretended to send another Envoy from himself with such kind of expressions as these As my master the King has sent me so send I you nor are Princes wont to entrust their Agents with any such Power and the Credentials of such sub-ambassadors would appear very ridiculous to all those to whom they should be sent But from this Commission our Lord proceeds And when he had said this He breathed on them and said unto them ver 22. Receive ye the Holy Ghost Spiritus Sanctus est virtus seu efficacia à Deo in homines manans iisque communicata quâ eos ab aliis segregat suis usibus consecrat say the Socinians in the Racovian Catechism The Holy Spirit is a virtue or efficacy flowing from God upon men from the True the Supreme God they mean and communicated to them by which he separates such men from others and consecratâ— them to his own use If it be the efficacy or Power of the Supreme God how comes one whom they suppose to be a meer Man to confer it with his breath It was given afterwards by the laying on of the Apostles hands they gave it not by any virtue inherent in them but where they laid on their hands God sent it and that in different manners and proportions as he judged fit for the Receivers whose fitness the Apostles knew nothing of Our Saviour bestows it with his breath It must therefore be his own therefore he must be the Supreme God for in this action our Saviour did not mock his Disciples as Schlicktingius confesses CaetechismeÌ„ Rac. sect 6. c. 6. but he did certainly separate them by this action from the rest of the world and consecrated them peculiarly to his own service and this at the appointed time they engaged in according to his orders In the forementioned Catechism when they ask what the gift of the Holy Spirit is the answer is Est ejusmodi Dei afflatus quo animi nostri vel uberiore rerum divinarum notitiâ vel spe vitae eternae certiore atque adeo gaudio ac gustu quodam
That our Lord is called Immanuel by the Prophet as cited by S. Matthew or God with us that we might not think he was Man only but that we might know he was God too If then Christ was God as well as Man his Divine Nature being mentioned in contradistinction to his humane Nature Irenaeus cannot mean that He who was really a Man was only metaphorically God but that he was as really and essentially God as He was Man which is what we believe With Irenaeus agrees Clemens of Alexandria who thus teaches the Gentiles in his Admonition to them We are the rational Creatures of God the Word so he calls our Saviour after the Evangelist S. John Admon ad Gent. p. 5. l. D. by whom we pretend to Antiquity because God the Word was in the beginning but because the Word was from above He was and is the divine original of all things but since He has now taken upon him the name of Christ a name suitable to his power and which was sanctified of old I call him a new song This refers to his former Allegorical discourse wherein he endeavours to describe every thing under terms proper to Harmony or Musick This Word then this Christ who was at first in God was both the cause of our original existence and of our well-being But now this Word himself has made himself manifest to men who alone is both God and Man the cause of all our good by whom we being taught to live well are sent from hence to eternal life for according to that inspired Apostle of our Lord the Grace of God hath appear'd to all men teaching them that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live godly righteously and soberly in this present world looking for the glorious coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ This is the new song that manifestation of God the Word who was in the beginning and before all things and now shines brightly out to us He appear'd but lately who was our Saviour before He who is appear'd in him who is because the Word was with God and that Word by which all things were made makes his appearance as a Master that Word which as a Creator gave us life in our first formation appearing now as a Master or Teacher has taught us to live well that hereafter as God he may bestow upon us eternal life Thus far that very learned Father and his whole discourse does so plainly teach us the Pre-existence of our Saviour before his Conception in the Womb of the blessed Virgin and consequently his Divine Nature in his eternal being with the Father that the most ignorant person in the World may plainly understand what the Faith of this Writer was Thus afterwards speaking of John Baptist the forerunner of our Saviour he tells them John taught men to be prepared for the presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God the Christ Afterwards speaking of that care our Saviour took to have the Gospel preached he adds The Lord did not effect so great work in so short a time without a sacred care He was despised in appearance but adored indeed being a Purifyer a Saviour and extremely kind The Divine Word being really most manifest God and put into an equal rank with the Lord of all things for as much as he was his Son and the Word was in God Ibid. p. 68. l. D. he was neither disbelieved when he was first preached nor was he unknown or unacknowledged when assuming the presence of a Man and being made flesh he managed the saving design of his assumed Humanity Again speaking to those who are blind with sin and folly under the person of Tiresias that blind Thebane Wizzard and inviting such to believe in Christ he speaks thus If thou wilt thou too shalt be initiated into these Mysteries and join in the Choir of blessed Angels about the unbegotten the never to be destroyed the only true God God the Word assisting in the same Hymn with us He is eternal the only Jesus or Saviour the great High-priest of God who is the Father p. 70. L D. he intercedes for Men and he perswades them to goodness I shall instance but in one passage more in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where having cited that of the Psalmist Who shall ascend into the Hill of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place c. at large He thus descants upon it The Prophet says He in my opinion here briefly describes the true Gnostick or the man of true knowledge to us and by the bye David shews us that our Saviour is God for he calls him the face of the God of Jacob who brought us glad tidings and taught us of or concerning the Spirit therefore the Apostle calls the Son the Character of the glory of God Him who taught the truth concerning God and who represented to us that God and the Father was one only and Almighty whom none could know but the Son Stromat l. 7. p. 733. C. and He to whom the Son shall reveal him That God is but one appears by those who seek the face of the God of Jacob whom our God and our Saviour characterises as the only God and father of Good Here then we have the Father true and real God the Son true and real God and yet but one God and this is that Faith which we preach To Clemens I shall only add his Scholar Origen for the Greek Church a man of extraordinary eminence in his time who in his third Book against Celsus that great adversary of the Christian Religion reflecting upon the vanity of Heathen Gods and their incapacity to help those that depend on them he tells Celsus that upon this very reason because there is no help in false gods it 's a sure Rule among Christians that no man should trust in any being as God except only in Jesus Christ and a little after whereas Celsus objects against us so often that we believe Jesus consisting of a mortal body to be God and imagine our selves very pious in so thinking he answers Let those who accuse us know that He whom we know and believe to be God of old and to be the Son of God he is of himself the Word the Wisdom and the Truth and that even that mortal body and reasonable Soul which he assumed by its Communication and Unity and Mixture with the Word or with his divine nature arose to so great a height as to be God i.e. his humane and his divine nature make by a substantial or essential union one God and that I give no false interpretation to his words here will appear by what I shall allege afterwards It 's all along the humour of Celsus then when he speaks in the Person of a Jew and when he speaks in his own Name and Person to reproach the Christians with the irrationality of their Religion on that particular account that they owned Christ as
God Contra Celsum l. 1. p. 30 so he objects that Christ was educated in the dark was hired a servant in Aegypt that he there tryed their magick powers and returning from thence in confidence of his jugling tricks set up for a God Origen vindicates him from the malicious imputation of being a Magician but never pretends to deny that he was God or that he assumed that title nay he 's so far from that that he takes a great deal of pains to prove that He was God particularly from those passages of the 45 Psalm cited by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in his first chapter which I have clear'd before and he adds that we must here consider the Prophet speaking to that God whose throne is everlasting l. 1. p. 43. and that he asserts that God was anointed by God who was His God with the oyl of gladness above his fellows which is the real sence of the words and which he tells us he had formerly silenc'd an obstinate Jew with In his second book Celsus introduces a Jew speaking against Christ and saying they could not own him for God who did not make good his word who endeavoured poorly to avoid Death and was at last betrayed by one of his own followers c. Origen answers Christians did neither believe the body of Christ nor his soul to be God but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word the Son of the God of all things was God that Christians justly condemn the Jews who acknowledge not him to be God whom their own Prophets so often give testimony to as a powerful Being and as God which he is by the witness of the great God and Father of all things himself That when God in the beginning of the world said Let us make Man in our Image the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word perform'd all that his Father commanded for if according to that of the Psalmist He said and they were made l. 2. p. 6â— he commanded and all things were created if at God's command all the Creatures were framed who according to the meaning of the prophetical Spirit was able to put in execution such his Father's command but He who was the living Word and Truth it self The Word then in the beginning of all things was with God and the Word was God and without him nothing was made that was made It 's the Doctrine of S. John and of Origen too So far then we may know how the beginning of S. John's Gospel was understood in his days and what they thought might conveniently be proved from thence When the Jew afterwards is brought in objecting that Men who are partakers of the same Table would not lye in wait for one another much less would any one have treacherous designs upon God p. 74. Origen might easily have answered that cavil by denying that He was God and then by giving instances of Men false and treacherous to those who have eaten with them at the same Table but He owns his Godhead and only performs the latter Celsus afterwards brings in his Jew objecting against the Divinity of Christ thus Who ever heard of God coming down from heaven to earth on purpose to perswade Men as they say Christ did and failing in his design especially when he was long expected and hoped for a denyal of his Divinity had put a full stop to this objection too but Origen on the contrary retorts upon them That the Jews themselves were instance enough of the possibility of such a thing since God had appear'd so remarkably to them in bringing them up out of the land of Aegypt and in giving them a Law from Sina and yet they nor their Fathers could by that means be perswaded to obedience or prevented from running presently into Idolatry p. 106. After all this Celsus in his own person makes use of this argument to prove that Christ could not be God God says He is good and pure and happy and in himself infinitely excellent and lovely if He should descend to be among Men He must necessarily undergo a change a change from good to bad from pure to impure from happiness to misery and from the most excellent to the most sinful state this God would never undergo To this the Father answers That it 's true God is in himselâ— Immutable nor did he suffer any change oâ— this account But that which descended down to Men was in the form of God but out of his Love to mankind he debased himself so far as that he might be born among them but He suffer'd no change from baâ— to good for that He was without Sin he never committed any He was not chang'd from pure or clean to foul or filthy for Hâ— did not so much as know Sin nor did he fall from happiness to misery He humbled himself indeed but was not a whit the less happy even when he stoop'd the lowest for the good of mankind nor did he fall from the best to the most sinful state because what he did proceeded from Love and Charity to us by being among whom He that was the great Physician of Souls could be no more altered for the worse than a Physician for the body is by conversing with those that are sick and full of diseases But says he if Celsus think that because the immortal God the Word assumed a mortal body and an humane Soul that therefore He suffered an alteration or a change Let him know that the Word essentially continuing the Word still suffers by none of those things which happen either to the body or the Soul but that He condescends to become flesh and to speak in a Body l. 4. p. 169 170. for the sake of those who are not able to behold the eradiations and brightness of his Divinity so long till He who receives him being in a short time rais'd to a greater understanding by the Word may be able to contemplate his original nature And finally in his sixth book against the same Celsus he speaks â—hus excellently If then Celsus enquire how we think to know God and to be saved with him We will answer him That He who is the word of God being in them who seek him or who wait for his appearance is sufficient to make known and to reveal the Father who was not to be seen before His appearance for who else can save the Soul of Man and guide us in every thing to God but only God the Word who being in the beginning with God for the sake of those who are confin'd to flesh became flesh that he might be comprehended by those who were not able to see him as He was the Word and as He was with God and as He was God l. 6. p. 322. and appearing in flesh and speaking in the body He calls those who are in the flesh to himself that first he might make them like to the Word which was made flesh and
Doctrine S. Cyprian himself is mighty frequent in such passages so in his Epistle to Rogatianus he calls out Lord Jesus Christ our King and Judge and our God Ep. 3. p. 6. Ep. 11. p. 23. and what higher characters could be given him In his Epistle to his Presbyters and Deacons he encourages them to assiduity in Prayer by the consideration of having Jesus Christ our Lord and God our Advocate and Mediator Plebi Thibaeri p 123 125. p. 146 148. so again in his fifty first Epistle to Cornelius Bishop of Rome in his fifty eighth Epistle twice in h s sixty second to Januarius and others Christ is our Judge our Lord and our God so in his sixty third in his Epistle to Jubaianus concerning the invalidity of the Baptism of Hereticks He argues against that Baptism thus If any one says he can be truly baptis'd by Hereticks he may then by that Baptism obtain remission of sins if He obtain remission of his sins he is sanctified and is made the temple of God I ask then of what God if of the Creator he cannot be his temple because he believed not in him if you say of Christ neither can he be his temple Epist 73. p. 203. who denyes Christ to be God if you say he 's the temple of the Holy Ghost seeing the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost are all One how can the Holy Spirit be pleas'd with him who is an enemy to both the Father and the Son Here the force of the Martyrs argument lyes only in the Identity of nature in â—he Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and the poyson of Heresie consists effectually in denying the Lord Jesus Christ to be God but he would not have argued thus had not the Divinity of Christ been the general and well known Doctrine of the Church p. 212. He uses the same argument again in his 74. Epistle to Pompey to name no more Now â—n conclusion who can imagine that a holy Martyr so great an enemy to Idolatry so careful to refute the vulgar Error of a â—lurality of Gods should yet so very frequently use such suspicious expressions as must needs make the World believe he â—wned Christ for God and consequently multiplied those Gods himself which he expos'd others so much for if the whole objection were not to be removed by that assertion that the Father was God and the Son God yet they were not two but one God an Identity of their nature necessarily inferring the Vnity of the God-head The same Africa affords us yet another Writer of great antiquity and learning Arnobius in his several books against the Pagan Religion in his first book reflecting upon several of their Gods he takes notice how much they were grieved that Christ should be worshipped by Christians and received for and esteemed as a God And whereas Pagans derided Christians Arnobius adver gentes l. 1. p. 21. Edit Leidensis for accounting him a God whom they owned to have been born a Man he retorts upon them that They were guilty of that crime but says He supposing all you object in that respect were true would not Christ on account meerly of those benefits he confers upon us deserve to be call'd and to be thought a God He argues from their own principles who thought every considerable Invention of any Man was enough to procure his being Deified as Bacchus for finding out the use of Wine Ceres for Bread Minerva for Oyl c. But in the mean time Arnobius openly enough acknowledges that Christians did receive Christ as God He speaks yet more plainly soon after Christ for his benefits ought to be called God Nay He really is God without any scruple or ambiguity and would you have us deny him Worship or disown his Government But will some angry Pagan cry out is Christ a God We answer he is God and a God of infinite Power too and which will more exasperate an infidel he was sent from the supreme King to us upon the greatest errand in the World Perhaps the Pagan being more enraged at this will demand a Proof of what we say there needs certainly no greater proof of Christ's Divinity than an exact examination of his actions If it be objected that He was a Magician and performed his mighty works only by unlawful arts Let them who object this shew us any of their Magicians who ever did any thing like what was done by Christ or if they have done any thing of a prodigious nature it has still been by invoking some other Being but Christ without any Helps without any Magick Rites or Observations did all he did by the power of his own Name and what was proper and agreeable to and worthy of a True God nothing he did was hurtful or mischievous but helpful saving and the kind effects of divine Bounty And was he Mortal was he only one of us at whose ordinary commands Weaknesses Sicknesses Fevers and all bodily Pains were gone at once Was he one of us l. 1. p. 27. c. whose very Look the Devils could not endure Was he a meer Man whose slightest touch could cure the bloody Issue whose hand could make Hydropick humours vanish who could make the Lame run the Wither'd Hand recover its motion the Blind to see nay those who were born without eyes to see the light Was He a meer Man at whose word the angry Seas laid down their rage the rugged Storms and Tempests sunk while He with a dry foot walkt upon the swelling billows and trod upon the Oceans back the waves themselves standing amazed at the prodigious action and humble nature submitting to her Founder And so he proceeds in a florid and pathetick stile by an induction of particulars and a relating of circumstances to prove that Christ must be True God and that all the Idols of the Heathen were none Again a little after he tells the Pagans Christ was the high God the God from the beginning a God sent from unknown kingdoms God sent by the Prince of all things to be the universal Saviour whom neither the Sun nor Stars if they have any sence nor the Governours nor Princes of this World nor those mighty Gods who assuming that terrible name affright poor mortal creatures were able to find out or so much as to guess what He was or whence He came at whose very look then when he was clothed with flesh p. 32. the universal fabrick trembled and fell into a sudden disorder Again Arnobius brings in the Pagans objecting If Christ was God why was He seen in the form of a Man Why was He put to Death as Men are to this he answers Was there any other way whereby that invisible power which had no Corporeal Substance could suit it self to the World or be visibly present in the assemblies of mortal Men than by assuming a covering of solid matter which might be a proper object whereon Men might fix
Dead before that great day must be called the Sons of God in the same sence as our Saviour is and consequently our Savour cannot on account of such Resurrection be so the Son of God as to be his only begotten Son exclusively of all others tho' that title be so exclusive in it's own nature As for the three Reasons of his being called the Son of God derived from his Offices it 's true in the first place that God has sanctifyed our Saviour and sent him into the World but so he sanctified Jeremy and so he sanctified John the Baptist and the last in particular he sent into the World with an extraordinary Commission i. e. to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation and to prepare the way of the Lord against his publick appearance which Employs were both wholly extraordinary but as for that descent of the Holy Ghost upon him whereby say they he was anointed to his Office without measure there was no particularity eminently distinguishing Him in that from his own Apostles upon whom the Spirit descended in a visible manner at the feast of Pentecost and fitted them so for the same Office of Preaching and every way promoting the Salvation of Mankind Indeed we no where find the Apostles called the Sons of God on account of their being baptised with the Holy Ghost and with fire but we see our Saviour is declared the Son of God in whom he is well pleased on that occasion but he was own'd by the same title at his Transfiguration too when there was no effusion of the Holy Ghost therefore there was some peculiarly eminent reason for giving our Lord this Title which could not be applied on any account to any other Person If we reflect on the second ground of Christ's being called the Son of God which is because He is our Great High-Priest and so constituted by God himself our Author's proof of it is very strange viz. from that passage of the Psalmist Thou art my Son Heb. 5.5 this day have I begotten thee quoted by the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews for tho' those Words are there repeated as well as in the first Chapter of that Epistle yet it 's not in a different Sence or to a new purpose but the Apostle there speaking of our Saviour's Priesthood and the greatness and excellency of that Office undertaken by him tells us no Man takes this Honour to himself but He that is called of God as was Aaron Now the Apostle shews that our Saviour had such a Call as well as Aaron for his Father who said to him Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee shewed his Propriety in his Son and his Love to him by those words so that it could not be strange that his Father should lay so great an Honour upon him But then his title to the Priesthood it self is founded on that Thou art a Priest for ever ver 6. after the order of Melchisedec so then the Son-ship of Christ is antecedent to his Priestly Office and He was made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec because He was the Son of God and not called the Son of God because He was our High-Priest As for the last reason why our Saviour is called the Son of God viz. Because he is exalted to the Supreme Power over all things and so is our King Hab. 1.5 which he proves again from the same words as quoted in the same Epistle to the Hebrews There yet again the same truth occurs that Christ was the Son of God before He entred upon his Kingly Office for by Him God made the worlds and our Saviour never had a being but that at the same time he was the Son of God but if God by Him made the Worlds ver 2. as the Apostle says and he could not be our King before the Worlds were made We who are a part of these Worlds being those Creatures over whom he was to be King then he was the Son of God before he was our King and therefore could not be his Son on that account Besides if we should allow all these things the whole grant would be useless for Christ is called as before we observed the only begotten Son of God in an eminent and distinguishing manner above all others but if upon account of his Offices Prophetical Priestly or Regal Christ be called the Son of God then all those who exercise the same Functions in the world may upon the same reason lay claim to the same title for of some of them we know the Psalmist says They are Gods and they are all the children of the most high but if they can all justly lay claim to the same Title then there 's nothing peculiar to our Saviour included in that being the Son the only begotten Son of God which yet the very Title it self imports All these Reasons then not being sufficient to give our Saviour the Title of the only begotten Son of God in a manner so super-eminent to all other Creatures and their Originals particularly to Angels who are of a Spiritual Nature and are called the Sons of God There must remain some other ground for our Saviour's being so called and that is his eternal generation of the Father which puts him into such a Relation to his Father as no other creature can possibly pretend to We have prov'd that the whole of his Five Precedent Reasons do not fill up the Idea or make good the full meaning of those terms wherein Christ is called the only Begotten Son of God his Beloved Son or his own Son for if I am Born of my Mother but not Begotten in his own Image by my reputed Father tho' my reputed Father were able after Death to raise me to Life again tho' he were able to confer upon me all the Authority in the Universe yet all this will be so far from giving Me justly the Title of my Father's only-begotten Son tho' perhaps he never had any other that by all these Reasons together I should be a putative Son but really no more related to my supposed Father than our Saviour was to Joseph the Husband of the blessed Virgin when before her Espousals he was begotten in her by the Power of the Holy Ghost Nay should we admit of the very unphilosophical Hypothesis of Ruarus Quid in eo absurdi si spiritum Dei venas in virginis uterum descendentes emulsisse atque ex sanguine coagulato Embryonem formasse dicam non aliter atque id fit spiritu in masculo semine latente Ruarus ad Mersennum Epistola Centur. 1. Num. 56. p. 262. the most modest of the Socinian tribe all would be too little to make good this glorious Idea of the only begotten Son of God But his eternal Generation answers all and makes our Saviour as properly the Only Begotten Son of his Heavenly Father as I or any other Lawful Son is the only begotten of his
under inward and more mortal Distempers shew'd no forwardness to be cured by an Almighty hand When the Wise-man describes the Sluggard's Vineyard and shows us the Fences thereof broken down the Surface of it covered with Thorns and nettles and the Sluggard himself so far from regarding it that he stretches himself upon his Bed and crys Yet a little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to sleep he characterizes the general disposition of Men under the Influences of Hell over-grown with all manner of Impieties unguarded against all manner of Temptations and yet dull and stupified under all their Miseries When we reflect upon this general Captivity of rational Creatures to Vice and Folly when we reflect upon that spiritless Weakness they groan'd under when we see them lazy in their own nearest concerns prejudiced against all the ways of their own Deliverance pursuing Bubbles with a ridiculous Earnestness and imagining it their greatest Interest to undo themselves we cannot well persuade our selves that any ordinary means could help the miserable or relieve the oppressed or let the Prisoners go free The chains and violences of Hell are not easily broken and the attempts of Weaklings in the Case would but encrease the sorrow of the Sufferers but when the blessed Jesus reveal'd himself in the fulness of time when he began by mighty works to exert his power when he commissioned his Disciples to go through the Cities of Israel and to preach Repentance and to work Miracles of all sorts when those Disciples returning again to give an account of their Ministry told their Master that even Evil Spirits themselves were subject unto them through his name our Saviour observes Luke 10.18 that he saw Satan like lightning fall from Heaven he had put an end to that height of power the Devil had pleas'd himself in before He had seem'd to himself to be like the most High invested in an absolute Dominion o'er the World but he was now fallen from his Height and should no more be able to deceive the Nations with that success he had formerly had for the Gospel then preach'd set before Men in plain terms the true and only good they were to aim at it laid out the means tending directly to that good it shew'd Men their frequent Failures indeed but an infallible Atonement for them in the Death of their Saviour and shew'd the Holy Spirit ready to assist all their pious Endeavours after Happiness by which the Works of the Devil were effectually destroyed Another Reason of our Saviour's coming into the World was That the World might be convinced that the Law given by Moses to the Jewish Nation was really the Law of God and that it could not therefore be repeal'd by any Power or Authority whatsoever but his who was God The last part of this Reason is a necessary consequence upon the first for in all Countries the sanction and repealing of Laws require one and the same Authority at least nay where it 's possible the annulling of a Law requires much the greater Power thus among the Romans the Edictum Praetoris or the Praetor's Edict had the force of a Law and Obedience was absolutely required to it only it might be rescinded by a Rescript of the Emperour whose Power was indisputable both over the Praetor and his Law but the Praetor could not repeal an Imperial Rescript nor his own Edict after an Imperial Confirmation thus God can vacate all Humane Laws when and where he pleases because he 's superiour to all Laws but those flowing from his own Nature but it 's a damning Sin for Man to go about to vacate God's Laws because Man in his highest state has no other Authority but what he derives from God who cannot be supposed to give any Man an Authority contradictory to his own or that should interfere with it but among Men as in the Roman Empire it required an Imperial Power to repeal an Imperial Sanction so among our selves an Act of Parliament can be repealed only by an Act of Parliament the King in Parliament being in all respects whatsoever the supreme Power of the Nation Thus we see the Parallelism between both the making and disannulling both Divine and Humane Laws so that it appears altogether rational that the Mosaic Law if originated from God should be repealed by God As for the Law of Moses that it was given by God and only by him he that reads the Scripture and owns that to be the Word of God must of necessity believe and the Jews to this day are so strongly possess'd with that Assurance that all the World knows the vacating that by One who appear'd but a mean Man is one great prejudice the Jews make use of at this day against Christianity they are certain God gave their Law and every part of it they are as certain that the same God only could change or take it away they conclude as our Socinians do That Jesus was a meer Man and no God therefore they look upon him as very wicked for pretending to put an end to that Law Now if we wanted the Scripture to confirm us in that Knowledge a bare Reflection upon the behaviour of the Jewish Nation at all times is enough to satisfie us that God was the Author of their Law For if we look upon them as esteem'd by their Neighbours they were never lookt upon as the veriest Fools and Ignorants in the Universe that Ptolomey who procur'd the Translation of the Old Testament into Greek thought the Books of their Law worth procuring at a vast expence so he and several adjacent Nations at all times were ready to enter into terms of Confederacy with them c. But were they never so wise or knowing in any thing they never found any reason to shake off the Yoke of the Law of Moses they own'd it upon all occasions and as at first when they fell under any extream Affliction they had immediately recourse to the Law and to the Testimony from whence they re-confirm'd their Apprehensions of the true God the God of their fathers and apply'd themselves to Him so afterwards they employ'd themselves earnestly in vindicating that Law from any Aspersions which their Enemies might lay upon it and in endeavouring to procure Proselytes to that Law from among the neighbouring Nations But now we must have a very mean opinion of the Jews if we can imagine a whole Nation should submit themselves to a body of Laws for a course of several ages that they should believe it their indispensible duty to obey all the particular Injunctions of a Law that was extreamly nice and difficult to be observ'd such a Law as in its Ceremonial part was very troublesome and heavy yet necessary enough considering the Temper of the People it was given to and the great end and aim of it that they should own the obliging force of this Law notwithstanding those many Rebellions against it which they were
after his transgression of God's Command in his Invasion made upon the Amalekites The people took of the spoil sheep and oxen 1 Sam. 15.21 the chief of the things which should have been destroy'd to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal but Samuel answers him to the purpose v. 22. Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams All which does not import but that Sacrifices might be very good nay we know that they were commanded and they were to be made of the best of every thing but those external Performances were not at all to be compared with an absolute submission and resignation of our selves to the positive Determinations of God or that entire Obedience which he requires at our hands To the same purpose God argues with the people of Israel by the Psalmist I will not reprove thee for thy Sacrifices or thy burnt Offerings to have been continually before me Psal 50.8 9 10 11 12 13. I will take no Bullock out of thy house nor Hee-goat out of thy fold for every Beast of the forest is mine and the Cattel upon a thousand hills I know all the Fowls upon the mountains and the wild Beasts of the field are mine If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the world is mine and all the fulness thereof Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats All along God speaks as if he set no value at all upon those very Rites and Ceremonies which himself had appointed and the Assiduity of which he required upon very severe Penalties but it 's indeed only the Comparison between these things and more important Duties which makes these appear light and of almost an indifferent Esteem for God speaks at another rate when he commands v. 14. that we should offer unto God Thanksgivings and pay our Vows unto the most High and when he concludes with that Whoso offereth Praise glorifieth me i. e. he glorifieth me more than if he made never so expensive Offerings without that care and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God v. 23. this Rectitude of Conversation was that which God always required and the want of which he 'd make no allowance for God by the Prophet Isaiah carries this Argument yet higher To what purpose says he Isai 1.11 12 13 14 15. is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me I am full of the burnt Offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks and of Lambs and of Hee-Goats when you come to appear before me who hath required this at your hands to tread my courts Bring no more vain Oblations Incense is an abomination to me the new Moons and Sabbaths and the calling of Assemblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even your solemn Meeting Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to bear them and when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you and when you make many Prayers I will not hear It 's strange that Sacrifices New-Moons Sabbaths Solemn Religious Meetings nay their Prayers themselves should not only be undervalued but be hated by God himself that God who had enjoined them but they must be understood as that of our Saviour which requires us to hate our Fathers and Mothers c. i. e. not absolutely for that 's a damning Sin but comparatively or when the Love of them may have any ill influence upon our Love to our Saviour so God hates these things not of themselves or positively but as they exclude true substantial Holiness as a dependance upon or a confidence in such outward Services might make men forget that Worship required in Spirit and in Truth for would but the Israelites have perform'd those Moral Duties set down in the following Verses would they but have wash'd and made themselves clean ceas'd to do evil and learn'd to do good c. their Prayers Solemn Assemblies Sabbaths New Moons and Sacrifices would all of them have been accepted well enough from the clear evidence of such passages as these Moses ben Maimon himself a Jew observes That God by his Prophets More Nâ—vâ—â— p. 3. c. 32. oft-times reproves Men for their too much Nicety and Exactness in their Rituals inculcating that he did not intend them principally and for any intrinsic Worth of their own nor because he had any need of them but only as collateral and subservient to more solid Acts of Piety without which they were of no value and with which every thing ornamental outwardly to Religion would be acceptable in his sight From all this it appears that the Mosaic-Ceremonial Law was very much inferiour to the Moral the Moral obliging perpetually which the Ceremonial Law did not If then it did not perpetually oblige it was of a mutable nature in it self and being so changeable it might be actually changed whensoever a Power equal to that which gave it its first Obligatory Authority should appear and undertake that Matter Notwithstanding all the reasons why the Law of Moses so far as Ceremonial was changeable in its own nature our Saviour when he convers'd in the World was very careful to give it its due Weight and to make the World have a right estimation of it hence he comply'd with it in every particular nay even in those which were not of equal Antiquity with the body of ceremonial Laws as delivered by Moses Thus we find him observing the Feast of the Dedication Joh. 10.22 23. 1 Macc. 4.59 a Feast instituted by Judas Maccabaeus and his Brethren in remembrance of the Temple's Purification from the Prophanations of the Gentiles but without any pretence to the prophetic Spirit in that Institution So whereas a kind of Baptism had been taken up by the Jews in pursuance of which John sirnamed the Baptist began his work of Preaching with baptizing in the Wilderness no new Ceremony we may be sure for the Jews had been lash'd into more Wisdom than to run so greedily after Novelties and the captious Pharisees when they were sent to examine his Commission for what he did found no fault with him for putting in practice an uncouth or new-fangled Ceremony but they ask him what Authority He in particular had to baptize seeing he had declared He was neither that Christ nor Elias Joh. 1.25 nor that Prophet from whence it may seem that the Jews had some expectations of an Improvement of Baptism about the time of the Messiah's coming and did believe that Elias himself whom they expected as the Fore-runner of the Messiah should take up that Employment therefore they look'd upon even their Baptism though an adventitious Ceremony of a very excellent and obliging nature and
another occasion push the question home Mar. 2.7 Why doth this Man thus speak blasphemy Who can forgive sins but God only The question was rational enough and implyed a weighty Truth that none has any inherent authority to forgive sins but God only others may declare or pronounce it by a derivative authority only God can do it by his own but the reason of these Questionists left them presently They saw Christ holding a strict Communion with their Church as setled by the Mosaic Law They could not convince him of any sin against that Communion they heard him of himself and in his own name forgive sins this was a plain publick claim to a Divine Authority and they understood it so They saw him with the very same breath work a prodigious cure a cure not likely to be wrought by the influence of a Malignant Spirit it was of too benign and advantagious a nature to the Patient it must then be wrought by a Divine Power but the Divine Power would not concur with a gross sinner a notorious blasphemer therefore Christ of necessity must be no sinner if no sinner then an extraordinary Person for his miraculous actions would admit of no middle state then he could be no Impostor no Deceiver therefore Forgiving sins and asserting his Power by an undeniable miracle upon their own Principle he must be God the True God emphatically for who can forgive sins but God but the True God only For they respected only the True God when they asked the Question It 's a peculiar Attribute of the Supreme God to know the hearts of Men he assumes that Power as his own due in which none can be partakers with him the heart is deceitful above all things says he and desperately wicked who can know it Jer. 17.9.10 I the Lord search the heart I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings The same title our Lord takes to himself Rev. 2.23 All the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one according to his works it 's true this was in his glorified state but if Christ were a meer man before his Resurrection he was no more afterwards the giving him Honour and Power and Glory could not alter his Nature or make him any more than a Metaphorical God but a bare Metaphor applyed to a Man will not make him immediately commence a God or appropriate the most eminent of the divine Attributes to him But not to insist on that this particular faculty of knowing mens hearts he really had and sufficiently evidenced before his Ascension into Heaven so in one of the before-mentioned instances when Christ had said to the Man sick of the Palsie Thy sins be forgiven thee Mat. 8.24 the Scribes murmured or said in their hearts this Man blasphemes the Evangelist adds Jesus knowing their thoughts said Wherefore think you evil in your hearts Mat. 12.25 Again when Christ cast out the Devil out of one that was possest and the Pharisees hearing of it said he cast out devils by Beelzebub Prince of the devils We are told He knew their thoughts and presently gave them a reproof suitable to their folly The Disciples as they were following their Master fell into a dispute among themselves who should be greatest Their Master when in the house ask'd 'em of their dispute their inward guilt shut their mouths but he presently lets them know he was Mar. 9.33 34 35 36. without their information Master of their mighty secret and took an immediate occasion to teach them how to employ their time better than in such dangerous and impertinent disputes Our Lord was preaching in the Temple to a very captious Auditory they admire his boldness but never pitch upon his Office which he had then undertaken nay they argue among themselves the unlikelihood that he should be the Christ We know say they this Man whence he is but when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence he is Our Saviour as if he had been privy to all their discourse in the midst of his doctrine tells them aloud Ye both know me John 7.27 28. and ye know whence I am c. When the same blessed Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passeover on the Feast Day many believed in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did John 2.23 24 25. but the Evangelist tells us plainly Jesus did not commit himself to them because He knew all men and needed not that any should testifie of Man for he knew what was in man If he knew what was in Man it must be either perfectly or exactly or it must be imperfectly if imperfectly he might easily have been impos'd upon the Prophets of the antient Jewish Church were often so so Joshua and all Israel in the case of the Gibeonites So Samuel in his opinion of the fitness of David's brethren for the kingdom of Israel So the man of God by the old Prophet who dwelt at Bethel The Apostles afterwards tho' influenced frequently by the Spirit of God were lyable to Error Philip an Apostolical person in admitting Simon of Samaria to Christian Baptism S. Peter in making a difficulty of preaching the Gospel to one that was Uncircumcised in dissembling afterwards for fear of the Jews c. S. Paul in admitting false hearted Demas to the Pastoral Charge but this we find no instance of in our Saviour none were able to deceive him nay not so much as to fasten a temptation on him He chose indeed twelve Disciples and one of them a Devil Joh. 6.70 but he knew him to be such and declared him such tho' not by name long before he betrayed him So neither the treachery of his pretended friends nor of his professed enemies could take any place upon him If Christ's knowledge of those things was perfect it was as much as God's knowledge is No Being can do more than know the heart of man perfectly that heart which Man himself is so generally unacquainted with This is a Knowledge no way compatible with humane nature That since the fall being defective in a thousand particulars besides the necessity of Vbiquity attending a perfect universal knowledge of the thoughts of all which a Body can never be capable of If then the knowledge of Christ in reference to the Hearts of men was equal with God's if it were impossible for him to be deceived if it was no Sacrilege in him to ascribe to himself this peculiar Attribute of the most high God He then must be equal with God therefore he must be the True God If we reflect upon our Lord's behaviour after his Resurrection before his Ascent into Heaven if he be no more than a meer man it 's wholly unaccountable The Holy Ghost is by the Socinians denyed to be a Person or to be God yet it 's allowed by them to
long'd for Death though in its most dreadful shape was never half so terrible to them as such a Disappointment in the midst of all their Pains not Victors in the fam'd Olympick Games not young Generals after mighty and unexpected Victories were possest with a more exulting Joy than those triumphant Saints on their Natalitial days for such they accounted those times of their Sufferings then happy Visions pleas'd their parting Souls and an expiring Stephen could see the Heavens opened and the Son of Man his glorious Redeemer sitting at the right-hand of God Flames were to them so many Beds of Roses Racks and Wheels like yielding Down or soft as Fanning Briezes on a Summer's Evening no Mournings no Complaints were heard no Tears were seen among them but Songs of Joy and Praise and Triumph were the Exercise of their suffering Hours and their aspiring Souls mounted on them as on Seraphic Wings to Abraham's Bosom and what was the original Ground and Reason of all these Joys but only the certain Goodness of their Cause the extraordinary Assistances of their King and Saviour and an infallible Assurance of God's Love to them and consequently of their future and eternal Happiness Rom. 8.18 They reckoned that the Sufferings of the present time were not worthy to be compared to the Glory which should be revealed in them and therefore Heb. 11.35 though they were tortured yet they accepted not of Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection and all this was agreeable to the Doctrine of the Cross as laid down by the Apostles in Scripture here then was the Faith and Patience the Courage and Resolution of the Saints these were indeed to be imitated the Spirit and Power they acted with was wholly Divine and irresistible but if after all this gallant Prospect of the noble Army of Martyrs we turn our Looks upon the dying Jesus or his behaviour of himself under his Sufferings things will look very differently we find in him all the evidences of Fear and Sorrow and cruel Apprehensions of that Death he was to undergo His Soul was exceeding sorrowful even to death he beg'd of his Father if it were possible that that bitter Cup might pass from him and though he concluded his Prayer with that resigning Expression nevertheless not my will but thy will be done yet he repeated his deprecatory Prayer three times to shew how earnest and real he was in his Requests his Fear and Earnestness produced that Bloody Sweat and brought down the Angel from Heaven to strengthen him all these were Prefaces to his Sufferings of a very disagreeable Nature to the sacred Ambition of his own martyr'd Followers when he was in the Agonies of Death he was so far from any Triumphant Expression on the occasion that he vented his sorrowful Spirits in that despondent Cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me we cannot pretend the Blessed Jesus at this time was under any alienation of Mind under any distraction of Spirit by reason of the extremity of his Pains we have shewn before that many suffered much greater Cruelties for his sake than the pains of the Cross amounted to consider it only as the Roman Method of putting Slaves to death and even Pagan Philosophers have suffered much more to the World's eye voluntarily and involuntarily without any such inward distemper as Anaxarchus and Calanus the Indian the former being beaten to pieces in a Mortar by Nicocreon the Cyprian Tyrant the latter walking gravely into the Fire prepared for that purpose before Alexander the Great and there Philosophizing seriously and rationally till his Breath was stopt by Smoke and Flames and our Saviour shew'd as great a Mastery of his own Thoughts and as undisturbed Apprehensions of things when upon the Cross as at other times as in refusing Gall and Vinegar in discoursing with the penitent Thief in taking care for his blessed mourning Mother c. we cannot pretend it was the Delicacy of our Saviour's Body who being conceiv'd in an extraordinary Manner was accompanied with a preternatural Tenderness for we know its the Soul that sees in the Eyes feels in the several Members hears in the Ears suffers in every bleeding Wound the Body without its Activity being only a stupid and insensible Lump of Earth and the Soul of our Saviour being according to the Confession of all of a Nature far exalted above the common Standard of Mankind having no Guilt to clog it no Sin to render it uneasie and therefore could not be but far above any groveling Earthy Thoughts infinitely sensible of the Advantages of Death to those that died in God's Favour and therefore would more perfectly despise all the Effects of humane Rage or Malice we cannot say our Saviour was the first that suffered under the Inhumanity of Persecutors so many of the Prophets had been brought to violent Deaths before not to mention that Persecution the faithful Jews underwent from the Tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes it cannot be alledged that Sufferings were the more heavy and insupportable to our Saviour because he was conscious of his own Purity and Innocence such a Conscience of inward Integrity must needs be the most comfortable Circumstance in the World for a dying Man such an Innocent being infallibly certain of eternal Rest and Happiness in a future World and it was among other things a clear Sense of their peace being made with God which those who are holy and harmless can never want that made those eminent Servants of God so eager to be Martyrs knowing it was better for them to be dissolv'd and to be with God than to linger upon Earth though compassed about with all the Grandeur and Felicity a state of Infirmity can be susceptible of nor can it be supposed that the Ingratitude and Baseness of the Jews among whom he had preached and for whose Conviction he had done so many mighty Miracles could work upon him so much as to press him with such exceeding Sorrows it 's true indeed Ingratitude to Benefactors is a Crime it 's a very pungent Thought to Men in Adversity to see those on whom they have laid the greatest Obligations stand among their Enemies and promote their Ruine and it 's further true that never were any Generation of Men more unworthy or more insensible of the most powerful Obligations than the Jews contemporary with our Saviour but after all this granted why should our Lord at that time more particularly pray to his Father that the bitter Cup might pass from him when he had all along through the whole course of his Life found the Jews as ill inclin'd to him as then but only wanting proper Opportunities to shew it or why should the Blessed Jesus cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me only because the Jews had repay'd his Goodness with Ingratitude and Cruelty besides this was the Case of our Lord's Disciples and Followers as well as of himself they preached among both Jews