and therefore could not be done by his assistance and power Mar. 5.7 Matt. 12.29 They were a torment to the Devil and when Satan was cast out it must be granted that it was done by a power superiour to that of Satan himself Our Lord cast the Devil out of the bodies of men and did by thus confirming his Religion destroy the Kingdom of Satan in the world He is forced out of his ancient possessions and no longer suffered to delude the silly world as he had done before in his Oracles and by his Idolatrous worship and superstition Our Saviour turn'd him out of his Temples and threw him out of the bodies and hearts of men 4. I come in the next place to consider with all possible care and application the works themselves which Jesus did with the circumstances and adjuncts which attended them And I perswade my self that the more we consider them the more we shall believe that they were divine and consequently a good proof that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God 1. They were most stupendious works Joh. 11. He raised the dead and one that had been dead four days and was interred He cured the most inveterate and Chronical diseases Mar. 5.25 Luk. 13.13 Joh. 5. Joh. 9. Matt. 8.3 15. ch 9.25 ch 8.6 13 16. ch 14. ch 12.13 ch 21.19 and such as were beyond the help of art A woman that laboured twelve years of an Issue of bloud that had wasted her estate upon Physicians without success he cures her with the touch of his Garment He cures another that had a Spirit of infirmity eighteen years that was bowed together and could in no wise lift up heo self He heals another with a word of his mouth who had an infirmity eight and thirty years And restores one to his Sight who was born blind He cures the Leper and Peter's Wife's Mother that was sick of a Fever and two Blind men with a touch Cures the Paralytick and dispossesseth the Demoniacks with a word of his mouth He multiplies a few loaves and Fishes to the relief of five thousand and the fragments are many when the first store was small He cures the withered hand and with a word of his mouth dryes up the barren fig-tree The Devils obey his word he treads on the Waters as on a pavement and checks and controlls the uncertain winds and the raging Sea He restores to health and raises to life with a word of his mouth or a touch of his garment The dead hear his voice and he does these mighty works without delay and without labour He did not doe as Elisha did 2 King 4.33 2. His works were various and of several kinds He might have been presumed to have had some particular skill or gift had he onely cured one disease But here 's no room left now for suspicion Matt. 4.23 24. ch 9.35 For he healed all sorts of diseases restored the blind cleansed the lepers governed the sea and winds and makes the grave give back its dead All this could not be imputed to any particular gift or skill Joh. 9.32 It was never heard that any man let him be never so great an Oculist opened the eyes of one that was born blind It must be granted that here was the hand of God 3. These were works of mercy and kindness also Plin. which speaks them to be from God The Heathen could say Deus est mortali juvare mortalem To doe good speaks a divine principle and likeness The Jews had no cause to suspect that our Saviour was assisted by the Devil the enemy of mankind He might have confirmed his Doctrine by terrible miracles he chuses to doe it by great acts of mercy and relief He might have shaken the pillars of the earth cast a veil upon the luminaries above and confirmed his Doctrine by thunder and lightning by tempest and thick darkness and other terrible effects of his power and displeasure But our Lord delighted in mercy and his miracles were so many acts of mercy and relief He confirms his words and relieves the afflicted at the same time and makes joy and gladness where-ever he comes He cleanseth the lepers restores the blind and lame and raises the dead while the poor have the gospel preached unto them What great joy must this make where-ever he comes to them who were sed and restored and dispossessed how much joy must this needs bring to the persons relieved and to all their friends and relatives He exerts his power to relieve not to grieve or afflict mankind His miracles were so many proofs of his mercy as well as of his power It was an argument of power to dispossess a Demoniack but to the possessed it was a great act of compassion 'T was a great power that multiplied the loaves and fishes but it was bounty too to doe it for the hungry multitude There is required an infinite power to raise a dead man but 't was a great act of compassion also to raise the onely Son of the widow of Naim Luk. 7. His turning water into wine was an act of mercy and relief It was a poor wedding we suppose where the provision was spent while the guests remain and in such cases men are generally ashamed that they are not able to entertain their friends He manifested his glory when he did it and his kindness also It is a God-like thing to be great and good to use power as our Lord did his to the rescue and relief of the poor and of the miserable Our Lord went about doing good 'T is the Devil the great enemy of mankind who goes about seeking whom he may devour Our Lord 's very miracles were acts of great mercy and relief It is true our Lord cursed the Fig-tree and destroyed the herd of Swine Vid. Dr. H. More Mystery of Godliness Book 4. chap. 8. But then it is to be considered that the Fig-tree was barren to say nothing of the aenigmatical meaning of that passage and the Swine which were drowned were unclean by the law of Moses Besides in both he confirmed his Doctrine and gave great assurance of his power And it appeared in the case of the Swine that the Devils had no power to hurt those creatures without his leave 4. Our Lord's miracles were done publickly and not in a corner Matt. 9.8 ch 12.22 23. Luk. 7.11 12. Joh. 5. Luk. 4.33 Joh. 11.45 Our Lord did not shun the light When the Paralytick was cured the multitude were witnesses of the cure And when the blind and dumb was healed all the people were amazed When the Widow's Son of Naim was restored to life there was much people with Jesus When the man was cured that had been 38 years under his affliction 't was done in the City of Jerusalem and at a festival when all the tribes were there The Demoniack was dispossessed in a Synagogue and when Lazarus was raised many of the Jews were
quaked greatly These things were very terrible and so were other works which we read of afterward which spoke indeed the presence and power of God but then they spoke his anger too The Sons of Aaron were destroyed by fire Miriam is struck with leprousie the earth swallows up Korah and his company and the fiery serpents plague the people On the other hand our Lord saves but does not destroy Instead of killing or inflicting plagues and diseases upon men he feeds the hungry cures the sick cleanseth the Lepers restores the blind and lame dispossesseth the Demoniacks and raises the dead 4. Our Saviour confirmed his doctrine by raising himself from the dead Moses dyed as well as the other Prophets And though the Jews tell us upon a trifling ground that he did die by the kiss of God's mouth and not after the ordinary manner of men yet they cannot deny that he dyed and 't is not affirmed by any that he rose from the dead He dyed on this side the Land of Promise and was buried over against Beth Peor Deut. 34.8 but the Jews are so far from affirming that he rose again that they knew not where his Sepulchre or place of burial was So that there was no room left for their fraud None could take away his Body and pretend he was risen from the dead Our blessed Saviour did rise from the dead notwithstanding all the art used to prevent it aswell as the spreading of it He had many witnesses of his Resurrection some whereof sealed the truth with their Bloud I shall now consider the pretended miracles of the Church of Rome not that I think them worthy to be compared with those of our blessed Saviour But that Church hath boasted of Miracles and we have large accounts of the wonders which have been wrought within the verge of her own Communion And not to inlarge too far I shall confine my self to those three marks or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which a learned Writer discoursing of this argument hath pitched upon 1. Whereas the miracles which Jesus wrought were grave and serious works substantial and such as proclamed the power and goodness and the wisedom of the Authour of them there is nothing more ridiculous and trifling than many of those which are reported to be done in the Church of Rome Such are the many stories which are told of our Saviour and the Virgin Mary They tell us that she frequently comes from Heaven offers her self in Marriage and brings knacks along with her and bestows them upon her friends and familiars They tell us also of our Saviour that he appears in his Mother's armes as a little Child that sometimes he goes from her and that he was once almost lost in the Snow They tell that the Virgin Mary's house in Nazareth upon discontent removed from thence and travail'd from place to place for the space of about two thousand miles Durand Rational Divin Offic. till it sate down at Loretto They tell that when one of their Preachers who was blind preached though there were no auditours to do it yet the stones that were about him cryed out Amen at his concluding I am ashamed to report the ridiculous stories which they tell of men who carried their heads in their hands after they had been Beheaded for several miles together of others who spake after they were dead of Sheep and Asses running to hear St. Francis preach and of Swine falling dead under his curse Of St. Dominick who hung in the air like a bird and at his Devotions forcing the Devil to hold a light and burn his fingers at that service of Christina who contracted her self at prayer into a round form like that of an Hedgehog and who could climb the highest trees like a Squirrel and swim in rivers like a Fish Of Catharine of Sienna who desired a new heart and thereupon Christ came to her opened her Breast took out her heart goes away with it and brings another and tells her that was his own I will not entertain you with the Stories of the sweating and speaking and motion of their Images of the great feats which have been done by the relicks of Saints and holy water and such like things Such Pranks as these are reported which look more like the feats of Demons of Hob-goblins and Fairies than the finger of God The works of Jesus spake the great wisedom power and goodness of God they were works of great mercy and relief But these stories are Romances and false representations or which is worse they look like the works of an evil Spirit who is abroad ready to deceive them who obey not the truth These things can serve no good and wise purpose and that is not all for they serve a very evil one These false stories are a temtation to men to question the true Men will be too ready to suspect the miracles of Christ when they find themselves imposed upon by those who profess themselves his followers 2. The miracles which Christ did were to confirm the truth of the Christian doctrine But these pretended miracles are brought to confirm a doctrine which Christ and his Apostles never taught Christ and his Apostles taught all Christian doctrine and all the necessary matters of faith And now though an Angel from Heaven should Preach any other Gospel we ought not to receive him Gal. 1.8 9. Were the works of the Church of Rome like our Saviour's works and their doctrine the same with his these works would be of great use to convince unbelievers but not at all requisite where the doctrine was believed before For the doctrine of the Church of Rome it is the same with that of the holy Scriptures or it is not If it be the same there is no need of miracles especially among them who believe the holy Scriptures to confirm that which hath been sufficiently confirmed already But if it be not the same we are not to regard miracles in that Case Nay if an Apostle or Angel from Heaven should Preach another Gospel let him be accursed We shall find that the pretended miracles in the Church of Rome are alledged for the confirmation of the Novel doctrines of that Church not of the Christian doctrine taught by Christ and his Apostles We are told that Christ spake intelligibly several times out of the Wafer to a Spanish Franciscan Again that upon the Altar he turned himself from the form of a Consecrated Wafer into that of a little Child and then from that of a Child to that of a Wafer Again that a Woman's Bees not thriving she stole a Consecrated Wafer and put it into one of her Hives The devout Bees in honour to that fall to work and with their honey-combs make a little Church with windows with roof and door with belfry and Altar upon which they laid the Host and did fly about it continually praising the Lord All this is for the confirmation of the doctrine of Transubstantiation
purpose in hand in shewing that this Doctrine is in it self false When God was about to send Moses to the Israelites in Egypt Ex. 4.1 we find Moses objected and said they will not believe me Hereupon God bids him cast his rod upon the ground and the rod was turned into a serpent And this that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers v. 5. c. hath appeared unto thee saith God to Moses After this the hand of Moses was turned leprous and restored again upon which Moses is told that if the Israelites would not believe him upon the first v. 8. that they should believe the voice of the latter sign Moses tells Pharaoh that at his request the plague of frogs should be removed Ex. 8.10 that thou mayst know says he that there is none like unto the Lord our God So far it is evident that Moses wrought signs to procure belief But let us follow Moses out of Egypt into the Wilderness and see whether it be true which Maimon affirms that those Miracles were not wrought to gain belief to his Prophecy I shall content my self with one of the Miracles which Maimon himself mentions as a work that Moses did to serve a present necessity and not to gain credit to his Prophecy And that is the Miracle which was wrought upon occasion of the rebellion of Corah and his company Now it is very evident from the Text that that Miracle was wrought to assert the Prophecy of Moses as well as the right of Aaron as will appear from the words of Moses to Corah and his company Numb 16.5 To morrow says he the Lord will shew who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him Again when those evil men were about to be swallowed up we find Moses saying Hereby ye shall know that the Lord hath sent me to doe all these works for I have not done them of mine own mind If these men dye the common death of all men or if they be visited after the visitation of all men then the Lord hath not sent me v. 28 29 30. But if the Lord make a new thing and the Earth open her mouth and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them and they go down quick into the pit then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. Hence it is evident that the Miracle confirmed the Mission of Moses and so had a direct tendence to gain credit and belief unto his Prophecy and that a Miracle is a good confirmation of a Doctrine No wonder then that we find our Saviour frequently appealing to his Miracles as the evidences of his commission I have says he greater witness than that of John for the work which the father hath given me to finish Joh. 5.36 the same works that I doe bear witness of me that the father hath sent me Again we read elsewhere to the same purpose Then came the Jews round about him and said unto him how long dost thou make us to doubt If thou be the Christ tell us plainly And thereupon it follows presently Jesus answered them Joh. 10.24 25. I told you and ye believed not The works that I doe in my father's name bear witness of me Again Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me or else believe me for the very works sake And in another place our Saviour says Joh. 14.11.15.24.10.37 38. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sin Again if I doe not the works of my father believe me not but if I do though ye believe not me believe the works that ye may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him Besides we find that men were greatly convinced by the Miracles which Jesus wrought when he had miraculously fed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes as it is said then those men when they had seen the Miracle that Jesus did said Joh. 6.14.2.11.23 this is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world And when he had turned water into wine 't is said that his disciples believed on him And when he was at Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles which he did The works of Jesus were very convictive and great was the evidence that they were attended with When our Saviour raised the widows son of Naim There came a great fear on all Luk. 7.16 and they glorified God saying that a great Prophet is risen up among us and that God hath visited his people To this purpose Nicodemus tells our Lord. Joh. 3.2 Rabbi say he we know that thou art a teacher come from God And then follows that which gives him the ground of this perswasion of his For no man can doe those Miracles which thou doest except God be with him And the blind man who was restored to sight speaks to the same purpose Joh. 9.32 33. Since the world began says he it was not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind If this man were not of God he could doe nothing whence it appears that the people were greatly convinced by the works which they saw Jesus doe Indeed our Saviour appeared in a mean and poor condition in the world he was reproached and traduced and accused by evil men But then the works which he did which were the works of the spirit did clear and justifie our Saviour 1 Tim. 3.16 And to this sense I understand the Apostle's words where he tells us that God was manifested in the flesh and adds that he was justified in the spirit Or justified and cleared from false accusations by the spirit ' Ev signifies by Matt. 17.21 ch 23. v. 16. Luk. 4. v. 1. Heb. 1.1 Matt. 12.28 For so those words may be rendred which we render in the spirit It was we know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the spirit of God that Jesus cast out Devils His miraculous works did proceed from the spirit of God And he was justified by that spirit when he wrought miracles This is no new interpretation We find it in one of the ancient Fathers He was justified by the spirit i. e. by the divine spirit he wrought miracles But if I cast out Devils by the spirit of God says he It was therefore demonstrated and plain by miracles that he was true God Theodoret in 1 〈◊〉 c. 3. v. 16. and the Son of God Thus the Centurion by the Cross when he saw the earthquake and the darkness said This of a truth is the Son of God The Holy Spirit did acquit our blessed Saviour from the aspersions which were cast upon him And may very well be said to be an Advocate to our
are also said to be the figures of the true that is of Heaven it self as it follows in the next words And we shall find in this Epistle to the Hebrews many things to this purpose by which we may learn that the Legal services and Sanctuary were shadows of good things to come and particularly that the most holy place in the Sanctuary was a type of the highest Heavens Heb. 9.7 8 9. But unto the second i.e. the most holy place which was within the veil and beyond the first Sanctuary through which the High Priest entred in his passage to it went the High Priest alone once every year the Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest whiles as the first Tabernacle was yet standing which was a figure for the time present Again Heb. 10.1 the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect Again he calls those things the patterns of things in the Heavens Heb. 9.23 ch 6.20 Conformably hereunto he tells us that Jesus is entred within the veil that is into Heaven represented by the most holy place The type or sign being frequently put for the anti-type He elsewhere speaks of a liberty gained for us to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus Heb. 10.19 i. e. to enter into Heaven It is to be considered that this Epistle was written to the Hebrews and does very much refer to the customs and usages of that people and is not throughly to be understood without some knowledge of those matters When the Authour of it affirms that the Sanctuary was a symbolical representation of something else and that the Holy of Holies was a figure of Heaven into which Christ our high Priest is entred he speaks the sense of the Hebrew Nation And that so it is I shall prove not onely from the later Jewish Writers but from the most ancient of them also Abravenel tells us out of the Bereshith Rabba Abravenel in legem â— 190. c. 4. that the Shittim wood in the Tabernacle answered to the Seraphim above and that as there are Stars above so there were Stars in the Tabernacle And the same Authour adds that he that searcheth will find that all that was made in the Tabernacle was after the similitude of natural things The Tabernacle says he whose length was thirty cubits was divided into three parts The two first exteriour parts were allowed for the Priests to enter into and these do signifie the Sea and the dry Land which men have the liberty to converse upon But says he the third part or Holy of Holies signifies the Heavens which the foot of man does not enter into See Abravenel in his Preface to Joshua for the Heavens are the Lord 's Another of their late Authours tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Bechai in Leg. f. 108. c. 2. that the Tabernacle was a Specimen or representation of the Creation of the Vniverse And that the three parts of the Sactuary answer to the three worlds The world of Angels represented by the Holy of Holies the heavenly Orbs by that part where the Shew-bread and Candlestick were and the lower world by the Court And that open Court seems a very fit representation of this lower world as containing in it earth and air without a covering and sire and water also in the Laver or Sea and upon the Altar which stood in the Court which are the Elements of this lower world The same Authour tells us that in the building of the Sanctuary there were correspondences to the building of the world f. 127. c. 4. And he cites a Midrash to thâ—s purpose wherein they are said to answer each other viz. with reference to the Creation it is said he stretcheth out the Heavens like a Curtain Isa 40.22 with reference to the Tabernacle it was commanded that they should make Curtains Exod. 26. with respect to the Creation it is said let the waters be gathered together Gen. 1.9 with reference to the Tabernacle was commanded the making a Laver or Sea of brass Exod. 38.8 When the world was created it was said let there be lights Gen. 1.14 and when the Tabernacle was to be built it is said thou shalt make a Candlestick of pure Gold Exod. 25.31 In the creation of the world there is mention of Fowl that was to fly Gen. 1.20 in the Tabernacle were Cherubims that stretched forth their Wings on high Exod. 25.20 In the story of the Creation it is written God created man Gen. 1.27 In that of the Tabernacle it is said Take thou unto thee Aaron thy Brother Exod. 28.1 In the creation of the world it is said The Heavens and the Earth were finished Gen. 2.1 In reference to the Tabernacle it is said Thus was all the work of the Tabernacle of the tent of the Congregation finished Exod. 39.32 Several other correspondences he mentions which I omit he adds that the Tabernacle below was a figure of the Tabernacle above 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. in Exod. Quaest 60. v. Quaest 72. De Vita Mosis l. 3. No wonder then that a Christian writer should call the Tabernacle the image of the creation when the Jews themselves affirm the same Philo the Jew tells us that it was needfull that they which built the Sanctuary should make use of the same materials which go to the making up of the Universe and he discourses at large of the symbolical representation of the Universe in the several parts of the Tabernacle and he tells us very expresly that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Holy of Holies were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They were Spiritually or typically to be understood Josephus the Jew lived in the Apostles times Joseph Antiqu. l. 3. c. 8. and was a Priest and a learned man in the Jewish affairs He gives us a particular account of the structure of the Tabernacle and adds that if any man consider the structure of the Tabernacle the vestments of the Priests and the utensils which they used in their Legal service he will conclude that their Law-giver was a divine person For all these things saith he were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. They were resemblances of the Vniverse He adds that for two parts of the Tabernacle they were left common to all the Priests and these saith he represent the earth and the sea which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 left at common for all men But then the third part is assigned to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because men may not enter that holy place where God dwells Where he makes the Holy of Holies a figure of Heaven it self as the divine Authour of the Epistle to the Hebrews doth To what hath been said I shall add the words of Solomon as