but by the power of God, For Satan does not caft out Satan, nor a house fight against itself, if it means to ftand long; and the devil could not help Jefus, becaufe the holy Jefus taught men virtue, called them from the worthipping devils, taught them to refift the devil, to lay afide all thofe abominable idolatries by which the devil doth rule in the hearts of men: he taught men to love God, to fly from temptations to fin, to hate and avoid all those things of which the devil is guilty; for Chriftianity forbids pride, envy, malice, lying, and yet affirms, that the devil is proud, envious, malicious; and the father of lies; and therefore, wherever Chriftianity prevails, the devil is not worshipped, and therefore he that can think that a man without the power of God could overturn the devil's principles, crofs his defigns, weaken his rength, baffle him in his policies, befool him and turn him out of poffeffion, and make him open his own mouth against infelf, as he did often, and confefs himfelf conquered by Jefus, and tormented, as the oracle did to Auguftus Cæfar, and the devil to Jefus himself; he, I fay, that thicks a mere man can do this, knows not the weakneffes of a man, nor the power of an angel; but he that thinks this could be done by compact, and by confent of fue devil, muft think him to be an intelligence, without understanding, a power without force, a fool and a fot to affiit a power againit himself, and to perfecute the power he did affift, to ftir up the world to deftroy the Chriftians, whole Mafter and Lord he did afiift to deftroy himself; and, when we read that Porphyrus an Heathen, a profefled enemy to Christianity, did fay, Ins Tipoμte Tiç de Brumas &pinelas dx hobo, that fince Jefus was worshipped, the gods could help no an, that is, the gods which they worLipped; the poor baffled enervated dæ mons: he must either think that the devils are as foolish as they are weak, or elfe, that they did nothing towards this declisation of their power; and therefore that they fuffer it by a power higher than themfelves, that is, by the power of God in the hand of Jefus.

But, befides that God gave teflimony fom heaven concerning him, he alfo gave is teftimony of himself to have come from God, becaufe that "he did God's will;" for he that is a good man and lives, by the Laws of God and of his nation, a life inno

cent and fimple, prudent and wife, holy and spotlefs, unreproved and unfufpected, he is certainly by all wife men faid in a good fenfe to be the fon of God; but he who does well and fpeaks well, and calls all men to glorify and ferve God, and ferves no ends but of holiness and charity, of wisdom of hearts and reformation of manners, this man carries great authority in his fayings, and ought to prevail with good men in good things, for good ends, which is all that is here required.

But his nature was fo fweet, his manners fo humble, his words fo wife and compofed, his comportment fo grave and winning, his anfwers fo reafonable, his questions fo deep, his reproof fo fevere and charitable, his pity fo great and merciful, his preachings fo full of reafon and holinefs, of weight and authority, his converfation fo ufeful and beneficent, his poverty great but his alms frequent, his family fo holy and religious, his and their employment fo profitable, his meeknefs fo incomparable, his panions without difference, fave only where zeal or pity carried him on to worthy and apt expreffions, a person that never laughed, but often wept in a fenfe of the calamities of others: he loved every man and hated no man; he gave counfel to the doubtful, and inftructed the ignorant; he bound up the broken hearts, and ftrengthened the feeble knees; he relieved the poor, and converted the finners; he defpifed none that came to him for relief, and as for thofe that did not, he went to them; he took all occafions of mercy that were offered him, and went abroad for more; he fpent his days in preaching and healing, and his nights in prayers and converfation with God: he was obedient to laws and fubject to princes, though he was the Prince of Judæa in right of his mother, and of all the world in right of his father; the people followed him, but he made no conventions; aud when they were made, he fuffered no tumults; when they would have made him a king, he withdrew himself; when he knew they would put him to death, he offered himfelf; he knew men's hearts, and converfed fecretly, and gave anfwer to their thoughts and prevented their queftions; he would work a miracle rather than give offence, and yet fuffer every offence rather than fee God his father dishonoured; he exactly kept the law of Mofes, to which he came to put a period, and yet chofe to

fignify

fignify his purpofe only by doing acts of mercy upon their fabbath, doing nothing which they could call a breach of a commandment, but healing fick people, a charity, which themselves would do to beafts, and yet they were angry at him for doing it to their brethren.

In all his life, and in all his converfation with his nation, he was innocent as an angel of light; and when, By the greatnefs of his worth, and the feverity of his doctrine, and the charity of his miracles, and the noifes of the people, and his immenfe fame in all that part of the world, and the multitude of his difciples, and the authority of his fermons, and his free reproof of their hypocrify, and his discovery of their falfe doctrines and weak traditions, he had branded the reputations of the vicious rulers of the people, and they refolved to put him to death, they who had the Liggett malice in the world, and the weakest accufations, were forced to fupply their want of articles against him by making truth to be his fault, and his office to be his crime, and his open confeffion of what was afked him to be his article of condem. nation; and yet after all this they could rot perfuade the competent judge to condemn him, or to find him guilty of any fault, and therefore they were forced to threaten him with Cæfar's name, against whom then they would pretend him to be an enemy, though in their charge they neither proved, nor indeed laid it againit him; and yet to whatfoever they objected he made no return, but his filence and his innocence were remarkable and evident, without labour and reply, and needed no more argument than the fun needs an advocate to prove, that he is the brightest flar in the firmament.

Well, fo it was, they crucified him; and, when they did, they did as much put out the eye of heaven, as deftroy the Son of God for, when with an incomparable fweetnefs, and a patience exemplar to all ages of fufferers, he endured affronts, examinations, fcorns, infolencies of rude ungentle tradefmen, cruel whippings, injurious, unjuft, and unreafonable ufages from thofe whom he obliged by all the arts of endearment and offers of the biggest kindness, at laft he went to death, as to the work which God appointed him, that he might become the world's facrifice, and the great example of holiness, and the inftance of reprefenting by what way the world was to be made happy (even by

fufferings and fo entering into heaven: that he might, I fay, become the Savicur of his enemies, and the elder brother his friends, and the Lord of Glory, and the fountain of its emanation. Then it was, that God gave new teftimonies from heaven: the fun was eclipfed all the walle he was upon the crofs, and yet the men was in the fall; that is, he loft his high; not because any thing in nature did ́nvek him, but because the God of nature (45 1 Heathen at that very time confefied, who yet faw nothing of this fad iniquity) did fuffer. The rocks did rend, the veil of the temple divided of itself and opened the inclofures, and difparked the fanctuary, and made it pervious to the Gentiles eye; the dead arofe, and appeared in Jerufalem to their friends, the Centurion and divers of the people fmote their hearts, and were by thefe ftrange indications convinced that he was the Son of God. His garmer's were parted, and lots caft upon his inward coat, they gave him vinegar and gall to drink, they brake not a bone of Es, but they pierced his fide with a fpest, looking upon him whom they had pierced; according to the prophecies of him, which were fo clear, and defcended to minutes and circumftances of his paffon, that there was nothing left by which they could doubt whether this were he or to who was to come into the world : but after all this, that all might be finally verified and no fcruple left, after three days bur a great ftone being rolled to the face the grave, and the flone fezled, and guard of foldiers placed about it, he ar from the grave, and for forty days together converfed with his followers and difciples and beyond all fufpicion was feen of hundred brethren at once, which is number too great to give their confentan teftimony to a lie, and it being to pu licly and confidently affirmed at the va time it was done, and for ever after urg by all Chriftians, ufed as the most migh demonftration, proclaimed, preached, ta ed of, even upbraided to the gainfayer afirmed by eye-witnefles, perfuaded to kindred and friends, and the relatives an companions of all thofe five hundred pe fons who were eye-witneffes, it is infinit rem ved from a reafonable fufpicion; at the end of thofe days was taken up heaven in the fight of many of them, Elias was in the prefence of Elisha.

Now he, of whom all these things true, muft needs be more than a ma

man; and, that they were true, was arned by very many eye-witneffes, men, who were innocent, plain men, men that had no bad ends to ferve; men, that looked for no preferment by the thing in this life; men, to whom their mafter told they were to expect not crowns and sceptres, not praife of men or wealthy podelions, not power and ease, but a voluntary cafting away care and attendance upon fecular affairs, that they might attend their ministry; poverty and prifons, troubie and vexation, perfecution and labour, whippings and banishment, bonds and death; and for a reward they must stay till a good day came, but that was not to be at all in this world; and, when the day of relitution and recompenfe fhould come, they should never know till it came, but pon the hope of this and the faith of Je, and the word of God fo taught, fo configned, they must rely wholly and for

ever.

for

Now let it be confidered, how could matters of fact be proved better? and how cold this be any thing, but fuch as to upon matters of fact? what greater auty can we have of any thing that wever done which we faw not, or heard , but by the report of wife and honeft ions? elpecially, fince they were fuch whole life and breeding was fo far from ambition and pompoufnefs, that, as they could not naturally and reasonably hope any great number of profelytes, fo the fare that could be hoped for amongst them, as it must be a matter of their own procuring, and confequently uncertain, fo muit needs be very inconfiderable, not it to outweigh the danger and the lofs, or yet at all valuable by them whofe ducation and pretences were against it? Taefe we have plentifully. But if these en are numerous and united, it is more. Then we have more; for fo many did rm thefe things which they faw and eard, that thousands of people were con. inced of the truth of them: but then, if hele men offer their oath, it is yet more, ut yet not fo much as we have, for they aled thofe things with their blood; they gave their life for a teftimony; and what eward can any man expect, if he gives life for a lie? who fhall make him reompenfe, or what can tempt him to do it nowingly but, after all, it is to be remembered, that as God hates lying, fo he ates incredulity; as we must not believe lie, fo neither ftop up our eyes and

$197. Confiderations refpecting the doctrine of Jefus Chrift.

II. For it is a doctrine perfective of human nature, that teaches us to love God and to love one another, to hurt no man, and to do good to every man; it propines to us the nobleft, the higheft, and the braveft pleafures of the world; the joys of charity, the reft of innocence, the peace of quiet fpirits, the wealth of beneficence, and forbids us only to be beafts and to be devils; it allows all that God and nature intended, and only reftrains the excrefcencies of nature, and forbids us to take pleafure in that which is the only entertainment of devils, in murders and revenges, malice and fpiteful words and actions; it permits corporal pleafures, where they can bet minister to health and focieties, to confervation of families and honour of communities; it teaches men to keep their words, that themselves may be fecured in all their juft interefts, and to do good to others, that good may be done to them; it forbids biting one another, that we may not be devoured by one another; and commands obedience to fuperiors, that we may not be ruined in confufion; it combines governments, and confirms all good laws, and makes peace, and oppofes and prevents wars where they are not just, and where they are not neceflary. It is a religion that is life and fpirit, not confifting in ceremonies and external amufmerts, but in the fervices of the heart, and the real fruit of lips and hands, that is, of good words and good deeds; it bids us to do that to God which is agreeable to his ex

T

cellencies,

cellencies, that is, worship him with the best thing we have, and make all things elfe minifter to it; it bids us do that to our neighbour, by which he may be bet ter: it is the perfection of the natural law, and agreeable to our natural neceffities, and promotes our natural ends and defigns: it does not destroy reason, but instructs it in very many things, and complies with it in all; it hath in it both heat and light, and is not more effectual than it is beauteous: it promifes every thing that we can defire, and yet promifes nothing but what it does effect; it proclaims war againft all vices, and generally does command every virtue; it teaches us with eafe to mortify thofe affections which reafon durft fcarce reprove, because she hath not strength enough to conquer; and it does create in us thofe virtues which reason of herself never knew, and after they are known, could never approve fufficiently: it is a doctrine, in which nothing is fuperfluous or burdenfome; nor yet is there any thing wanting, which can procure happiness to mankind, or by which God can be glorified: and, if wisdom, and mercy, and justice, and fimplicity, and holinefs, and purity, and meeknefs, and contentedness, and charity, be images of God and rays of divinity, then that doctrine, in which all these fhine fo gloriously, and in which nothing else is ingredient, muft needs be from God; and that all this is true in the doctrine of Jefus needs no other probation, but the reading the words.

For, that the words of Jefus are contained in the gospels, that is, in the writings of them, who were eye-witnesses and ear-witneffes of the actions and fermons of Jefus, is not at all to be doubted; for in every fect we believe their own records of doctrine and inftitution: for it is madnefs to fuppofe the Chriftians to pretend to be fervants of the laws of Jefus, and yet to make a law of their own which he made not: no man doubts but that the Alcoran is the law of Mahomet, that the Old Teftament contains the religion of the Jews; and the authority of thele books is proved by all the arguments of the religion, for all the arguments perfuading to the religion, are intended to prove no other than is contained in thofe books; and, these having been, for fifteen hundred years and more, received abfolutely by all Chriftian affemblies, if any man fhall offer to make a question of their authority, he muft declare his reafons, for the difciples of the

religion have fufficient prefumption, feca rity and poffeffion, till they can be reasonably disturbed; but, that now they can never be, is infinitely certain, because we have a long, immemorial, univerfal tradition that these books were written in those times, by thofe men whofe names they bear, they were accepted by all churches at the very firft notice, except fome few of the later, which were firft received by fome churches, and then confented to by all; they were acknowledged by the fame, and by the next age for genuine, their authority publifhed, their words cited, appeals made to them in all queftions of religion, because it was known and confeffed that they wrote nothing but that they knew, fo that they were not deceived; and to fay, they would lie, must be made to appear by fomething extrinfical to this inquiry, and was never fo much as plaufibly pretended by any adverfaries, and it being a matter of another man's will, must be declared by actions, or not at all.

But, befides, the men that wrote them were to be believed, because they did miracles, they wrote prophecies, which are verified by the event, persons were cured at their fepulchres, a thing fo famous that it was confeffed even by the enemies of the religion: and, after all, that which the world ought to rely upon, is the wifdem and the providence, and the goodness of God; all which it concerned to take care that the religion, which himself so adorned and proved by miracles and mighty figns, fhould not be loft, nor any falle writings be obtraded instead of true, left, without our fault, the will of God become impoffi ble to be obeyed.

But to return to the thing: all thofe ex cellent things, which fingly did make famous fo many fects of philofophers, and remarked fo many princes of their fects, all them united, and many more, which their eyes, öμuala vonligidan, dark and dim, could not fee, are heaped together in this fyftem of wisdom and holiness. Here, are plain precepts full of deepest mystery; here, are the measures of holiness and approaches to God described; obedience and conformity, mortification of the body, and eleva tions of the fpirit, abftractions from earth, and arts of fociety, and union with heaven, degrees of excellencies, and tendencies to perfection, imitations of God, and converfations with him; these are the heights and defcents, upon the plain grounds of

natural

natural reafon, and natural religion; for there is nothing commanded but what our reafon by nature ought to choose, and yet nothing of natural reafon taught but what is heightened ad made more perfect by the Spirit of God; and, when there is any thing in the religion, that is againft flesh and blood, it is only when flesh and blood is against us, and against reafon, when flesh. and blood either would hinder us from great felicity, or bring us into great mifery: to conclude, it is fuch a law, that nothing can hinder men to receive and entertain, but a pertinacious bafenefs and love to vice, and none can receive it but thofe who refolve to be good and excel. lent; and, if the holy Jefus had come into the world with lefs fplendor of power and mighty demonftrations, yet, even the excellency of what he taught, makes him alone fit to be the mafter of the world.

Bishop Taylor.

198. Confiderations refpecting the effect, and the inftruments, of Chrift's religion. III. But then let us confider what this excellent perfon did effect, and with what inftruments he brought fo great things to ps. He was to put a period to the rites of Mofes, and the religion of the temple, of which the Jews were zealous even unto pertinacy; to reform the manners of all mankind, to confound the wisdom of the Greeks, to break in pieces the power of the devil, to destroy the worship of all falle gods, to pull down their oracles, and change their laws, and by principles wife and holy to reform the falfe difcourfes of the world.

But fee what was to be taught, A trinity in the unity of the Godhead, Teia iv xai i pa, that is the Chriftian arithmetic, Three are one, and one are three, fo Lucian in his Philopatris, or fome other, derides the Chriftian doctrine; fee their philofophy. Ex nihilo nihil fit. No: Ex nihilo omnia, all things are made of nothing; and a man-god and a god-man, the fame perfon finite and infinite, born in time, and yet from all eternity the Son of God, but yet born of a woman, and she a maid, but yet a mother; refurrection of the dead, reunion of foul and body; this was part of the Chriftian phyficks or their natural philofophy.

But then certainly their moral was eafy and delicious,' It is fo indeed, but not to flesh and blood, whofe appetites it

pretends to regulate or to destroy, to retrain or elfe to mortify: "fafting and penance, and humility, loving our enemies, reftitution of injuries, and felf-denial, and taking up the crofs, and lofing all our goods, and giving our life for Jefus:" as the other was hard to believe, fo this is as hard to do.

But for whom and under whofe conduct was all this to be believed, and all this to be done, and all this to be fuffered? Surely, for fome glorious and mighty prince, whofe fplendor as far outfhines the Roman empire, as the jewels of Cleopatra outfhined the fwaddling clothes of the babe at Bethlehem. No, it was not fo neither. For all this was for Jefus, whom his followers preached; a poor babe, born in a ftable, the fon of a carpenter, cradled in a cratch, fwaddled in poor clouts; it was for him whom they indeed called a God, but yet, whom all the world knew, and they themselves faid, was whipped at a post, nailed to a crofs; he fell under the malice of the Jews his countrymen, and the power of his Roman lords, a cheap and a pitiful facrifice, without beauty and without splendor.

The defign is great, but does not yet feem poffible; but therefore let us fee what inftruments the Holy Jefus chose, to effect thofe fo mighty changes, to perfuade fo many propofitions, to endear fo great fufferings, to overcome fo great enemies, to mafter fo many impoffibilities which this doctrine and this law from this Mafter were fure to meet withal.

Here, here it is that the Divinity of the power is proclaimed. When a man goes to war, he raises as great an army as he can to out-number his enemy; but, when God fights, three hundred men, that lap like a dog, are fufficient; nay, one word can diffolve the greatest army. He that means to effect any thing must have means of his own proportionable; and if they be not, he muft fail, or derive them from the mighty. See then with what inftruments the holy Jefus fets upon this great reformation of the world.

Twelve men of obfcure and poor birth, of contemptible trades and quality, without learning, without breeding; thefe men were fent iuto the midst of a knowing and wife world, to difpute with the most famous philofophers of Greece, to out-wit all the learning of Athens, to out-preach all the Roman orators; to introduce into a newlyT 2

fettled