II. BOOK mouth to speak out Christ, yet they had a hand to point to him; for they were the shadow, or dark representation of that which was to be drawn afterwards to the greatest life. And this was understood by all those whose hearts were carried beyond the outward sapless letter of the law, to the more inward and spiritual meaning of it, (there being an elowтepika and ewTeρika in the law as well as philosophy.) These mysteries were too not so veiled and hidden, but all that were nonτa, fully initiated, might fully understand them; which made that true spiritual cabala, which was constantly preserved among the Israelites, which was more largely commented on by the prophets of succeeding ages; whose care it was to unlock this cabala, and to raise up the hearts of the people in a higher expectation of the great things which were to come. Thence we not only read of the solemn prayer of the Church of the Jews, that the knowledge of God Ps. lxvii. 2. might be dispersed over all the nations of the earth, Isaiah ii. 2. but we have many prophecies, that when the mountain of the Lord's house should be exalted, all nations Mal. i. 11. should flow unto it: that from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, God's name shall be great among the Gentiles, and in every place incense should be offered to his name, and a pure offering; for his name shall be great among the heathen. That the inscription on the high-priest's forehead, Holiness to the Lord, should, by reason of the large diffusion of a Zach. xiv. spirit of holiness in the days of the Gospel, be set upon the bells of horses; that the pots in the Lord's house should be as the bowls before the altar, i. e. that when the Levitical service should be laid aside, and that holiness, which was that appropriated to the priests and instruments of the temple, should be discerned in those things which seemed most remote from it. That 20. VII. Psal. cx. 4, 21. 26, 27. a priesthood, after another order than that of Aaron, CHAP. should be established, viz. after the order of Melchisedec, and that he that was the priest after this order 5,6. should judge among the heathen, and wound the heads over many countries; that in the day of his power the Ver. 3. people should not be frighted to obedience with thunderclaps and earthquakes, (as at Mount Sinai,) but should come and yield themselves as a freewill offering unto him; and yet their number be as great as the drops of the dew which distil in the morning. That God out of other nations would take unto him- Isa. Ixvi. self for priests and for Levites; that the desire of all Hag. ii. 7. nations should speedily come; that the messenger of Mal. iii. 1. the covenant should come into his temple; nay, that seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and Dan. ix. 24, upon thy holy city; that then the vision and prophecy should be sealed up; that the sacrifice and oblation should be caused to cease; that the city and the sanctuary should be destroyed, and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined; that after threescore and two weeks Messias should be cut off, but not for himself; that by him transgression should be finished, and reconciliation for iniquity should be made, and everlasting righteousness should be brought in. And lest all these things should be apprehended to be only a higher advancing of the Levitical worship, and the way of external ceremonies, God expressly saith, That he would Jer. xxxi. make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and 31, 32. with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband to them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house BOOK of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put II. my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Can any one, that now considers seriously the state of things thus described as it should come to pass, ever imagine that the Levitical service was ever calculated for this state? Was God's worship to be confined to his temple at Jerusalem, when all the nations of the earth should come to serve him? Was the high priest to make an atonement there, when an order of priesthood, different from the Aaronical, should be set up? Must the tribe of Levi only attend at the temple, when God should take the priests and Levites out of all nations that serve him? What would become of the magnificence and glory of the temple, when both city and sanctuary shall be destroyed; and that must be within few prophetical weeks after the Messias is cut off? And must the covenant God made with the Israelites continue for ever, when God expressly saith he would make a new one; and that not according to the covenant which he made with them then? It is so evident then, as nothing can well be more, that under the old testament such a state of religion was described and promised, with which the Levitical worship would be inconsistent; and so that the ceremonial law was not at first established upon an immutable reason, which was the thing to be proved. CHAP. VIII. GENERAL HYPOTHESES CONCERNING THE TRUTH OF THE I. The great prejudice against our Saviour among Jews and heathens, was the meanness of his appearance. The difference of the miracles at the delivery of the Law and Gospel. II. Some general hypotheses to clear the subserviency of miracles to the doctrine of Christ. 1. That where the truth of a doctrine depends not on evidence, but authority, the only way to prove the truth of the doctrine, is to prove the testimony of the revealer to be infallible. Things may be true, which depend not on evidence of the things. What that is, and on what it depends. The uncertainty of natural knowledge. III. The existence of God the foundation of all certainty. The certainty of matter of faith proved from the same principle. Our knowledge of any thing supposeth something incomprehensible. IV. The certainty of faith as great as that of knowledge; the grounds of it stronger. The consistency of rational evidence with faith: yet objects of faith exceed reason; the absurdities following the contrary opinion. VI. The uncertainty of that which is called VII. Philosophical dictates no standard of reason. Of transubstantiation and ubiquity, &c. why rejected as contrary to reason. The foundation of faith in matters above reason. VIII. Which is infallible testimony; that there are ways to know which is infallible, proved. 2 Hypoth. A Divine testimony the most infallible. The resolution of faith into God's veracity as its formal object. IX. 3 Hypoth. A Divine testimony may be known, though God speak not immediately. Of inspiration among the Jews, and divination among the heathens. XII. 4 Hypoth. The evidence of a Divine testimony must be clear and certain. XIII. Of the common motives of faith, and the obligation to faith arising from them. The original of infidelity. reason. VIII. I. HAVING now cleared that the law of Moses was CHAP. capable of a repeal, I come to the second inquiry, Whether the miracles of our Saviour did give a sufficient evidence of his power and authority to repeal it. I shall not (to prevent too large an excursion) in II. And BOOK sist on any other evidences of our Saviour's being the promised Messias, but keep close to the matter of our present debate, concerning the evidence which ariseth from such a power of miracles as our Saviour had, in order to his establishing that doctrine which he came. to publish to the world. The great stumblingblock in reference to our blessed Saviour among both the Jews and learned heathens, was the meanness of his appearance in the world, not coming attended with that state and magnificence which they thought to be inseparable from so great a person. The Jews had their senses so possessed with the thunderings and lightnings on Mount Sinai, that they could not imagine the structure of their ceremonial worship could be taken down with less noise and terror than it was erected with. withal collecting all those passages of the Old Testament, which seemed to foretell such glorious things of the days of the Messias, (which either refer to his second coming, or must be understood in a spiritual sense,) they having their minds oppressed with the sense of their present calamities, applied them wholly to an external greatness, whereby they might be delivered from the tyranny of the Roman power. The heathens, as appears by Celsus and others, thought it very strange that the Son of God should appear in the world with so little grandeur, and have no greater train than twelve such obscure persons as the Apostles Apud Orig. were. For, saith Celsus, Ως γὰρ ὁ ἥλιος πάντα τὰ ἄλλα ed. Spen. φωτίζων πρῶτον αὑτὸν δεικνύει, οὕτως ἐχρῆν πεποιηκέναι τὸν υἱὸν Toй to as the sun, which enlightens all other things, doth first discover himself, so it was fitting the Son of God should do when he appeared to the world. And so we say he did to all such whose minds were not blinded through obstinacy and wilful ignorance. For although this Sun of Righteousness was pleased, for 1. ii. p. 79. cer. |