And in Jefus Chrift, &c. SERMON XX, THAT JESUS IS THE TRUE MESSIAS. JOHN V. 37. And the Father himself, which hath fent me, hath borne SERM. JESUS, XX. witness of me. our Lord, here and in the context doth affirm, that Almighty God, his Father, had granted unto him feveral kinds of extraordinary attestation, fufficient to convince all well-disposed persons, unto whom they shall be discovered, that he truly was that Meffias, whom God before all beginning of time had defigned, and frequently by his Prophets had promised to fend for the reformation of the world and falvation of mankind: to represent those feveral ways of divine atteftation with fome reflections on them, ferving both to the confirmation of our faith, and improving our affection and our reverence thereto, is my chief defign at this time, But first, in preparation to what we shall say concerning thofe particulars, and for declaration of the divine wisdom in this manner of proceeding, I fhall affign fome reasons, why it was requifite that fuch atteftations should be afforded to our Lord. 1. The nature of the Meffias's office required fuch atteftations; for fince he was defigned to the most eminent employment that ever was or could be committed to 19. XX. any perfon; fince he was to reveal things no less great SERM. and important, than new and strange; fince he was to affume a most high authority unto himself; fince he was to fpeak and act all in the name of God; fince also all Deut. xviii. men under great penalties were obliged to yield credit Aas iii. 23. and obedience to him, there was great reafon that God fhould appear to authorize him; that he fhould be able to produce God's hand and feal to his commiffion; for that otherwise he might have been suspected of impofture; his doctrine might have been rejected, his authority disclaimed, and his defign fruftrated, without great blame, or however without men's being convincible of blame: for well might the people suspect that person, who, profeffing to come in fuch a capacity an extraordinary agent from heaven, brought no credentials thence, (no evidence of God's efpecial favour and affiftance ;) well might they reject that new doctrine, which God vouchfafed not by any fignal teftimony to countenance; well might they difclaim that authority, which offering to introduce so great innovations (to repeal old laws, to cancel fettled obligations, to abolish ancient customs; to enact new laws and rules, exacting obedience to them from all men) should not be able to exhibit its warrant, and fhew its derivation John vi. 27. from heaven: well might fuch peremptory affertions and fo confident pretences, without confirmations answerable in weight, beget even in wife men diftruft and aversation. The reasonablenefs and excellency of his doctrine, the innocence and fanctity of his life, the wisdom and perfuafiveness of his difcourfe would not, if nothing more divine should attend them, be thoroughly able to procure faith and fubmiffion; they would at beft have made his precepts to pass for the devices of a wife man, or the dictates of a good philofopher. They were therefore no unreafonable defires or demands (if they had proceeded from a good meaning, and had been joined with a docile and tractable difpofition) which the Jews did make to our Lord; Mafter, we would fee a fign from thee; what fign vi. 30. therefore doft thou do, that we may fee, and believe thee? Matt. xii. what doft thou work? what fign doft thou fhew to us, that Mark viii. John ii. 18. 28. xvi. 1. XX. 16, 29. X. 25. V. 32, 36. SERM. thou doeft these things? that is, how dost thou prove thy doctrine credible, or thy authority valid, by God's teftimony and warrant? This challenge our Lord himself acJohn viii. knowledged fomewhat reasonable; for he not only afferts the truth of his doctrine and validity of his commiffion by divine atteftation, (in words and works,) nor only exhorts them to credit him upon that account, but he also plainly fignifies that his bare affirmation did not require credit, and that if he could produce no better proof, they John v. 31. were excufable for difbelieving him: If, faith he, I witness of myself, my witness is not true; not true, that is, not credible; or not so true, as to oblige to belief: and, John x. 37. If I do not the works of my Father, (that is, works only imputable to God's extraordinary power,) believe me not; that is, I require no belief from you: yea, he farther adds, If I had not done the works among them, which no man elfe had done, they (the incredulous people then) had not had any fin; that is, had not been culpable for unbelief. It was then from the nature of the Meffias's office and undertaking very neceffary, that he should have atteftations of this kind; and our Lord himself, we fee, declines not, but aggravateth his pretences with this neceffity. John xv. 24. 'AvTT τῇ διανοία, 2. The effects which the Meffias was to produce did require extraordinary atteftations and affiftances from God. He was to achieve exploits of the greatest difficulty conceivable; far furpaffing all that ever was by any perfon undertaken in the world before: he was to vanquish all the powers, and to confound all the policies of hell; he was to fubdue and subjugate all the world; to make the greatest princes to stoop, and to submit their feeptres to vis, his will; to bring down the most haughty conceits, and τὴν ὑφ ̓ ἡλίῳ xesívny - to break down the most stubborn spirits, and to tame the Taray, &c. wildeft paffions of men; he was to expel from their minds Chryf. tom. vi. Or. Ixi. moft deeply rooted prejudices, to banish from their practice most inveterate customs, to cross their most violent humours, to thwart their interefts, to bear down their ambitions, to restrain their covetous defires and their voluptuous appetites; he was to perfuade a doctrine, and to p. 634. XX. impofe a law, very oppofite to the natural inclinations, to SERM. the current notions, to the worldly advantages, the liberties, emoluments, and enjoyments of all, or of moft, or of many people; he was, in fhort, fo to reform the world, as in a manner quite to alter the whole frame of it, and all the course of affairs therein; things which furely it were a madness to enterprise, and an impoffibility to accomplish, without remarkable teftimonies of the divine prefence, efpecial aids of the divine power, and large influences of the divine Spirit communicated to him; without, as St. Peter phraseth it, God were with him; these things were not Aas x. 38. effectible by means natural and ordinary, by human wit or eloquence, by good behaviour or example, by the bare reafon or plaufibility of doctrine, by the wife conduct or industrious management of the defign; no, fuch means have by many experiments appeared infufficient to bring about much leffer matters; nothing under the wisdom of God directing, the power of God affifting, the authority of God establishing and gracing his endeavours in an eminent and evident manner, could enable the Meffias to bring thefe mighty things to pass. John iii. 2. 3. We may farther confider, that the Chrift was defigned to prefent himself first to the Jews, (in the first place imparting the declarations of God's will and gracious intentions to them, his ancient friends and favourites;) that is, to a people wholly addicted to this fort of proof, and uncapable of conviction by any other: they did not, as did the Greeks, feek wisdom, but required a fign, as St. Paul 1 Cor. i. 22. obferved of them; they were not fo apt to inquire after the intrinfic reafons of things, as to expect teftimonies from heaven; nothing else was able to perfuade them; fo our Lord exprefsly faith; Jefus faid unto them, If you do John iv. 48. not fee figns and prodigies, you will nowife believe: in confequence of which disposition in them, we fee by paffages in the New Testament, that they expected and believed the Meffias fhould come with such attestations and performances; fo their importunate demanding of signs upon all occafions from our Lord doth fignify, and fo thofe words in St. John do imply; And many of the peo- John vii.31. Celf. viii. (p. 408.) SERM. ple believed on him, and faid, When Chrift cometh, will he XX. do more miracles than thefe, which this man doeth? where we may observe both their expectation of miraculous works from the Meffias, and the efficacy which such Orig. cont. works had upon them. The condition also of the Gentiles, unto whom his defign in the next place did extend, feemed to require the fame proceedings: for all other methods of inftruction and perfuafion had before often been applied to them by philosophers and by politicians, for inftilling their notions and recommending their laws; they had been fo inured to fubtile argumentations and plaufible difcourfes, that the bare ufe of them was not likely to have any extraordinary effect upon them: if the Meffias therefore fhould bring no other confirmation with him unto them, he would seem to deserve no higher regard or credit, than other doctors or lawgivers, which had appeared among them; and as eafily would he be declined, and put off by them: whence reasonably it may be fuppofed, that for accommodation to the genius and the capacities of those upon whose hearts he was to make impreffion, the Meffias fhould come furnished with fuch fpecial teftimonials and powers from God. Efpecially confidering that, 4. It was agreeable to God's ufual method of proceeding in cafes resembling this, although much unequal thereto in weight and confequence. There was never any more than ordinary discovery made to men by God, never any very confiderable business managed by divine providence, never hardly any eminent person appeared with a pretence of coming from God for the prosecution of fuch purposes, without God's vifible interpofal and abetment. This hath always been the authentic feal, John vi. 27, whereby he hath wonted to authorize the meffengers fent from himself for tranfacting affairs of an unusual and very weighty nature; whereby his true ambaffadors have been diftinguishable from ordinary perfons, or from deceitful pretenders, who have offered to impofe their own devices upon men to a person bringing with him this fort of affurance (except when his tale is evidently falfe and vain, |