IV. ing what is the end or defign driven at in fuch a wonder- ART. ful work if it is a good one, if it tends to reform the manners of men, and to bring them off from magic, idolatry, and fuperftition, to the worship of one pure and eternal Mind: and if it tends to reform their actions, as well as their speculations and their worship; to turn them from immorality, falfehood, and malice, to a pure, a fincere, and a mild temper; if it tends to regulate fociety, as well as to perfect the nature and faculties of every fingle man; then we may well conclude, that no evil fpirit can fo far depart from its own nature, as to join its forces, and cooperate in fuch a defign: for then the kingdom of Satan could Matt. xii. not ftand, if he were thus divided against bimfelf; according 25, 26. to what our Saviour faid, when this was objected against the miracles that he wrought. Thefe are all the general confiderations that concur to prove the truth of the hiftory of the Gofpel, of which the Refurrection and Afcenfion of Christ are the two main articles; for they being well proved, give authority to all the reft. As to the Refurrection in particular, it is certain. the Apostles could not be deceived in that matter: they faw Chrift frequently after he rofe from the dead; they met him once with a great company of five hundred with them they heard him talk and argue with them; he opened the Scriptures to them with fo peculiar an energy, that they felt their hearts fet on fire, even when they did not yet perceive that it was he himfelf: they did not at firft either look for his refurrection, nor believe thofe who reported him rifen: they made all due enquiry, and some of them went beyond all reasonable bounds in their doubting fo far were they from an eafy and foon-imposedon credulity. Ilis fufferings and their own fears had fo amazed them, that they were contriving how to separate and difperfe themfelves, when he at first appeared to them. Men fo full of fear, and fo far from all hope, are not apt to be eafy in believing. So it must be concluded, that either the account which the Apostles gave the world of Chrift's refurrection is true, or they were grofs impoftors; fince it is clear, that the circumftances and numbers mentioned in that hiftory fhew there could be no deception in it. And it is as little poffible to conceive, that there could be any impofture in it: for not to repeat again, what has been already faid, that they were under no temptations to fet about any fuch deceit, but very much to the contrary; and that there is no reafon to think they were either bad enough to enter upon fuch a defign, or capable and skilful enough to manage it; they being many of them illiterate G 2 fishermen IV. ART. fifhermen of Galilee, who had no acquaintance at Jerufalem, to furnish them with that which might be necessary for executing fuch a contrivance: the circumftances of that tranfaction are to be well examined, and then it will appear, that no number of bold and dexterous men, furnithed with all advantages whatsoever, could have effected this matter. Great numbers had been engaged in the procuring our Saviour to be crucified: the whole Sanhedrim, befides multitudes of the people, who upon all occafions are easily drawn in to engage in tumultuary commotions: all these were concerned to examine the event of this matter. He was buried in a new fepulchre lately hewed out of a rock, fo that there was no coming at it by any fecret ways: a watch was fet; and all this at a time, in which the fullmoon gave a great light all the night long and Jerufalem being very full of people, who were then there in great numbers to keep the Paffover, that being the fecond night of fo vaft a rendezvous, it is reasonable to think, that great numbers were walking in the fields, or at least might be fo, fome later, and fome earlier. Now if an impofture was to be fet about, the guard was to be frighted or mastered, which could not be done without giving the alarm, and that must have quickly brought a multitude upon them. Chrift's body muft have been difpofed of: fome other tomb was to be looked for to lodge it in : the wounds that were in it would have made it to be foon known if found. Here a bold attempt was to be undertaken, by a company of poor irrefolute men, who must trust one another entirely, otherways they knew all might be foon difcovered. One of their number had betrayed Chrift a few days before; another had forfworn him, and all had forfaken him and yet thefe men are fuppofed all of the fudden fo firm in themfelves, and fo fure of one another, as to venture on the most daring thing that was ever undertaken by men, when not a circumftance could ever be found out to fix upon them the leaft fufpicion. The Priests and the Pharifees must be thought a strange stupid fort of creatures, if they did not examine where the Apofiles were all that night: befides many other particulars, which might have been a thread to lead them into strict enquiries, unless it was because they believed the report that the watch had brought them of Christ's rifing again. When they had this certain reason to believe it, and yet refolved to oppofe it, the only thing they could do, was to fsem to neglect the matter, and only to decry it in gene ral IV. ral as an imposture, without going into particulars; which ART. certainly they would not have done, if they themselves had not been but too fure of the truth of it. When all this is laid together, it is the most unreasonable thing imaginable, to think that there was an impofture in this matter, when no colour nor fhadow of it ever appeared, and when all the circumftances, and not only probabilities, but even moral poffibilities, are fo full to the contrary. The Afcenfion of Chrift has not indeed fo full a proof: nor is it capable of it, neither does it need it; for the refurrection well proved, makes that very credible. For this we have only the teftimony of the Apoftles, who did all atteft that they faw it, being all together in an open field when Chrift was walking and difcourfing with them, and when he was bleffing them, he was parted from them they faw him afcend, till a cloud received him, and took him out of their fight. And then two angels appeared to them, and affured them, that be bould come A&ts i. 11. again in like manner as they bad feen bim afcend. Here is a very particular relation, with many circumftances in it, in which it was not poffible for the Apoftles to be mistaken; fo that there being no reason to fufpect their credit, this refts upon that authority. But ten days after, it received a much clearer proof; when the Holy Ghoft was poured out on them in fo vifible a manner, and with most remarkable effects. Immediately upon it they spoke with divers tongues, and wrought many miracles, and all in the name of Chrift. They did often and folemnly disclaim their doing any of thofe wonderful things by any power A&ts iii. of their own: they owned that all they had or did was 12, 16. derived to them from Jefus of Nazareth, of whofe refurrection and afcenfion they were appointed to be the witneffes. Chrift's coming again to judge the world at the laft day is so often affirmed by himself in the Gofpel, and is fo frequently mentioned in the writings of his Apoftles, that this is a main part of his doctrine: fo that his Refurrection, Afcenfion, together with the effufion of the Holy Ghoft, having in general proved his miffion, and his whole doctrine, this is alfo proved by them. Enough seems to be faid in proof of all the parts of this article; it remains only that fomewhat should be added in explanation of them. As to the Refurrection, it is to little purpose to enquire, whether our Saviour's body was kept all the while in a complete organization, that fo by this miracle it might be preserved G 3 ART. IV. preferved in a natural ftate for his foul to re-enter it: or whether by the courfe of nature the vaft number of the inward conveyances that were in the body were stopped; and if all of a fudden, when the time of the refurrection came, all was again put in a vital ftate, fit to be animated by his foul. There must have been a miracle either way: fo it is to little purpose to enquire into it. The former, though a continued miracle, yet feems to agree more fully to thefe words, Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to fee corruption. It is to as little purpose to enquire how our Saviour's new body was fupplied with blood, fince he had loft the greatest part of it on the Crofs: whether that was again by the power of God brought back into his veins; or whether, as he himself had formerly faid, that man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, blood was fupplied by miracle: or whether his body, that was then of the nature of a glorified body, though yet on earth, needed the fupplies of blood to furnith new fpirits, for ferving the natural functions; he eating and drinking fo feldom, that we may well believe it was done rather to fatisfy his Apoftles, than to answer the neceffities of nature: thefe are curiofities that fignify fo little, if we could certainly refolve them, that it is to no purpose to enquire about them, fince we cannot know what to determine in them. This in general is certain, that the fame foul returned back to the fame body; fo that the fame man who died, rose again; and that is our faith. We need not trouble ourfelves with enquiring how to make out the three days of Chrift's being in a grave; days ftand, in the common acceptation, for a portion of a day. We know the Jews were very exact to the reft on the Sabbath, fo the body was without queftion laid in the grave before the funfet on Friday; fo that was the firft day: the Sabbath was a complete one; and a good part of the third day, that is, the night, with which the Jews began to count the day, was over before he was raised up. As for his ftay on earth forty days, we cannot pretend to give an account of it; whether his body was paffing through a flow and phyfical purification, to be meet for afcending; or whether he intended to keep a proportion between his Gospel and the law of Mofes; that as he fuffered at the time of their killing the Paffover, fo the effufion of the Holy Ghoft was fixed for Pentecoft, and that therefore he would ftay on earth till that time was near, not to put his Apoftles upon too long an expectation without his prefence; which might be neceffary to ani mate mate them, till they should be endued with power from ART. on high. As to the manner of his afcenfion, it is alfo IV. queftioned whether the body of Chrift, as it afcended, was fo wonderfully changed, as to put on the subtilty and purity of an ethereal body; or whether it retains ftill the fame form in heaven that it had on earth; or if it put on a new one it is more probable that it did; and that the wonderful glory, that appeared in his countenance and whole perfon at his transfiguration, was a manifeftation of that more permanent glory, to which it was to be afterwards exalted. It feems probable from what St. Paul fays, (that flesh and blood fhall not inherit the kingdom of 1 Cor. xv. God, which relates to our glorified bodies, when we shall 50. bear the image of the fecond and the heavenly Adam,) that Chrift's body has no more the modifications of flesh and blood in it; and that the glory of the celeftial body is of another nature and texture than that of the terreftrial. It Ver. 40. is eafily imagined how this may be, and yet the body to be numerically the fame for all matter being uniform, and capable of all fort of motion, and by confequence of being either much groffer or much purer, the fame portion of matter that made a thick and heavy body here on earth, may be put into that purity and fineness as to be no longer a fit inhabitant of this earth, or to breathe this air, but to be meet to be transplanted into ethereal regions. : Chrift as he went up into heaven, fo he had the whole government of this world put into his hands, and the whole miniftry of Angels put under his command, even in his human nature. So that all things are now in fub- 1 Cor. xv. jection to him. All power and authority is derived from 27, 28. him, and he does whatfoever he pleases both in heaven and earth. In bim all fulness drvells. And as the Mosaical tabernacle being filled with glory, the emanations of it did by the Urim and Thummim enlighten and direct that people; fo out of that fulness, that dwelt bodily in Chrift, there is a conftant emanation of his grace and fpirit defcending on his Church. He does alfo intercede for us at his Father's right-hand, where he is preparing a place for us. The meaning of all which is this, that as he is vefted with an unconceivably high degree of glory, even as man, fo the merit of his death is ftill fresh and entire; and in the virtue of that, the fins of all that come to God through him, claiming to his death as to their facrifice, and obeying his Gofpel, are pardoned, and they are fealed by bis Spirit until the day of redemption. In conclufion, when all God's defign with this world is accomplished, it shall be set on fire, and all the great parts of G 4 which |