IV. ART. ceptions to what was done. Such were the rulers of the fyna gogues, and the pharifees in our Saviour's time: and yet they could neither deny the facts, nor pretend that there was any deceit or juglary in them. We have in this all poffible reafon to conclude, that both the things were truly done as they are related, and that no just exception was or could be made to them. If it is pretended, that those wonderful things were done by the power of an evil spirit, that does both acknowledge the truth of the relation, and alfo its being fupernatural. This answer taken from the power of evil fpirits, is fometimes to be made use of, when extraordinary things are well attefted, and urged in proof of that which upon other reasons we are aflured is falfe. It is certain, that as we have a great power over vast quantities of grofs and heavy matter, which by the motion of a very fubtile body, our animal fpirits, we can mafter and manage: fo angels, good or bad, may, by virtue of fubtile bodies, in which they may dwell, or which upon occafion they may affume, do many things vaftly above either our force to do, or our imagination to apprehend how it is done by them. Therefore an action, that exceeds all the known powers in nature, may yet be done by an evil spirit that is in rebellion against its Maker, and that defigns to impofe upon us by fuch a mighty performance. But then the measure, by which we muft judge of this, is by confidering what is the end or defign driven at in fuch a wonderful work: if it is a good one, it it tends to reform the manners of men, and to bring them off from magic, idolatry and fuperftition, to the worfhip of one pure and eternal Mind: and if it tends to reform their actions, as well as their fpeculations 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 spirit can fo far depart from its own nature, as to join its forces, and co-operate in Matt. xii. fuch a defign: for then the kingdom of Satan could not ftand, if he were thus divided against himself; according to what our Saviour faid, when this was objected against the miracles that he wrought. 25, 26. These are all the general confiderations that concur to prove the truth of the hiftory of the Gospel, of which the Refurrection and Ascension of Chrift are the two main articles; for they being well proved, give authority to all the rest. 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 IV. talk and argue with them; he opened the Scriptures to them ART. with fo peculiar an energy, that they felt their hearts fet on fire, even when they did not yet perceive that it was he himself: they did not at firft either look for his refurrection, nor believe those who reported him risen: they made all due enquiry, and fome of them went beyond all reasonable bounds in their doubting fo far were they from an eafy and foon-imposed-on credulity. His fufferings and their own fears had so amazed them, that they were contriving how to separate and disperse themselves, when he at first appeared to them. Men fo full of fear, and fo far from all hope, are not apt to be easy 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 history 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 reason to think they were either bad enough to enter upon fuch a design, or capable and skilful enough to manage it; they being many of them illiterate fishermen 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, furnished 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 secret ways: 'a watch was fet; and all this at a time, in which the full-moon 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 second night of fo vaft a rendezvous, it is reafonable to think, that great numbers were walking in the fields, or at leaft 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 must have been difpofed of: fome other tomb was to be looked for to lodge it in: the wounds that AN EXPOSITION OF ART. that were in it would have made it to be foon known if 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 these men are fuppofed all of the fudden fo firm in themselves, and fo fure of one another, as to venture on the most daring thing that was ever undertaken by men, when not a circumstance could ever be found out to fix upon them the leaft fufpicion. The Priests and the Pharifees must be thought a ftrange ftupid fort of creatures, if they did not examine where the Apoftles 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 seem to neglect the matter, and only to decry it in general as an imposture, without going into particulars; which 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 Christ 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 Acts i, 11. he should come again in like manner as they had seen him afcend. Here is a very particular relation, with many circumstances in it, in which it was not poffible for the Apoftles to be mistaken: so that there being no reason to fufpect their credit, this refts upon that authority. But ten days after, it received much clearer proof; when the Holy Ghoft was poured out on them in fo visible a manner, and with moft 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 those wonderful IV. things by any power of their own: they owned that all they AR T. had or did was 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 last day, is fo often affirmed by himfelf in the Gospel, 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 feems to be faid in proof of all the parts of this arti cle; it remains only that fomewhat fhould be added in expla nation of them. A&tili, 12, 16. As to the Refurrection, it is to little purpofe to enquire, whether our Saviour's body was kept all the while in a complete organization, that fo by this miracle it might be preferved in a natural ftate for his foul to re-enter it or whether by the course of nature the vast number of the inward conveyances that were in the body were ftopt; 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 fuffer 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 Cross: 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 furnish 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 Apostles, 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, rofe again; and that is our faith. We need not trouble ourselves 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 question laid in the grave before the funfet on Friday; fo that was the first day: the Sabbath was a G complete AN EXPOSITION OF ART. complete one; and a good part of the third day, that is, the IV. 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 Ghost 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 animate them, till they should be endued with power from on high. As to the manner of his afcenfion, it is also queftioned whether the body of Chrift, as it afcended, was fo wonderfully changed, as to put on the fubtilty 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 manifestation of that more permanent glory to which it was to be afterwards exalted. It feems probable from 1 Cor. xv. what St. Paul fays, (that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, which relates to our glorified bodies, when we shall 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 celestial body is of another nature and texture than that of the terreftrial. It is easily 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 tranfplanted into ethereal regions. 50. Ver. 40. 1 Cor. xv. 27, 28. 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 fubjection to him All power and authority is derived from him, and he does whatsoever he pleafes both in heaven and earth. In him all fulness dwells. And as the Mofaical 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 spirit defcending on his Church. He does alfo intercede for us at his Father's |