Imatges de pàgina
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tion. Hence Chrift is called, The ftone cut out of Chap. 6. the mountains without hands, Dan. 2. 34. There was an Almighty Power in the framing his humane Nature; the Tabernacle of his body was not pitched by Man, but by the Lord, Heb. 8. 2. There was a fupernatural operation in the making of it; it is called a tabernacle not made with hands, that is to fay, not of this building, Heb. 9. 11. It was not made in a natural ordinary way of generation. It's true, he took part of our flesh and blood; but the manner of framing his body was in an extraordinary way, the structure of it was Divine, and much above that of our bodies.

Another inftance of the Divine Power we have in the Miracles wrought by Jefus Chrift. The Jewish Rabbins diftinguish of a twofold Work of God; they call his ordinary Works of Nature, opus Berefhith, from the first words of Genefis; and his miraculous works, opus Merchebha, from Ezekiels Chariot. A miracle is a work lifted up above the Order and Power of Nature: it is a fpecimen of Creation, fomething is made out of nothing. What fecond causes cannot reach, that is done by the firft; no Man, no Angel can do fuch a work. These are but parts of Nature, and therefore cannot in their Operations exceed Nature; Quod eft totaliter fub ordine conftitutum, non poteft ultra iftius naturæ ordinem agere; it is only Gods Prerogative to work Miracles. He that fet the order of Nature, can work above its he can lift Nature off the hinges, and fet it on again; and when he doth it, he doth it as becomes his infi nite Wisdom, upon very great and weighty_Reafons. When he brought his People out of Egypt,

then

Chap. 6.

then his wonders appeared; when he delivered his Law on Sinai, his wonders appeared again. In those great difpenfations he fhewed himself, not in the ordinary dress of Nature, but in Royal State and Majefty; much more did he do fo, when his Son, very God, was manifested in the flesh. Then the water was turned into Wine, the Wind and the Seas did obeyfance to their incarnate Creator: the blind received their fight, the lame did walk, the Lepers were cleanfed, the deaf did hear, the dead were raised, the devils were caft out of Men. Here the right hand of the Lord was glorious in Power. Nature did, as it were, leap and triumph in miraculous elevations above it felf, at the coming down of its Creator, to redeem the world: a mighty train of wonders attended on that greatest wonder of all, God incarnate; a life of Miracles enfued upon his miraculous Conception. Now touching the Miracles of Christ, there are three or four things to be taken notice of.

1. The Miracles of Chrift were true, and that upon a double account.

The one is this, They were true in the Hiftory of them, they were really done: we have them upon Record in the Sacred Volume of Scripture; they were not done in a corner, or before a few, but openly, and before multitudes; there were thoufands of eye-witnesses, from whom the truth of them hath been handed down in all ages of the Church. There is no colour at all to imagine, that those first reporters did utter an untruth, or go about to put a cheat upon the world: their own integrity would not fuffer it, neither was the thing it

felf

felf indeed practicable. How fhould fo many thou- Chap. 6. fands, for the most part unknown to, and distant from each other, ever agree and confpire together in the very fame ftory? Or, if they could, what fhould they propose to themselves? or which way could they think, that a Relation of things to have been done openly, if false, should ever pass in a contradicting World? They knew very well, that there were innumerable prying malicious Enemies round about them, who would perfecute them for that Relation, though true, and brand them as lyars for it, if falle. Christianity was then a poor perfecuted thing, and it would have been ftrange folly and madness in them, to have ventured their lives and eftates meerly to broach a lye unto the world; efpecially feeing it must have been fuch an one, as would have been furely discovered to be fuch, and feverely punished upon the Authors. In all reafon therefore, what the first Witneffes fpake was true; and what after-ages heard, was but the Eccho of their report. The Miracles wrought by our Saviour were fo great, that none of the Adversaries ever durft deny, that they were done. The Jews did not deny it: their ancient Rabbins take those words of P. Gal. de Arc. the Prophet, Then the eyes of the blind fhall be 1. 8. c. s. opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped: the lame fhall leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb fhall fing, Ifa. 35.5, 6. to be fpoken of the Meffiah. Their own Jofephus fpeaks of Jefus as one more than a man, and a worker of great Miracles; only the Jews, out of their defperate malice against our Saviour, defamed his Miracles as done by Magick: and, as Dr. Lightfoot tells us, it is faid in Talm. Harm. fol. 30.

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Bab.

Chap. 6.

Bab. that Ben Sarda (which is a blafphemous name they give to Jefus of Nazareth) did bring inchantments out of Egypt in incision in his flesh. But there cannot be a vainer thought than to imagine, that Satan fhould contribute wonders to confirm that Doctrine, which he knew would utterly ruin his Kingdom. When the Pharifees faid, that Christ did caft out Devils by Beelzebub. He answered two things: First, that Satans Kingdom, if divided, could not stand, Matth. 12. 26. And then, that they, in faying fo, did maliciously oppofe their light, and run into the unpardonable fin, verf. 31, 32. But when the Jews faw that this pretence would not ferve their turn, they betook themselves to a contrary shift, and faid, That the Meffiah, when he came, fhould do no Miracles at all. The Pagans did not deny Chrifts Miracles. In Pilates Letter to the Emperor Tiberius, there is an enumeration made of his Miracles. In the Epiftle of Lentulus to Tiberius he is ftiled, Homo magna virtutis. The Pagans, confcious to themselves that the thing was not Aug. de Confen- to be denied, cryed up fculapius and Apollenius, fu Evang. 1. 1. in oppofition to Chrift; and withal framed an impudent lye, that our Saviour had Magical Books, according to which he did his Miracles. Such devices as thefe, were, I fuppofe, first started by Julian the Apoftate, and by him inftilled into others. The Mahometans, fairer than the other, confefs Chrifts Miracles to have been done, and that from Morn. de Ver. God. Their Alcoran faith, That Gods Spirit was a Chrift. Relig. help and witness to Jefus, that the Soul of God was given to him. Thus it appears on all hands, that the matter of Fact touching our Saviours Miracles, cannot be denied.

Magd. Hift.

Cent. 1. 1.1.

C. 10.

c. 9.

C. 33.

I.

The

The other is this, They were true for the nature Chap. 6. of Miracles: they were not, as the Devils wonders are, meer Spectrum's or Apparitions, but real Miracles, things which are above the order of Nature, and lye within the line of Omnipotence only; the matter, mode, and end fignally declare them to be fuch. Some Miracles of Chrift, fuch as raising the dead, were fuch for the matter of them, that no conatus of nature, no concurrence or conjunction of created Powers could ever have effected them, no, not in Millions of Ages; fome of them, fuch as Curing the fick, Nature might have done, but in a tract of time, and with the help of fecond Caufes. But our Saviour dispatched them out of hand inftantly, immediately, with a word or a touch: To operate after this fort, is only proper to God, who is excellent in working. When Satan, who labours to emulate Divine Works, doth wonders, the end of them declares their Original; fuitably to the Author they serve only to lead men into lies and Idolatries. Antichrift comes with lying wonders 2 Thef. 2. 9. Lying wonders in themselves, as being phantafms and mockeries of fenfe;and lying wonders, as tending to confirm men in falfe Doctrine and Worship but the Miracles of Christ, being real ones, were done to ratifie the fuper-natural Truths and pure Worship of God. The Jews have a rule, that we should believe him who doth Miracles, unless he be the Author of Idolatrous Worship: had they adhered to this rule, they could not but have embraced our Saviour, who with fo many Miracles fealed up the true Doctrine and Worship of God. 2. The

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