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Son of God did not come in the flesh, meerly to Chap. 6. do Miracles upon the bodies of Men; No, his greatest work is upon their fouls. Corporal Miracles were pledges of Spiritual. Some of them, as the inlightning of the blind, and raifing of the dead, did,

as Eftius obferves, type out the giving of the Vital In Sent. lib. 2. Principles of Grace, to restore the faln faculties in fol. 337. men. Some of them, as Peters walking on the Waters by the helping-hand of Chrift, did fhadow forth the giving of auxiliary Grace to Saints, to keep them from finking under Temptations. As the external Miracles were wrought by the Power and Spirit of God, fo are the internal alfo. When a blind mind is irradiated, there is a word of Power, fuch as at first commanded light out of darkness. When a dead finner is raised up to a Divine Life, the Glory of God may be feen in it, even as it was ·upon Lazarus's coming out of the Grave. Now, that we may fee fome Rays of this glorious Power, several things are to be confidered by us.

First of all, let us look upon the state of the World, as it was at our Saviours coming. The world was made up of Jews and Gentiles, both of them were not only tainted with Original fin, but deeply corrupted with Actual; out of both God would raise up a Church to himself, to make the Power of his Grace known.

The Jews, once Gods fpecial People, were now defperately degenerate; blindness was upon them, notwithstanding that Rabbinical learning was at the height in the Schools of Hillel and Shammai : they interpreted the holy Scriptures, as the Vail upon their hearts would let them, in a very grofs, car

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Chap. 6.

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nal manner, as if they had loft all favour of things
Divine and Spiritual. Thus the establishing the
mountain of the Lords houfe in the top of the moun-
tains, Ifa. 2. 2, is with one of them, the bringing
of Tabor and Carmel, and fetting Jerufalem upon the
of them. The calling the fabbath a delight, Ifa.
top
58. 13, is to eat and drink, and indulge their ge-
nius. They made the Sacred Law, whofe primary
aim was at the heart, to bind only the outward
Man. According to their corrupt glofs, there was
no Murder, but what purpled the hand with blood ;
nor no Adultery, but what was in the grofs Act:
evil thoughts and purposes were not fo much as pec-
cadillo's; neither did God take notice of them, fo
as to punish for them. A thought or purpose of
facriledg in Antiochus, was nothing with Jofephus ;
regarding or feeing iniquity in the heart, was no-
thing with David Kimchi, as appears by his glofs.
upon the 66th Pfalm. Thus the Law was difpirited
and ftrip't of its Divinity. Religion went off from
its Center, the heart, to paint and varnish over the
outward Man. Sin might reign and do what it would
within, fo as it did not break out and profane the
Life. Having thus humbled the Law according to
their own Model, they stood upon their Terms with
God: they would establish their own Righteousness,
though it were a poor cadaverous thing, without
any Divine Life or Spirit in it; yet they would
prop
it up,
and make it stand before God: they
were full of their own Righteoufnefs, and compleat
in themselves; they looked only for a Temporal
Meffiah, one who by his outward greatnefs might
fubdue their Enemies, and feast them in the holy

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Weems of the

Land. A fpiritual Saviour they expected not, nei-Chap. 6. ther could it be thought according to their Principles, what fuch an one should do for them. As for his fuffering or dying for them, they jested at it as an horrible abfurdity, faying, Tobias deliquit, & figog plectitur; their own Temporal death was expiation Jew. enough for all their fins. Hence the fick man was to pray thus, Sit mors mea expiatio pro omnibus pec- Buxt.Syn.c.35' catis meis. As for regenerating-Grace to be procured for them, they dream't of no Regeneration, but a ritual one. The baptized Profelyte was accounted by them as recens natus, one new-born. The fick man, having but his name changed, was esteemed as nova creatura, a new creature. As for Eternal life, they thought they could earn it by their own Works. In none of thefe refpects would the pride of their hearts fuffer them to fee any need of a Spiritual Saviour. Further, they advanced their Traditions above the written Word; their Talmud is, Lux illa magna, that great light, Ifa. 9. 2. it is fun damentum legis, the foundation of the Law. The words of the Scribes (fay they are more worthy fol. 38. than the words of the Law, and more weighty than the words of the Prophets. Thus departed they from the Scriptures, and run themselves into a Labyrinth of Errors; the power and vigor of Religion was evaporated into rituals and empty formalities; if their Phylacteries were broad, it was no matter how narrow the Law or Obedience to it were. A clean outfide would ferve the turn, though within there were nothing but hellish pollution. Great vices might pafs, fo as they were but fub umbrâ virtutis, under a fhadow of virtue; their honefty was confined

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Dr. Li. Harm.

Chap. 6. fined to thofe of their own Religion, none else were neighbours with them: they might lye or deal, Seld. de fure falfly with a stranger, he was no neighbour; if they did kill a stranger, they were not to dye for it by Dr. Li. Harm. the fentence of the Sanhedrin, he was no neighfal. 46.

Nat.

bour. Nay, and among themselves their Corban was able to untie the bonds of Nature, and free them. from Duty and Charity to their very Parents; they feemed to be for cleaning the outside, yet they fell into grofs abominations. The very Scribes and Pharifees, their great Rabbies and Leaders, (from whom they were not to decline, though they were told by them, that their right-hand were their left).. would devour Widows houfes: and what but frauds and oppreffions could be looked for among the or dinary fort? Indeed, among great and fmall ones, there was a deluge of iniquity; they had made their fins great, and to fill up the measure, they killed the Lord of life. This was the fearful state of the Jews.

The Gentile World lay in Tong, 1 Joh. 5. 19. in the evil one; in the hand and power of the Devil, or in that which is evil, in wickedness, corrupting as a dead man doth in his Grave. It's true, within they had an implanted notion of a Deity; without, they had the Creatures proclaiming their Creator. But alas, They held the truth in unrighte oufness, Rom. 1. 18. That little spark in their bofom, which revealed a Deity, was but a Captive; it could not break out to give Glory to its Maker, nor was it able to bear up the Honour of God in the World. They could not but know God, yet acknowledg him they would not: though he made and bear up

all

all things; yet they owned him not, no, not in his Chap. 6. own World. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed leafts, and creeping things, Rom. 1. 23. And a little after, They changed the truth of God into a lye, and worshipped and ferved the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever, Verf. 25. They fell into all manner of Idolatries; any thing might be God, but the true one. An high dishonour it was for them to prefer the vileft Creatures before the Optimus Maximus, the best and greatest of Beings. An horrible lye it was for them practically to fay, That a brute, or a man, or a star was a God; or that a ftock, or a stone, or a little dead matter in an Image, did resemble the infinite Spirit. Upon their Idolatry, being an accurfed departure from God the fountain of Goodnefs, immediately followed a black train of abominations: They were filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, back-biters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boafters, inventers of evil things, disobedient to parents, with out understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful, Rom. 1. 29, 30, 31. They were in these things, as in their Element, acting out of finful hearts and habits, and fo gratifying their first and fecond corrupt Nature both at once. And for all this they feemed to have a Patent from Heaven in the Vices of their gods, which their own Authors fet before them; they did but follow their Deities, their fins were made Divine by the highest Example. This was the state of the Gentiles.

And

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