Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...

SECT. III. Of the EVANGELICAL Dispensation.

The gradual revelations concerning the Messiah. John the Baptist Christ's forerunner. His extraordinary Birth. His austere Education, and way of Life. His Preaching, what. His initiating proselytes by Baptism. Baptism in use in the Jewish Church. Its Original, whence. His resolution and im∣partiality. His Martyrdom. The character given him by Josephus, and the Jews. The Evangelical Dispensation wherein it exceeds that of Moses. Its perspicuity and perfection. Its agreeableness to humane nature. The Evan∣gelical promises better than those of the Law, and in what respects. The aids of the Spirit plentifully afforded under the Gospel. The admirable confirmation of this Oeconomy. The great extent and latitude of it. Judaism not capable of being communicated to all mankind. The comprehensiveness of the Gospel. The Duration of the Evangelical Covenant. The Mosaical Statutes in what sence said to be for ever. The Typical and transient nature of that State. The great happiness of Christians under the Oeconomy of the Gospel.

1. GOD having from the very infancy of the World promised the Messiah, as the great Redeemer of Mankind, was accordingly pleased in all Ages to make gradual discoveries and manifesta∣tions of him, the revelations concerning him in every Dispensation of the Church still shining with a bigger and more particular light, the nearer this Sun of Righteousness was to his rising. The first Gospel and glad tidings of him commenced with the fall of Adam, God out of infinite tenderness and commiseration promising to send a person who should triumphantly vindi∣cate and rescue mankind from the power and tyranny of their Enemies, and that he should do this by taking the humane nature upon him, and being born of the seed of the Woman. No further account is given of him till the times of Abraham, to whom it was revealed, that he should proceed out of his loins, and arise out of the Jewish Nation, though both Jew and Gentile should be made happy by him. To his Grandchild Jacob God made known out of what Tribe of that Nation he should rise, the Tribe of Judah; and what would be the time of his appearing, viz. the departure of the Scepter from Judah, the abrogation of the Civil and Legislative power of that Tribe and People (accomplished in Herod the Idumaean, set over them by the Ro∣man power.) And this is all we find concerning him under that Oecono∣my. Under the Legal Dispensation we find Moses foretelling one main er∣rand of his coming, which was to be the great Prophet of the Church,* 1.1 to whom all were to hearken as an extraordinary person sent from God to ac∣quaint the World with the Counsels and the Laws of Heaven. The next news we hear of him is from David, who was told that he should spring out of his house and family, and who frequently speaks of his sufferings, and the particular manner of his death, by piercing his hands and his feet,* 1.2 of his powerful Resurrection, that God would not leave his Soul in Hell, nor suffer his holy one to see corruption, of his triumphant Ascension into Heaven, and glorious session at God's right hand. From the Prophet Isaiah we have an ac∣count of the extraordinary and miraculous manner of his Birth, that he

should be born of a Virgin,* 1.3 and his name be Immanuel, of his incomparable furniture of gifts and graces for the execution of his office, of the enter∣tainment he was to meet with in the World, and of the nature and design of those sufferings which he was to undergo. The place of his Birth was foretold by Micah,* 1.4 which was to be Bethlehem-Ephratah, the least of the Cities of Judah, but honoured above all the rest with the nativity of a Prince, who was to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth had been from everlasting. Lastly,* 1.5 the Prophet Daniel fixes the particular period of his coming, expresly affirming, That the Messiah should appear in the World, and be cut off as a Victim and Expiation for the sins of the people at the expiration of LXX. prophetical weeks, or CCCCXC. years, which accordingly punctually came to pass.

2. FOR the date of the prophetick Scriptures concerning the time of the Messiah's coming being now run out, In the fulness of time God sent his Son made of a Woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law: This being the truth of which God spake by the mouth of all his holy Pro∣phets, which have been since the World began. But because it was not fit that so great a Person should come into the World, without an eminent Har∣binger to introduce and usher in his Arrival, God had promised that he would send his Messenger,* 1.6 who should prepare his way before him, even Elijah the Prophet, whom he would send before the coming of that great day of the Lord, who should turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children, &c. This was particularly accomplished in John the Baptist, who came in the power and spi∣rit of Elias.* 1.7 He was the Morning star to the Son of Righteousness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as S. Cyril says of him, the great and eminent Fore-runner, a Person remarkable upon several accounts. First for the ex∣traordinary circumstances of his Nativity, his Birth foretold by an Angel, sent on purpose to deliver this joyful Message, a sign God intended him for great undertakings, this being never done but where God designed the Per∣son for some uncommon services; his Parents aged, and though both righ∣teous before God, yet hitherto Childless; Heaven does not dispence all its bounty to the same Person, Children, though great and desirable blessings, are yet often denied to those, for whom God has otherwise very dear regards. Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well stricken in years. But is any thing too hard for the Lord? said God to Abraham in the same case; God has the Key of the Womb in his own keeping, it is one of the Divine Preroga∣tives, that he makes the barren Woman to keep house, and to be a joyful Mother of Children. A Son is promised, and mighty things said of him: a promise which old Zachary had scarce faith enough to digest, and therefore had the assurance of it sealed to him by a miraculous dumbness imposed upon him till it was made good, the same Miracle at once confirming his faith, and punishing his infidelity. Accordingly his Mother conceived with Child, and as if he would do part of his errand before he was born, he leaped in her Womb at her salutation of the Virgin Mary, then newly conceived with Child of our Blessed Saviour; a piece of homage paid by one, to one, yet un∣born.

3. THESE presages were not vain and fallible, but produced a Person no less memorable for the admirable strictness and austerity of his life. For having escaped Herod's butcherly and merciless Executioners (the Divine providence being a shelter and a cover to him) and been educated among the rudenesses and solitudes of the Wilderness, his manners and way of life were very agreeable to his Education. His Garments borrowed from no other Wardrobe than the backs of his Neighbour-creatures, the skins of Beasts,

Camels hair, and a Leathern girdle, and herein he literally made good the cha∣racter of Elias, who is described as an hairy man,* 1.8 girt with a Leathern girdle about his Loins. His Diet suitable to his Garb, his Meat was Locusts, and wild Honey: Locusts, accounted by all Nations among the meanest and vilest sorts of food; wild honey, such as the natural artifice and labour of the Bees had stored up in caverns and hollow Trees, without any elaborate curiosity to prepare and dress it up. Indeed his abstinence was so great, and his food so unlike other Mens, that the Evangelist says of him, that he came neither eating nor drinking, as if he had eaten nothing, or at least what was worth nothing. But Meat commends us not to God; it is the devout mind, and the honest life that makes us valuable in the eye of Heaven. The place of his abode was not in Kings houses, in stately and delicate Palaces, but where he was born and bred, the Wilderness of Judaea,* 1.9 he was in the Desarts until the time of his shewing unto Israel. Divine grace is not confined to particular places, it is not the holy City, or the Temple at Mount Sion makes us nearer unto Heaven; God can, when he please, consecrate a Desart into a Church, make us gather Grapes among Thorns, and Religion become fruitful in a barren Wilderness.

4. PREPARED by so singular an Education, and furnished with an immediate Commission from God, he entred upon the actual administration of his Office: In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the Wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. He was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Justin Martyr calls him,* 1.10 the Herald to Proclaim the first approach of the Holy Jesus, his whole Ministry tending to prepare the way to his entertainment, accomplishing herein what was of old foretold concerning him, For this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias, saying, The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. He told the Jews, that the Messiah whom they had so long expected was now at hand, and his Kingdom rea∣dy to appear, that the Son of God was come down from Heaven, a Per∣son as far beyond him in dignity, as in time and existence, to whom he was not worthy to minister in the meanest Offices; that he came to introduce a new and better state of things, to enlighten the World with the clearest Re∣velations of the Divine will, and to acquaint them with counsels brought from the bosom of the Father, to put a period to all the types and umbrages of the Mosaick Dispensation, and bring in the truth and substance of all those shadows, and to open a Fountain of grace and fulness to Mankind; to re∣move that state of guilt into which humane nature was so deeply sunk, and as the Lamb of God by the expiatory Sacrifice of himself to take away the sin of the World, not like the continual Burnt-offering, the Lamb offered Morning and Evening only for the sins of the House of Israel, but for Jew and Gentile, Barbarian and Scythian, bond and free: he told them, that God had a long time born with the sins of Men, and would now bring things to a quicker issue, and that therefore they should do well to break off their sins by repentance, and by a serious amendment and reformation of life dis∣pose themselves for the glad tidings of the Gospel; that they should no longer bear up themselves upon their external priviledges, the Fatherhood of Abra∣ham, and their being God's select and peculiar People, that God would raise up to himself another Generation, a Posterity of Abraham from among the Gentiles, who should walk in his steps, in the way of his unshaken faith, and sincere obedience; and that if all this did not move them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, the Axe was laid to the root of the Tree, to extirpate their Church, and to hew them down as fuel for the unquenchable Fire.

His free and resolute preaching together with the great severity of his life procured him a vast Auditory, and numerous Proselytes, for there went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and the Region round about Jordan, Persons of all ranks and orders, of all Sects and Opinions, Pharisees and Sadducees, Soul∣diers and Publicans, whose Vices he impartially censured and condemned, and pressed upon them the duties of their particular places and relations. Those whom he gained over to be Proselytes to his Doctrine, he entred into this new Institution of life by Baptism (and hence he derived his Title of the Baptist) a solemn and usual way of initiating Proselytes, no less than Circumcision,* 1.11 and of great antiquity in the Jewish Church. In all times (says Maimonides) if any Gentile would enter into Covenant, remain under the wings of the Schechina, or Divine Majesty, and take upon him the yoke of the Law, he is bound to have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Circumcision, Bap∣tism, and a Peace-offering: and if a Woman, Baptism, and an Oblation, because it is said, As ye are, so shall the stranger be; as ye your selves entred into Covenant by Circumcision, Baptism, and a Peace-offering, so ought the Proselyte also in all Ages to enter in. Though this last he confesses is to be omitted during their present state of desolation, and to be made when their Temple shall be re∣built. This Rite they generally make contemporary with the giving of the Law. So Maimonides,* 1.12 By three things (says he) the Israelites entred into Covenant (he means the National Covenant at Mount Sinai) by Circumcisi∣on, Baptism, and an Oblation; Baptism being used some little time before the Law;* 1.13 which he proves from that place, Sanctifie the People to day and to mor∣row, and let them wash their Clothes. This the Rabbins unanimously expound concerning Baptism, and expresly affirm, that where-ever we read of the Wash∣ing of Clothes, there an obligation to Baptism is intended. Thus they entred into the first Covenant, upon the frequent violations whereof God having promised to make a new and solemn Covenant with them in the times of the Messiah, they expected a second Baptism as that which should be the Rite of their Initiation into it. And this probably is the reason, why the Apostle writing to the Hebrews,* 1.14 speaks of the Doctrine of Baptisms (in the plural number) as one of the primary and elementary Principles of the faith, wherein the Catechumens were to be instructed; meaning that besides the Baptism whereby they had been initiated into the Mosaick Covenant, there was another by which they were to enter into this new Oeconomy, that was come upon the World. Hence the Sanhedrim (to whom the cognizance of such cases did peculiarly appertain) when told of John's Baptism, never expressed any wonder at it, as a new upstart Ceremony, it being a thing daily practised in their Church, nor found fault with the thing it self, which they supposed would be a federal Rite under the dispensation of the Messiah, but only quarrelled with him for taking upon him to administer it, when yet he denied himself to be one of the prime Ministers of this new state. They said unto him,* 1.15 Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that Prophet? Either of which had he owned himself, they had not questioned his right to enter Proselytes by this way of Baptism. It is called the Baptism of Repentance, this being the main qualification that he required of those, who took it upon them, as the fittest means to dispose them to receive the Doctrine and Discipline of the Messiah; and to intitle them to that pardon of sin which the Gospel brought along with it; whence he is said to baptize in the Wilderness,* 1.16 and to preach the Baptism of repentance, for the remission of sins. And the success was answerable, infinite Multitudes flocking to it, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. Nor is it the least part of his happiness, that he had the honour to baptize his Sa∣viour,

which though modestly declined, our Lord put upon him, and was accompanied with the most signal and miraculous attestations which Heaven could bestow upon it.

5. AFTER his Preparatory Preachings in the Wilderness he was cal∣led to Court by Herod, at least he was his frequent Auditor, was much de∣lighted with his plain and impartial Sermons, and had a mighty reverence for him, the gravity of his Person, the strictness of his Manners, the freedom of his Preaching commanding an awe and veneration from his Conscience, and making him willing in many things to reform; But the bluntness of the holy Man came nearer, and touched the King in the tenderest part, smartly reproving his adultery and incestuous embraces, for that Prince kept He∣rodias his Brother Philip's Wife. And now all corrupt interests were awa∣kened to conspire his ruine. Extravagant Lusts love not to be controll'd and check'd, Herodias resents the affront, cannot brook disturbance in the plea∣sures of her Bed, or the open challenging of her honour, and therefore by all the arts of Feminine subtilty meditates revenge. The issue was, the Bap∣tist is cast into Prison, as the praeludium to a sadder fate. For among other plea∣sures and scenes of mirth performed upon the King's Birth-day, Herod being infinitely pleased with the Dancing of a young Lady, Daughter of this Herodias, promised to give her Her request, and solemnly ratified his pro∣mise with an Oath. She prompted by her Mother, asks the Head of John the Baptist, which the King partly out of a pretended reverence to his Oath, partly out of a desire not to be interrupted in his unlawful pleasures, present∣ly granted, and it was as quickly accomplished. Thus died the Holy man, a man strict in his conversation beyond the ordinary measures of an Anchoret, bold and resolute, faithful and impartial in his Office, indued with the power and spirit of Elias, a burning and a shining light, under whose light the Jews rejoyced to sit, exceedingly taken with his temper and principles. He was the happy Messenger of the Evangelical tidings, and in that respect more than a Prophet, a greater not arising among them that were born of Women. In short, he was a Man loved of his Friends, revered and honoured by his Enemies; Josephus gives this character of him, that he was a good man,* 1.17 and pressed the Jews to the study of vertue, to the practice of piety towards God, and justice and righteousness towards men, and to joyn themselves to his Baptism, which he told them would then become effectual, and acceptable to God, when they did not only cleanse the body, but purifie the mind by goodness and vertue. And though he gives somewhat a different account of Herod's condemning him to die, from what is assigned in the Sacred History, yet he confesses, that the Jews universally looked upon the putting him to death as the cause of the miscarriage of He∣rod's Army, and an evident effect of the Divine vengeance and displeasure.* 1.18 The Jews in their Writings make honourable mention of his being put to death by Herod, because reproving him for the company of his Brother Phi∣lip's Wife, stiling him Rabbi Johanan the High-Priest, and reckoning him one 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 of the wise men of Israel. Where he is called High-Priest, probably with respect to his being the Son of Zachariah, Head or Chief of one of the XXIV. Families or courses of the Priests, who are many times called Chief or High-Priests in Scripture.

6. THE Evangelical state being thus proclaimed and ushered in by the Preaching and Ministry of the Baptist, our Lord himself appeared next more fully to publish and confirm it, concerning whose Birth, Life, Death, and Re∣surrection, the Doctrine he delivered, the Persons he deputed to Preach and convey it to the World, and its success by the Ministry of the Apostles, large and particular accounts are given in the following work. That which may be

proper and material to observe in this place is, what the Scripture so frequent∣ly takes notice of, the excellency of this above the preceding dispensations, especially that brought in by Moses, so much magnified in the Old Testament, and so passionately admired and adhered to by the Jews at this day. Jesus is the Mediator 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.19 as the Apostle calls it, of a better Covenant. And better it is in several regards; besides the infinite difference between the Per∣sons, who were imployed to introduce and settle them, Moses and our Lord. The preheminence eminently appears in many instances, whereof we shall remark the most considerable. And first, the Mosaick dispensation was almost wholly made up of types and shadows, the Evangelical has brought in the truth and substance,* 1.20 The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Their Ordinances were but shadows of good things to come, sen∣sible representations of what was to follow after, the Body is Christ, the per∣fection and accomplishment of their whole ritual Ministration. Their Ce∣remonies were Figures of those things that are true, the Land of Canaan typi∣fied Heaven, Moses and Joshua were types of the Blessed Jesus, and the Isra∣elites after the flesh of the true Israel which is after the Spirit, and all their Expiatory Sacrifices did but represent that Great Sacrifice whereby Christ offered up himself, and by his own bloud purged away the sins of mankind, indeed the most minute and inconsiderable circumstances of the Legal Oeco∣nomy were intended as little lights, that might gradually usher in the state of the Gospel. A curious Artist that designs a famous and excellent piece is not wont to complete and finish it all at once, but first with his Pencil draws some rude lines and rough draughts before he puts his last hand to it. By such a method the wise God seems to have delivered the first draughts and Images of those things by Moses to the Church, the substance and perfecti∣on whereof he designed should be brought in by Christ. And how admirably did God herein condescend to the temper and humour of that people; for being of a more rough and childish disposition, apt to be taken with gaudy and sensible objects, by the external and pompous institutions of the Cere∣monial Dispensation he prepared them for better things, as children are brought on by things accommodate to their weak capacities. The Church was then an heir under age, and was to be trained up in such a way, as agreed best with its Infant-temper, till it came to be of a more ripe manly age, able to digest Evangelical mysteries, and then the cover and the veil was taken off, and things made to appear in their own form and shape.

7. HENCE in the next place appears our happiness above them, that we are redeemed from those many severe and burdensom impositions wherewith they were clogg'd, and are now obliged only to a more easie and reasonable service. That the Law was a very grievous and servile Dis∣pensation, is evident to any that considers, how much it consisted of car∣nal ordinances, costly duties, chargeable sacrifices, and innumerable little Rites and Ceremonies. Under that state they were bound to undergo (yea even new-born Infants) the bloudy and painful Ceremony of Circumcision, to abstain from many sorts of food, useful and pleasant to man's life, to keep multitudes of solemn and stated times, new Moons, and Ceremonial Sab∣baths, to take long and tedious journeys to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices at the Temple, to observe daily washings and purifications, to use infinite care and caution in every place; for if by chance they did but touch an un∣clean thing, besides their present confinement, it put them to the expences of a sacrifice, with hundreds more troublesom and costly observances re∣quired of them. A cruel bondage, heavy burdens, and grievous to be born; un∣der the weight whereof good men did then groan, and earnestly breath after

the time of reformation;* 1.21 the very Apostles complained that it was a yoke upon their necks, which neither their Fathers nor they were able to bear. But this yoke is taken off from our shoulders, and the way open into the liberties of the children of God. The Law bore a heavy hand over them, as children in their minority, we are got from under the rod and lash of its tutorage and Pedagogie, and are no more subject to the severity of its commands, to the exact punctilio's and numerousness of its impositions. Our Lord has removed that low and troublesome Religion, and has brought in a more manly and rational way of worship, more suitable to the perfections of God, and more accommodate to the reason and understandings of men. A Religion incom∣parably the wisest and the best that ever took place in the World. God did not settle the Religion of the Jews, and their way of worship, because good and excellent in it self, but for its suitableness to the temper of that people. Happy we, whom the Gospel has freed from those intolerable observances to which they were obliged, and has taught us to serve God in a better way, more easie and acceptable, more humane and natural, and in which we are helped forwards by greater aids of Divine assistence, than were afforded un∣der that Dispensation. All which conspire to render our way smooth and plain, Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easie, and my burden is light.

8. THIRDLY, the Dispensation of the Gospel is founded upon more noble and excellent promises:* 1.22 A better Covenant established upon better promi∣ses. And better promises they are both for the nature and clearness of their revelation. They are of a more sublime and excellent nature, as being pro∣mises of spiritual and eternal things, such as immediately concern the perfe∣ction and happiness of mankind, grace, peace, pardon, and eternal life. The Law strictly considered as a particular Covenant with the Jews at Mount Si∣nai had no other promises but of temporal blessings, plenty and prosperity, and the happiness of this life. This was all that appeared above-ground, and that was expresly held forth in that transaction, whatever might other∣wise by due inferences, and proportions of reason be deduced from it. Now this was a great defect in that Dispensation, it being by this means, consi∣dering the nature and disposition of that people, and the use they would make of it, apt to intangle and debase the minds of men, and to arrest their thoughts and desires in the pursuit of more sublime and better things. I do not say but that under the Old Testament there were promises of spiritual things, and of eternal happiness, as appears from David's Psalms, and some passages in the Books of the Prophets: But then these though they were under the Law, yet they were not of the Law, that is, did not properly belong to it as a legal Covenant; God in every age of the Jewish Church raising up some extraor∣dinary persons, who preached notions to the people above the common stan∣dard of that Dispensation, and who spoke things more plainly, by how much nearer they approached the times of the Messiah. But under the Christian Oeconomy the promises are evidently more pure and spiritual; not a tempo∣ral Canaan, external prosperity, or pardon of ceremonial uncleanness, but re∣mission of sins, reconciliation with God, and everlasting life are proposed and offered to us. Not but that in some measure temporal blessings are pro∣mised to us as well as them, only with this difference, to them earthly bles∣sings were pledges of spiritual, to us spiritual blessings are ensurances of temporal, so far as the Divine wisdom sees fit for us. Nor are they better in themselves, than they are clearly discovered and revealed to us. Whatever spiritual blessings were proposed under the former state were obscure and dark, and very few of the people understood them: But to us the veil is ta∣ken off, and we behold the glory of the Lord with open face, especially the things

that relate to another World;* 1.23 for this is the promise that he hath promised us, even Eternal Life. Hence our Lord is said to have brought life and immorta∣lity to light through the Gospel. Which he may be justly said to have done, inasmuch as he has given the greatest certainty, and the clearest account of that state. He hath given us the greatest assurance and certainty of the thing, that there is such a state. The happiness of the other World was a notion not so firmly agreed upon either amongst Jews or Gentiles. Among the Jews it was peremptorily denied by the Sadducees, a considerable Sect in that Church, which we can hardly suppose they would have done, had it been clearly propounded in the Law of Moses. And among the Heathens the most sober and considering persons did at some times at least doubt of it, witness that confession of Socrates himself, the wisest and best man that ever was in the Heathen World, who when he came to plead his cause before his Judges, and had bravely discoursed of the happy state of good men in the other Life,* 1.24 plainly confessed, that he could be content 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to die a thou∣sand times over, were he but assured that those things were true; and being condemned, concludes his Apologie with this farewell, And now, Gentlemen, I am going off the stage, it's your lot to live, and mine to die, but whether of us two shall fare better, is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, unknown to any but to God alone. But our blessed Saviour has put the case past all peradventure, having plainly published this doctrine to the World, and sealed the truth of it, and that by raising others from the dead, and especially by his own Resurrection and Ascension, which were the highest pledge and assurance of a future Im∣mortality. But besides the security, he hath given the clearest account of the nature of it. 'Tis very probable that the Jews generally had of old, as 'tis certain they have at this day, the most gross and carnal apprehensions concerning the state of another Life. But to us the Gospel has perspicuously revealed the invisible things of the other World; told us what that Heaven is, which is promised to good men, a state of spiritual joys, of chaste and rational delights, a conformity of ours to the Divine Nature, a being made like to God, and an endless and uninterrupted communion with him.

9. BUT because in our lapsed and degenerate state we are very unable without some foreign assistance to attain the promised rewards, hence arises in the next place another great priviledge of the Evangelical Oeconomy, that it is blessed with larger and more abundant communications of the Divine Spirit, than was afforded under the Jewish state. Under the one it was given by drops, under the other it is poured forth. The Law laid heavy and hard commands, but gave little strength to do them, it did not assist humane nature with those powerful aids that are necessary for us in our present state, it could do nothing in that it was weak through the flesh,* 1.25 and by reason of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, it could make nothing perfect: 'Twas this made it an heavy yoke, when the commands of it were uncouth and trouble∣some, and the assistances so small and inconsiderable. Whereas now the Gospel does not only prescribe such Laws as are happily accommodate to the true temper of humane nature, and adapted to the reason of mankind, such as every wise and prudent man must have pitched upon, but it affords the influences of the Spirit of God, by whose assistance our vitiated faculties are repaired, and we enabled under so much weakness, and in the midst of so many temptations to hold on in the paths of piety and vertue. Hence it is that the plentiful effusions of the Spirit were reserved as the great blessing of the Evangelical state,* 1.26 that God would then pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, that he would pour out his Spirit upon their seed, and his blessing upon their off-spring, whereby they should spring up as among the

grass, as willows by the water-courses: That he would give them a new heart,* 1.27 and put his Spirit within them, and cause them to walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments to do them: And this is the meaning of those branches of the Covenant, so oft repeated, I will put my Law into their minds, and write it in their hearts, that is, by the help of my Grace and Spirit I'le enable them to live according to my Laws, as readily and willingly, as if they were writ∣ten in their hearts. For this reason the Law is compared to a dead letter, the Gospel to the Spirit that giveth life, thence stiled the ministration of the Spirit,* 1.28 and as such said to exceed in glory, and that to such a degree, that what glory the Legal Dispensation had in this case is eclipsed into nothing.* 1.29 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth, for if that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Hence the Spirit is said to be Christ's peculiar mission,* 1.30 I will pray the Father, and he will send you another comforter, even the Spirit of truth, which was done immediately after his Ascension, when he ascended up on high, and gave gifts to men, even the Holy Ghost, which he shed on them abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour: For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.* 1.31 Not but that he was given be∣fore, even under the old Oeconomy, but not in those large and diffusive measures, wherein it was afterwards communicated to the World.

10. FIFTHLY, The Dispensation of the Gospel had a better establish∣ment and confirmation than that of the Law; for though the Law was in∣troduced with great scenes of pomp and Majesty, yet was the Gospel usher∣ed in by more kindly and rational methods, ratified by more and greater mi∣racles, whereby our Lord unquestionably evinced his Divine Commission, and shewed that he came from God, doing more miracles in three years than were done through all the periods of the Jewish Church, and many of them such as were peculiar to him alone. He often raised the dead, which Moses never did, commanded the winds and waves of the Sea, expelled De∣vils out of Lunaticks and possessed persons, who fled assoon as ever he com∣manded them to be gone, cured many inveterate and chronical distempers with the speaking of a word, and some without a word spoken, vertue si∣lently going out from him. He searched men's hearts, and revealed the most secret transactions of their minds; had this miraculous power always residing in him, and could exert it when, and upon what occasions he plea∣sed, and impart it to others, communicating it to his Apostles and follow∣ers, and to the Primitive Christians for the three first Ages of the Church; he never exerted it in methods of dread and terror, but in doing such miracles as were highly useful and beneficial to the World. And as if all this had not been enough, he laid down his own life after all to give testimony to it. Covenants were ever wont to be ratified with bloud, and the death of sa∣crifices. But when our Lord came to introduce the Covenant of the Gospel, he did not consecrate it with the bloud of Bulls and Goats, but with his own most precious bloud, as of a Lamb without spot and blemish. And could he give a greater testimony to the truth of his doctrine, and those great things he had promised to the World, than to seal it with his bloud? Had not these things been so, 'twere infinitely unreasonable to suppose, that a person of so much wisdom and goodness as our Saviour was, should have made the World believe so, and much less would he have chosen to die for it, and that the most acute and ignominious death. But he died, and rose again for us, and appeared after his Resurrection: His enemies had taken him away by a most bitter and cruel death, had guarded and secured his Sepulchre with all the care, power and diligence which they could invent. And yet he

rose again the third day in triumph, visibly conversed with his Disciples for forty days together, and then went to Heaven. By which he gave the most solemn and undeniable assurance to the World,* 1.32 that he was the Son of God (for he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead) and the Saviour of mankind, and that those doctrines which he had taught were most true, and did really contain the terms of that solemn trans∣action, which God by him had offered to men in order to their eternal happi∣ness in another World.

11. THE last instance I shall note of the excellency of this above the Mo∣saical Dispensation, is the universal extent and latitude of it, and that both in respect of place and time. First, it's more universally extensive as to place, not confined as the former was to a small part of mankind, but common un∣to all.* 1.33 Heretofore in Judah only was God known, and his name was great in Israel, he shewed his Word unto Jacob, his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel; but he did not deal so with any other Nation, neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws. In those times Salvation was only of the Jews, a few Acres of Land like Gideon's Fleece was watered with the dew of Heaven, while all the rest of the World for many Ages lay dry and barren round about it,* 1.34 God suffering all Nations in times past to walk in their own ways, the ways of their own superstition and Idolatry, being aliens from the Common∣wealth of Israel,* 1.35 strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the World, that is, they were without those promises, disco∣veries, and declarations which God made to Abraham and his Seed, and are therefore peculiarly described under this character,* 1.36 the Gentiles which knew not God. Indeed the Religion of the Jews was in it self incapable to be ex∣tended over the World, many considerable parts of it, as Sacrifices, First-fruits, Oblations, &c. (called by the Jews themselves 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 statutes belonging to that land) being to be performed at Jerusalem and the Temple, which could not be done by those Nations that lay a considerable distance from the Land of promise. They had, it's true, now and then some few Proselytes of the Gentiles, who came over and imbodied themselves into their way of worship; but then they either resided among the Jews, or by reason of their vicinity to Judaea were capable to make their personal appear∣ance, and to comply with the publick Institutions of the Divine Law. Other Proselytes they had, called Proselytes of the Gate, who lived dispersed in all Countries, whom the Jews call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the pious of the Nations, Men of devout minds, and Religious lives, but these were obliged to no more than the observation of the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah, that is, in effect to the Precepts of the Natural Law. But now the Gospel has a much wider sphere to move in, as vast and large as the whole World it self, it is communicable to all Countries, and may be exercised in any part or corner of the Earth.* 1.37 Our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all Nati∣ons, and to Preach the Gospel to every Creature; and so they did, their sound went into all the Earth, and their words unto the ends of the World, by which means, the grace of God that brings salvation appeared unto all men, and the Gospel was Preached to every Creature under Heaven. So that now there is neither Jew,* 1.38 nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, but we are all one in Christ Jesus, and in every Nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness is accepted with him. The Prophet had long since foretold it of the times of Christ, that the House of God, that is, his Church should be called an House of Prayer for all People;* 1.39 the Doors should be open, and none exclu∣ded that would enter in. And the Divine providence was singularly remark∣able in this affair, that after our Lord's Ascension, when the Apostles were

going upon their Commission, and were first solemnly to proclaim it at Je∣rusalem, there were dwelling there at that time Parthians, Medes, Elamites, &c. persons out of every Nation under Heaven, that they might be as the First-fruits of those several Countries, which were to be gathered in by the preaching of the Gospel, which was accordingly done with great success, the Christian Religion in a few years spreading its triumphant Banners over the greatest part of the then known World.

12. AND as the true Religion was in those Days pent up within one particular Country, so the more publick and ordinary worship of God was confined only to one particular place of it, viz. Jerusalem, hence called the Holy City. Here was the Temple, here the Priests that ministred at the Altar, here all the more publick Solemnities of Divine adoration,* 1.40 Thither the Tribes go up, the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Now this was not the least part of the bondage of that dispensation to be obliged thrice every Year to take such long and tedious Journies, many of the Jews living some Hundreds of Miles distance from Je∣rusalem, and so strictly were they limited to this place, that to build an Altar, and offer Sacrifices in any other place (unless in a case or two wherein God did extraordinarily dispense) although it were to the true God, was, though not false, yet unwarrantable worship; for which reason the Jews at this day ab∣stain from Sacrifices, because banished from Jerusalem and the Temple, the only legal place of offering. But behold the liberty of the Gospel in this case, we are not tied to present our devotions at Jerusalem, a pious and sincere mind is the best Sacrifice that we can offer up to God and this may be done in any part of the World no less acceptably, than they of old sacrificed in the Temple. The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this Mountain,* 1.41 (Mount Gerizim) nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, as our Lord told the Woman of Samaria; in spirit and in truth] in spirit, in opposition to that carnal and Idolatrous worship that was in use among the Samaritans,* 1.42 who worshipped God under the representation of a Dove: in truth, in opposition to the typi∣cal and figurative worship of the Jews, which was but a shadow of the true worship of the Gospel. The great Sacrifice required in the Christian Religi∣on is not the fat of Beasts, or the first-fruits of the Ground, but an honest heart, and a pious life, and a grateful acknowledgment of our dependance up∣on God in the publick Solemnities of his praise and worship. For the Law and the Gospel did not differ in this, that the one commanded publick worship, the other not, but that under the one publick worship was fixed to one only place, under the other it is free to any where the providence of God has pla∣ced us, it being part of the duty bound upon us by natural and unalterable obligations, that we should publickly meet together for the solemn Celebra∣tion of the Divine honour and service.

13. NOR is the Oeconomy of the Gospel less extensive in time than place; the Old Testament was only a temporary dispensation, that of the Gospel is to last to the end of the World; the Law was to continue only for a little time the Gospel is an Everlasting Covenant; the one to be quickly antiquated and abolished, the other never to be done away by any other to succeed it. The Jews indeed stickle hard for the perpetual and immutable obligation of the Law of Moses, and frequently urge us with those places,* 1.43 where the Covenant of Circumcision is called an Everlasting Covenant, and God said to chuse the Temple at Jerusalem to place his name there for ever, to give the Land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession, thus the Law of the Passeover is called an Ordinance for ever, the command

of the First-fruits a statute for ever, and the like in other places, which seem to intimate a perpetual and unalterable Dispensation. But the answer is short and plain, that this phrase 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for ever (though when 'tis applied to God it always denotes Eternity) yet when 'tis attributed to other things, it implies no more than a periodical duration, limited according to the will of the Lawgiver, or the nature of the thing; thus the Hebrew Servant was to serve his Master for ever,* 1.44 that is, but for seven years, till the next year of Jubilee: He shall walk before mine anointed for ever, says God concerning Sa∣muel, that i•• be a Priest all his days. Thus when the Ritual services of the Mosaick Law are called Statutes for ever, the meaning is, that they should continue a long time obligatory, until the time of the Messiah, in whose days the Sacrifice and Oblation was to cease, and those carnal Ceremonies to give way to the more spiritual services of the Gospel. Indeed the very typical nature of that Dispensation evidently argued it to be but for a time, the sha∣dow being to cease, that the substance might take place; and though many of them continued some considerable time after Christ's death, yet they lost their positive and obligatory power, and were used only as things indifferent in compliance with the inveterate prejudices of new Converts, lately brought over from Judaism, and who could not quickly lay aside that great veneration which they had for the Rites of the Mosaick Institution. Though even in this respect it was not long before all Jewish Ceremonies were thrown off, and Moses quite turn'd out of doors. Whereas the Evangelical state is to run parallel with the age and duration of the World, 'tis the Everlasting Covenant,* 1.45 the Everlasting Gospel, the last Dispensation that God will make to the World, God who at sundry times, and in divers manners spake in time past by the Prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son; in which respect the Gospel in opposition to the Law is stiled a Kingdom that cannot be moved.* 1.46 The Apostle in the foregoing Verses speaking concerning the Mosaical state, Whose voice (says he) then shook the Earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the Earth only, but also the Heaven (a phrase peculiar to the Scripture to note the introducing a new scene and state of things) and this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain, that is, that the state of the Gospel may endure for ever. Hence Christ is said to have an unchangeable Priesthood, to be a Priest for ever, to be consecrated for evermore. From all which it appears, how incompa∣rably happy we Christians are under the Gospel, above what the Jews were in the time of the Law; God having placed us under the best of Dispensati∣ons, freed us from those many nice and troublesome observances to which they were tied, put us under the clearest discoveries and revelations, and given us the most noble, rational, and masculine Religion, a Religion the most perfective of our natures, and the most conducive to our happiness; while their Covenant at best was faulty, and after all could not make him that did the service perfect in things pertaining to the Conscience.* 1.47 Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see, for I tell you that many Prophets and Kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Deut. 18.15—18, 19.
• * 1.2

  Psalm 22.15. Psalm 16.10. Psalm 68.18. Psalm 110.1. Isai. 7.14.
• * 1.3

  — 61.1, 2. — 53.1, 2, 3. &c.
• * 1.4

  Mic. 5 2.
• * 1.5

  Dan. 9.24-26.
• * 1.6

  Mal. 3.1. — 4.5, 6.
• * 1.7

  Comment. in Joan. 1.15.
• * 1.8

  2 Kings 1.8.
• * 1.9

  Luke 1.80.
• * 1.10

  Dial. cum Tryph. p. 268.
• * 1.11

  Maim Issur. Biah. cap. 13. vid. Jac. Al∣ting Dissert. Philol. VII. de Proselyt. Sect. 25. p. 249. Numb. 15.16.
• * 1.12

  Ibid. Sect. 24. p. 248.
• * 1.13

  Exod. 19.10. Vid. k. Bechai, fol. 87. col. 2. ibid.
• * 1.14

  Hebr. 6.2.
• * 1.15

  John 1.25.
• * 1.16

  Mark 1.4.
• * 1.17

  Antiquit. Jud. lib. 18. c. 7. p. 626.
• * 1.18

  Zemach David Part. 1. ad Ann. 770. Mil∣len. 4. & Chron. Templi secund. fol. 54. col. 4.
• * 1.19

  Heb. 8.6.
• * 1.20

  John 1.17.
• * 1.21

  Acts 15.10.
• * 1.22

  Heb. 8.6.
• * 1.23

  1 John 2.25. 2 Tim. 1.10.
• * 1.24

  Apolog. Socrat. ap. Platon. Sect. 22. p. m. 45. Ib. Sect. 23. ad fin. Apol.
• * 1.25

  Rom. 8.3. Heb. 7.18.
• * 1.26

  Isai. 44.3, 4.
• * 1.27

  Ezek. 36.26, 27.
• * 1.28

  2 Cor. 3.6, 7.
• * 1.29

  Verse 10, 11.
• * 1.30

  Joh. 14.16, 17. Ephes. 4.8. Tit. 3.6.
• * 1.31

  John 7.39.
• * 1.32

  Rom. 1.4.
• * 1.33

  Psal. 76.1, 2. Psal. 147.19, 20.
• * 1.34

  Acts 14.16.
• * 1.35

  Ephes. 2.13.
• * 1.36

  1 Thess. 4.5.
• * 1.37

  Mark 16.15. Rom. 10.18. Tit. 2.11. Coloss. 1.13. Galat. 3.28.
• * 1.38

  Acts 10.35.
• * 1.39

  Isai. 56.7.
• * 1.40

  Psal. 122.4.
• * 1.41

  Joh. 4.21-23.
• * 1.42

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Philo de Spec. Legg. p. 755.
• * 1.43

  Gen. 17.7. 1 Kings 9.3. Gen. 17.8. Exod. 12.14. Levit. 23.14.
• * 1.44

  Exod. 21.6. 1 Sam. 2.36.
• * 1.45

  Heb. 13.20. Rev. 14.6. Heb. 1.1, 2.
• * 1.46

  Heb. 12.28.
• * 1.47

  Luke 10.23, 24.