4.

SERM. are not like the words of a wife man, who is wary and XVI. careful that he flip not into mistake, (interpofing therefore now and then his may-be's and perchances,) nor like the words of a learned fcribe, grounded on femblances of reason, and backed with teftimonies; nor as the words of a crafty fophifter, who by long circuits, fubtile fetches, and fly trains of difcourfe doth inveigle men to his opinion; but like the words of a king, carrying with them Ecclef. viii. authority and power uncontrollable, commanding forthwith attention, affent, and obedience; fthis you are to believe, this you are to do, upon pain of our high displeafure, at your utmost peril be it; your life, your falvation dependeth thereon: fuch is the ftyle and tenor thereof, plainly fuch as becometh the fovereign Lord of all to use, when he shall please to proclaim his mind and will unto us. It freeth us from laborious and anxious inquiries, from endless difputes and janglings, from urging ineffectual arguments, and anfwering crofs difficulties, &c. It doth also affert itself and approve its truth to the reason of man the most advantageously that can be; with proofs most fuitable to itself, and in themselves moft effectual; 8 waving those inferior methods of fubtile argumentation and plaufible language with which men are wont to confirm or fet off their conceits; which how weak they are, how unfit to maintain truth, their unfuccessfulness doth evince; feeing by thofe means fcarce any man hath been able thoroughly either to fettle himself in or to draw others to a full perfuafion concerning any important truth, difcofted from fenfe: fuch methods therefore the Chriftian doctrine hath waved, (or rather flighted, as beneath itself,) applying arguments to the demonftration of its truth, far more potent, more fublime, and indeed truly

f Quæ quidem tradita funt breviter, ac nude; nec enim decebat aliter, ut cum Deus ad hominem loqueretur, argumentis affereret fuas voces, tanquam fides ei non haberetur, fed ut oportuit eft locutus, quafi rerum omnium maximus judex, cujus non eft argumentari, fed pronunciare verum. Laɛ. iii. 1.

Legant noftra-quam excellenter quam divine, non tanquam ex philofophorum concertationibus ftrepere, fed tanquam ex oraculis et Dei nubibus intonare. Aug. de Civ. Dei, ii. 19.

divine; befide its intrinfic worth, or the excellency, fhining SERM. in itself, (which speaketh it worthy of God, and goeth XVI. more than half way in proving it to proceed from him,) there is no kind of atteftation needful or proper, which God hath not afforded thereto; God is in himself invifible and undiscernible to any fense of ours, neither could we endure the lustre and glory of his immediate presence; it must be therefore by effects of his incommunicable power, by works extraordinary and fupernatural, (fuch as no creature can perform or counterfeit,) that he muft, if ever, convincingly fignify his purpose or pleasure to us; and fuch innumerable hath God vouchsafed to yield in favour and countenance of our religion; by clearly predicting and prefignifying the future revelation of this doctrine by exprefs voices and manifest apparitions from heaven, by fufpending and thwarting the courfe of natural causes in many ways and inftances, by miracles of providence no lefs remarkable than thofe of nature, by internal atteftations to the minds and confciences of men; things too great flightly to be paffed over, and the particular mention of which I must therefore now omit; by fuch wonderful means, I say, hath God taken care to convince us, that our religion came from him, which is a peculiar advantage that it hath, such as no other institution (except that of the Jews, which was a prelude thereto, and whose truth ferveth to confirm it) can reasonably pretend unto; and a great perfection it is thereof, fince as it is no fmall content to a traveller, by a direction which he can fully confide in, to know that he is in the right way to his journey's end; fo it cannot but prove an exceeding fatisfaction and encouragement to us to be affured, by infallible teftimony of God himself, that our religion is the true and direct way unto eternal happiness.

These confiderations may, I conceive, be fufficient, as to vindicate our religion from all afperfions caft upon it either by inconfiderate and injudicious, or by vain and diffolute perfons; fo to confirm us all in the esteem, and incite us to the practice thereof; which use of them God in his

SERM. mercy grant, through Jefus Chrift our Lord; to whom XVI. for ever be all praise. Amen.

i Pet. iv. 10,

11.

2 Theff. ii. 16, 17.

Now the God of grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Chrift Jefus - make you perfect, ftablish, Strengthen, fettle you; to him be glory and dominion for

ever and ever. Amen.

Now our Lord Jefus Chrift himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting confolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and ftablish you in every good word and work.

And in Jelus Chrift, &c.

SERMON XVII.

THAT JESUS IS THE TRUE MESSIAS.

ACTS ix. 22.

Proving that this is the very Christ.

increased

and con

which

the very

As for the name of Messias, there is evident reason why But Saul it should not be openly expreffed in the ancient pre- the more dictions; it being an eafy thing for any persons, out of in strength, imposture or wantonnefs, to have affumed that name; and founded confequently it would not have fuited fo well the true the Jews perfon. It was therefore more expedient, that his name dwelt at Damafcus, fhould rather only be covertly fignified or intimated; it proving was fufficient that a name fhould be imposed on him well that this is agreeing to his office and chief performances. There be Chrift. indeed several names attributed to the Meffias; They fhall Eufeb. Hift. i. 3. call his name Emanuel, faid Ifaiah; This is his name, Ifa. vii. 14. whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteoufnefs, (Je- Ifa. ix. 6. hovah tfidkenu;) and, His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, faid Isaiah again; but it is apparent, that these were not intended to be fo much his proper names, as attributes or epithets congruous unto him in regard to the eminency of his person and performances.

Jer. xxiii. 6.

12. iii. 8.

The Prophet Zechariah feemeth alfo (infifting in the Zech. vi. footsteps of Isaiah and Jeremiah) to affign him the name If.iv.2.xi.1. Netfer, (or the Branch;) Behold the man whose name is The

Bb3

Jer. xxiii. 5. xxxiii. 15. Matt. ii. 23.

SERM. Branch: but this only denoted an appellation suiting him, XVII. as derived from the flock of David, and might befide myf

tically allude to fome circumftance concerning him. It doth not therefore appear, that the one proper name, by which the Meffias, as the Son of man, fhould be known and called, is directly forementioned; yet it is reasonable to suppose, that God would have an especial care, that he fhould have one befitting him. It was one of the feven things which the Talmudifts fay were conftituted before the world: the law, repentance, paradife, hell, the throne of glory, the fanctuary, the name of the Meffias; according to that in the feventy-second Pfalm, ver. 17. Ante folem primum nomen ejus; so it seems they read it: the LXX. have it, πρὸ τῶ ἡλία διαμενεῖ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτό.

It was anciently a method of Divine Providence to impose upon perfons (deftinated by God to be efpecial fubjects of his favour and eminent minifters of his glory) names answerable to the nature of their employment, or to the defign which was by their means and ministry to be accomplished. Whereby as God's care and providence over human affairs was declared, fo men upon the mention of fuch names were admonished to confider the divine benefits, and the duties correfpondent to them. The particular reafon of impofing fuch names is fometime exprefsly Gen. iv. 25. fet down; as in the cafes of Seth, Abraham, Ifrael, Solomon; fometime it feems tacitly implied, the actions of 1 Chr. xxii. the perfons interpreting the reafon of their names, as in Gen. xiii. Melchizedek, Jofhua, Malachi, and perhaps in many

xvii. 5.

xxxii. 28.

9.

18.

Heb. vii. 1.

others.

This method with great reafon we may fuppofe that the fame divine wifdom would ufe in affigning a name to John x. 36. that Person, whom from the beginning of things he had promised, and before the foundation of the world had defigned to fanctify and fend into the world, for achieving the most high and excellent defign that ever, for the glory of God and the good of his creation, was to be undertaken in this world. Moft fit it would be, that God himself fhould be his god-father; that he should have no ordinary, no cafual, no infignificant name; but fuch an one,