XIII.

 

That the Law was Figurative.

 

To evince the authority of both Testaments at once, we have only to observe,

 

whether that which is prophesied in the one be accomplished in the other.

 

 If we would effectually examine the Prophecies, we ought first of all to be sure that we rightly understand them. For, supposing them to have but one sense, it is certain that the MESSIAH cannot yet be come; but, sup-posing them to have two senses, the MESSIAH is certainly come, in the person of JESUS CHRIST.

 

All the question, therefore, is, whether they are indeed capable of a double meaning—whether they are figures or realities that is, whether we ought not to seek some-thing farther in them than what they immediately present or whether we ought to acquiesce in that construction which offers itself to us at the first view

 

If the Law and the Sacrifices are real, it is necessary that they should please GOD, and on no account be displeasing to him. If they are figurative, it is necessary that they should be pleasing and displeasing to GOD, in different regards. But now, through the whole series of Scripture, they are sometimes affirmed to please GOD, sometimes to displease him; and, by consequence, they are only figurative.

 

 "It is said, that the Law shall be changed; that the Sacrifices shall cease; that the people shall continue without a King, without a Prince, and without a Sacrifice; that a new Covenant shall be established; that a reform shall be made in the law; that the JEWS received commandments which were not good; and that their sacrifices were abominations, and things which GOD required not at their hands.

 

 It is said, again, that the Law shall abide for ever; that the Covenant shall be eternal, and the Sacrifices perpetual; and that the Sceptre shall never depart from Judah, because it is to continue till the everlasting King shall commence his reign. Do such expressions evince all this to be real No. Do they demonstrate it to be figurative No. They only show, that it must be either Reality or Figure. But the former, compared with these latter, exclude the Reality, and establish the figure.

 

All these passages taken together cannot be applied to the reality, but they may be all applied to the Figure: therefore, they were spoken in Figure, nbt in Reality.

 

* Would we know, whether the Law and the Sacrifices are real or figurative, we ought to discover, whether the Prophets, in speaking of these things, had their eyes and thoughts entirely fixed on them, so as to look no farther than the old Covenant; or whether they did not carry their intention to somewhat else, of which all this was but the shadow and semblance; as in a picture we con-template the thing represented. And in order to this discovery, we need only hear what they say.

 

Now when they speak of the Covenant, as being ever-lasting, is it possible they should mean the same Covenant, which they elsewhere testify shall be changed The like may be observed of the Sacrifices.

 

 We may illustrate this whole case by the familiar in-stance of writing in cyphers. Suppose we intercept a letter of importance, in which we discern one plain and obvious meaning, and are told, at the same time, that the sense is yet so obscured, as that we shall even see the words without seeing it, and understand them without understanding it;—what are we to judge, but that the piece has been penned in cyphers and so much the rather, the more apparent contrarieties we meet with in the literal construction How great esteem and veneraration ought we, therefore, to express for those who decypher this writing to us, and bring us acquainted with its secrets; especially if the key, which they make use of, be easy, agreeable, and natural This is what was per-formed by our LORD and his Apostles: They have opened the seal, and rent the veil, and rescued the spiritual sense from the literal disguise. They have taught us, that our enemies are our own carnal affections; that our Redeemer is to be a spiritual conqueror; and that he is to have a first and a second Coming, the one in humility, to abase the proud, the other in glory, to exalt the humble;—in a word, that JESUS CHRIST is to be GOD, as well as man.

 

 It was our LORD'S chief employment to inform men, that they were lovers of themselves; that they were sinners and slaves, blind, distempered, and miserable; that hereupon it was needful he should deliver and heal them; that all this was to be performed on their renouncing themselves, and their taking up each his cross, and following him.

 

 " The letter killeth.". It was necessary that CHRIST should suffer; that GOD should humble himself; that there should be a circumcision of the heart; a true fast, a true sacrifice, a true temple, a two-fold law, (as well as a two-fold table of the law,) a two-fold temple, a two-fold captivity. This was the difficult cypher presented to us.

 

We have, at length, been taught by our LORD to unfold the intricacy of these figures: we have been informed what it is to be truly free, to be a true Israelite; we have been shown the true Circumcision, the true Bread of Heaven.

 

 In the promises of the Old Testament every one finds what he chiefly delights to seek, what is most agree-able to his own heart and affections; spiritual goods or temporal, GOD or the Creatures; but with this difference, that they who seek the creatures find them attended with numerous contradictions, with a prohibition to love them, and with a difficult injunction to love and worship GOD alone; whereas they who seek GOD find him without the least repugnancy, and with a pleasing command to admit no other object of worship or of love.

 

 The main sources of verbal contrarieties in the Scriptures are the mysteries of a GOD humbled to the death of the cross; of a MESSIAS triumphing over death by dying himself; of the two natures in JESUS CHRIST; of his two-fold Coming; of the two estates and conditions of human nature.

 

 As we cannot justly compose a man's character, but by accounting for all the contrarieties in his humor or conduct; and as it is not enough to pursue a train of agreeable qualities, without giving the resolution of those which appear to be opposite; so before we can perfectly understand the sense of an Author, it is necessary that all the contrary passages should be reconciled.

 

 Wherefore in order to a right apprehension of the Scripture, we ought to find out a sense in which all the seemingly opposite places shall agree. Nor is it sufficient to have an interpretation in which many consonant pas-sages shall be united; but we must have one in which the most dissonant shall meet and conspire.

 

Every Author either has one principal aim and purport, in which all the supposed differences will be found consistent, or he has no meaning at all. The latter cannot be said of the Scriptures and Prophecies. They unquestionably abound in good sense. Some one meaning then they will afford us, by which the several repugnancies in style may be adjusted and composed.

 

 Their true sense therefore cannnot be that which is given them by the JEWS. But in JESUS CHRIST all the various dissonancies are reduced to perfect harmony.

 

 The JEWS had not skill enough to make the abrogation of the Royalty and Principality, foretold by HOSEA, accord with the prophecy of JACOB.

 

If we take the Law, the Sacrifices, and the Kingdom, for things really and ultimately designed, we shall not be able to reconcile all the passages of the same Author, nor of the same Book, nor, in many times, of the same Chapter;—which sufficiently discovers the intention of the writers.

 

 The JEWS were not permitted to offer Sacrifices, or so much as to eat the tenths, elsewhere than at Jerusalem only, the place which the LORD had chosen.

 

HOSEA foretold; that the JEWS should be " without a King, without a Prince, without Sacrifices, and without images;" which prediction we now see fully accomplished, no sacrifice being legally to be offered but at Jerusalem.

 

 Whenever the Word of GOD, which is eternally true, seems to be false in the literal construction, its truth is preserved in the spiritual. " Sit you on my right hand:" —this is false, if spoken literally; yet it is spiritually true. Such expressions as these describe GOD after the manner of men: and this, in particular, only implies, that the same honor which men intend in setting others at their right hand, GOD will also confer, irr the exaltation of the MESSIAS. It is, therefore, a note of the divine intention, but affects not the precise manner of the execution.

 

 Thus again, when it is said to the Israelites, GOD has received the odour of your incense, and will give you in recompence a fertile and plentiful land;the meaning is no more than this, that the same affection which men, delighted with your perfumes, would express by rewarding you with a fruitful land, the same will GOD express towards you in his blessings; because you also entertain the like grateful disposition towards GOD, as a man does towards his superiors, when he thus presents them with sweet odors.

 

 The sole aim and intention of the whole Scripture is charity. All that tends not to this end, is merely figure. For since there can be but one point and ultimate scope, whatever is not directed thither in express terms, must, at least, be couched under such as are ambiguous.

 

GOD, in compassion to our weakness, which variety alone can please, has so varied this one precept of charity, as to conduct us every way to our real interest. For one thing alone being strictly necessary, and yet our hearts being set on divers things, GOD has provided for the satisfaction of both these inclinations together, by giving us such a diversity as still leads us forward to the one thing necessary.

 

There are, and always have been, men who rightly apprehend, that the only enemy of human nature is concupiscence, which turns us away from GOD; and that GOD himself, not a fruitful land, is our only good and happiness. Those who fancy the good of man to consist in gratifying the flesh, and his evil in the disappointment of sensual desire, let them wallow in their pleasures, let them die in their enjoyments: but as for those who seek Gan with their whole heart, whom nothing can grieve but the being deprived of the light of his countenance, who have no desire but to enjoy his favor, no enemies but such as divert or withold them from him, and whose greatest affliction is to see themselves encompassed, and even subdued, by such enemies, let them be comforted: for them there is a Deliverer, for them there is a God.

 

 A MESSIAS was promised, who should rescue men from their enemies. A MESSIAS is come; but to rescue men from no other enemies than their sins.

 

When DAVID says that the MESSIAS shall deliver the people from their enemies, this, by a carnal expositor, may be applied to the Egyptians: and then, I confess, I am at a loss to show him how the prophecy has been fulfilled. Yet it may be likewise applied to men's iniquities; since these, and not the Egyptians, are to be looked on as real enemies.

 

 But if in other places he declares, as he does, (together with ISAIAH, and others) that the MESSIAS shall deliver his people from their sins; the ambiguity is taken off, and the double sense of enemies reduced to the single meaning of iniquities. For if these latter were chiefly in his thought, he might well express them by borrowing the name of the former: but if his mind was wholly bent on the former, it was impossible he should signify them under the appellation of the latter.

 

MOSES, DAVID, and ISAIAH, all speak of this victory in the same terms. Must we not therefore acknowledge, that these terms have the same sense; and that MOSES and DAVID had but one intention, while both speak of men's enemies, and the latter visibly alludes to men's sins.

 

 DANIEL, in his ninth Chapter, prays that the people may be delivered from the captivity of their enemies; but his eye was plainly fixed on their transgressions. And to show that it was so, he proceeds to relate the sending of GABRIEL to him, with an assurance that his prayer was heard; that after the seventy weeks, the people should obtain deliverance from their iniquity; that transgressions should then have an end, and the Redeemer, " the most holy," should " bring in" (not legal, but) " everlasting righteousness."

 

 When we are once let into these secrets, it is impossible for us not to discern and apprehend them. Let us see whether ABRAHAM'S lineage and descent were the real causes of his being styled " the friend of Go])" Whether the promised land was the true seat of rest Neither of these can be affirmed; therefore both were symbolical. In a word, let us examine all the legal ceremonies, and all the precepts which arc not of charity, and we shall find them composing one general image, one uninterrupted allegory and prefiguration.

 

XIV. JESUS CHRIST.

 

 THE infinite distance that there is between Body and Spirit, does but imperfectly represent to us the distance between Spirit and Charity, which being altogether super-natural, may be said to be infinitely more infinite. All the splendor of outward greatness casts no lustre towards the eyes of those who are engaged in the pursuits of wit.

 

 The greatness of wit and parts is wholly indiscernible to the Rich, to Kings, and Conquerors, and to all the great ones of the world.

 

The greatness of that wisdom which cometh from above is alike imperceptible to the worldly, and to the witty. These are three orders of quite different kinds.

 

Great geniuses have their kingdom and splendor, their victory and glory; and want not carnal greatness, because it has no relation to the grandeur which they pursue. This grandeur does not, indeed, strike the eyes, but it is enough that it casts a distinguishable radiancy on the soul.

 

 The saints likewise have their empire, their lustre, their greatness, and their triumphs; and want not the pomp of honor, or the pride of genius, for these things are quite out of their sphere and order, and such as neither increase nor diminish the grandeur to which they aspire. These truly great ones are equally invisible to bodily eyes, and to curious and subtle wits; but they are manifested to GOD and Angels, and are not ambitious of other spectators.

 

ARCHIMEDES would have gained the same esteem, without his relation to the Royal Blood of Sicily. It is true he won no battles; but he has left to all the world the benefit of his admirable inventions. O! how great, how bright does he appear to the eyes of the mind!

 

 JESUS CHRIST, without worldly riches, without the exterior productions of science, was infinitely great in his sublime order of holiness. He neither published inventions, nor possessed kingdoms; but he was humble, patient, pure before GOD, terrible to evil Spirits, and without spot of sin. O! with what illustrious pomp, with what transcendent magnificence, did he come attended, to such as beheld with the eyes of the heart, and with those faculties which are the judges and discerners of true wisdom!

 

 It had been needless for ARCHIMEDES, though of princely descent, to have acted the Prince in his Book of Geometry. It had been needless for our LORD JESUS CHRIST to have assumed the state of an earthly King, for the illustration of his Kingdom of Holiness. But how great, how excellent, did he appear in the brightness of his proper order! It is most unreasonable to be scandalized at the mean condition of our LORD, as if it were opposed, in the same order and kind, to the greatness which he came to display. Let us consider this greatness in his life, in his sufferings, in his solitude, in his death, in the choice of his attendants, in their act of forsaking him, in the privacy of his resurrection, and in all the other parts of his history; and we shall find it so truly elevated and noble, as to leave no ground for our being offended at a meanness which was quite of another order.

 

 But there are some who can admire only the greatness of this world, as if there were no proper greatness in wit; and others who are charmed only with greatness of wit, as if there were not still a more noble, a more sub-lime greatness in wisdom.

 

 The whole system of bodies, the firmament, the stars, the earth, and the kingdoms of it, are not fit to be opposed in value to the lowest mind or spirit; because Spirit is endued with the knowledge and apprehension of all this, whereas Body is utterly stupid and insensible. Again, the whole united systems of Bodies and Spirits are not corn-parable to the least motion of Charity, because this is still of an order infinitely more exalted and divine.

 

From all Body together, we are not able to extract one thought. This is impossible, and quite of another order. Again, all Body and Spirit together are unable to produce one spark of Charity. This is likewise impossible, and of an order above nature.

 

 JESUS CHRIST lived in so much obscurity, (as to what the world terms obscure,) that the Pagan historians, who were wont to record only persons of eminence, and things of importance, have scarcely afforded him a slender notice.

 

 Who amongst men was ever arrayed with so much splendor as our LORD The whole Jewish nation prophesied of him before his coming: the Gentile World adored him at his coming: both JEWS and GENTILES regarded him as their common centre, their expectation, and desire. And yet who had ever so little enjoyment of so abundant glory Of thirty-three years, thirty he spent in privacy, and at a distance from the world. During the three which remained, he was censured for an impostor, he was rejected by the priests and rulers of his nation, despised by his kinsmen and friends, and, in conclusion, suffered a shameful death, betrayed by one of his attendants, abjured by another, and deserted by all.

 

 What share then can he be supposed to have borne in all this splendor Never person was in greater glory; never person was in deeper disgrace. His whole splendor, therefore, was designed for our sakes, and to render him discernible to us; but not the least ray was reflected back upon himself.

 

Our LORD discourseth of the sublimest subjects in a phrase so plain and natural, as if it had not been deeply considered; but withal so pure and exact, as to show that it proceeded from the greatest depth of thought. The joining of this accuracy with this simplicity is admirable.

 

 The Old and New Testament equally regard JESUS CHRIST; the former as its hope and expectation; the latter as its author and example; both as their common centre and aim. The Prophets had the gift of foretelling; but never were foretold themselves: The Saints, who followed, were foretold; but had not the power of foretelling: Our LORD, as he was the great subject of prophecies, so he was himself the chief of prophets.

 

 The JEWS were blessed in ABRAHAM: (" l will bless them that bless thee:") but all the nations of the earth are blessed in ABRAHAM'S Seed: (" A light to lighten the Gentiles," &c.) " He has not done so to any nation," says DAVID, speaking of the Law: CG He has clone so to all nations," we may say, speaking of the Gospel. Thus is it the sole prerogative of JESUS CHRIST to be an universal blessing. The sacraments and service of the Church have an effect only on actual believers; the sacrifice of our LORD OH the cross extends its meritorious influence to the whole world.

 

 Let us then stretch out our arms to embrace our merciful Deliverer; who, having been promised four thousand years before, came at length to suffer and to die for us, at the same time and with the circumstances of the promise: and waiting, by his gracious assistance, till we shall die in peace, through the hope of being eternally united to him, let us in the mean while live, with comfort; whether amongst the good things which he so bountifully gives us to enjoy,—or amongst the evil things which he shall please to bring on us for our soul's health, and which, by his own example, he has taught us to sustain.

 

XV. The Evidences of JESUS CHRIST from the Prophecies.

 

 The noblest Evidences of our LORD are the Prophecies which preceded him. And accordingly it has pleased GOD to exercise a peculiar care in this behalf. For the full accomplishment of them being a perpetual miracle, which reacheth from the beginning to the end of the Church, sixteen hundred years together, GOD raised up a succession of Prophets; and during the space of four hundred years after, he dispersed these Prophecies, together with the JEWS that kept them, through all nations of the world. See the wonderful preparation to our LORD'S appearance! As his Gospel was to be embraced and believed by all nations, there was a necessity not only of Prophecies to gain it this belief, but likewise of diffusing these Prophecies to the same extent with the human race.

 

 Supposing one single man to have left a Book of Predictions concerning JESUS CHRIST, as to the time and manner of his coming, and supposing him to have come agreeably to these predictions, the argument would be of almost infinite force. Yet here the evidence is stronger, beyond all comparison. A succession of men, for the space of four thousand years, follow one another, without interruption or variation, in foretelling the same great event. A whole people are the harbingers of the MESSlAH; and such a people as subsisted four thousand years, to testify in a general body their assured hope and expectation, from which no severity of threats or persecutions could oblige them to depart. This is a case which challengeth, in a far more transcendent degree, our assent And wonder.

 

 The Time of our LORD'S appearance was signified by the state of the JEWS; by the condition of the Heathen World; by the comparison between the two Temples; and even by the precise number of years which should intervene.

 

 The Prophets having given various marks of the MESSIAS who was to come, it seemed necessary that these marks should all concur at the same period. Thus it was necessary that the Fourth Monarchy should be established before the expiration of DANIEL'S seventy weeks; that the sceptre should then depart from Judah; and that the MESSIAS should then immediately appear:—in pursuit of which predictions, our LORD appeared at this juncture, and demonstrated his claim to the style and character of the MESSIAS.

 

 It is foretold, that under the Fourth Monarchy, before the destruction of the Second Temple, before the dominion of the JEWS was taken away, and in the seventieth of DANIEL'S Weeks, the Heathens should be led into the knowledge of the only true GOD, worshipped by the JEWS; and that those who sincerely feared and loved him should be delivered from their enemies, and should be replenished with higher degrees of his fear and love.

 

 We see the event answer in all points. During the time of the Fourth Monarchy, before the destruction of the Second Temple, the Pagans in multitudes adored the true GOD, and embraced a life altogether spiritual and angelic; women consecrated to religion their virginity, and their life; men voluntarily renounced all the enjoyments of sense. That which PLATO was unable to effect upon a few persons, and those the wisest and best Instituted of his time, a secret force, by the help only of a few words, now wrought upon thousands of ignorant, uneducated men.

 

 What means this prodigious change It is no other than was foretold so rnany ages since: " I will pour out my SPIRIT upon all flesh." The whole world, which lay enslaved to lust and unbelief, was now surprisingly in-flamed with the fire of charity. Princes resigned their crowns; the rich abandoned their possessions; the daughters, with an astonishing courage, contended for the prize of martyrdom; the sons forsook their parents and habitations, to embrace the solitude of deserts. Whence springs this unknown and invisible force The MESSIAH is arrived; behold the effects and the tokens of his coming!

 

For two thousand years together, the GOD of the JEWS remained unknown to an infinite variety of nations, over-spread with Paganism. Yet, at the precise time foretold, the Pagans in all nations adore this only true GOD: the Idol-Temples are every where destroyed: Kings them-selves submit their sceptres to the cross. What new thing is this It is the SPIRIT OF GOD poured out upon all the earth.

 

 It was testified, That the MESSIAS should come to establish a new covenant with his people; such as might make them forget their departure out of Egypt, in comparison with this great deliverance: That he would put his law and his fear into their hearts; both which rested before in externals only:

 

That the JEWS should reject our LORD; and should themselves be rejected of GOD;—" the beloved vine bringeth forth only wild grapes:"—that the chosen people should prove disloyal, ungrateful, and incredulous: that GOD should strike them with blindness; and that, like blind men, they should stumble at noon-day:

 

That the Church should be narrow in its beginning, and should afterwards diffuse itself to a prodigious extent:

 

 That idolatry should then be extirpated: that the MESSIAH should vanquish and expel the false deities, and reduce men to the worship of the true God:

 

That the Idol-Temples should be cast down; and that in all places of the world men should offer to GOD a pure, and holy, and living sacrifice, in the room of the slain beasts: That the MESSIAH should instruct men in the true and perfect way:

 

 That he should reign over the JEWS and GENTILES No person before, or since our LORD, has been known, to teach any thing which bears the least affinity to these predictions.

 

 '1' After so many messengers sent to notify his coming, the MESSIAS was pleased himself to appear, with all the assured Evidences of the Person, and all the concurring Circumstances of the Time. He came to inform men, that they had properly no other enemies than themselves, or than those passions which separated them from God; and that his office was to set them free from these enemies, to strengthen them with his grace, to unite them. all in one holy CHURCH, and to reconcile JEWS and GENTILES, by destroying the superstition of the former, and the idolatry of the latter.

 

And the issue of all this was, that the Apostles accordingly pronounced the sentence of rejection on the JEWS, and declared the glad tidings of acceptance and salvation to the GENTILES.

 

 And yet, through the power of natural concupiscence, was this most divine undertaking opposed by the united force of mankind. This King of JEWS and GENTILES was denied, was oppressed, by both equally conspiring against his life. Whatever is wont to style itself great, in the world, attacked this religion in its very infancy,—the learned, the wise, and the princes of the earth. The first persecuted it with their pen; the second with their tongue; the last with their sword. But in spite of all opposition, within how little a space do we behold our LORD reigning victoriously over his enemies of every kind; and destroying as well the Jewish as the Gentile worship, each in its chief scat and metropolis, JERUSALEM and ROME, planting in one of them the first, in the other the greatest of churches

 

Persons of mean endowments, and of no authority or strength, such as were the Apostles and primitive Christians, bore up against all the powers of the earth; over-came the learned, the wise, and the mighty; and gave a total subversion to the Idol-Worship, which had so firmly established itself in the world. And all this was brought to pass by the sole influence of that divine Word which foretold our Bonn's appearance.

 

 The JEWS, in putting to death JESUS CHRIST, whom they believed not to be the MESSIAS, gave him the final mark and assurance of the MESSLAS'S character. The more they persisted in denying him, they still became the more infallible witnesses of his truth: for to disown, and to slay him, was but to join their own testimony to that of the Prophecies which they fulfilled.

 

 Who is so ignorant, as not to distinguish and ac-knowledge our LORD, after the numerous prophetical tokens and circumstances of his history Par it was expressly declared, That he should have one special messenger and fore-runner: That he should be born an infant: That his birth-place should be the City of BETHLEHEM; that he should spring from the Tribe of JUDAH, and House of DAVID; that he should exhibit himself more especially at JERUSALEM:-‑

 

That he should veil the eyes of the wise and learned, and preach the gospel to the poor; that he should restore sight to the blind, health to the diseased, and light to those who languish under darkness: That he should teach the true and perfect way, and should be the great Instructer of the GENTILES: That he should offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

 

 That he should be the chief corner-stone, elect and precious: That he should, at the same time, be a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence: That the JEWS should fall upon this rock:---‑ That this stone should be rejected by the builders; should he made by GOD the head of the corner; should grow into a great mountain, and fill the whole earth: That the MESSIAS should be disowned, rejected, betrayed, sold, buffeted, derided, and afflicted by a thousand different methods; that they should give him gall to drink, should pierce his hands and his feet, should strike him on the face, should kill him, and cast lots upon his vesture: That he should rise again on the third day from the dead:

 

 That he should ascend into heaven, and sit at the right hand of GOD: That kings should arm themselves to oppose his authority: That sitting at the right hand of the FATHER, he should triumph over all his enemies; That the kings of the earth should fall down before him, and all nations do him service: That the Jaws should still remain: That they should remain in a wandering and desolate condition, without princes, without sacrifices, without altars, without prophets; ever hoping for safety, and ever disappointed of their hope. 

 

 It was necessary, according to the prophetical descriptions, that the MESSIAS, by his own strength, should gather to himself a numerous people, elect, sacred, and peculiar; should govern and support them; should lead them into a place of rest and holiness; should present them blameless before GoD; should make them temples of the Divine Presence; should deliver them from the wrath of GOD, and restore them to his favor; should rescue them from the tyranny of sin, which so visibly reigned over ADAM'S. posterity; that he should give laws to his people, and should grave these laws in their hearts, and write them in their minds; that he should be at once a holy Priest, and a spotless Sacrifice; and that, while he offered to GOD bread and wine, he should no less offer his own body and blood.—Each of these particulars have we seen exactly performed by JESUS CHRIST.

 

 Again, it was foretold, that he should come as a mighty deliverer; that he should bruise SATAN'S head, and redeem his people from their sins: that there should be a new and an eternal covenant, and another priesthood for ever, after the order of MELCHISEDEC: that the MESSIAS should be powerful, mighty, and glorious; and yet so weak, so miserable, and so contemptible, as not to be distinguished or credited, but rejected and slain: that the people who thus rejected him should be no more a people: that the GENTILES should receive him, and trust in him: that he should remove from the hill of SION, and reign in the chief seats of idolatrous worship: that the Jaws should nevertheless continue for ever: and, lastly, that he should arise out of JUDAH, and at the precise time when the sceptre was departed from them:

 

 We have no King but CARSAR," said the JEWS. Therefore JESUS CHRIST was the MESSIAS; because their sceptre was departed to a stranger, and because they would admit of no other King.

 

XVI. Divers Proofs of JESUS CHRIST.

 

 In refusing to give credit to the Apostles, it is necessary we should suppose one of these two things, either that they were deceived themselves, or that they had an intention of deceiving others. As to the first, it seems next to impossible, that men should be abused into a belief of a person's rising from the dead. And as for the other, the supposition of their being impostors is loaded with absurdities of every kind. Let us be at the pains of examining its process. We are, then, to conceive these twelve men, after the death of their Master, combining to delude the whole world with a report of his resurrection. As they could not embark in this design, without bringing upon their heads all the opposition of united strength and power; so the heart of man has a strange inclination towards lightness and change, towards closing with the bribes of promises and rewards. Now should so much as any one of them have been drawn from his resolution by these charms, or have been shaken by prisons, by tortures, or by death itself, all had been undone beyond recovery. This consideration, if pursued, cannot fail of appearing with great weight and advantage.

 

 While their LORD continued amongst them, his presence might encourage and support them: but after-wards, what Gould possibly encourage them to proceed, except his real appearance and return The style of the Gospel is admirable in a thousand different views; and in this, amongst others, that we meet there with no invectives, on the part of the Historians, against JUDAS, or PILATE, nor against any of the enemies, or the very murderers, of their LORD.

 

 Had the modesty and temper of the Evangelical Writers been affected, like the many strokes of art which we admire in vulgar history, and had they designed it only to be taken notice of, —either they could not have forborne to give some insinuation of it themselves, or, at least, they would have procured friends who should observe it to their advantage and honor. But as they acted without any manner of affectation, and with altogether disinterested motions, they never took care to provide any person who should make these reflections in their favor. This, I believe, is what no man has hitherto remarked, and yet what seems an admirable evidence of the great simplicity used in this whole affair.

 

 Another signal confirmation of our faith, is the pre, sent condition of the JEWS. It is astonishing to see this people, during so vast a course of years, never extinguished, and yet ever miserable; it being alike necessary to the demonstration of the MESSIAS, both that they should subsist to be his Witnesses, and should be miserable as having been his Crucifiers. And though to subsist, and to be miserable, are contrarieties ungrateful to nature, yet they fail not to maintain their subsistence under all the power of their misery.

 

 But were they not reduced to almost the same extremities, during their captive estate No: the sceptre, and regal line, were not in the least interrupted by their captivity in BABYLON; because their happy return was expressly promised and determined. When NEBUCHADNEZZAR carried away the people, for fear they should imagine the sceptre to have then departed from JUDAH, they were before-hand assured, that they should sojourn but a few years, and at the end of them should certainly be re-established. They were never without the comfort of their Prophets, or the presence of -their Kings. But the second ruin of their city and polity is without promise of a restoration,—without Prophets, without Kings, with-out comfort, or hopes,—the sceptre being now for ever departed from them.

 

To be detained in an enemy's country, with an assurance of being delivered after seventy years, can scarcely be looked on as a state of captivity, in respect of a whole people. But their present dispersion and banishment into strange lands is not only without assurance, but without the least hope, of restitution.

 

 The only argument of the JEWS, which we find insisted on in their writings, the Talmud, and by the Robbins, is, that JESUS CHRIST did not appear as a mighty prince and conqueror,—did not subdue the nations by the force and terror of arms. JESUS CHRIST, say they, suffered and died; he overcame not the Gentiles by martial power; he loaded us not with their spoils; he neither enlarged our dominions, nor increased our stores. And is this all they have to allege This is what we have especially to boast. It is in this that he appears so peculiarly amiable: I would not wish for a MESSIAS of their description and character.

 

 How lovely a sight is it, to behold with the eye of faith, DARIUS, CYRUS, and ALEXANDER, the ROMANS, POMIEY, and HEROD, all ignorantly conspiring to advance the triumphs of the Cross

 

XVII. For what reasons we may presume it has pleased GOD to hide himself from some, 

 

and to disclose himself to others.

 

 It has been the gracious purpose of GOD, to redeem mankind, and to open a door of salvation to those who diligently seek him. But men have shown themselves so unworthy of this design, that he justly denies to some, on account of their obstinacy, what he grants to others, by a mercy which is not their due. Were it his pleasure to overbear the stubbornness of the most hardened unbelievers, he could easily effect it by discovering himself so manifestly to them, as to set the truth of his existence beyond the possibility of their disputes. And it is in this manner that he will appear at the last day; with such amazing terrors, and such a convulsion of all nature, that the most blind shall behold, and shall confess him.

 

 But this is not the way which he has chosen for his first and milder coming: because, so many persons having rendered themselves thus unworthy of his mercy, he has left them deprived of a happiness which they vouchsafed not to desire. It had not, therefore, been consistent with his justice, to assume an appearance every way great and divine, and capable of working in all men an absolute and undistinguished conviction; nor, on the other hand, would it have seemed more equitable to have used so much privacy and concealment, as not to be discoverable by sincere inquirers. So that intending no less to reveal himself to those who sought him with their whole heart, than to hide himself from those who were alike Industrious to fly and avoid him, he has so tempered the knowledge of himself, as to exhibit bright and visible indications to those who seek him, and to turn the pillar of a cloud towards those who seek him not.

 

 There is a due proportion of light for those who, above all things, wish that they may see; and a proper mixture of shade for those who are of a contrary disposition. There is enough of brightness to illuminate the elect; and enough of obscurity to humble them. There is obscurity enough to blind the reprobates; and brightness enough to condemn them, and render them without excuse.

 

 Did the world subsist purely to inform men of the being of GOD, his divinity would shine through it with irresistible and uncontested rays. But, in as much as it subsists only by JESUS CHRIST, and for JESUS CHRIST, and to inform men of their corruption and redemption, we read these two lessons in every part of its frame. For all the objects which we can survey are such as denote neither the total exclusion, nor the manifest presence of a God; or they denote the presence of a GOD " who hides himself." The face of nature bears this universal character and language.

 

 Had men never been honored with the appearance of GOD, this eternal privation might have been the subject of dispute, and as well have been interpreted of his utter absence from the world, as of human incapacity to enjoy his presence. But by affording some, though not continual appearances, he has taken away all ground of doubt and debate. If he has appeared once, he exists for ever. So that we are obliged jointly to conclude, from the whole, the being of GOD, and the unworthiness of Man.

 

 It seems to be the divine intention, to perfect the Will rather than the Understanding. But now, a convincing light and a perfect brightness, while they assisted the understanding, would forestall and defeat the will. Were there no. intermixture of darkness, man would not be sensible of his disease; and were there no degree of light, man would despair of a remedy. So that not only the divine justice, but human interest and advantage seem concerned, that GOD should discover himself in part; it being alike dangerous for us to know GOD, without apprehending our own misery,—and to know our own misery, without the apprehension of GOD.

 

Every thing instructs man in his own condition; but then this maxim ought rightly to be understood. For it is neither true, that GOD altogether discovers himself, nor that he remains altogether concealed. But these are most consistent truths, that he hides himself from those who tempt him, and discloses himself to those who seek him. For men, though unworthy of GOD, yet at the same time are capable of Gov. They are unworthy of him by their corruption; and they are capable of him by their original perfection.

 

 There is no object upon earth which does not speak and proclaim either divine mercy, or human misery; either the impotence of man, unassisted by GOD, or the power of man with GOD's concurrence. The whole universe teaches man, either that he is distempered and lapsed, or that he is recovered and redeemed. Every thing informs him either' f his greatness, or of his misery. The just dereliction of GOD, we may read in the Pagans: his merciful favor and protection, in the ancient JEWS.

 

 All things work together for good to the elect; even the obscurities of Scripture, which these honor and reverence, on account of that divine clearness and beauty which they understand. And all things work together for evil to the reprobates; even the divine clearness and beauty of Scripture, which these blaspheme, on account of the obscurities which they understand not.

 

 JESUS CHRIST is come, that those who see not, may see; and that those who see, may be made blind. He is come to heal the sick, and to give over the sound; to call sinners to repentance and justification, and to leave those in their sins, who trusted in themselves that they were saints; to fill the hungry with good things, and to send the rich empty away.

 

 It was to render the MESSIAS alike the subject of knowledge to the good, and of error to the wicked, that it pleased GOD so to dispose the predictions concerning him. For had the manner of his appearance been expressly foretold, there would not have been obscurity enough to mislead the worst of men. On the other hand, had the time been signified obscurely, the best of men would have wanted evidence. For instance, the integrity of their heart could never have assisted them in expounding a single for the numeral of six hundred years. The Time, therefore, was declared in positive words; but the Manner wrapt up in shade and figure.

 

By this means the wicked, apprehending the promised Goods to be temporal, deceived themselves, notwithstanding the clear indications of the Time; while the righteous avoided this mistake. For the construction of the promised Goods depended on the heart, which is wont to apply the name of good to the object of its love: whereas the construction of the promised Time has no dependence on the heart or affections. And thus the plain discovery of the Time, and the obscure description of the Goods, or happiness expected, could be the cause of error only to the wicked.

 

 Lrstead of complaining that GOD is so far removed from our search, we ought to give him thanks that he is so obvious to our discovery. Nor ought we less to thank him, that he still hides himself from the wise and the lofty, from those who are unworthy to know so pure and holy a Gov.

 

 Let men, therefore, reproach us no more with the want of perfect light; for we profess ourselves to want it. But let them own the power and truth of Religion in its very obscurity, in that mixture of darkness which surrounds is, and that indifference which we find in our-selves towards the knowledge of our duty.

 

Were there but one Religion in the world, the discoveries of the Divine Nature might seem too free and open, and with too little distinction; and so likewise, if there were martyrs in no Religion but the true.

 

 If the mercy of GOD be so abundant, as to afford us all saving knowledge, even while he hides himself; what immense light may we, expect, when he shall please to unveil his perfections

 

XVIII. That the true Professors of Judaism and of Christianity have ever been of one and the same Religion.

 

 The Jewish Religion seems, at first view, to consist, as to its very essence, in the Paternity of ABRAHAM, in the rite of Circumcision, in Sacrifices, in Ceremonies, in the Ark, in the Temple at JERUSALEM, or, briefly, in the Law and the Covenant of MOSES. But we offer to maintain, That it consisted in none of these, but purely in the Love of GOD; and that, besides this, nothing ever obtained the divine approbation and acceptance:

 

 That GOD bore no manner of regard to " Israel after the Flesh," to those who proceeded out of the loins of ABRAHAM: That the JEWS, if they transgressed, were to be punished after the manner of strangers: " And it shall be, that if you do at all forget the Lord your GOD, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them; I testify against you this day, that ye shall surely perish: as the nations which the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish: That strangers, if they loved GOD, were to be received by him on the same terms with the JEWS: That those who were JEWS in truth and reality ascribed all their merit and pretentions not to ABRAHAM, but to God: "Doubtless you art our Father, though ABRAHAM be ignorant of us, and ISRAEL knows us not: You art our Father and our Redeemer:"

 

 MOSES himself assured his nation, that GOD was no excepter of persons; " the Lord, your GOD," says he, " regardeth not persons, nor taketh rewards:"

 

We affirm, That the circumcision enjoined was that of the Heart: " Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. For the LORD your GOD is a great GOD, a mighty, and a terrible, who regardeth not persons:"

 

 That GOD particularly promised to bestow on them this grace of spiritual circumcision: "And the LORD thy GOD will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy GOD with all thy heart:"

 

 That the uncircumcised in heart shall be judged of God: "For GOD will judge all the nations which are uncircumcised; and all the people of ISRAEL, because they are uncircumcised in heart:"

 

 We say, That Circumcision was purely a figure, instituted to distinguish the people of the JEWS from all other nations: And this was the reason that they used it not in the wilderness, because there was then no danger of their mixing with strangers; as also that since the appearance of our LORD it is become altogether unnecessary.

 

 That the Love of GOD is, every where, principally commanded and enforced " I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and thy seed may live; that you may love the LORD thy GOD, and that you may obey his voice, and that you may cleave unto him, for he is thy life," &c.

 

 It was declared, That the JEWS, for want of this Love of GOD, should be abandoned to their sins, and the Gen-tiles admitted in their stead: " I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very forward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not GOD, they have provoked me to anger with their vanities; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation:

 

That temporal goods are false and vain; and that the only true and lasting good is the divine acceptance and favor:

 

That the offerings of the Gentiles should be received by God; and that he should withdraw his acceptance from the offerings of the JEWS:

 

That GOD would make a new covenant by the MESSIAH; and that the old covenant should be disannulled:

 

That the old things should be universally forgotten, and should pass away:

 

That the Ark of the Covenant should come no more to mind:

 

That the Temple should be given up and destroyed:

 

That the legal Sacrifices should be abolished; and Sacrifices of a purer kind established in their room:

 

That the Aaronical order of Priesthood should be dissolved; and the order of MELCHISEDEC be introduced by

 

the MESSIAS:

 

That this latter Priesthood should be an ordinance for ever:

 

That JERUSALEM should be reprobated; and a new Name given to the elect people:

 

That this new Name should be more excellent than that of the JEWS, and of eternal duration.

 

XIX. That GOD is not known to advantage, but through

 

JESUS CHRIST.

 

 THE greatest part of those who attempt to demonstrate the truth of the Divine Being to the profane, begin with the Works of Nature; and in this method they rarely succeed. I would not seem to impair the validity of these proofs, which have been consecrated by the holy Scripture itself. They have, indeed, an undeniable agreement with the principles of sound reason; but are very often not so well proportioned to that disposition of spirit which is peculiar to the persons here described.

 

 For we must observe, that discourses of this kind are not ordinarily addressed to men whose hearts abound with a lively faith, and who immediately discern the whole system of things to be no other than the workman-ship of that GOD whom they adore. To these " the heavens declare the glory of GOD," and all Nature speaks in behalf of its Author. But as for those in whom this light is extinct, and in whom we endeavor to revive it, persons who are destitute of faith and charity, and who behold nothing but clouds and darkness on the whole face of Nature, it seems not the most probable method of their conversion, to offer them nothing more on a subject of the last importance, than the course of the moon or planets, or than such arguments as they every day hear,. and every day despise. The hardness and obstinacy of their temper have rendered them deaf to this voice of nature, which sounds continually in their ears; and experience informs us, that instead of our gaining them by such a process, there is nothing which, on the contrary, is so great a discouragement, and so apt to make them despair of ever finding the truth, as when we undertake to convince them by the way of reasoning, and pretend to tell them that truth shines so bright, in these views, as to become really irresistible.

 

The Holy Scripture, which knows so much better than we the things which belong to GOD, never speaks of them in this manner. It informs us, indeed, that the beauty of the creature leads to the knowledge of the Creator; -but it does by no means assure us that the creatures produce this effect indifferently in all persons. On the contrary, it declares, that whenever they appear thus convincing, it is not by their own force, but by means of that light which GOD diffuses into the hearts of those to whom he is pleased to discover himself by their means and intervention: it teacheth, in general, that our GOD is u a GOD who hided' himself;" and that since the corruption of human nature, he has left men under such a blindness as they can only be delivered from by JESUS CHRIST, without whom we are cut off from all communication with the Divinity.

 

 The Scripture gives us a farther evidence of this truth, when it so often testifies, that GOD is found by those who seek him; for it could never speak thus of a clear and certain light, such as gives not men the trouble of searching after it, but freely diffuses itself around, and prevents the observation of the beholders.

 

The metaphysical proofs of GOD are so very intricate, and so far removed from the common reasonings of men, that they strike with little force: or, at best, the impression continues but a short space, and men, the very next hour, fall back into their old jealousies, and their perpetual fear and suspicion of being deceived.

 

Again; all the arguments of this abstracted kind are able to lead us no farther than to a speculative know-ledge of GOD; and to know him only thus, is, in effect, not to know him at all.

 

 The GOD of Christians is not barely the supreme and infallible author of geometrical truths, or of the elementary order and the disposition of nature; this is the Divinity of Philosophers and Pagans:—nor barely the Providential Disposer of the lives and fortunes of men, so as to crown his worshippers with a long and happy series of years; this was the portion of the JEWS. But the GOD of ABRAHAM and of ISAAC, the GOD of Christians, is a GOD of love and consolation; a GOD who possesseth the hearts and souls of his servants; gives them an inward feeling of their own misery, and of his infinite mercy; unites himself to their spirit, replenishing it with humility and joy, with affiance and love; and renders them in-capable of any prospect, any aim, but himself.

 

 The GOD of Christians is a GOD who makes the soul perceive and know that he is her only good, and that she can find peace and repose in him alone;—no delight, no joy, but in his love;—and who, at the same time, inspires her with an abhorrence of those obstacles and impediments which withhold her from loving him with all her strength. As her two principal hindrances, self love and concupiscence, are grievous and insupportable to her; so it is this gracious GOD who makes her know and feel that she has these fatal distempers rooted in her constitution, and that his hand alone can expel or subdue them.

 

 This is to know GOD as a Christian. But to know him after this manner, we must, at the same time, know our own misery and unworthiness, together with the need we have of a Mediator, in order to our approaching his presence, or uniting ourselves to him. We ought by no means to separate these parts of knowledge; because each alone is not only unprofitable, but dangerous. The knowledge of GOD, without the knowledge of our own misery, is the nurse of pride. The knowledge of our own misery, without the knowledge of JESUS CHRIST, is the mother of despair. But the true knowledge of JESUS CHRIST exempts us alike from pride and from despair; by giving us, at once, a sight, not only of GOD, and of our misery, but also of the mercy of GOD in the relief of our misery.

 

We may know GOD without knowing our own miseries; or we may know our own miseries without knowing GOD; or we may know both, without knowing the means of obtaining from GOD the relief of our miseries. But we cannot know JESUS CHRIST without the knowledge of GOD, of our miseries, and of their cure; inasmuch as JESUS CHRIST is not only GOD, but he is GOD under this character, the Healer and Repairer of our miseries.

 

 Thus all they who seek GOD without JESUS CHRIST can never meet with such light in their enquiries as may afford them true satisfaction, or solid use. For either they advance not so far as to know that there is a GOD; or if they do, yet they arrive hereby but at an unprofitable knowledge, because they frame to themselves method of communicating with GOD, without a Mediator; as if without a Mediator they were capable of knowing him: so that they unavoidably fall either into Atheism, or Deism, things which the Christian Religion does almost equally detest and abhor.

 

We ought therefore wholly to direct our enquiries to the knowledge of JESUS CHRIST; because it is by him alone that we can pretend to know GOD, in such a manner as shall be really advantageous to us.

 

 He alone is the true GOD to us men, that is, to miser-able and sinful creatures: he is our chief centre and supreme object, in respect of all that we can wish, and all that we can understand. Whoever knows not him, knows nothing either in the order of the world, or in his own nature and condition. For as we know GOD only by JESUS CHRIST, SO it is by him alone that we know ourselves.

 

 Without JESUS CHRIST man is, of necessity, to be considered as lying in vice and misery: with JESUS CHRIST man appears as released from vice, and redeemed from misery. In him consists all our happiness, and all our virtue, our life and light, our hope and assurance: out of him there is no prospect but of sins and miseries, of darkness and despair; nothing to be beheld by us but obscurity and confusion in the Divine Nature, and in our own.

 

XX. The strange Contrarieties discoverable in Human Nature.

 

 NOTHING can be more astonishing in the nature of man, than the Contrarieties which we there observe, with regard to all things. He is made for the knowledge of truth; this is what he most ardently desires, and most eagerly pursues; yet when he endeavors to lay hold on it, he is so dazzled and confounded, as never to be secure of actual possession. Hence the two sects of the Pyrrhonians and the Dogmatists took their rise; of which the one would utterly deprive men of all truth; the other would infallibly ensure their enquiries after it; but each with so improbable reasons, as only to increase our con-fusion and perplexity, while we are guided by no other lights than those which we find in our own bosom.

 

 The Sceptics, who labor to bring all things to their own standard, are under a continual disappointment. We may be very well assured of our being awake, though very unable to demonstrate it by reason. This inability shows indeed the feebleness of our rational powers, but not the general incertitude of our knowledge. We apprehend with no less confidence that there are such things in the world as space, time, motion, number, and matter, than the most regular and demonstrative conclusions. Nay, it is upon this certainty of perception and intellection, that reason ought to fix itself, and to found the whole method of its process. We apprehend principles, and we conclude propositions; and both with the like assurance, though by different ways. It were to be wished that we had less occasion for rational deductions; and that we knew all things by instinct and immediate view. But nature has denied us this favor, and allows us but few notices of so easy a kind, leaving us to work out the rest by laborious consequences, and a continued series of arguments.

 

 We see here a universal war proclaimed amongst man-kind. We must of necessity enlist ourselves on one side or on the other: for he that pretends to stand neuter is most effectually of the Pyrrhonian party: this neutrality constitutes the very essence of Pyrrhonism; and he that is not against the Sceptics, must be, in a superlative manner, for them. What shall a man do under these circumstances Shall he question every thing Shall he doubt whether he is awake, whether another pinches him, or burns him Shall he doubt whether he doubts Shall he doubt whether he exists It seems impossible to come to this; and therefore, I believe, there never was a finished Sceptic, a Pyrrhonian in perfection. There is a secret force in nature which sustains the weakness of reason, and hinders it from losing itself in such a degree of extravagance. Well, but shall a man join himself to the opposite faction Shall he boast that he is in sure possession of truth, when, if we press him ever so little, he can produce no title, and must be obliged to quit his hold

 

 What measures can suppress or compose this embroilment The Pyrrhonians, we see, are confounded by Nature, and the Dogmatists by Reason.. To what a distracting misery will that man, therefore, be reduced, who shall seek the knowledge of his own condition, by the bare light and guidance of his own powers; it being alike impossible for him to avoid both these sects, and to repose himself in either.

 

 Such is the portrait of man, with regard to Truth. Let us now behold him in respect of Felicity, which he prosecutes with so much warmth through his whole course of action: for all desire to be happy; this general rule is without exception. Whatever variety there may be in the means employed, there is but one end universally pursued. The reason why one man embraceth the hazard of war, and why another declines it, is but the same desire, at-tended in each with a different intermediate view. This is the sole motive to every action of every person; and even of such as, most unnaturally, become their own executioners.

 

And yet, after the course of so many ages, no person without Faith has ever arrived at this point, towards which all continually tend. The whole world is busy in complaining: princes and subjects, nobles and commons, old and young, the strong and the feeble, the learned and the ignorant, the healthy and the diseased, of all countries, all times, all ages, and all conditions.

 

 So long, so constant, so regular, and uniform a proof ought fully to convince us of the disability we lie under towards the acquisition of happiness by our own strength. But example will not serve for our instruction in this case; because there being no resemblance so exact as not to admit some nicer difference, we are hence disposed to think that our expectation is not so liable to be deceived on one occasion as on another. Thus the present never satisfying us, the future decoys and lures us on, till, from one misfortune to another, it leads us into death, the sum and perfection of eternal, complicated misery.

 

 This is nest to a miracle, that there should not be any one thing in nature which has not been some time fixed, as the last end and happiness of man; neither stars, nor elements, nor plants, nor animals, nor insects, nor diseases, nor war, nor vices, nor sin. Man being fallen from his natural estate, there is no object so extravagant as not to be capable of attracting his desire. Ever since the time that he lost his real good, every thing cheats him with the appearance of it; even his own destruction, though the greatest contradiction to Reason and to Nature at once.

 

 Some have sought after Felicity in honor and authority, others in curiosity and knowledge, and a third tribe in the enjoyments of sense. These three leading desires have constituted as many factions; and those, whom we compliment with the name of Philosophers, have really done nothing else but resigned themselves up to one of the three. Such amongst them as made the nearest approaches to Truth and Happiness well considered, that it was necessary that the universal good, which all desire, and in which each man ought to be allowed his portion, should not consist in any of the private blessings of this world, which can be properly enjoyed but by one alone, and which, if divided, do more grieve and afflict each possessor, for want of the part which he has not, than they gratify him with the part which he has. They rightly apprehended, that the true good ought to be such as all may possess at once, without diminution, and without contention; and such as no man can be deprived of against his will. They apprehended this, but they were unable to attain it; and, instead of a solid, substantial happiness, took up, at last, with the empty shadow of a fantastic virtue.

 

 Our instinct suggests to us, that we ought to seek our Happiness within ourselves. Our passions hurry us abroad, even when there are no objects to engage and incite them. The things without are themselves our tempters, and charm and attract us, while we think of nothing less. Therefore, the wisest Philosophers might weary them-selves with crying, " Keep within yourselves, and your Felicity is in your own gift and power." The generality never gave them credit; and those who were so easy as to believe them, became only the more unsatisfied and the more ridiculous. For is there any thing so vain as the Stoics' Happiness, or so groundless as the reasons on which they build it

 

 They conclude, that what has been done once, may be done always; and that, because the desire of glory has sometimes spurred on its votaries to great and worthy actions, all others may use it with the same success. But these are the motions of fever and phrenzy, which sound health and judgment can never imitate.

 

The civil war between Reason and Passion has occasioned two opposite projects, for the restoring of peace to mankind: the one, of those who were for renouncing their passions, and becoming Gods; the other of those who were for renouncing their reason, and becoming Beasts. But neither the one nor the other could take effect. Reason ever continues to accuse the baseness and injustice of the passions, and to disturb the repose of those who abandon themselves to their dominion: and, on the contrary, the Passions remain lively and vigorous in the hearts of those, who talk the most of their extirpation.

 

 This is the just account of human nature, and human strength, in respect of Truth and Happiness. We have an idea of Truth, not to be effaced by all the wiles of the Sceptic; we have an incapacity of argument, not to be rectified by all the power of the Dogmatist. We wish for Truth, and find nothing in ourselves, but uncertainty. We seek after Happiness, and are presented with nothing but misery. Our double aim is, in effect, a double torture; while we are alike unable to compass either, and to relinquish either. These desires seem to have been left in us, partly as a punishment of our Fall, and partly as an indication and remembrance whence we are fallen.

 

 If man was not made for GOD, why is GOD alone sufficient for human happiness If man was made for GOD, why is the human will, in all things, repugnant to the Divine

 

 Man is at a loss where to fix himself, and how to recover his rank in the world. He is unquestionably out of his way; he feels within himself the small remains of his once happy state, which he is now unable to retrieve. And yet this is what he daily courts and follows after, always with solicitude, and never with success; encompassed with darkness, which he can neither escape nor penetrate.

 

 Hence arose the grand contention among the Philosophers; some of whom endeavored to raise and exalt man, by displaying his greatness; others to depress and abase him, by representing his misery. And what seems more strange, is, that each party borrowed from the other the ground of their own opinion. For the misery of man may be inferred from his greatness, as his greatness is deducible from his misery. Thus the one sect, with more evidence, demonstrated his misery in that they derived it from his greatness; and the other more strongly concluded his greatness, because they founded it on his misery. Whatever was offered to justify his greatness, in behalf of one tribe, served only to evince his misery, in behalf of the other; it being more miserable to have fallen from the greater height. And the same proportion holds vice versa. So that in this endless circle of dispute, each helped to advance his adversary's cause; for it is certain, that the more degrees of light men enjoy, the more degrees they are able to discern of misery and of greatness. In a word, man knows himself to be miser-able: he is therefore exceedingly miserable, because he knows that he is so: but he likewise appears to be eminently great,. from his very act of knowing himself to be miserable.

 

 What a chimera then is Man! What a surprising novelty! What a confused chaos! What a subject of contradiction! A professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth! The great depositary and guardian of Truth, and yet a mere huddle of uncertainty; the glory and the scandal of the universe! If he is too aspiring and lofty, we can lower and humble him; if too mean and little, we can raise and swell him.—To conclude: we can bait him with repugnancies and contradictions, till at length, he apprehends himself to be a monster, even beyond apprehension.

 

XXI. The General Knowledge of Man.

 

 THE first thing which offers itself to Man, when reflecting on himself, is his Body, or a certain portion of matter allotted and appropriated to him. And yet to understand what this portion is, he must be obliged to compare it with all things that are above or below him, ere he can determine and adjust its bounds. Let him not therefore content himself with the sight of those objects, which immediately surround him. Let him contemplate all nature, in its height of perfection, and fullness of majesty. Let him consider the great body of the Sun, set up as an eternal lamp to enlighten the universe. Let him suppose the Earth to be only a point, in respect of the vast circuit which this luminary describes. And, for his greater astonishment, let him observe, that even this vast circuit is but a point itself, compared with the Firmament and the orb of the fixed Stars. If his sight be limited here, let hia imagination, at least, pass beyond. He may sooner exhaust the power of conceiving, than nature can want a new store to furnish out his conceptions. The whole extent of visible things is but one line or stroke in the ample bosom of nature. No idea can reach the immeasurable compass of her space. We may grow as big as we please with notion; but we shall bring forth mere atoms, instead of real and solid discoveries. This is an infinite sphere, the centre of which is every where, and the circumference no where. In a word, it is the greatest amongst all the sensible marks and characters of the almighty power of GOD. And let our imagination lose itself in this reflection.

 

 If a man can recover himself from such a prospect, let him consider what he himself is, if compared with the whole expansion of Being. Let him conclude that he is accidentally strayed into this blind corner of nature; and from what he finds of his present dungeon, let him learn to set the proper value on the earth, on kingdoms, on cities, and on himself.

 

 What is Man with regard to this Infinity about him Who can fix his distance, or comprehend his proportion But to show him another prodigy no less astonishing, let him turn, his thoughts on the smallest of those things which fall within his knowledge. Let a mite, for instance, in the contemptible minuteness of its body, present him with parts incomparably more minute; with jointed legs, with veins in those legs, blood in those veins, humors in that blood, drops in those humors, vapours in those drops. Let him still apply all his force, and strain his utmost conception, to divide the least of those particulars which we have mentioned; and when he has gone as far as his mind can reach, let the concluding atom be the subject of our discourse. He will probably suppose that this is the remotest extreme, the last diminutive in nature: but even in this, where he finds himself obliged to stop, I shall undertake still to open before him a new abyss of wonders. Let him conceive me delineating to him on the surface of this imperceptible atom, not only the visible world, but whatsoever he is able to comprehend of the immensity of all things. Let him here behold an infinity of worlds, each with its firmament, its planets, its earth, under the same proportions, as in the natural system. Let him still imagine every such earth to be stored with all living things, and even with his mites; and let him consider that it is possible each of these mites may again present him with such a painted world as he admired in the first, and that the show may still be repeated, without end, and without rest.

 

 Let him again lose himself in these wonders, no less surprising for their minuteness than the former for their vastness and extent. And who will not be confounded to reflect that our body, which before was judged imperceptible, in respect of the world, which world is itself imperceptible in the bosom of Universal Being, should now become a Colossus, a world, or rather an Universality of Being, in respect of that exquisite diminution at which our last refinement of thought may by this artifice arrive.

 

 He that shall take this survey of his own nature, will, no doubt, be under the greatest consternation to find himself hanging, as it were, in his material scale, between the two vast abysses of infinite and nothing; from which he is equally removed. He will tremble at the sight of so many prodigies; and turning his curiosity into admiration, will, I believe, be more inclined silently to contemplate them, than presumptuously to search their depths.

 

For what is Man amongst the natures which encompass him In one view he appears as unity to infinity, in another, as all to nothing; and must therefore be the medium between these extremes; alike distant from that nothing whence he was taken, and from that infinity in which he is swallowed up.

 

His Understanding holds the same rank in the order of beings as his body in the material system; and all the knowledge he can reach is only to discern somewhat of the middle of things, under an eternal despair of comprehending either their beginning or their end. All things arise from nothing, and proceed to infinity. Who can keep pace with these steps Who can follow such an amazing progress None but the AUTHOR of these wonders is able to explain or understand them.

 

This middle state and condition is common to all our faculties. Our senses can bear no extremes: too much noise or too much light are equally fatal, and make us either deaf or blind; too great distance or too great nearness do alike hinder a prospect; too much prolixity or too much brevity darken and perplex a discourse; too intense a pleasure becomes incommodious; too uniform a symphony has no power to affect and move; our body is utterly indisposed for the last degrees of heat and cold; qualities in excess are enemies to our nature; we do not properly feel but suffer them; the weakness of childhood and old age alike incapacitate the mind; too much or too little food disturbs it in its actions; too much or too little study renders it extravagant and unruly. Things in extreme are of no use or account, with respect to our nature; and our nature is of as little with respect to theirs; either we shun and avoid them, or they miss and escape us.

 

 This is our real estate; and it is this which fixeth and confines all our attainments within certain limits, which we can never pass, being equally unable either to know all things, or to remain ignorant of all things. We are placed here in a vast and uncertain medium, ever floating between ignorance and knowledge; and if we endeavor to step beyond our bounds, the object which we should seize doth, with a violent shock, wrest itself (as it were) from our hold, and vanisheth by an eternal flight, which no force may control or stay.

 

 This is the true condition of nature, and yet the most opposite to our inclination. We are inflamed with a desire of piercing through all things, and of building a tower, the top of which shall reach even to infinity. But our feeble edifice cracks and falls; the earth opens, with-out bottom, under us, and buries our devices in its gulf.

 

XXII. The Greatness of Man.

 

 I can easily conceive a man without hands and without feet; and I could conceive him too without an head, if I did not learn from experience, that it is by the help of this he thinks. It is Thought, therefore, which constitutes the essence of Man, and without which he is altogether unconceivable.

 

What is that which has a sense of Pleasure in our frame Is it our hand is it our arm is it the flesh is it the blood Do we not find it absolutely necessary to have recourse to somewhat of an Immaterial Nature for this service

 

 Man has such a stock of real greatness, that he is great even in knowing himself to be miserable. A tree is no more sensible of misery than of felicity. It is true, the knowing himself to be miserable is an addition to man's misery'; but then it is no less a demonstration of his greatness. Thus his greatness is shown by his miseries, as by its ruins. They are the miseries of a mighty Statesman in disgrace, of a Prince dispossessed and dethroned.

 

 We have so great an idea of the human soul in any person, that we cannot bear the thought of wanting its regard and esteem; and it is this united esteem which composeth all the happiness of man. If the false glory which men pursue, is on the one side a proof of their misery, it is on the other side an attestation of their excellence: for whatever degree of riches, health, and other benefits men enjoy, they are still dissatisfied, unless they find themselves in the good opinion of their own kind. Human reason challengeth so much esteem and reverence from us, that under the most advantageous circumstances of life we think our-selves unhappy, if we are not placed to an equal advantage in men's judgments. This we look on as the fairest post that can be attained: nothing is able to divert us from so passionate a desire; and it is the most indelible characterin the heart of man: insomuch, that those who-think so contemptuously of mankind as to make the very beasts their equals, do yet contradict their own hypothesis by the motions which they feel in their own souls. Nature, which is stronger than all their reason, convinceth them more powerfully of man's greatness, than reason can persuade them of his meanness.

 

 Man is a reed, and the weakest reed in nature; but then he is a thinking reed. There is no occasion that the whole universe should arm itself for his defeat; a vapor, a drop of water, is sufficient to dispatch him. And yet, should the world oppress and crush him with ruin, he would still be more noble than that by which he fell, because he would be sensible of his fate, while the universe would be insensible of its victory.

 

Thus our whole worth and perfection consist in Thought: it is hence we are to raise ourselves, and not from the empty ideas of space and duration. Let us study the art of thinking well: this is the rule of life, and the fountain of morals.

 

* It is dangerous to inform man how near he stands to the beasts, without showing him, at the same time, how infinitely he shines above them. Again, it is dangerous to let him see his excellence, without making him acquainted with his infirmity. And the greatest danger of all is, to leave him in utter ignorance of one and of the other. But to have a just representation of both, is his greatest interest and happiness.

 

Let man be allowed to know his own value. Let him love himself, because he has a nature capable of good; but let him not be in love with the weaknesses and diseases of that nature. Let him despise himself, because this capacity within him is altogether empty and void; but let him not hence entertain a dislike of so natural, so noble a capacity. Let him hate his being, and let him love it too, because he is framed for the possession of truth, (and consequently of happiness,) and yet can find no truth that is permanent or satisfactory. I would therefore move him to entertain a desire, at least, of finding it, and to yield himself disengaged and ready to follow where he shall find it. And because I am not insensible how much the light of human knowledge is obscured by human passion, I would prescribe to him, above all things, the detestation of his own concupiscence, which is so fatal a bias on his own judgment; so that it may neither bind him while he is making his choice, nor divert or obstruct him from pursuing what be has chosen.

 

XXIII. The Vanity of Man.

 

 We are, not satisfied with that life which we possess in ourselves, and in our own proper being; we are fond of leading an imaginary life in the ideas of others. And it is hence that we are so eager to show ourselves to the world. We labor indefatigably to retain, improve, and adorn this fictitious being, while we stupidly neglect the true. And if we happen to be masters of any noble endowment of tranquility, generosity, or fidelity of mind, we press with all vigor to make them known, that we may transfer and engraft these excellencies on that fantastic existence. Nay, we had rather part with them, than not apply them to so vain a use; and would gladly commence cowards to purchase the reputation of valor—a great indication this of the meanness of our genuine being, not to rest satisfied in it without its shadow, and very often to renounce the former for the latter.

 

 Pride has so natural a possession of us, in the midst of our misery and error, that we can lose even our lives with joy, upon the terms of being celebrated for the act.

 

 Vanity has taken so firm hold in the heart of man, that a Porter, a Hodman, a Turnspit, can talk greatly of himself, and is for having his admirers. Philosophers do but refine upon the same ambition. Those who write of the contempt of glory, do yet desire the glory of writing well; and those who read their compositions would not lose the glory of having read them. Perhaps I myself, who am now making these reflections, am now sensible of this glory; and perhaps my reader is not proof against the charm.

 

 We are so presumptuous, that we desire to be known to all the world; and even to those who are not to come into the world till we have left it. And, at the same time, we are so little and vain, as that the esteem of five or six persons about us is enough to content and amuse us.

 

 Curiosity is little better than mere vanity. For the most part we desire to know things, purely that we may talk of them. Few would undertake so dangerous Voyages and Travels, for the bare pleasure of entertaining their sight, if they were bound to secrecy at their return, or for ever cloistered from conversation.

 

 We never think of raising a name and repute in places through which we only pass; but where we fix our residence for any time, there we eagerly admit, and industriously pursue this thought. What time is requisite for the purpose Such as bears a proportion to our short and miserable life.

 

 We can never keep close to the present. We anticipate the time to come as too slow, in order to the making it mend its pace; or we call back the time that is past as too swift, in order to the stopping its flight. Such is our folly, that we ramble through those times in which we have no concern, and utterly forget that on which our whole fortune and interest depend; such our vanity, that we dream of those which are not, and let that which alone subsists pass by us without notice or reflection. The reason of all which is this, because the present generally gives us some uneasiness, we are willing to hide it from our sight, as being grievous to us; but if it happen to be agreeable, we are in no less pain to see it slide so fast away. Hence we tack the future to it, to strengthen and support it, and pretend to dispose of things not in our power, for a tune at which we have no assurance ever to arrive.

 

 Let a man examine his own thoughts, and he will always find them employed about the time past, or to come. We scarce bestow a glance upon the present; or if we do, it is only that we may borrow light from hence, to manage and direct the future. The present is never the mark of our designs. We use both past and present as our means and instruments, but the future only as our object and aim. Thus we never live, but we ever hope to live; and under this continual disposition and preparation to happiness, it is certain we can never be actually happy, if our hopes are terminated with the scene of this life.

 

Our fancy so much enlargeth and swells this temporal duration, by reflecting perpetually on it, and so far extenuates and contracts our eternal state, by seldom taking it into thought, that we make a nothing of eternity, and an eternity of nothing. And the springs of this whole proceeding are so vigorous An us, that all our reason is too weak to suppress or over-rule them.

 

XXIV. The Weakness of Man.

 

 There is nothing which more astonishes me than that the whole world should not be astonished at their own infirmity. Men proceed seriously to action, and every one follows the way of life he has embraced, not as if it were really good in being the mode, but as if each man were exactly acquainted with the measures of reason and justice.

 

 We are disappointed every moment; and by a very pleasant humility, we imagine that the fault is in our-selves, and not in the art which we all profess to under-stand. It is fit there should be many persons of this complexion in the world, to demonstrate that man is capable of the most extravagant opinions, because he is capable of believing that the weakness he feels is not general and inevitable, but that he is naturally endued with true judgment and infallible wisdom.

 

While we are too young, our judgment is in immaturity; and when we are too old, it is in decay. If we think too little of a thing, or too much, our head turns giddy, and we are at a loss to find out our way to truth.

 

 He that views his own work just as it comes out of his hands, is too much prepossessed in its favor; and he that lets it he too long unsurvcyed, forgets the niceness of its contexture, and the model by which it was wrought. There is but one precise point which is the true place of showing a picture: all others are either too near, or too distant; too high, or too low. Perspective assigns this point in the art of Painting, but who has skill enough to fix it in Truth and Morals

 

That mistress of mistake, which we call fancy or opinion, is therefore the greater cheat, because she does not cheat constantly, and by rule. Always to he would be always to tell the truth; whereas being deceitful only for the most part, she gives us no marks of her character, but stamps truth and falsehood with the very same impression.

 

 This proud princess and potentate, the sworn enemy of reason, so ambitious to rule and domineer, has, that she may show her absolute power over the world, established in man a second nature. She has her rich and her poor, her happy and her miserable, her sick and her sound, her fools and her wise; and nothing grieves us so much as to see that she fills her votaries with a satisfaction more large and entire than reason pretends to give. The imaginary wise men feel another sort of complacency within themselves than the masters of true wisdom can regularly find. Those look on the world with an air of authority, and discourse with assurance, while these never express themselves without diffidence and concern. And that gaiety of countenance often gives the former such an advantage in the minds of their hearers, that when they meet with judges of their own standard, they seldom fail to please. Opinion cannot, indeed, make a fool wise, but it makes him contented, and so triumphs over reason, which seems only to render its friends and followers more sensibly miserable. This punisheth us with infamy, while that rewards us with glory.

 

 Look upon that venerable Magistrate, whose age and ability command the reverence of the whole nation. Would you not suppose that he governs himself by the purest and sublimest Wisdom, and judged' of things according to their real nature, without being moved by those trifling accidents and circumstances which disorder only weak and little people But behold him entering the court; see him placed on the bench, and prepared with exemplary gravity for a formal hearing: let one of the counsel have an untunable voice, or a singular aspect, let him have been ill-treated by his barber, or disobliged by the roads and weather, and I will wager against the countenance of your Chief Justice.

 

 The soul of the greatest man living is not so free and independent but that it is subject to disturbance at the least noise about him. You need not let off a cannon to break his train of thought; the creaking of a weather-cock, or of a pulley, will do it effectually. Do not be surprised that you hear him argue a little incoherently at present. He has a fly buzzing at his ears, and that is enough to make him a stranger to good counsel, Would you have him rightly apprized of the truth, you must take off this untoward animal, which holds his reason at bay, and discomposeth that sovereign understanding which gives laws to towns and kingdoms.

 

 Diseases are another principle of error. They impair our judgment and our senses. And if those which are most violent produce a very visible change, those which have less strength do yet leave a proportionable impression. Again, interest must be acknowledged to have a singular art in agreeably putting out our eyes. Affection or dislike quite invert the rules of justice. A counsellor, retained with a large fee, grows clear-sighted to admiration, and finds the cause immediately improve upon his hands.

 

 Not only does a veneration for antiquity abuse and enslave our mind,—the charms of novelty have the same ascendant over us: and hence arise all the disputes amongst men, who charge each other either with sticking to the false impressions of their childhood, or with running, at all adventures, into every new fancy.

 

Who is the man that keeps the just medium between these extremes Let him appear, and make good his pretensions. There is no principle, how natural soever it may seem, and though even sucked in with our first milk, but may be made to pass for a false impression, either of education or of sense. Because (says one,) you have been wont, ever since your infancy, to suppose a vessel empty when you saw nothing in it; hence you come to believe the possibility of a Vacuum: Why, this is only a strong delusion of your senses, strengthened by custom, which science and demonstration ought to correct. By your leave, (says the other,) you have been positively told in the schools, that a Vacuum was impossible; and thus your senses were corrupted, which easily and naturally allowed it before this ill impression: this, therefore, you ought to deface, by returning to your primitive nature. And now we have heard both sides, where shall we fix the cheat,--in our senses, or in our education

 

 The whole employment of men's lives is to improve their fortunes; and yet the title by which they hold all, if traced to its origin, is no more than the pure fancy of the legislators: but their possession is still more precarious than their right, and at the mercy of a thousand accidents. Nor are the treasures of the mind better insured, while a fall or a fit of sickness may bankrupt the ablest under-standing.

 

 Abstracting from a state of Grace, man is nothing but the continual subject of insuperable errors. He can purchase no certain information: every thing in the world abuses his curiosity. His two Criterions of truth, Reason and Sense, (besides that they are not always faithful to themselves,) are wont reciprocally to mock and delude each other. Our senses beguile our reason with false appearances; and our reason has likewise its false consequences wherewith to return and revenge the cheat. The passions discompose the senses, and strike upon them the wrong way. They lie, and forge, and misrepresent, with a sort of vicious emulation.