and no fatisfaction was to be taken for their Lives. All the Miracles of healing or curing difeafes, &c. which were the Means or Inftruments of Death, reftoring the difabled Parts or Capacities, &c. by the Prophets, by Chrift, by his Followers in his Name, were to prove, that the Aleim, and that He one of them had Power to cure the Maladies of the Soul, to fufpend and remove what would caufe its Death, and restore to it its original Parts and Capacities. All the Miracles of cafting out Devils who had been at that Time permitted to take Poffeflion of Men for their Sin, was to fhew, that he had Power to deliver Men from the Right of Poffeffion, the Devils and Hell had to them by Sin and Death. His Miracles look'd backward to Prophecies of him, what he was to do then, and what he was to fuffer from others, as well as forward to what he was finally to do. He was to prove, that he was the Perfon who fhould first literally, really, and vifibly, perform the Prophecies of him, by his Actions to others, and by fuffering those of others upon him, and prevail; to induce Men who faw them, or fhould fee or hear the Accounts of them on record, to trust in him for the Performance of thofe Actions, of which thefe, though real, were but Types or Samples; without that defcriptive and connective Evidence there could have been no Faith, and without that no Effect: For Faith is the only Hand by which Man takes the Benefit. And the Miracle of raifing the Dead perform'd by y Elishah, who bore the Name of Chrift, God the Saviour; and thofe by Chrift in raifing the dead Bodies of others, and in raifing his own dead Body, are all Evidence that he has Power over Death, and that he will, according to the Promise, raife the dead Bodies of all others. But as Sin was the Caufe of the first Death, a Separation of Soul and Body, and of the fecond Death, Separation of the Soul from God: Here was fomething else to be done befides dying for, and raifing the Body; even his external Actions in his Life were but the vifible Parts of that Holiness which is fufficient to fupply all Men; that was between the Aleim and him: Man can no more conceive that, than he could have perform'd it. Nor can one who is to be clothed with that Righteousness have any more Idea of the Reception that will procure him, than he who fhall go naked, expofe and fhew his Rebellion and Wickedness, can have of the Reception that will procure him. Nay VOL. IV. M m his his Death was but the vifible Part of the Satisfaction, or the Attonement; all that great Action was between the Aleim and him, invifible to all others. A Man can no more exprefs or conceive that Parr, than he could have fuftain'd it. Every fingle Man who rejects the Benefit of that, will but be able, during all Eternity, to feel his Part as one to the Number of Men, his fingle Share of it. The Divinity supported the Humanity to fuftain that Weight, and as foon as that was finish'd, and the Divinity left the Humanity, he drop'd. During, or at finishing of, the Satisfaction to Juftice, the fhedding of his Blood, the real and vifible Means of cleanfing us from Pollutions, was to be an Evidence of the Purity which he will confer hereafter upon those who fhall be fprinkled or wafh'd with it, which Man here cannot conceive, but by borrow'd Ideas, any more than thofe, who are not wafh'd, can the Filthyness and Odiousness of Sin. His Refurrection and Afcenfion were but the vifible Parts of his Victory, and give no more Idea to thofe, who fhall be fo happy as to reap the Fruits of them, of the Pleafure they fhall enjoy hereafter, than his Death gives to thofe, who fhall be so miferable as to have no Benefit by it, of the Miferies Miferies they are to fuffer hereafter. The Miffion of the Holy Ghoft gave fome Men a Prospect we cannot now fee. The Prof pect we have of these Things are from fome borrow'd Ideas in Scripture, and from Faith, which is the Earneft of the one, and Despair, which is fometimes the Earneft of the other. The Evidence we have of his performing the Things which are predicted of him in the Hebrew Scriptures, and of his Power; and the Ideas, we have by Faith from the borrow'd Ideas of a future State, are proportion'd to our State of Trial here. If we could have clear Ideas of him, his Actions here, and what he will do hereafter, this could be no State of Tryal, all Men would be forced to come in. The Word ty is us'd for the Name of Places, of many Perfons, and is compounded with 7 with, with 48, &c. בעל צפון M7. Ention'd Exod. xiv. 2. Numb. xxxiii, 7. The Word fignifies to hide or be hidden, or obfcur'd; we must see what the Object was, and then try to see what their Imaginations about it were. I think it was the Covering, the Circumference M m 2 of of the Heavens, because y is us'd, 2 Chron. iii. 15, For the Coverings which were over the Reprefentations of them, upon the Top of each of the Columns, which were ftudded with Stars. This Word is alfo us'd for the Ceiling or infide of the Roof of the Temple, 2 Chron. iii. ·6, And He covered the Houfe with precious Stones, which were to reprefent the Hemifphere with Stars, Clouds, &c. It is alfo us'd for the Covering of the Northern or their Hemifphere, Job. xxvi. 7, Ile bath ftretched out the North over the fluid Matter. Pfal. lxxxix. 13, The North and the South thou didst create them. If it be taken in a material or literal Senfe, then it is Lord at the Circumfcrence, or out of the Reach of the Eyes. But they had farther Imaginations. Dr. Cumberland in his Sanchon. gives us this Conftruction, p. 2. But there were certain Animals which had no Senfe, out of which were begotten intelligent Animals, and were call'd Zophefemin, that is, the Spies or Overfeers of Heaven, and were form'd alike in the Shape of an Egg: Thus fhone out Mot, the Sun and the Moon, the lefs and the greater Stars. I pretend not to juftify Derivations in Greck; but beards feems to be what they intend by this, from y or Chald. as Dan. |