from him. Consider, first, his person: he was foretold by all the prophets: he, I say, for that appears by the event, and the correspondencies of their sayings to his person: he was described by infallible characterisms which did fit him, and did never fit any but him; for when he was born, then was the fulness of time, and the Messias was expected at the time when Jesus did appear, which gave occasion to many of the godly then to wait for him, and to hope to live till the time of his revelation: and they did so, and with a spirit of prophecy which their own nation did confess and honour, glorified God at the revelation: and the most excellent and devout persons that were conspicuous for their piety, did then rejoice in him, and confess him; and the expectation of him, at that time, was so public and famous, that it gave occasion to divers impostors to abuse the credulity of the people in pretending to be the Messias. But not only the predictions of the time, and the perfect synchronisms did point him out, but at his birth a strange star appeared, which guided certain Levantine princes and sages to the inquiry after him; a strange star which had an irregular place, and an irregular motion, that came by design, and acted by counsel, the counsel of the Almighty Guide; it moved from place to place, till it stood just over the house where the babe did sleep; a star of which the heathen knew much, who knew nothing of him; a star which Chalcidius affirmed to have signified the descent of God for the salvation of man; a star that guided the wise Chaldees to worship him with gifts, as the same disciple of Plato does affirm, and as the holy Scriptures deliver. And this star could be no secret: It troubled all the country; it put Herod upon strange arts of security for his kingdom; it effected a sad tragedy accidentally, for it occasioned the death of all the little babes in the city and voisinage of Bethlehem. But the birth of this young child, which was thus glorified by a star, was also signified by an angel, and was effected by the holy Spirit of God, in a manner which was in itself supernatural; a Virgin was his mother, and God was his father, and his beginning was miraculous; and this matter of his birth of a virgin was proved to an interested and jealous person, even to Joseph, the supposed father of Jesus; it was affirmed publicly by all his family, and by all his disciples, and published in the midst of

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all his enemies, who by no artifice could reprove it, a matter so famous, that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jesus to be the Messias, by the force of a prophecy in Isaiah, -"A virgin shall conceive a Son," they who obstinately refused to admit him, did not deny the matter of fact, but denied that it was so meant by the prophet; which, if it were true, can only prove that Jesus was more excellent than was foretold by the prophets, but that there was nothing less in him than was to be in the Messias. It was a matter so famous, that the Arabian physicians, who can affirm no such things of their Mahomet, and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the Holy Jesus, endeavour to elevate and lessen the thing by saying, it is not wholly beyond the force of nature that a virgin should conceive:' so that it was on all hands undeniable, that the mother of Jesus was a virgin, a mother without a man. This is that Jesus, at whose presence, before he was born, a babe in his mother's belly also did leap for joy, who was also a person extraordinary himself, conceived in his mother's old age, after a long barrenness, signified by an angel in the temple, to his father officiating his priestly office, who was also struck dumb for his not present believing: all the people saw it, and all his kindred were witnesses of his restitution, and he was named by the angel, and his office declared to be the forerunner of the Holy Jesus; and this also was foretold by one of the old prophets; for the whole story of this Divine Person is a chain of providence and wonder, every link of which is a verification of a prophecy, and all of it is that thing which, from Adam to the birth of Jesus, was pointed at and hinted by all the prophets, whose words in him passed perfectly into the event. This is that Jesus, who, as he was born without a father, so he was learned without a master, he was a man without age, a doctor in a child's garment, disputing in the sanctuary at twelve years old. He was a sojourner in Egypt, because the poor babe, born of an indigent mother, was a formidable rival to a potent king; and this fear could not come from the design of the infant, but must needs arise from the illustriousness of the birth, and the prophecies of the child, and the sayings of the learned, and the journey of the wise men, and the decrees of God: this journey, and the return, were both managed by

the conduct of an angel and a divine dream,-for to the Son of God all the angels did rejoice to minister. This blessed Person,-made thus excellent by his Father, and glorious by miraculous consignations, and illustrious by the ministry of heavenly spirits, and proclaimed to Mary and to Joseph by two angels, to the shepherds by a multitude of the heavenly host, to the wise men by a prophecy and by a star, to the Jews by the shepherds, to the Gentiles by the three wise men, to Herod by the doctors of the law, and to himself perfectly known by the incasing his human nature in the bosom and heart of God, and by the fulness of the Spirit of God,-was yet pleased, for thirty years together, to live an humble, a laborious, a chaste and a devout, a regular and an even, a wise and an exemplary, a pious and an obscure life, without complaint, without sin, without design of fame or grandeur of spirit, till the time came that the clefts of the rock were to open, and the diamond give its lustre, and be worn in the diadems of kings, and then this Person was wholly admirable; for he was ushered into the world by the voice of a loud crier in the wilderness,-a person austere and wise, of a strange life, full of holiness and full of hardness, and a great preacher of righteousness,-a man believed by all the people that he came from God,-one who in his own nation gathered disciples publicly, and (which amongst them was a great matter) he was the doctor of a new institution, and baptized all the country. Yet this man, so great, so revered, so followed, so listened to by king and people, by doctors and by idiots, by Pharisees and Sadducees, this man preached Jesus to the people, pointed out the Lamb of God, told that he must increase, and himself from all that fame must retire to give him place; he received him to baptism after having with duty and modesty declared his own unworthiness to give, but rather a worthiness to receive baptism from the holy hands of Jesus; but at the solemnity God sent down the holy Spirit upon his holy Son, and by a voice from heaven, a voice of thunder (and God was in that voice), declared that this was his Son, and that he was delighted in him.' This voice from heaven was such, so evident, so certain a conviction of what it did intend to prove, so known and accepted as the way of Divine revelation under the second temple, that at that time every man that desired a sign honestly, would have

been satisfied with such a voice; it being the testimony by which God made all extraordinaries to be credible to his people, from the days of Ezra to the death of the nation. That there was such a voice, not only then, but divers times after, was as certain, and made as evident as things of that nature can ordinarily be made. For it being a matter of fact, cannot be supposed infinite, but limited to time and place, heard by a certain number of persons, and was as a clap of thunder upon ordinary accounts, which could be heard but by those who were within the sphere of its own activity; and reported by those to others, who are to give testimony as testimonies are required, which are credible under the test of two or three disinterested, honest, and true men; and though this was done in the presence of more, and oftener than once, yet it was a divine testimony but at first, but is to be conveyed by the means of men ; and as God thundered from heaven at the giving of the law,though that he did so, we have notice only from the books of Moses received from the Jewish nation,-so he did in the days of the Baptist, and so he did to Peter, James, and John, and so he did in the presence of the Pharisees and many of the common people: and as it is not to be supposed that all these would join their divided interests, for and against themselves, for the verification of a lie, so if they would have done it, they could not have done it without reproof of their own parties, who would have been glad by the discovery only to disgrace the whole story; but if the report of honest and just men so reputed, may be questioned for matter of fact, or may not be accounted sufficient to make faith when there is no pretence of men to the contrary,-besides that we can have no story transmitted to us, nor records kept, no acts of courts, no narratives of the days of old, no traditions of our fathers; so there could not be left in nature any usual instrument whereby God could, after the manner of men, declare his own will to us, but either we should never know the will of heaven upon earth, or it must be that God must not only tell it once but always, and not only always to some men, but always to all men; and then, as there would be no use of history, or the honesty of men, and their faithfulness in telling any act of God in declaration of his will, so there would be perpetual necessity of miracles, and

we could not serve God directly with our understanding, for there would be no such thing as faith, that is, of assent without conviction of understanding; and we could not please God with believing, because there would be in it nothing of the will, nothing of love and choice; and that faith which is, would be like that of Thomas, to believe what we see or hear,' and God should not at all govern upon earth unless he did continually come himself: for thus, all government, all teachers, all apostles, all messengers, would be needless, because they could not show to the eye what they told to the ears of men. And it might as well be disbelieved in all courts and by all princes, that this was not the letter of a prince, or the act of a man, or the writing of his hand; and so all human intercourse must cease, and all senses but the eye be useless as to this affair, or else to the ear all voices must be strangers but the principal, if I say, no reports shall make faith. But it is certain, that when these voices were sent from heaven and heard upon earth, they prevailed amongst many that heard them not, and disciples were multiplied upon such accounts; or else it must be that none that did hear them, could be believed by any of their friends and neighbours; for if they were, the voice was as effective at the reflex and rebound as in the direct emission, and could prevail with them that believed their brother or their friend, as certainly as with them that believed their own ears and eyes.

I need not speak of the vast numbers of miracles which he wrought; miracles which were not more demonstrations of his power than of his mercy; for they had nothing of pompousness and ostentation, but infinitely of charity and mercy, and that permanent, and lasting and often: he opened the eyes of the blind; he made the crooked straight; he made the weak strong; he cured fevers with the touch of his hand, and an issue of blood with the hem of his garment, and sore eyes with the spittle of his mouth and the clay of the earth; he multiplied the loaves and fishes; he raised the dead to life, a young maiden, the widow's son of Nain, and Lazarus; and cast out devils by the word of his mouth; which he could never do but by the power of God. For Satan does not cast out Satan, nor a house fight against itself, if it means to stand long; and the devil could not help Jesus, because the holy Jesus taught men virtue, called them