faftly believe in Him. I acknowledge that there is no other way to Heaven, befide. that which He hath fhewn us; there is no other Means which can procure it for us, befides His Blood; there is no other Perfon which fhall confer it on us but Himfelf (ż). (a) Ye believe in GOD, belive alfo in met. (b) The Name it felf was of ordinary Ufe, and therefore for the proper interpretation of it, we must look back upon the first that bare it. † John xiv. I. (c) We read that Mofes called Ofbea the Son of Nun, Febofhua*. The very first of these Names, impos'd in Cir- Num. xiii. 16. cumcifion, fignified a Saviour: Which when thus alter'd by Mofes, gave a prefent defignation of the Perfon to be a real Author of Salvation to the People, and a certainty that this Salvation fhould be accomplished, ratifying the Omen, and turning it into an infallible Prediction. And if (what the Antients thought probable,) Moses in forming this Name join'd to Ofeah one of the Titles of GOD, which is Fab, there will refult from both, by the Custom of the Hebrew Tongue, Jebofbuah; and fo not only the inftrumental, but the original Caufe of the Jewish Deliverance will be found expreffed in the Word; as if Mofes had faid, This is the Perfon by whom GOD will fave his People from their Enemies. All which we fee exactly compleated in our Lord. In the Dream of Jofeph, the Angel informed him not only of the Nomination; but of the Interpretation or Etymology: Thou shall call his Name Jefus, for he hail fave bis People from their Sins +. In which Words are clearly exprefs'd, both the defignation of the Perfon He, and the cer tainty of the Salvation to be accomplished by Him, He fball fave. The Addition of the Name of GOD, propos'd in Fofbua as probable, feems here to rife above Probability. It is not barely faid in the Original, that He, but that He Himself fhall fave *. Joshua faved Ifrael not by his own Power, nor of himself, but God by him; neither fav'd + Mat. i. 21. * αυτός σώσει. Judgesiii. 9,15. So in Nehem. ix. 27. Thou gavest them Saviours. The Comparison between thefe Typical Saviours, and our Lord, is fav'd he his own People, but the People of GOD: Whereas Jefus himself, by his own Power, the Power of GOD, thall fave his own People, the People of GOD. And fince our Saviour was not called Emmanuel, according to the famous Prediction, what better way of fulfilling that Prediction, than that the Senfe of Emmanuel fhould be comprehended in the Name of Jesus? And what else is GOD with us, but GOD our Saviour? (d) When it is twice + faid that the Lord raised up a Deliverer to the Children of Ifrael, the Original, the Septuagint, and the antient Latin, have, a Saviour. At * (e) The antient Greeks, after any remarkable PrefervaJoshua especially, tion, gave the Title of Saviours to their Gods, and under purfa'd, according it built Temples and confecrated Altars to them. to the Fathers, by length their mistaken Piety stoop'd to bafer Flattery, conthe Bp. p. 75,&c. ferring the fame Title on Men. The Romans, and Tully * Verrin. 2. himself, thought this Name fo pregnant and comprehenfive, as that the Latin Tongue had no fingle Word able to express it. Yet we find Servator, Confervator, Sulutaris, and Salvator, in their Inscriptions; the last of which, after Tertullian, was the Language of the Church, till the late Innovators thruft it out of the Latin Translation. But whatever Notion the Heathens had of their Saviours, Gods, or Men, we know this Name belongeth to Chrift in a far more fublime and peculiar manner. Neither is their Salvation of any other; for there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men, whereby we must be saved. † Acts iv. 12. * Rom. i. 16. Heb. ix. 22. (f) Since the Gospel of Christ is the Power of Salvation to every one that believeth*. And fince the Apostles and Preachers of the Gospel are faid to fave those who shall be converted by their preaching; in a far more eminent and fingular manner muft He be faid to fave them, who first reveal'd these Truths, and brought Life and Immortality to Light thro' the Gospel. (g) We were all concluded under Sin, and obnoxious to the Wages of it, unless remitted: Without hedding of Blood was no remiffion*: It was therefore neceffary that Chrift should appear, to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself +. This Remiffion, is, with refpect to the Author and Procurer, justly justly ftil'd Redemption; in Him we have Redemption through bis Blood; the Forgiveness of Sins +: And Reconciliation; Tim. ii. 6. for GOD was in Chrift, reconciling the World unto himself *. * 2 Cor.v. 19. And upon this Reconciliation neceflarily follows our Salvation: For if when we were Enemies, we were reconciled unto GOD by the Death of his Son; much more being reconci led we shall be faved by his Life +. † Rom. v. 10. (b) He is ftill able to fave to the uttermost those who come unto GOD by Him, fince he ever liveth to make Interceffion for them. For now being fet down at the Right Hand of Heb. vii. 25. GOD, He hath receiv'd all Power both in Heaven and Earth; and the End of this Power is, that He may confer Salvation upon those which believe in His Name. We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jefus Chrift, from Heaven, who fball change our vile Body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body, according to the working whereby He is able to fubdue all things unto Himself. And unto them that thus look † Phil. iii. 20, for Him fhall He appear the fecond time, without Sin, unto Sal- 21. vation*. (i) The Belief of this part of the Article is neceffary, because there is no End of Faith, without a Saviour, and no way to be fav'd by Him, but by believing in Him. This is GOD's Commandment, that we should believe in the Name *Heb. ix. 28. of his Son Jefus Chrift +. As alfo, that we may delight and † 1 Joh-iii. 239 day in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord *. * Luke ii. 10, 11. The fame Belief in Jefus ought to inflame our Affection, to kindle our Love towards Him. If any Man love not the Lord Jefus Chrift, let him be Anathema Maran-atha +. Laft- † 1 Cor. xvi. 23 ly, it ought to breed in us a correfpondent Obedience to Him, by which alone we can demonstrate our Love : That we may be raised to the Temper of St. Paul, who counted all things but lofs for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Chrift Jefus, our Lord *. Shall we refufe Submiffion to that *Phil. iii. 8. Name, which the Winds, the Seas, the Evil Spirits obey'd? Shall we be wanting in Refpect and Veneration to him, whom GOD bath highly exalted, and given him a Name which is above every Name; that at the Name of JESUS every Knee fhould bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth? to And † Phil, ii. 9. L®, I And in Jefus Chriff. Do affent unto this as a certain Truth, that there was a Man promis'd by GOD, foretold by the Prophets, to be the Meffias (a), the Redeemer of Ifrael, and the Expectation of the Nations. I am fully affured by all thofe Predictions, that the Meffias fo promis'd is already come (6): I am as certainly perfwaded that the Man born in the Days of Herod, of the Virgin Mary, by an Angel from Heaven called Jefus, is that true Meffias (c), fo long, fo often, promis'd That as the Meffias, He was anointed to three fpecial Offices, belonging to him as the Mediator between GOD and Man: That He was a Prophet (e), revealing unto us the whole Will of GOD for the Salvation of Man: That He was a Priest (f), and hath given Himself a Sacrifice for Sin, and fo hath made an Atonement for us That He is a King (g), set down at the Right Hand of GOD, far above all Principalities and Powers, whereby, when He hath fubdu'd all our Enemies, He will confer actual, perfect, and Eternal Happiness upon us. I believe this Untion, by which He became the true Meffias, was not perform'd by any material Oil, but by by the Spirit of GOD (b), which He received as the Head, and conveyeth to his Members (ż). (a) I. e. the Anointed. The Name therefore muft import a Perfon fet a-part by GOD, anointed with the moft facred Oil, advanc'd to the highest Office, of which all thofe Employments under the Law, in the obtaining of which Oil was us'd, were but Types and Shadows. There was not only a general Expectation of fuch a Perfon among the Jews, but they ever esteem'd it an Article of Faith, to be believ'd of all who profefs'd the Law of Mofes; and whofoever denied it, was thereby interpreted to deny the Law and the Prophets. Now fince it is very certain that the Meffias was promis'd by GOD, both before, and under the Law, while yet most of those Promises rather defcribe the Perfon, than exprefs the Title +; it may be worth our notice, how this + For wherefoUniverfal Expectation of a Redeemer, under the Name ever he is spoken of of the Meffias, fhould spread it felf thro' the Jewish Church. as the Anointed, And this it did chiefly after the Captivity, when the Peo- to fome other Perit may be turned ple, having loft the exact knowledge of their own Tongue, fon; except one had the Scriptures interpreted to them in Chaldee Lan- where tis (aid, place in Daniel, guage, which they had lately learned. Thus the Levites are The Meffias fhall faid to have caused the People to understand the Law, be- be cut off, and ecause they read in the Book in the Law of GOD, diftinctly, Greek has not the and gave the Senfe, and caufed them to understand the read- Meffias, but the ing This conftant Interpretation produc'd at length a* Chaldee Verfion of the Old Testament, to be read every Sabbath in the Synagogues; which being made not Word for Word with the Hebrew, but with the liberty of a brief Expofition, took in, together with the Text, the general Opinion of the learned Jews; whence it came to pass, that not only the Doctrine, but the Name alfo of the Meffias, was very frequent and familiar to them. So that in the Chaldee Paraphrafe now extant, there is express mention of the Messias in more than seventy Places befides that of Daniel. (b) This is demonftrably evident from the two famous Prophefies; that of Jacob, The Scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a Lawgiver from between his Feet, untill Shiloh come, ven there the Neh, viii. 3. Unction. |