The story they tell us is this: There was a stone in the sanctum sanctorum, under the ark, wherein was written “Shem Hamphorash” (so the Cabbalists call the name Jehovah). He that could learn this name might, by the virtue of it, do what miracles he pleased. Wherefore the wise men, fearing what might ensue thereon, made two brazen dogs, and set them on two pillars before the door of the sanctuary. And it wasso, that when any one went in and learned that name, as he came out those dogs barked so horribly that they frighted him, and made him forget the name that he had learned. But Jesus of Nazareth going in, wrote the name on parchment, and put it within. the skin of his leg, and closed the skin upon it; so that though he lost the remembrance of it at his coming out, by the barking of the brazen dogs, yet he recovered the knowledge of it again out of the parchment in his leg: and by virtue thereof he wrought miracles,— walked on the sea, cured the lame, raised the dead, and opened the
422 JESUS OF NAZARETH [EXERC. XVII
eyes of the blind. That alone which from hence we aim to evince, is the conviction that the most stubborn of the Jews had of the miracles of our blessed Saviour. Had they not been openly per- formed, and undeniably attested, no creatures that ever had the shape of men, or any thing more of modesty than the brazen dogs they talk of, would have betaken themselves to such monstrous foolish fiements for a countenance and pretence unto the rejection of him and them. He that should contend that the sun did not shine all the last year, aud should give this reason of his assertion, because a certain man of his acquaintance climbed up to heaven by a ladder and put him in a box, and kept him close in his chamber all that while, would speak to the full with as much probability and ap- pearance of truth as the grand rabbins do in this tale. Every word in their story is a monster. The stone, the writing of the name of God on it, the virtue of the pronunciation of that name, the brazen dogs, the entrance of a private man into the sanctum sanctorum, the barking of the dogs, are dreams becoming men under a penal infatuation and blindness, not much distant from those chains of darkness wherewith Satan himself is kept bound unto the judgment of the great day.
75. Fourthly, We must not forget the testimony of his disciples, who conversed with him, and were eye-witnesses of his miracles, especially of his rising from the dead. These, with multitudes as- certained of the truth by their testimony, to witness it unto the world willingly forewent all temporal interests, exposing themselves to dangers innumerable, and lastly sealed their testimony with their blood, shed by the most exquisite tortures that the malice of hell could invent; all in expectation of acceptance with him and a reward from him, which depended on the truth of the miracles which they asserted him to have wrought and performed. From all these con- siderations, we may safely conclude that it is utterly impossible that the nature of man should be more ascertained of any thing that ever was in this world, than we may be of the miracles wrought by our Lord Jesus. Now all these, as we have declared, were wrought by the divine power of God, to confirm the truth of his being the pro- mised Messiah. And if this were not so, it is impossible that God should ever more require an assent unto any revelation of his mind or will, none being capable of a more evident and full confirmation so to be than this hath received of Jesus being the Christ. The application of this consideration in particular unto his resurrection from the dead hath been the special subject of so many writers, that I shall not further insist upon it.
76. One argument more, taken from the success that the doctrine of Jesus hath had in the world, shall close this discourse. What was his outward condition in this world, we acknowledge, and the
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Jews triumph in. The poverty of it, the contempt and reproach that it was exposed unto, was one of the chief pretences that they had, and have to this day, for their refusal of him, The time wherein he came was that, as hath been showed, wherein the Jews were in daily expectation of their Messiah, and when the residue of man- kind were in the full enjoyment of all that light, wisdom, and know- ledge, which the principles of nature could attain unto. In this state of things, a poor man, living in an obscure village of Galilee, not taught by men so much as to read, begins to preach and to declare himself to be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. With this testirnony he declares a doctrine destructive of the religion and sacred worship of all and every man then living in the world ;— of the Jews as to the manner of it, which they esteemed above its substance; and of all others in its very nature and being ;—and press- eth a course of obedience unto God decried by them all. To en- courage men to believe in him and to accept of his testimony, he gives them promises of what he would do for them when this life should be ended. No sooner doth he undertake this work, but the Jews amongst whom he conversed, almost universally, at least all the great, wise, learned, and esteemedly devout amongst them, set themselves to scorn, despise, reproach, and persecute him. And this course they ceased not, until, conspiring with the power of the Gen- tiles, they took him out of the world as a malefactor, by a bitter, shameful, and ignominious death. After which he riseth again from the dead, and shows himself neither unto Jews nor Gentiles in com- mon, but only to some poor men chosen by himself to be his witnesses and apostles. These begin to teach both Jews and Gentiles the things before mentioned. The Jews, more deeply engaged than formerly, by having slain their Master, immediately persecute them, and that unto death. The Gentiles at first deride and scorn them, but quickly changé their note, and set all their wit and power at work to extirpate them and their followers out of the world. The Jews, on many accounts, looked upon themselves as ruined and un- done for ever, if their testimony were admitted. The Gentiles saw that, on the same supposition, they must forego all their religion, and therewith every thing wherewith they pleased themselves in this world. Invisible infernal powers, who ruled in the world by super- stition and idolatry, were no less engaged against them. With them was neither human wisdom or counsel, nor external force; yea, the use of both in their work was by their Master severely interdicted unto them. Had not the truth and power of God been engaged with them and for them, it is such a madness to suppose that this undertaking could have been carried on unto that issue and event, in the conquest of mankind, which it at length obtained, as no man not utterly forsaken of reason, or cursed with blindness of mind, or