18.

as pretended to be accomplished in any other; it is again from
hence apparent that this Jesus is the Christ.

Thirdly, he which taught what the Messias was to teach, did what the Messias was to do, suffered what the Messias was to suffer, and by suffering obtained all which a Messias could obtain, must be acknowledged of necessity to be the true Messias. But all this is manifestly true of Jesus. Therefore we must confess he is the Christ. For, first, it cannot be denied but the Messias was promised as a prophet and teacher Deut. xvii. of the people. So God promised him to Moses; I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee. So Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hoseah, have expressed him, as we shall hereafter have farther occasion to shew. And, not only so, but as a greater prophet, and more perfect doctor, than ever any was which preceded him, more universal than they Isai. xlii. 1, 4. all: I have put my spirit upon him, (saith God): he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles, and the isles shall wait for his law. Now it is as evident that Jesus of Nazareth was the most perfect Prophet, the Prince' and Lord of all the prophets, doctors, and pastors, which either preceded or succeeded him. For he hath revealed unto us the most perfect will of God both in his precepts and his promises. He hath delivered the same after the most perfect manner, with the greatest authority; not like Moses and the prophets, saying, Thus saith the Lord; but I say unto you; nor like the interpreters of Moses, Matt. vii. 29. for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes: with the greatest perspicuity, not, as those before him, under types and shadows, but plainly and clearly; from whence both he and his doctrine is frequently called light: with the greatest universality, as preaching that Gospel which is to unite all the nations of the earth into one Church, that there might be one Shepherd and one flock. Whatsoever then that great Prophet the Messias was to teach, that Jesus taught; and whatsoever works he was to do, those Jesus did.

Matt. v. often.

When John the Baptist had heard the works of Christ, he Matt. xi. 2, 3. sent two of his disciples with this message to him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? And Jesus returned this answer unto him, shewing the ground of that 86 message, the works of Christ, was a sufficient resolution of the

1 Αρχιποίμην. 1 Pet. v. 4. ὁ ποιμὴν τῶν προβάτων ὁ μέγας. Heb. xiii.

20. ὁ ποιμὴν καὶ ἐπίσκοπος τῶν ψυχῶν. 1 Pet. ii. 25.

question sent; Go and shew John again those things which ye Matt. xi. 4, 5. do hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up. And as Jesus alleged the works which he wrought to be a sufficient testimony that he was the Messias; so did those Jews acknowledge it who said, When Christ cometh, John vii. 31. will he do more miracles than these which this man doth? And Nicodemus, a ruler among them, confessed little less: Rabbi, John iii. 2. we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Great and many were the miracles which Moses and the rest of the prophets wrought for the ratification of the Law, and the demonstration of God's constant presence with his people; and yet all those, wrought by so many several persons, in the space of about three thousand years, are far short of those which this one Jesus did perform within the compass of three years. The ambitious diligence of the Jews hath reckoned up seventy-six miracles for Moses, and seventy-four for all the rest of the prophets and supposing that they were so many (though indeed they were not), how few are they in respect of those which are written of our Saviour! How inconsiderable, if compared with all which he wrought! when St John testifieth with as great certainty of truth as height of hyperbole, that there are many other things which Jesus did, John xxi. 25. the which, if they should be written every one, he supposed that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Nor did our Saviour excel all others in the number of his miracles only, but in the power of working. Whatsoever miracle Moses wrought, he either obtained by his prayers, or else, consulting with God, received it by command from him; so that the power of miracles cannot be conceived as immanent or inhering in him. Whereas this power must of necessity be in Jesus, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the God- col. ii. 9. head bodily, and to whom the Father had given to have life John v. 26. in himself. This he sufficiently shewed by working with a word, by commanding the winds to be still, the devils to fly, and the dead to rise: by working without a word or any intervenient sign; as when the woman which had an issue of blood Mark v. 25, twelve years touched his garment, and straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up, by the virtue which flowed out from the greater fountain of his power. And, lest this example

29.

Matt. xiv. 34, 36.

19.

Ibid.

should be single, we find that the men of Gennesaret, the Luke vi. 17, people out of all Judæa and Jerusalem, and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon, even the whole multitude sought to touch him; for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all. Once indeed Christ seemeth to have prayed, before he raised John xi. 42. Lazarus from the grave, but even that was done because of the people which stood by; not that he had not power within himself to raise up Lazarus, who was afterward to raise himself, but that they might believe the Father had sent him. The immanency and inherency of this power in Jesus is evident in this, that he was able to communicate it to whom he pleased, Luke x. 19. and actually did confer it upon his disciples: Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. Upon the apostles: Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils; freely ye have Mark xvi. 17. received, freely give. Upon the first believers: These signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they shall cast out John xiv. 12. devils. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. He then which did more actions divine and powerful than Moses and all the prophets ever did, he which performed them in a manner far more divine than that by which they wrought, hath done all which can be expected the Messias, foretold by them, should do.

Matt. x. 8.

Isai. lii. 13.

Nor hath our Jesus only done, but suffered, all which the Messias was to suffer. For we must not with the Jews deny a suffering Christ, or fondly of our own invention 87 make a double Messias, one to suffer and another to reign. It is clear enough by the prophet Isaias what his condition was to be, whom he calls the servant of God; and the later Jews cannot deny but their fathers constantly understood that place of the Messias1.

Now the sufferings of Christ spoken of by the prophet may be reduced to two parts: one in respect of contempt, by which he was despised of men; the other in respect of his death, and all those indignities and pains which preceded and led unto it. For the first, the prophet hath punctually described his condition, saying, He hath no form nor comeliness, Isai liii. 2, 3. and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men. He seems to describe a personage no way amiable, an aspect indeed rather uncomely1: and so the most ancient writers have interpreted

w Because he is greater than the fathers, as it is written, Behold, my servant shall understand, that is, the Messias which are the words of the verse before cited. And the same Bereshith Rabba upon Gen. xxiv. 67, saith Messias the king was in the generation of the wicked; that he gave himself to seek for mercies for Israel, and to fasting and humbling himself for them, as it is written; and so produceth the words of Isa. liii. 5. From whence it appears again, that the author thereof interpreted both the chapters of the same Messias. And farther it is observable that the Midrash upon Ruth ii. 14, expounds the same verse in the same manner. And Rabbi Moses Alshech speaks yet more fully of the consent of the ancient Jewish doctors upon this place

רז"ל פה אחד קיימו וקבלו כי על מלך Behold our doctors of המשיח לדבר

happy memory concludewith one mouth, as they have received from their ancestors, that this is spoken of the Messias. From hence it appears, that it was originally the general sense of the Jews, that all that piece of Isaiah is a description of the Messias, and consequently that the Apostles cannot be blamed by them now, for applying it to Christ; and that the modern Jews

may well be suspected to frame their
contrary expositions out of a wilful
opposition to Christianity. [Bp Pear-
son has derived this note from the
Pugio Fidei of Raymund Martini
(Pars 3, Dist. 1, c. 10, §§ 3-5; and
Dist. 3, c. 1, § 12: pp. 535, 637, ed. Lips.
1687). As regards the citation from
Rashi, which forms the beginning
of a passage which Martini intro-
duces thus, "R. quoque Salomoh
hunc locum [Isa. lii. 13] exponendo
ait," the words quoted are not given
in the published texts of Rashi on
the passage. The note as given in
the various editions of the Biblia
Rabbinica (Bomberg's, Buxtorf's, the
Amsterdam edition), runs xa nin

Isaias' and confessed the fulfilling of it in the body of our 88 Saviour. But what the aspect of his outward appearance was, because the Scriptures are silent, we cannot now know: