nor the Holy Ghost were incarnate we answer that it is true that all the Three Persons equally govern and we further acknowledg that neither the Person of the Father nor the Person of the Holy Ghost are incarnate but only the Person of the Son yet we beleeve that the whole God-head and essence of the Father and of the Holy Ghost is incarnate in the Person of the Son This was affirmed by Christ when he said The Father is in me and I in him Ioh. 10. 38. and John Baptist had said before That God hath given him the Spirit not by measure Ioh. 3. 34. and St. Luke saith that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost and St. Paul saith Col. 2. 9. In him Lu. 4. 1. dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily whereby it appeareth that the Dominion of Christ doth not in any wise exclude the Dominion of the other Divine persons although St. Jude calls Christ the only Lord God yet this word only doth not barr the Lordship or God-head of the Father and Holy Ghost because as our good rule in Logick teacheth us That Propositio exclusiva non excludit inclusa Next concerning the Priesthood of Christ he is said to be a Priest for ever after the order of Heb. 7. 17. Melchisedech if for ever then he must be a Priest in Heaven but if so then the Socinians tell us that Christ can not be the supream God because the supream God can not be a Priest This cavil I have met with before and answered a Lib. 2. c. 15. out of Arstin That Christ is a Priest only as he is the Son of man as incarnate and Emanuel but not as he is the Son of God or God the Word and so Prosper also resolved this doubt upon those words Thou art a Priest b Prosper in Psal 109. Non quatenus ex patre sed quantenus ex Matre natus est Sacerdos i. e. Christ is a Priest not as he is the Son of his Father but as he is the Son of his Mother But we are further told by the Socinians That Heb. 7. 1. p. â— 16. c. Christ was not a Priest till he was dead and that then his Priesthood began that the expiatory or satisfactory offering of Christ was not performed on the cross or on earth but in Heaven This they affirm because they will not beleeve that our Redemption was wrought by the death of Christ so blasphemously do they vilipend the blood of Christ whereas indeed the ultimate expiation or satisfaction consisteth in the death of Christ answering to the very words of the Covenant viz In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and therefore the Apostle Gen. 2. 17. Rom. 6. 23. saith The wages of sin is death now if Christ dyed for us on the Cross he there also performed the expiation and paid the ransom for if the expiatory sacrifice were to be performed in Heaven then must Christ have suffered death in Heaven but the Apostle tells us that after his resurrection he dyeth no more This foul blasphemy Rom. 6. 9. is near a kin to that of Origen which St. Jerom reports a Hier. Epist 59. c. 4. That Christ was to suffer in the Air for the salvation of Divels and to suffer in Heaven also because we read of Spirituall wickedness in Heavenly places that so the inhabitants Eph. 6. 12. of al regions might be saved through Christs passions Thus he It being granted that Christ is now a Priest in Heaven it would be inquired of what order or kind his Priesthood is there in this we are certified that it is a Priesthood for ever and that it is after or according to the Priesthood of Melchisedech that is Christ is such a Priest in Heaven as Melchisedech was on Earth and therefore Christ in Heaven doth such Priestly acts as Melchisedech did on earth For Christ whilest he was on earth was a Priest but here his Priesthood was Aaronical i. e. like unto Aarons Priesthood because Christ did offer a bloody sacrifice even his own body and blood on the Altar of the Cross which he gave for a ransom for us Mat. 20. 28. For a propitiation Ro. 3. 25. for our Justification Ro. 5. 9. for our Redemption Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. to bear our sins in his own body 1 Pet. 2. 24. that is to undergo the punishment for our sins paying the ransom of his own self for us 1 Tim. 2. 6. This bloody sacrifice of Christ was typified and only signified by Aaron offering the bodies and blood of Beasts But the sacrifice of Christ on earth was also unlike Aarons because Aaron offered beasts but Christ offered himself Aaron might not offer human blood nor might Christ offer the blood of Beasts whereupon it is said Heb. 8. 4. That Christ on earth could not be a Priest because he could not offer gifts according to the Law that is he could not offer Levitical Sacrifices of Beasts as the Legal Priests did because he was not a Son of Aaron or of the Tribe of Levi. But he might and did offer his own humane blood which was the Substance whereas the blood of Beasts offered by Aaron was but only the shadow Therefore they that tell us that Christ may not be called an Aaronicall Priest because he was not a Son of Aaron may as well tell us that he may not be called The Lamb because he was not literally a Lamb taken out of the Sheep-fold The truth is this As the Lamb was Ex. 12. 5. but the shadow of Christs Passion so the Priesthood of Aaron was but the shadow of Christs Sacrificing Priesthood This Sacrificing Priesthood of Christ ended at his death so that he is not any more to be sacrificed but his Melchisedechical Priesthood and only that order of his Priesthood must continue for ever St. Austin saith of the Iews a Aug. in Psa 109. Iudaei vident jam periisse sacerdotium secundum Ordinem Aaron non agnoscunt Sacerdetium secundum ordinem Melchisedech This reproof toucheth not only Jews but Romanists and Socinians The Iews expect a restitution of their Temple and Aaronical or Levitical Sacrifices Romanists say Christ is daily Sacrificed on their Altars Socinians say that Christ Offereth Sacrificeth himself Com. on Heb. 9. v. 12. p. 168. in Heaven not considering that his Priesthood is only like Melchisedech's now which was not a Sacrificing Priesthood for we find not that any Sacrifice was offered by Melchisedech on earth neither may Christ our Melchisedech be thought in any wise to offer Sacrifice in Heaven But of this more anon If Christ being in Heaven doth there Sacrifice for us it must also be granted that he there prayeth for us because no Sacrifice can be rightly performed without prayer but no good Christian may imagine that the mediation of Christ in Heaven is by way of prayer neither can we find in
precious not an Unicorn if any were not an Elephant nor any other foul not an high neckt Swan nor a proud Peacock The Church Catholick in correspondence thereunto had their limited liturgies and set forms of publick prayer as we find in all ages since the dayes of the Apostles none might publickly in the Congregation offer the stang or wildfier of his own phansie but was confined to the form prescribed that so the congregation might knowingly joyn therein No such thing as long tedious Elephantine and tautological Orizons practized as of late as if men on purpose slighted the advice of Christ against Pharisaical long prayers Mat. 6. 7. 23. 14. This by the way Now for conclusion of this question concerning the correspondence of Christ in Heaven with the High Priest in the Sanctuary I desire the learned Reader to peruse the whole passage in that great Festival of Atonement described Levit. 16. and then judg whether there be any mention at all of the High Priests Sacrificing in the Sanctum Sanctorum he will find that the Sacrifice was by him offered not within but without the sanctuary at the Great Altar so was the Sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ offered not within the Sanctuary of Heaven but on the Gross which was his Altar on earth the denial whereof containeth more poyson then a plain Christian is aware of If our Commenter had been contented to affirm only this That Christ presenteth his holy body in Heaven which was besprinkled with his own blood here on earth wee would willingly agree with him therein for certainly his Passion on earth is and ever will be looked on in Heaven and considered by the Godhead as a full satisfaction and expiation for all his members and will ever be present and fresh in the sight of God For if Christ had not fully satisfied the Divine Justice and paid the full price of our redemption at his death he could not have ascended into Heaven nor sate at the Right Hand of God but must still have been held in Prison by death as other dead men are because he was indebted by the Covenant as being a surety for man But now that our surety is freed and out of Prison there is no doubt but that the debt was fully paid before his releasment This is all that I shall need to relate concerning the History of Christ in Heaven for if all could be written as St John said of him upon Earth The World it Ioh 21. 25. self would not contain the Books By what hath been said I trust the Reader perceiveth That neither the Intercession nor Advocateship nor Mediatorship nor Priest-hood of Christ in Heaven doth in the least derogate from his Almighty power and Soveraignty both in Heaven and Earth For his Priest-hood there is Melchisedechical and that was a Royal or Kingly Priest-hood I fear that I have wearied the Reader in this long Chapter which though I have marked for the Tenth he may justly call it Caput Decumanum CHAP. XI More of Millinarism of the dreadful consequences thereof of new Saints and the new Elect and new Meek that these Titles unduely placed are abuses of the Holy Ghost The Conclusion BY what hath been said the Reader may in part perceive what evil consequences attend this Millinarian Doctrine even to the denial of the eternal Kingdom of the Son of God in Heaven and verily if it take place it probably may extend to the demolishing of all earthly Monarchies and to the dissipating and levelling of most private mens interests and taking away properties of Estates and that Meum and Tuum which hath been so much agitated and instead thereof as one said to bring in a Suum that is to settle all earthly goods and possessions upon those men that call themselves Saints and which is worse upon the Millinarian principles it may proceed to the bloody Massacres of many millions of people in the World and at best to the vassallage and slavery of those that escape death which will be a woful restitution of the long expected liberty of the Subject and such as Plutarch observed at â—lut in vita â—yllae Rome that after the outragious fury of Marius when Sylla succeeded the people saw there was a change but yet no freedom from oppression but a proceeding from naught to worse and as one saith a Terent. in Heaut Deteriores omnes sumus licentia as if some men did construe this liberty to signify a licentiousness for one party to do whatsoever they please against another and to quite themselves from all subjection to Magistrates and Laws both humane and Divine such revelling and domineering will not become the mild Kingdome and easie Yoâ—k of Christ nor can such hard task-masters be accounted raigning Saints but Saints Rampant nor can the exorbitant litenciousness of one party be called publick liberty Upon those words Psal 119. 125. I am thy Prosper in Ps 119. Servant Prosper thus confesseth Neque enim mihi bene cessit quando esse volui liber meus non servus tuus i. e. That it never was well with him since he would take his own liberty and not be Gods Subject We now perceive the reasons why some Preachers have heretofore taught the people 1. That wicked man have no right to the Creature 2. That God cannot see sin in the Saints Gangren haer 43. 52 153. that know themselves to be in Grace 3. That Christ shall live again on this Earth and put down Monarchies 4. That all the Earth is the Saints 5. That with them there ought to be a community of goods be like they so expound the Article of the Communion of Saints Now we can guess at the cause why we have of late such a numerous Canonization and Apotheosis or Apocolocyntosis of Saints for if all the Earth must be in the possession of Saints only what Earthly man will not at least pretend to be a Saint although in old time as Theodoret tells us men called Saints b Theod de Cur Graec affe lib 3. Luc 4 6. Hagios quasi Ageos because they were not earthly minded If Satan had not lyed when he said that all Kingdoms of the World were at his dispose he might have hired a great part of mankind to stand for his designs but Satans rewards of his Servants are in another Kingdom indeed one of the Romane Saints St Francis was voted at Rome to that place in Heaven which Lucifer lost but if this Millinarian Tyranny be put into practise some for their great deserts may hereafter dispute with Beelzebub for the upper hand in his infernal principality for as there are many Saints in Heaven which are not registred in the Catalogue of Saints on Earth as Erasmus said so Mr Fox reporteth as the saying of St Jerome that many are reverenced for Saints on Earth who are now tormented in Hell when our English Becket was Sainted at Rome one
for those words Ps 9. 20. which the English renders Put them in fear O Lord Both Jerom Austin read Constitue Domine Legislatorem super eos that is saith he Set Antichrist over them for he will be c Hier. in Psal 9. Lator legis malae Doctrinae i. e. a setter up of false Doctrine by a Law SECT V. The signification of the Jewish Feast of Atonement and of the High Priests entring the Sanctum Sanctorum and of the Mercy-seat Sprinkling of Blood Scape-goate and Jewish Sacrifices why God disliked them The signification of the Altar Of the Jewish and Christian Liturgies THere is yet another passage in this History of Christ in Heaven to be examined and that is concerning the correspondency of Christs entring into Heaven with the Jewish High Priests entring and demeanour in the Sanctum Sanctorum that is the most Holy place of the Tabernacle or Temple This we are compelled unto because both the English and Latine Commenters on the Hebrews according to the Doctrine of the Socinians often tell us a Ionas Sâ—hlichtâ—ngius in Heb. 9. 2. Manifestum est Pontificis nostri oblationem Sacrificium non in cruce sed in Coelo peractum esse which our English Translating commenter thus renders It is manifest that the offering and Sacrifice of Christ was not made upon the Cross but was performed in Heaven By these words they would have us beleeve that because the Jewish High Priest carried and presented the blood of Beasts in the Sanctuary Therefore Christ must carry his own blood into Heaven and there continually offer and Sacrifice It seems they do not beleeve that the Passion and Death of Christ finished upon the Cross was a sacrifice sufficient to redeem them What the intent meaning and signification of the Jews High Priests so entring into the earthly Sanctuary was we shall better apprehend by a diligent consideration of the ceremonies performed by the said Priest in that great and solemn Festival of the Jews which is called The Feast of Atonement described Levit 16. and applied to Christ Heb. 9. 12. for in that Feast was the great mystery of mans Redemption described by a type figure shadow and Holy Scene as will appear anon which Feast was therefore called a Sabbath and rest Levit. 16. 31. vers 31. and was kept on the 10. day of the seventh month our September Levit. 23. 27. Philo and Josephus both Jews call this Feast only the Fast but the Scriptures and Christians have other names for it whereby the meaning thereof may be discovered It is called The Expiation The Reconciliation The Propitiation and The Atonement I. Expiation This word signifies purging purifying hallowing cleansing appeasing delivering from the guilt of sin and restoring him to a State of Piety who by transgression hath faln into a state of impiety This Festival was therefore called the Feast of Expiation because therein was Typically shewed the means whereby sinful man was to be restored to innocency and to be quitted and purged from the guilt of sin II. Reconciliation This Feast was so called because therein was figuratively shewed how sinful man is to be Reconciled to his offended God III. Propitiation it was so called because it typically shewed who it is by whose mediation and intercession the God-head is made propitious and favourable and by whom we are ingraciated with God or who is the Proportiation for our sins of whom we read 1 John 2. 2. IV. Atonement This is our English word by which that Feast is called which doth singularly express the intent and meaning thereof It signifies our uniting or re-uniting with God God and man are by sin set at odds and made two or at variance as Coelius a Cholerick Orator in Seneca said to another a Sen. de Ira. l. 3. c. 8. Dic aliquid contra ut Duo simus But this Type shews how the disagreeing parties may be agreed made one or set at one and reunited for this word Atonement signifies that which the Latine word Vnitas doth viz. the At onement or making one of those who before were differing and at odds In this great mysterious Festival many circumstances are very considerable for the businesse now in hand First The High Priest was to enter into the Levit. 16. most Holy place alone none with him Lev. 16. 17. This was to teach us that Christ alone is he that taketh away sins and worketh our expiation reconciliation and atonement or reunion with the offended God-head Secondly The High Priest went not into that Sanctuary until the Sacrifical beasts were killed one for the Atonement of the Priests and after the other for the Atonement of the people and their blood respectively taken vers 11. 15. So Christ did not actually expiate us but by his death and blood shedding his own blood Thirdly The High Priest presented two Goats before the Lord vers 7. One was killed the other was kept alive v. 7. 13. Both the Goats represented Christ That which was killed at the Tabernacle signified that the benefit of Christs death was tendered and offered to the Israelites or people of the Tabernacle The other which was reserved alive and sent away into the wilderness signified that Christ with all his efficacies and benefits should by his Gospel be sent and tendered and presented to the Gentiles or Nations who in the Scriptures are often called the Wilderness and Solitary place or desert as Isa 35. 1. For in Christ all the Nations of the earth are to be blessed Gen. 18. 18. The gathering of the people expectatio gentium shall be unto him Gen. 49. 10. he was to be a light to lighten the Gentiles Luc. 2. 23. And Christ himself professed that he hath other Sheep which were not of this Jewish fold Joh. 19. 16. Some Expositers as Theodoret. and Both the Glosses with Lyranus have thought that this Hircus Apopompeus i. e. the Emissary or Scape-goat signified the God-head of Christ which could not dye But this exposition can not possibly agree with this type nor indeed with the Analogie of Faith because the sins of the people are said to be laid on this Scape-goat Levit 16. 21. Just as it is said of Christ The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53. 6. This is not true of the pure God-head of Christ upon which our sins could neither be laid or imputed nor could the pure God-head expiate or satisfie Divine Justice because it could not dye If the Son of God or the Word had for ever continued in his pure Divinity and had not been incarnate he could not have taken away the sins of the World For it was mans nature that was peccant therefore the Son of God took upon himself that nature to destroy sin in the flesh The work of Redemption was confined to the Seed of the Woman to the Son of Man and to the Lamb of God St. Peter teacheth us that Christ bare our sins
in his own body 1 Pet. 2. 24. And St. Paul often That therefore God sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. That he Rom. 8. 3. hath abolished in his flesh the emnity Eph. 2. 15. That he hath reconciled us in the body of his flesh through death Col. 1. 21. 22. That we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Heb. 10. 10. This Scape-goat was to be sent into the wilderness the Gentiles by a fit man Levit. 16. 21. That is Christ was to be delivered and made known to the Gentiles by such men as are fitly qualified and inabled with endowments to teach the Gentiles in the mysteries of Christ Our Lord himself gave Apostles Prophets Eph. 4. 11. 1 Tim. 2. 7. Evangelists Doctors St. Paul stileth himself a Doctor or Teacher of the Gentiles these were Fit men indeed Verily they are too blame that send unfit men and blind guides to carry Christ to the people Bishop Goodman lately affirmed in his book that of his own knowledg some in these times have been sent to preach Christ who though not bodily blind could never write nor read It is reported of the learned French Divine Pet du Moulin that he hartily wished that the French King would grant him a general licence to preach though it were with a condition of preaching in a Fools Coate this condition is now performed for many in these times preach in a fools coate if their coats be their own Fourthly The High Priest was to carry the blood of the sacrifice into the most Holy place and to sprinkle it on the mercy seat seven times Levit. 16. 14. This is the principal ceremony of all and teacheth us the full intent and purpose of all the Jewish Sacrifices and how only they could be useful and beneficial to the Jews and to us also and how the true and substantial Atonement or reconciliation of God with man was to be made For The Mercy Seat signified and represented the Body of Christ the Messiah it was therefore called the Mercy Seat because in Christ only the God-head doth acquiess and rest fully pleased and satisfied and in him only expresseth the grand mercy of remitting our sins It was called the Propitiatory because by Christ only the God-head is reconciled and made propitious to man t' was also called the Oracle because as God spake to Moses from this Mercy Seat Numb 7. 89. So he intimated thereby that in after times he would speak to us by his Son as is said Heb. 1. 2. and by the same God-head we are commanded to hear him Mat. 17. 5. Upon this Mercy Seat was the blood of those Piacular Sacrifices to be sprinkled This signified that all the Jewish Sacrifices and blood of beasts were not of any value or force at all to acquit and redeem man but only as they related to Christ as shadows and representations of the blood of Christ that the blood of beasts did not at all propitiate of themselves until they were reduced and by Faith brought home to Christ so that those Jews which offered the blood of beasts without the faith of Messiah and looked no further then upon the beasts only nor did consider and beleeve that the Messiah was to pour out his own blood for them and that those Sacrifices were ordained for none other end but to acquaint them and dayly put them in mind of their redemption by the death of their Messiah and so to nourish continually their Faith and hope in him Their Sacrifices were vain For the Jewish Altar represented the Cross and the Sacrifices thereon signified Christ the word Altar was used for the highness of it ab altitudine God did therefore appoint them to Sacrifice on a plat raised higher then the common ground because it might adumbrate Christ lifted up on the Cross So that those Jews who in their sacrificing did not by faith consider this sacrificed no better then the Heathens did and upon this very reason God condemned their sacrifices and moreover professed that they were odious unto him for so he saith I have no delight in the blood of Bullocks Isa 1 11. 13. bring no more vain oblations He that killeth an Isa 66. 3. Oxe is as if he slew a man he that sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut of a Dogs neck or as if he offered Swines blood or as if he blessed an Idâ—l for although these Jewish sacrifices were appointed by God yet are they rejected by the same God because a Isychius in Levit. Judaei tantum literam considerabant The Jews did not sacrifice with the faith and consideration of Messiah to be the Grand Sacrifice They considered only the bare letter and outside in the precept of sacrificing without consideration of the Spirit and meaning thereof Therefore the Psalmist saith Sacrifices and Offerings thou would'st Ps 40 6. not that is God would not have them to be considered for any worth or efficacy in themselves as if they were the ultimate duty and perfect performance of that precept of sacrificing whereas indeed those sacrifices were of no worth at all except only as they related to Christ This St. Paul cleerly declareth It is impossible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins It follows But a body hast Heb. 10. 4. 5. thou prepared for me that is The Son of God assumed his body or flesh from us that therein he might perform the grand sacrificing for sin Hence it is that the blood of the Jewish sacrifice was to be sprinkled on the Mercy seat that is on Christ for what else can be the Seat of the Mercy of the God-head but only Christ in whom only God is appeased satisfied and well pleased In a word No blood could satisfy the Justice of the God-head and reconcile God to man but only that blood which was sprinkled on this Mercy Seat viz. on the blessed body of the Son of Man The blood of the Sacrifice was to be sprinkled seven times on the Mercy Seat Lev. 16. 14. This signified that the blood of Christ made a perfect reconciliation and was sufficient to expiate for all times and ages from the beginning of the world to the end thereof because all times are included in this number of seven there are but seven dayes created All times are but those seven dayes reiterated As the Jewish Sacrifices were instituted only to be a representation of Christ's Sacrifice so our Christian Sacrifices of prayers are an aftermemorial thereof for we ask petition and pray for all things in and through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Jewish Liturgie was only Sacrifice The Christian Sacrifice is only prayers those are the calves of our lips The Jews were limited to a certainty and set form of Sacrifices they might not sacrifice any beast but only of the Neat Sheep and Goat nor any foul but only Doves None other beast though never so great or