in kind alwaies according to the qualitie or specificall nature of his worke or service but for quantity farre beyond all proportion of any gift or service which Abraham could present unto his God though it had beene the sacrifice of himselfe or of his sonne The first remarkable service which God exprest or required of Abraham was to forsake his kindred and his Fathers house Gen. 12. 1. And in lieu of that interest which Abraham renounced in these those being not the ten thousand part of the Country wherein he lived God gives him a just title or interest to the whole land of Canaan and promiseth to make a mighty Nation of his seede to erect more then one or two Kingdomes out of it And yet all this is but the pledge or earnest of a farre better patrimony prefigured by it and bequeathed with it as an inheritance conveyed by delivery of the terrar The spirituall blessing envailed under this great temporall blessing was that God would be a God unto Abraham and to his seede and that they should be unto him a people And to be God's peculiar people was so much greater then to be Lords and Kings over the whole earth as the temporall inheritance which God here promised Abraham that was the whole Kingdome of Canaan was greater then the private temporall patrimony which Abraham for God's service had left in Caldaea or Mesopotamia 4 The next service which God requires of Abraham and his seede that they might become more capable of his promise and that this promise might transire in pactum passe as wee say into a League or Covenant was that Abraham and his seed should circumcise the fore-skin of their flesh and by this ceremony or service they were consecrated to be God's people his peculiar people The reward which God astipulateth or promiseth to this service or ceremony by them performed was that hee would consecrate himselfe by the same ceremony of circumcision to be their God their gracious Protector and Redeemer But Abraham and his sonne Isaac being by this ceremony of Circumcision once consecrated to God's service they might not after they had once received this badge or cogniâ—ance withdraw themselves from any service unto which their Lord God should afterwards call them how harsh and unpleasant soever it might seeme to flesh and blood The next remarkable service whereunto God called Abraham was to offer up his only sonne Isaac whom he loved for a burnt offering And this service AbrahaÌ„ for his part is as willing to undertake to be an Actor in it Isaac as willing to undergoe or be a patient in it as they had been in the former service of Circumcision The reward which God appointed to this second service of Abraham and Isaac was the finall ratification of the former promise or Covenant by solemne oath By my selfe have I sworne that in thy seede shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed The contents of his oath is that God would make his only Sonne such a sacrifice as Abraham was willing to have made his only Sonne Isaac that in him and by him all the Nations of the earth that is all of every Nation that would so rely upon God's promises as Abraham and Isaac did should be made heires with them of the Kingdome which God had promised and that was the Kingdome of everlasting blisse But of this particular the Reader may see more in the eighth Book of these Comments 5 In this sacrifice of the Sonne of God and seede of Abraham the League first solemnized by Circumcision was for the externall rite or manner more exquisitely solemnized than any League ever had been The solemnitie of all other Leagues were eminently contained in it For besides the rites before mentioned in solemnizing Leagues concluded by sacrifice each party had a Priest or vates or else made choice of some indifferent Priest for both Each party likewise had their proper sacrifice or which would give better satisfaction to curiositie they had one common sacrifice in which both parties had equall interest as being provided at their joynt costs and charges or the one brought a Priest and the other a sacrifice Sometimes againe they had one common Temple either built of purpose at their joynt costs as some thinke Ianus Temple in Rome was built by Romulus and Titus Tatius for ratifying the peace betweene the Latines and the Sabines or else made choice of some Temple most indifferently seated for both to meete in All these circumstances were good emblemes of the wished-for peace good emblemes likewise of the equall conditions in such Leagues agreed upon and yet imperfect emblemes scarce good shadowes of the admirable manner how this League of peace betwixt God and man was concluded Wee cannot say that God had one Priest and man another but both had one Priest more indifferent then any two Nations ever could have though his Father had beene of the one Nation and his Mother of the other and himselfe born upon the Sea betwixt them or upon the bounds of their borders The Priest betweene God and man was but one and yet truly God and truly man so truly one that we cannot say the seed of Abraham or son of man did provide the sacrifice and the Sonne of God did offer it but which is more admirable and more indifferent the flesh of this sacrifice was humane or mans flesh as truly and properly as ours is and yet as truly and properly the flesh of God as ours is the flesh of man The blood of the sacrifice likewise was sanguis humanus mans blood as truly and properly as any blood in our veines is and yet as truly and properly the blood of God as our blood is the blood of man It was as hath beene heretofore observed humane blood or mans blood by nature that is of the same substance with our blood and yet the blood of God by personall Vnion or Property by a more peculiar title then the blood in our bodies can be said ours For the Godhead is more nearely united to the manhood of Christ then our soules are to our bodies And by this personall or bodily habitation of the Godhead in his bodie he who was our sacrifice and continues a Priest for confirming this League is also become the Temple His body is become that Tabernacle wherein God promised to meete the children of Israel And unto the glory of the Godhead which was before inaccessible but now dwelling in this Tabernacle wee have dayly accesse through the blood of Christ We may at all times in all places present him in this Tabernacle with the sacrifice of prayer of thankesgiving and of our selves and he from hence as our God and Father indues us with the Spirit of Christ whereby we are made his Sonnes For the blood of Christ as it is sanguis humanus humane blood of the same nature with ours doth symbolize with our nature and as it is the blood
Father saith the Apostle hath made us meete to be partakers of the Saints in light and hath delivered us from the power of darknesse and translated us into the Kingdome of his dearly beloved Son 2 So that this part of Ieremie's prophecie 23. 6. In his dayes Iudah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell in safety must be fulfilled in every one of us more exquisitely then it was in the whole remnant of Iudab and Israel which returned in safety from Babylon the land of their captivity unto Ierusalem the place of their peace and rest Every one of us must be saved from the land of darknesse and translated into the Kingdome of light before wee can be sure of our salvation before our election and salvation can be made certaine unto us For every one of us is by nature the child of wrath every one of as as he is the sonne of Adam carries a Babel or masse of confusion about with him or rather lives in it as in a walking prison Every one of us is subject to morethen Baby lonish to more then Egyptian slavery Our very soules which are the light unto our bodies our very minds which have the same place in our soules which Goshen had in Egypt are darkened or as the Apostle speakes are darknesse it selfe Now to extract or draw us out of our selves or out of that servitude unto finne in which wee were borne or to bring us out of that darknesse which is within us is a greater miracle a more remarkable document of God's infinite power wisdome then the bringing of Israel out of Egypt then the rescuing of Iudah from the captivity of Babylon were God did make the winde and waters his instruments to overthrow Pharaoh and his hoast in the red sea he made his Angels ministring spirits to conduct Israel in their departure thence but to draw us out of our selves to extract our mindes and spirits from the dreggs of the flesh to translate them from the powers of darknesse to the Kingdome of light the ministry or service of Angels or other creatures did not suffice For accomplishing this great worke the Sonne of God himselfe became a Servant Hee that was essentially Iehovah God himselfe did cloath himselfe with salvation as with a garment and became a Saviour not in the appearance of an Angell not in our meere shape and likenesse nor in the meere forme or shape of any other creature but in our flesh and substance CHAP. 24. That our high Priest the Son of God did not only accomplish that which was fore shadowed by the name and title office of Iesus the Son of Iosedech but withall the legall rites or solemnities nowe of which hoe did destroy or dissolve as he did the works of the Divell but change or advance them into better solemnities to be observed by us Christians That his solemne accomplishment of the feast of attonement at the feast of the Passeover was prefigured in the Law and fore-fignified by God's speciall command THe Son of God saith S. Iohn was manifested to the end that he might destroy or dissolve the workes of the Divell Not only the workes which hee had wrought in the nature of Adam and all his sonnes the manner of whose destruction or dissolution the Reader may find discussed at large in the eighth Booke of these CoÌ„mentaries but besides these all the solemne rites or ceremonies whether sacrifices or other services by which the subtile enemy of mankind had enticed men unto or retained them in obedience to his service All these the Son of God came into the world not to change or accomplish but utterly to abolish or destroy them As for the Aaronicall Priesthood or legall riâ—es dependant on it these hee came not utterly to abolish or destroy but to change or sublimate them into a better kind of service This orthodoxall forme of words the Apostle hath taught us Heb. 7. v. 12. The Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law that is no destruction either of the Law or Priesthood The false witnesses themselves which were set up to accuse S. Stephan of blasphemous words against the holy place and the Law though willing no question to charge him with more then he said yet charge him with nothing but this We have heard him say that this Iesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the customes which Moses delivered us Acts 6. v. 14. But these malicious men with their complices and abettors did destroy the materiall Temple by turning it into a denne of theeves or murtherers by practising these and other like workes of the Divell in it Notwithstanding the utter destruction of this denne of theeves by these means the house of God which was the Temple whilst it continued a house of praier was not utterly destroyed but rather changed or translated unto Ierusalem which is above as the Arke of the Covenant had beene before from Shiloh unto Sion As for any intention utterly to destroy any custome which Moses had given them they had no pretence to accuse either S. Stephan or our Saviour who had solemnely protested that hee came not to destroy or dissolve the Law but to fulfill it And none unlesse perhaps some base Mechanicke or meaner metall man who thinkes the matter whereon hee workes to be of all others the best would accuse an Alchimist or ingenious Artist for wasting or destroying copper lead or brasse if hee could change or sublimate them into pure gold 2 The change or accomplishment of the best egall rites even such as were appointed by an everlasting covenant was more admirable then this supposed transmutation of baser metals into refined gold can truly represent for as hath been observed before Albeit our Saviour was no Priest after the order of Aaron either before or after his Consecration yet hee did most exquisitely accomplish the whole Aaronicall Priesthood and other legall rites dependent on it by his Consecration to a more excellent truly everlasting Priesthood Circumcision was enjoyned under this title of an everlasting covenant and so enjoyned under a terrible penalty before the Law was given by Moses to all the seed of Abraham throughout their generations Was this rite or ceremony then destroyed or annihilated by the Circumcision of the Son of God Neither destroyed then nor changed before his death but at his Circumcision designed to be changed into an everlasting Covenant and after his Resrrection and Ascention not so properly changed as advanced into a better Sacrament or Seale of God's love unto mankind under a stricter penalty to the contemners of it or the undertakers for both sexes then Circumcision had been to the Hebrew males The Iewish Sabbath or Seventh day likewise was not so truly nullified for the substance of the precept which was to be a commemoration of God's rest from all his workes upon the Seventh day as clarified or purged from the droffe or dreggs of legall
were two The first the solemne memorial the commeration or reiteration of God's Covenant made with Abraham and with his seede or the continuall acceptance of it by performing the obedience which God required at their hands in all their sacrifices The second was a perpetuall representation of the accomplishment of this Covenant on God's part in and by the promised Seede or Messias God had promised by oath to Abraham that in his seede not only Abraham's seede after the flesh but all the Nations of the earth that follow the steps of Abraham should be blessed And in this promise confirmed by oath it was implied as hath beene often mentioned before that the Sonne of God should become Abraham's seede and that the seede of Abraham thus made the Sonne of God should be offered up to God in such a manner as God required Abraham to offer up his sonne Isaac that is in a true and bloody sacrifice Isaac's approach to death was a type a figure or representation of our Saviour's bloody death Isaac's strange deliverance from this bloody death menaced by his Fathers outstretehed hand armed with a bloody knife was a type or shadow of our Saviour's Resurrection from death which God his Father had not only threatned but inflicted upon him Now as that which Abraham intended to have done to his sonne Isaac was accomplished by God upon his only sonne so Abraham's words to Isaack when hee intended to offer him up in bloody sacrifice became a true prophecy of our Saviour's bloody sacrifice Isaac bearing the wood of the burnt offering upon his back and observing his Father to cary fire in the one hand and a knife in the other no creature in the world besides themselves being present moved this question Behold the fire the wood but where is the Lamb for the burnt offring And Abraham answers God will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering my Sonne Gen. 22. 7. 8. Whatsoever the naturall construction of Abraham's answer in these words might import Abraham at this time had no other intention then to offer up his son Isaack for a burnt offering Howbeit his words without wrong to their grammaticall construction in the originall might imply as much and as the Hebrewes conceive they did to Isaac's apprehension imply as much as if hee had said God will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering even thee my Sonne or God will provide theâ— my Sonne for a burnt offering And from this apprehension or construction of Abraham's words Isaac as the Hebrewes have a tradition forthwith became willing to be offered up in sacrifice for a burnt offering suffering himselfe to be bound upon the Altar by his Father being able if he had been so disposed to make resistance as being now at least 25 years of age 2 However it were Isaac was as willing to be offered as Abraham was to offer him And yet Abraham's former words are more exactly fulfilled even for the present then if Isaac had been then offered upon the Altar For though God had commanded Abraham to offer his only begotten sonne Isaac for a burnt offering yet hee had been a burnt offering of Abraham's providing but the Ramme which was caught by the hornes in the thicket was a burnt offering of God's provision meerly It was no part of Abraham's store of Abraham's provision fore-cast or fore-sight The Ramme questionlesse came not thither from any neighbour place by chance God did provide it for a burnt offering by a manner extraordinary and miraculous For if David would not offer a sacrifice to God of that which cost him nothing or of that which was another mans by former possession untill he had made it his owne by a better title then by free donation or his owne by a just price or valuable consideration Abraham doubtlesse would not have offered a sacrifice unto the Lord of that which he might justly suspect to be the goods of another man untill he had bought it of the known owner But knowing this Ramme to have been of God's own or meere provision by meanes miraculous or extraordinary hee forthwith offered it for a burnt offring instead of his son So then the League or Covenant betwixt God and Abraham is concluded and subscribed unto on Abraham's part with the sacrifice of a Ramme and was to be continued or accepted of by Abraham's posterity with continuation of like sacrifices The high Priests themselves who were in their ranke and order mediators or intercessors for continuing and establishing this Covenant between God and Abraham's seede were to be solemnely consecrated by the sacrifice of Rammes And in memoriall or commemoration of Isaac's deliverance from death the Iewes did celebrate that day wherein God provided this sacrifice instead of Isaac that was according to their Kalendar the first of September or feast of Trumpets with the sacrifice of Rammes But they considered not that in the words of God's oath to Abraham it was implyed that God would give his Sonne his only Sonne for such a bloody sacrifice or burnt offering as Abraham intended to have made of his sonne Isaac They considered not that in Abraham's answer to Isaac The Lord would provide himselfe of a burnt offering and in the miraculous provision of the Ramme for a burnt offering instead of Isaac it was implyed or fore-signified as well by matter of fact as by expresse word of prophecy that God would provide matter of sacrifice when he should offer his only Sonne after a more excellent miraculous manner then he had now done the Ramme instead of Isaack For seeing the Sonne of God as God could not dye he therefore provides him a mortall body taken from the seede of Abraham the substance of the blessed Virgin and so unites it to his divine person that whilst this seede of Abraham was offered in sacrifice the Sonne of God was likewise offered that whilst Abraham's seede was thus consecrated by bloody sacrifice the Sonne of God was likewise consecrated to be the high Priest after the order of Melchisedech that is to be the Author Donour and Dispenser of that blessing which Melchisedech in the name of the most high God whose Priest he was bestowed on Abraham and which God upon Abraham's readinesse to offer Isaac did by solemn oath bind himselfe to perform and to performe it in Abraham's seede The necessary consequence or abstract of which oath as it is before manifested was this that Abraham's seede should be that most high God in whose name Melchisedech had blessed Abraham 3 The unusuall and unexpected fulfilling of Abraham's words to Isaac Gen. 22. 8. Iehovah lireh the Lord will see or the Lord will provide himselfe a Lambe for a burnt offering gave Abraham occasion to name that place Iehovah â—ireh as also to a common Proverbe taken up from the name of this place and from the event In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seene Gen. 22. 14. or as the originall without straining will more