the Disciples blessed Because their Eyes saw c. Luke 10.23.24 And Saint Paul tells us God manifest in the flesh is the great Mystery of godlinesse 1 Tim. 3.16 Yet under submission to greater judgements I conceive this not so full and home as to give desired satisfaction to a punctuall examiner nor so pertinent to the Apostles Text for though Christ who was perfected here himself Heb. 7.28 and did perfect for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 1 Pet. 1.11.12 did come to perfect what stood need thereof Yet somewhat more then Christs Incarnation is required to our perfection and our perfection did not solely not properly consist in Christs comming but by those acts and sufferings he was fitted and prepared for by assuming our flesh And now we will consider the fourth The fourth is that of St. Chrysostome and some Ancients and followed also by some later Expositors They obtained not the promises that is the Resurrection of the flesh And so this falls in this respect with the second the onely difference being this That the second supposed not the separated soules to be in Heaven this supposes them in Heaven but to receive the complement of blisse at the day of the Resurrection of all flesh which is the perfection of the whole Church every particular member who as before at the day of their death had a private pardon so at that day shall further obtain a publique promulgation thereof whose soules though they be in a condition of blessednesse yet till then they want their Consummatum est the consummation of this blessednesse both extensivè in respect of their intire state the body not till then being reunited to the soule and probably intensivè too in respect of measures and degrees of blisse the soule not till then having so cleare a Vision of God as it shall have hereafter as may appear by those prementioned places Mat. 13.43 and 25.34 2 Tim. 4.7.8 and this we Pray for when we say Thy Kingdome come or Come Lord Iesus come quickly Or with our Mother the Church That we and all other departed in the Faith of thy holy name may have our perfect consummation of blessednesse in thine everlasting Kingdom So that with these the provision here made and the perfection here assigned is not present but future To which purpose it is observable there is a two-fold provision or perfection of the Body the Church One as I may terme it meritorious which was the perfect oblation of our Redeemer and so this perfection and provision here was procured and purchased by the price of his blood on the Crosse The other is formall and finall which is the seizure and possession of that purchase and the happy consequent thereof the advancement of our being into the highest pitch of perfection and excellency our nature is capable of and this we obtain not till the last day when both Soules and Bodies shall be compleatly glorified with Christ our Head The former is the perfection of the means The latter of the End And that this latter is here understood we have these Reasons to perswade 1. The designe of the Apostle in this Chapter which was not to administer comsort to their Soules against the guilt of sin and terrors of a tender Conscience for he had happily perfected this work in the fore-going Chapters but strengthen and comfort them against those miseries and calamities they endured for the Name of Christ And the ground of this comfort he setcheth from their hope of glory and reward at the last Heb. 10.34.36 and 38. ver and ver 1. of this Chapter confirmed and illustrated by the Faith of the Patriarks ver 16. and of Moses ver 26. all which shew that the felicity here presented to them in opposition to and remedy for their present calamities was a future eternall felicity 2. The expression here used seems also to imply this for he hath qualified this promise by stiling it a promise belonging to our profession to our patience to the recompence of reward cap. 10. ver 23.25.35 and 36. and this relates not to his first comming but to his last when he shall settle his Church in the possession of his glorious Kingdom and is formally expressed the obtaining of a better Resurrection ver 38. of this Chapter Beza Annot. on Iohn 14.3 3. Other places of Scripture ascribes the perfection and grounds the chiefe hope of the Church on the Resurrection and the word here used perfected is in Iohn 17.23 used to denote the most eminent and full felicity and the Resurrection is called therefore the hope of the promise Acts 23.6 and 24.15 but most clearly Acts 26.6.7.8 ver and so the hope of Israel not to him so called in his person onely but to all the Posterity of Israel that is all the true Israelites and upon this account God stiles himselfe the God of Abraham ver 16. of this Chapter because by this Abraham yet lives for God is not the God of c. and thus these all are expectants not enjoyers probationers not possessors for these all look for but they obtained not yet hereafter shall 4. We have a further confirmation of this from these following Reasons 1. Man is a compound of Scule and Body and so man the suppositum cannot be perfected whilst they are both separated but is to receive his perfection when they both shall be united and this cannot be till the Resurrection 2. The Covenant of Grace is made to the whole man so that the Scripture comparatively seems not to esteeme of that felicity which the separated Soule enjoyes in Heaven because 1. One part of man all that intervall is under the power of the last Enemy Death 2. The happinesses of the Soule shall probably be both multiplyed and heightened at the re-union of the separated parts by a super-addition of glory or degrees thereof Rev. 19.6.7.8 Acts 3.21 then shall be the time of refreshing of restitution then these all and all we since shall be perfected actuall partakers of that fulness of Glory which is promised and provided for the whole Body of Beleevers There is a fifth conjecture which I lately met with in a Learned and judicious Interpreter The perfection here was to have the Promise made to Abraham Gen. 22.17 made good to them in the utmost extent The Iewish Church was persecuted and destroyed the Christian may be persecuted cannot be destroyed that is the Candlestick may be removed the Candle cannot be extinguished the Kingdom of God may be translated it cannot be conquered But I prefer the fourth and leave the whole to Gods blessing The Prayer O God of all goodnesse who hast abundantly furnished us with matter of Prayse with a rich treasure of Grace in Jesus Christ make us followers of him and of these all and all those who have fought the good fight of Faith that we may follow also their holy Faith and with them be partakers of a glorious Resurrection to have our perfect consummation and blisse in thy Heavenly Kingdom Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen Amen Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the holy Ghost As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be Amen FINIS
the honestum that the tryall of your Faith might be precious c. 1 Pet. 1.7 The Apostles adjudged their sufferings honourable Acts 5.41 and therefore they rejoyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his Name Add to this they consorm us to Christ our Head the Prince of sufferings who by his sufferings hath sanctified and enobled all ours but they are most of all of the utile they are infinitely profitable to prevent the greatest evills and to procure and secure the greatest good and if they be in some degree all these both joyous and honourable and profitable then also they must be eligible not simply and absolutely for so they are not because mala poenae evills for sin or the evills of punishment contrary to Nature but comparatively and upon supposition not as the matter of our first but second and sometimes better choyce when they are received as Medicines taken as tryalls of the most eminent graces of humility contentation meeknesse stedfastnesse and Faith and when managed to the use and exercise of these or when applyed as assurances of after felicities and thus even Death it selfe may be desired as a determination of humane imperfections and miseries as an Introduction to a new and more excellent life Thus Elias prayed that God would take away his life 1 Kings 19.4 not positively or peremptorily for he fled for it's safety but conditionally rather then Baal should seem to prevaile against God rather then he see the whole designe of Ahab and Jezabell acted with all sury and cruelty upon the Prophets of the Lord. And Saint Paul knew not what to chuse in that strait Life or Death yet his desire was rather to depart because thereby he should obtain to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and we long to be cloathed c. 2 Cor. 5.4 and we are willing rather to be absent in the body and to be present with the Lord ver 8. And this was the case of Moses his choyce it was not through passion but with deliberation with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather the act was neither purely voluntary nor involuntary but mixt as Patients take bitter Pills and Potions rather then they will languish and consume suffer one part of the body to be Cauterized or amputated and cut off rather then the whole perish as Mariners in a Storme at Sea will rather lose their goods then lives and Moses did this the rather because he esteemed his and their sufferings the sufferings of Christ Q. But how were they the sufferings or reproch of Christ Was Christ then exhibited in the flesh Or could he suffer who had no flesh to suffer in Or could Pharaoh reproch him whom he knew not whose Person was without his reach and no way subject to his power A. Doubtlesse their sufferings here have the appellation of the reproch of Christ upon the same account that Saint Pauls reproches are stiled the afflictions of Christ Col. 1.24 for as Christ could not suffer personally before he assumed our Nature and took our flesh so neither was it possible for him to suffer after the Resurrection of his Flesh and that his Body was Glorified For on the Crosse his sufferings had their determination and period with that Consummatum est It is finished Iohn 19.30 And Saint Paul tells us Christ being raysed from the Dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 and if not Death then no penalties or miseries which are but either the Harbingers and Fore-runners or Attendants and Followers of Death So that this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one Christ before his Incarnation and after his Glorification suffers and is reproched not in his Personall capacity as he was during his residence on Earth but in his politick capacity and in this consideration he was from all Eternity Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever and he suffers and did alwayes suffer when any part of his Body suffereth As therefore in Moses and his Hebrews Christ mysticall was reproched so in Saint Paul and the then Church of Christ he was mystically afflicted Christ ever did and now doth suffer in his Members he ever did and still doth count their afflictions his own God did so Isay 63.9 and still doth so witnesse that Voyce from Heaven Acts 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me uttered by Christ and ver 5. I am Jesus whom thou persecutest in his Members For he that toucheth them toucheth the Apple of his Eye Zach. 2.8 for he is the Head of his Body the Church and the Head is sensible of the sufferings of the Body nay the Church is expresly called Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one Body so also is Christ He saith not Ita Christi but Ita Christ us unum Christum appellans caput corpus Aug. de pecc mer. lib. 1. cap. 31. so is Christ so is the whole consisting of Head and Members the denomination is taken not from the subordinate Members of the Body but from the supreme the Head so is Christ that is Christ mististicall And that this is the genuine meaning of this place may be concluded from that we find expressed Gal. 3.16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the Promises made He saith not And to Seeds as of many but as of one And to thy Seed which is Christ And therefore this most significantly and comfortably doth denote and ascertain unto us that close union and conjunction betwixt Christ the Head and the Church his Bady and from thence results that sympathy and compassion of Christ in the sufferings and injuries of his people and servants Now that the beleeving Hebrews for otherwise this would not have been argumentative to them had also this perswasion there are besides the fore-mentioned two places in the Old Testament convincingly to demonstrate it That place where David in spirit called Christ Lord Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord c. My Lord indeed fiducially and obedientially but not exclusively for it is plain he was Lord over the Collective Body the whole Israel of God a Ruling Lord over his People whereof David was but one though a Chiefe one And as David thus gives us an account of his Faith That he expected a Messias and beleeved that that Messias was the Head of the People the Lord of the aggregated of Israel so he assures us that that persuasion was a part of the Jewish Creed for that whole Israel esteemed and adjudged that all projects and defignes to prosecute and oppresse the Peoof God were conspiracies and associations against the Lord and against his Anoynted Psal 2.2 Moses therefore did chuse both Religiously and Prudently because he esteemed his and his Brethrens sufferings the reproch of Christ a choice not of Faction but Faith because of a state
have been eminent and highly exemplary for their piety and charity and patience shall have higher Priviledges more honourable and glorious rewards for their Portion This our Saviour declareth when he assureth That he that receiveth a Fropket quâ talis in the name of a Prophet or upon this account that he is a Prophet shall receive a more then ordinary a Prophets reward Mat. 10.41 that sure must be some speciall eminent reward over and above what God bestows on other men Which seems also to be implyed in that Prerogative Royall stated on the Apostles and setled on them Mat. 19.27.27 and Luke 22.28.29.30 for in both these places the peculiarity and eminency of the reward is expressed though the quality thereof be not For supposing the twelve Tribes to be in a condition of happinesse it will necessarily follow That they who fit upon twelve Thrones to Judge that is certainly to Rule and Govern them must be in an higher degree of dignity and preheminence then those over whom they are set whatsoever that dignity or preheminence be whether in the administration of Christs Church militant or triumphant the former of which St. Austin inclines to For as God hath declared against all unbeleevers and hypocrites Deut. 29.29.20 that he will put out their name from under Heaven make their memories to perish or to rot and stinke so for all sincere converts God hath assured an high glorious and honourable memory Deut. 26.10 Thus it is expressely reported of Jeshua Josh 6.27 and of David 2 Sam. 7.9 I have made thee a great name like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth Now as God doth honour his faithfull servants living and dying so doth the Church of God likewise There may be Idolatry and vanity in giving unto Saints present or departed that honour or any part or parcell thereof which is due to God alone as Invocation and Adoration It is but piety and duty to speak honourably of the worthy acts and sufferings of Saints deceased and keep them in perpetuall remembrance such honour have all his Saints to be commemorated by succeeding generations which it the certain ground of Christian solemne Festivities to praise God for raysing up such Instruments of his glory and his peoples good and to pray unto God that we may imitate their holy Faith and so to follow their holy examples that we may be pertakers with them of a joyfull resurrection Far he it from us not to allow them that which God hath granted the mention and memory of their holinesse and what the Church of God hath thus practised The Iewes when they make mention of any of their deceased Worthies use a Forme of honourable remembrance taken from that definitive Sentence of Solemon Prov. 10.7 Memoria justi sit ad benedictionem vel in benedictione The memory of the just is blessed and if we will rightly conceive what this blessednesse means or wherein this blessing consists The Septuagints Transtation will help to clear unto us for they thus resolve it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the memory of the just is with prayses And then the sense is obvious the memory of the just is blessed that is to be commemorated and remembred with prayses Thus Moses was remembred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their solemnt offices of prayse Eccl. 45.1 and so of these all or most of them Eccl. 46.11.12 and so of Judas Maceabeus 1 Macc. 3.7 Neither hath the Christian Church fallen short in this kind and that in the better and Primitive times witnesse their anniversary remembrances of the Saints departed their Festivall dayes their Panegyricks or commendatory Orations and that immemoriall custome when the holy Communion was Administred to commemorate the Patriarks Prophets Apostles Evangelists Confessors Martyrs and all this according to the Psalmists assertion Psal 112.16 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembranse and that both with God and man With God to reward with Man to celebrate with God to glorifie him with Man to declare his righteousnesse as they wrought or suffered for righteousnesse so it endureth for ever they attested and gave testimony to saving Truths the Truth shall give Evidence for them their Prayers and their Almes goe up for a memoriall before God But from hence to return we may observe where the strength of an Induction lyes not in some single seattered or dispersed prooses or instances but in a full body of them united together especially if an Induction be made use of in the concerns of Religion and Religious Truths and Observances For in this case those Truths and Observances are not sufficiently attested nor convincingly proposed which have onely the determination and approbation the good report of some one or more particular Churches because a Church of any one denomination is fallible hath no assurance that she may not sayle or that the Candle stick should not be removed from her no Nationall Church hath a Promise for a perpetuall existence that is though a Pure Holy Orthodoxe Catholique and Apostolicall Church at this time should continue so unto all successions and Ages in the same purity and perfections As for instance we may not conclude this observation to be a Catholique observation or an observation of Faith because the Roman Church practiseth and under curse or Anathema exacts or imposeth the observation thereof For though some of her observations and determinations in that kind may be truely Cotholique yet we are not so to esteem them barely upon her report but because she holds them in communi with the Catholique Church For that the Roman and Catholique are convertible we are not bound to beleeve because the Romanists beleeve so and give us their word for it we may lawfully demand their proofes and till these he convincingly and cogently produced we may lawfully leave them to the poor fallacy of begging the Question Neither may we resolve this Tenet of the Romanists is de fide an Article of the Christian Faith because they hold and maintain it and obtrudes the beleefe thereof under the sentence of Excommunication both because they are not the onely Catholiques that is assertors of the Catholique Faith their Church is not the Catholique Church but of a confined limited Communion and Iurisdiction And for them to pretend and assume their Church to be the Catholique without proofe is still to beg the Question and because every particular and so that Church may erre and de facte hath erred as well in her Tenets as Observations and departed from Catholique Verities as well as Practises But now if the Tenet be demonstrated to a Tenet of the Catholique Church truely so called that is all these the people of God beleevers of all Ages have thus taught and beleeved taught and practised this demonstration engages and commands our perswasion and obedience For it is not imaginable that all these being qualified as the all these here in these words constant practisers and faithfull sufferers for their beleife