speak so as Hezekiah spake when he believed he should die Isai 38 or as David Psal 6. It is a matter of astonishment that these great men have been so exceeding fearful of their departure out of this world Here I passe by the particular causes from whence proceeded this weaknesse But in general before that Jesus Christ died death was more dreadful then it hath been since for as yet death was not swallowed up in Victory and the faithful of the Old Testament had not the example of Jesus Christ dead as we have The fear of death therefore was more just in them then it can be in us From whence it followeth that it is not still permitted to us to speak as they did when we are menaced with death It would be very hard to approve that a Christian should complain of this that he should no more behold God in the land of the living and that he is deprived of the conversation of this world or to alleadge that he might not die that the dead praise not God These complaints and the like discourses which the Fathers of the Old Testament have uttered upon this subject have no more place since that Christ died and rose again as I shall speak more particularly upon the Article of the Resurrection The descent of CHRIST into Hell An observation upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 10.6 7. forbidding to ask who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the abysse AMong so many men signalized by extraordinary events there are two remarkable one of which ascended into heaven and descended the other descended into the deep and re-ascended The first is Elijah who was carried up into heaven and afterward came back to the earth to accompany the Son of God in his Transfiguration The other is Jonah who went into the bottom of the gulfs and returned living But the one and the other were but a shadow of Christ to whom all these passages and returns agree more particularly For not onely he descended into the Abysse and returned but he is also ascended into heaven yet once more to come down Now I go not about to examine in what sense he said even before his Ascension that already he had ascended into heaven and already had descended from heaven Joh. 3.13 But concerning his descent into the deep the Apostle explaineth it openly when he opposeth those two one to the other To descend into the deep and To be brought back from the deâ—d For from thence followeth that to be brought back from the dead is to reascend from the Abysse And this also presupposeth that to descend into the Abysse is none other thing then to be reduced to the estate of the dead As for the name of the Abysse it is known that Jesus Christ calleth his Sepulchre the heart of the earth comparing it to the place where Jonah had been in the Abysse Matth. 12.40 From hence it cometh that many understand by the descent of Christ into hell that after his burial he was yet farther humbled so far as to sojourn in the estate of the dead that is to say within his Sepulcher from whence he was raised by his Resurrection Why Christ being on the Crosse pronounced the first words of the 22 Psalm These words expresse the complaint which he made of being forsaken of God And many Orthodox men take that extreme humiliation of Christ for his descent into hell Now why he did use the words of this Psalm a reason is given There is not a passage in all the Old Testament which better representeth the estate of Christ upon the Crosse There is seen the parting of his garments the casting of lots for his coat his hands and feet pierced his enemies wagging the head and vomit-out their mockeries He therefore used this Psalm as having been dictated for him But to this reason which is notorious to every one I will adde another which I ground upon an hypothesis maintained by some interpreters The first action say they that the Priests and the Levites daily did in the Temple into which they entered at break of day was to sing this two and twentieth Psalm the which upon this occasion beareth for the title A Psalm of the dawning of the day and beginneth My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I observe from hence that the first words with which the Priests began the first hour and the first act of their Functions are the same which Christ uttered in the last hour and the last act of the Redemption For having been already three hours upon the Crosse upon the point of rendering up his spirit into the hands of his Father and of declaring that all was finished he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He ended where the Priests began to shew that all the ancient Priesthood and all the service of the Temple from their beginning then expired and finished in him who is the end and closure of the Law The fruits of the death of CHRIST Why the Son of God deserred so long time to come and expiate the sins of the world THis question which the ignorant will blame of rashnesse is suggested unto us by the Scripture it self which hath set down the solution of it It is not enough to say according to the fashion of the ignorant that Jesus Christ came not sooner because God would not have it so We are to know why he would it not since himself hath shewed us the causes in the which are seen the rays of his wonderful wisdom About four thousand yeers passed after the fall of Adam before the Son of God came Sin multiplied with the multiplication of mankinde Death destroyed one generation after another All ages groaned for the Deliverer but he appeared not till after so long a time Now setting aside the marvellous Oeconomy by which God measured and divided the times which preceded the coming of Christ in which is seen an infinity of steps and proportions as so many stars which marched before the Sun we will onely say That it was important for the glory of God and to render so much the more glorious the benefit of Redemption that sin and death should reign a long time and devour a long rank of generations before the Saviour should shew himself For that long durance of sin and death extending it self thorow so many ages and infolding all the successions of people born the one after the other hath caused to be seen how great was the misery of mankinde and the necessity of the remedy and how great is the vertue of Christ who hath healed an evil so universal and so inveterate Rom. 5.14 That for these ends and to shew the abundance of Grace God permitted that sin should abound and that it might abound the Law intervened Rom. 5.20 It behoved therefore first that there should passe a long time before the Law should begin her raign and a long time before she should
yeeld place unto Christ That the sin of Adam lost those that came after him but the death of Christ hath saved both them that went before and came after it As therefore the first Adam hath caused to die those which were born many ages after him so the second Adam hath quickned them which were dead many ages before him And this hath been one of the causes of the retarding of his coming to wit that he would shew his power working backward to the foregoing ages And finally That it was convenient before Christ died to make it known to the world that the expiation of sins could not be wrought any other way To this effect God proposed first the blood of beasts in Sacrifices afterward the blood of man in Circumcision afterward an infinite number of washings with all the works of the Law as if he would that men should assay all the means which could be imagined for the expiation of sins But this was to the end that they should acknowledge their impotency and should cast their eyes upon the future Sacrifice of Christ Now it was requisite that a good part of the age of the world should passe in the studie of these rudiments before God should send his Son Gal. 4.1 c. An admirable concurrence of the time of Redemption with the times of the most famous Ceremonies of the Law An observation upon this subject It concerneth us that we know the Yeer the Season the Days yea the Hours in the which Christ perfected the work of the Redemption The Law hath marked certain Times as notable among all others Among Yeers that of Jubilee which returned from fifty to fifty yeers in the which servants were set at liberty and lands alienated returned to their first owners Among the annual Feasts that of the Passeover which was the first and principal of all the solemnities of the yeer Among the Days the Sabbath of which the preeminencies are sufficiently notorious Among the Hours of the day that between the two vespers which we reckon the third after noon in which every day was offered the evening Sacrifice which was the conclusion of all daily Ceremonies Exod. 29.39 and in which also was slain the Paschal Lamb when his yeer-day was come Exod. 12.6 Now the Redemption met in all these times in the Yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice and in the Sabbath In the Yeer of Jubilee according to the most exact Chronologie which reckoning every fiftieth yeer after the division of the Land of promise to the yeer in which Christ died findeth that he suffered in the yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover as it is evident by the History of the Passion in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice which the Jews called the ninth hour in the which Jesus Christ gave up the Ghost And finally in the Sabbath our Saviour all that day resting in the Sepulchre I know that many long time agone have considered all these particularities but in parcels every one separately That which I here observe is the general concurrence of all the times the most famous in the Law with the time of the Redemption which comprised and determined all To all this I will adde this Observation The yeer of Jubilee began the tenth day after the Equinoctial of September Levit. 15.9 and Jesus Christ died a few days after the Equinoctial of the Spring following Whence it appeareth that he died in the midst of the yeer of Jubilee between the six first months and the six last But the last six months which his death anticipated have been disjoyned from the precedent as appertaining no more to the yeer of Jubilee which hath been cut asunder in the middle that it might be rendered wholly dead A mysterious reason of the name which the Apostle giveth to the Sacrifice of Christ calling it A Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Many read these terms of the Apostle without knowing the importance nor seeing at what they aim The common Expositours will be contented to tell us that the Sacrifice of Christ is of a good smell that is to say pleasing to God We know that this is true but to know it well we ought to learn from whence the Apostle fetched this phrase and what it is at which he looketh back It behoveth therefore to observe that there were two kindes of Oblations under the Law One sort was accompanied with a perfume of Incense which was burned with them and for this cause they are called Offerings of a sweet savour Levit. 2.2.9 The others howsoever approved by the Law bare not the name of Oblations of a sweet savour because they were without perfume Levit. 2.12 And particularly it is to be noted that it was forbidden to burn any perfume upon the Oblations which were presented for sins Levit. 5.11 in which the Law-giver gave to understand that the memory of sin yea the Sacrifices which mentioned them were not of a sweet savour Numb 5.15 Upon this we are to consider why the Law declared that that which was offered for sins could not be of a sweet savour seeing that Christ was offered for sins and yet his Oblation was of a sweet savour to God his Father The reason is that the Legal Oblations removed not at all the infection of the sin which they represented rather themselves remained burdened with it But Christ bearing our sins upon him vanquished and carried away this corruption This point furnisheth us with an invincible argument against the Jews By the own sentence of the Law all the Expiatory Offerings which it prescribed failed of a sweet favour and could not content the justice of God From whence it followeth otherwise we are for ever miserable that there is another kinde of Offering another Sacrifice of Expiation quite other then those of the Law which abolisheth the stench of our crimes And this quality cannot appertain but to the body of Christ Isai 53 5 6. The Resurrection of CHRIST Nine examples of the Resurrection of the dead which have gone before or followed the Resurrection of Christ An Harmony between those that were raised under the Old Testament and those that were raised by the Son of God while himself was yet mortal THe Wisdom of God hath shewed the Resurrection of the dead in divers examples which it hath distributed with order and proportion Three before the coming of Jesus Christ Three by Jesus Christ himself before his death And Three after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Before the coming of Christ God raised the son of the widow of Sarephta the son of the Shunamite and one dead man that had been cast into the Sepulchre of Elisha 1 King 17. 2 King 4 and 13. Jesus Christ before his death raised the son of the widow of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus Luke 7.15 Matth. 9. Joh. 11. After the Resurrection of Christ God hath first caused to be seen that of many Saints
us that the most bloody adversaries of the children of God are not dispensed but by his order Among the resemblances between Moses and Christ the one of which gave the Law the other brought the Gospel there is one notable likenesse that is that the birth of both of them was made memorable by the death of innocents That of Moses by the cruelty of the Egyptians who drowned in the water the children of the Hebrews That of Christ by the barbarousnesse of Herod who caused the cutting of the throats of the children of Bethlehem Why in War the people of God have been often beaten by their enemies and why a good cause hath been overthrown Run thorow the holy History All the times that the people of God have been overcome in War you shall finde that this hath come to passe through their own fault to wit either because they have undertaken a War without cause as Josiah who quarrelled with the King of Egypt Or because they have concluded upon a War without enquiring at the mouth of God as the Israelites against the Tribe of Benjamin Or that they have fought against the expresse prohibition of God as the Hebrews that set upon the Amalekites encamped on the mountain Numb 14. Or because they have abused a precedent Victory as the children of Israel who having purloined of the accursed thing of Jericho were presently after beaten by the inhabitants of Ai Or for having consulted with the enemy of God as Saul who had recourse to a Sorceresse to learn what successe the battel should have Or for having broken the faith given to the enemy as Zedekiah who brake the agreements past between him and Nebuchadnezzar Or in sum by putting themselves out of the protection of God as the Israelites in the days of Eli the Priest to whom the contempt of Religion caused the losse of that lamentable Battel in which the Ark of God it self was taken and carried in triumph by the Philistines In most of these examples we may see that a good cause hath been vanquished but with reason The justice of the cause hath come to nothing through the injustice of them that managed it or through the injustice of the proceedings Sometimes also two parties that make War together may both have a just cause in part although one of them may have the lesse right of the two The Wars which the Christians have moved against Mahomet have had for their cause the honour of the Name of Christ On the other side Mahomet declareth that he hath taken arms to avenge the honour of God defiled by the Idolatries of Christians This cause which is but too true in regard of many men hath given him so many Victories over Christendom Why God never sent above one Angel or two at most when he intended to destroy men and hath often sent many when he intended to preserve one man Three Angels came to Abraham to promise him the birth of Isaac but there were but two which went to destroy Sodom To protect one Elisha an army of Angels appeared in the likenesse of charets of fire but to put to death one hundred fourscore and five thousand men in one night in the camp of Sennacherib to cause to die of the Pestilence seventy thousand in three days by reason of the sin of David who had numbred the people to destroy all the first-born of Egypt in an hour God employed not above one Angel Whence cometh it that to protect one man alone God sendeth sometimes whole legions of Angels and to destroy thousands of men yea whole Nations he sendeth but one Angel Surely the Angels were created for the preservation of men not for their destruction And although God useth them for the execution of his judgements neverthelesse to shew that this is as by accident and beyond the scope of their creation he never employeth above one or two when the businesse is to destroy man where on the contrary he employeth many when it is to save The Psalmist was not ignorant of this Divinity For when he prayeth against his enemies he desireth that the Angel of God the Angel in the singular number might persecute them Psal 35. But when he promiseth to the faithful the protection of God He shall give saith he his Angels charge over thee We know that in another place he speaketh in the singular of the Angel that encampeth about them that fear him and that often God is content to send onely one Angel to defend a great number of men But withal he hath often used the service of many Angels to this effect whereas to destroy man he never would employ in any occasion above onely one Angel or two at the most If man had persevered in original justice there had never been Miracles but onely of one kinde Miracles have been wrought to convince the incredulity of man and therefore they had not been at all necessary if man had not first become incredulous Besides Miracles have been wrought to teach men that which all Nature together knew not how to teach them to wit the benefit of Redemption which presupposeth the fall of man Certainly if man had remained in his first integrity he had never seen the waters of the deluge nor Lot's wife turned into a statue of Salt nor any of all those wonders which have served to chastise man Neither had he seen those miraculous healings nor the dead raised for neither death nor diseases which have furnished the subject of these Miracles had had any place in the state of innocency The onely kinde of Miracle which God would have shewed unto man if he had stil persisted in his integrity had been according to all probability to transport him at the last from earth to heaven without passing thorow death And this is a notable point that after the Creation God wrought no Miracle till the translation of Enoch who was carried up from earth to heaven God began his Miracles with that kinde of Miracle which onely ought to have had place if man had still continued righteous Of JESUS CHRIST A consideration of the divers Names and Titles of our Saviour And the differences that ought to be observed in expressing them VVHen we name him sometimes we call him onely Jesus sometimes we say Jesus Christ sometimes we say onely Christ sometimes we call him Our Lord sometimes we joyn all these names together Our Lord Jesus Christ sometimes we say The Son of God Now it seemeth indifferent by which of these Names we call him and we pronounce the first that cometh in our mouth But howsoever all these names designe the same Person neverthelesse every one of these doth not mark out to us all the qualities and relations which we consider in that person rather one signifieth him in one regard and another hath to it self also a particular meaning So that these Names ought not to be used confusedly or without choice but we are to pronounce that or those