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
men To see how behold this that ought to be considered We say and it is true that the Miracles of our Lord have demonstrated that he is the Christ This proof seemeth not sufficient for Elijah Joshua Moses and the others which we have mentioned wrought Miracles also and yet no man ever thought that any of them was the Christ But this was because none of them came at the time which had been set down for the coming of the Messiah but all preceded it very far The Divine Providence did purposely interpose a long distance of ages between them and the time which was destined for the coming of Christ to the end to shew that none of them could be the Christ If then when the coming of Christ approached some other had appeared with the gift of Miracles he might have been taken for the Messiah himself considering the concurrence of time but this inconvenience hath been prevented The following question is referred also to this Why none of them from whom Christ is descended according to the flesh hath had the gift of Miracles This is remarkable that of so many ancestours of whom Christ is issued there is not one that hath wrought a Miracle Neither Enoch nor Abraham nor David nor so great a number of other famous men have been honored with this gift And it is especially to be considered that none of the Tribe of Judah wrought Miracles till our Lord came This Tribe had been designed among all others to be that of which Christ ought to be born It was important then that none of this race should work any Miracle before our Lord to the end that none other might be taken for the Messiah Of all those which have wrought Miracles there was not one of the Tribe of Judah Not Moses nor Aaron who were of the Tribe of Levi. Not Joshua who was of Ephraim Not Elijah nor the others the Tribe of whom is either different or uncertain Our Lord is the first of the lineage of Judah that wrought Miracles And before him God would never grant that power to any person of that Tribe Why John the Baptist had not the gift of Miracles The birth of so great a man who was more then a Prophet was truely preceded by Miracles but himself never wrought any Miracle This is also in part for the same cause which I have already spoken to the end that it might not be thought that he was the Christ whereas he was none other then his forerunner And indeed already eyes were cast upon him as if he had been the Messiah But there is also another reason which ought here to be considered The first that wrought Miracles under the Old Testament was the same man that gave the Law to wit Moses The first also that wrought Miracles in the New Testament was the same that brought the Gospel to wit Jesus Christ This prerogative appertained to him to be the first which should seal the New Testament by Miracles as Moses had been the first that sealed the Old This could not be agreeable to John the Baptist Of the divers degrees or steps by which our Lord displayed his miraculous power toward the bodies of men The Son of God began his Miracles at the nourishments of the body of man when he changed the water into wine Afterward he manifested his power in healing the sick And lastly continuing still to do good unto the living he proceeded so far as to raise the dead Sometimes he hath brought forth one great Miracle to be the forerunner of a greater Miracle Having healed the servant of the Centurion who was neer unto death on the morrow he raised him who was perfectly dead to wit the young man of Naim Luke 7. Having healed her who had been sick twelve yeers the same day he raised her that had been dead being of the age of twelve yeers Mark 5. It behoveth here to note the divers ages of sicknesses and infirmities of those which he healed Some had been afflicted since twelve yeers as the woman already spoken of Others since eighteen yeers as the woman bowed together Luke 13.11 Others since eight and thirty yeers Joh. 5.5 Others from their infancy as the Lunatick Mark 9.21 Others from their birth as he that was born blinde Joh. 9.1 So that the Son of God be it in healing the bodies of men or raising them from the dead hath extended his power from their cradle to their grave Of the divers actions which Jesus Christ hath done in the Temple of Jerusalem He entered into the Temple divers times in divers qualities and for divers functions 1. He entered as a private person and a member of the Common-wealth of Israel when he was presented to the Lord fourty days after his nativity Luke 2.22 2. He did the act of a Disciple at the age of twelve yeers hearing the Doctors and asking them questions 3. He did the act of a Doctor when he preached and taught 4. He did the act of a Redeemer when he pardoned the adulteresse 5. He did the act of the Lord and Master of the Temple when he chased out the buyers and sellers that profaned it 6. He performed also the act of a Soveraign in the Miracles which he wrought And this furnisheth us with the Consideration following Why no man ever wrought Miracle within the Temple of God except the Son of God An observation upon this subject We are not of the opinion that this came to passe casually or for want of occasion or without cause worthy to be considered that our Lord was the alone man that hath exercised the power of Miracles within the house of his Father This is one of the marks of his preeminence and of the jurisdiction which he had in that place Many men have wrought Miracles in divers parts but none of them wrought them within the compasse of the Temple It was promised Malach. 3. that the Lord which is the Messiah should come into his Temple Now Jesus Christ willing to shew that it was himself that was to come caused himself to be taken notice of within the Temple it self by the Miracles which there he produced there I say where none other had that power It may be observed here that there have been two persons that have been struck with miraculous plagues in the Temple a King and a Priest to wit Uzziah and Zacharias the father of John the Baptist The one became leprous and the other dumb 2 Chron. 26. Luke 1. But never any sick or impotent were miraculously healed in the Temple till the comming of the Son of God who there healed the blinde and the lame Matth. 21.14 Why Jesus Christ when he was hungry or thirsty or weary with travel never helped himself by his miraculous power to give himself refreshment When others wanted drink he turned water into wine But when himself was thirsty he desired water of the Samaritan woman When others were hungry he multiplied the loaves