best Man upon Earth could not stand before God under that dispensation which addition to the story God for some especial ends we may be assured gave to the Apostle by Revelation there being no such thing recorded by Moses himself In the 22th Verse the Apostle comes to the second Part of the comparison the affirmitive Part shewing what it is that the believing Jews when they embraced Christianity came to but ye are come to mount Sion 1st This in general is to instruct the converted Jews that by the Gospel they are come to and embodyed with the true Catholick Church called in scripture the fulness of him that filleth all things of which the National Church of the Jews was but a Type and a Figure 2dly That this true Catholick Church is partly in Heaven and partly on Earth And 3dly The Apostle by intermixing these parts together in his account of them gives them to understand that they are all of one piece and together make but one Church and one Body under one Head things in Heaven and things on Earth being united in Christ as their common head and by telling them they are come they are come to this Catholick Church the Apostle signifies this unto them that as their Fathers after several Days Travel upon their coming out of Egypt and by great and solemn preparations came at last to Mount Sinai so they and their Fathers having travelled through the former dispensation which was the great preparative to this they are now safely arrived hither and are come to all the Glories and Priviledges of the Gospel they are come in respect of Relation and Communion to all that part of the Church that is in Heaven and to all the true and real parts of it upon Earth not now confin'd to any National Constitution whatever and this is the best state and utmost that we can attain to in this World The Apostles drift here is not at all to describe the Church Triumphant but the Militant Church the force of this Discourse lies in preferring the state of the Gospel Church here upon Earth beyond and before that of the legal and judicial Church and the Apostle chooseth to represent them both by two Mounts one where the Law was given which was the greatest thing belonged to the Judaical oeconomy and the other from whence the Gospel first issued If you ask why the Apostle represents the Gospel state by Mount Sion and Jerusalem that were places proper and peculiar to the Jews there are several accounts may be given of it 1st Because those places had Spiritual and Gospel significations even as the Jews enjoy'd them and so the Apostle represents by them the better to engage the Jews what they truly and really signified and speaks of them in their own native and proper representation Mount Sion consisted of two parts on the highest part the Temple was built and on the other the Palace of their Kings so that this Mount was typically comprehensive of their Civil and Ecclesiastical state 2dly The Gospel first issued from thence and it was prophesied that so it should do Esau 2.3 out of Sion shall go forth the Law speaking of the Gospel and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And the same Prophet tells us the deliverer shall come out of Sion and upon that account in Psal 133. God is said from Mount Sion to command the blessing even life for evermore the meaning is Christ himself came into the Temple upon Mount Sion in Jerusalem and from thence in person issued out the Proclamation of the Gospel and therefore the Apostle keeps up the Honour of this Mount and this City because it had ever been by right and designation the seat of the true Worship of the only true God in opposition to all Idolatry and upon that account called the City of the Living God and in regard of the most glorious Types and Prefigurations were therein included and at last therein appeared the great end and substance of them all the glorious Person of God-Man of Christ himself it seems in a sort necessary if the Church were denominated by any one place it should be from this as being comprehensive of the whole Church and State of the Jews and the very center of it the Catholick Church under the Gospel being under confinement to no one place more then another no one place could so give a denomination to it as it might do to a National Church and therefore this place is made choice of by the Holy Ghost and being comprehensive of all God's sacred institutions of old of the Jewish Church Litterally and the Gospel Church Spiritually The Catholick Church universally thereupon is denominated from it and by it to the end of the World To which we may add in the Third place That since all the promises in the Old Testament that are made to the Gospel Church to the end of the World are made to it under those names of Sion and Jerusalem that therefore it seems necessary to keep up those names as it hath pleased the Holy Ghost to do to the end of the World to shew the punctual fulfilling of those promises in all Ages What Mount Sion and Jerusalem signified will not be compleated till the Consummation of all things upon which account God was said to take up his rest and dwell there for ever Nothing therefore seems so proper so decent and fit as to denominate the Gospel-Church by those terms and as it was in the Apostles times a great help to them to find out what Christ was to do and suffer by what was signified and typified of him under the Law so it will be to the very end of the World a marvellous help to the Church to understand the glorious methods of his Kingdom and Government by looking back and seeing how it was set forth in the prefigurations of it that belonged to Jerusalem and Mount Sion It pleaseth the Holy Ghost throughout the whole Scripture most frequently to represent the Gospel in Judaical Types and Phrases and two reasons we may probably suppose for it 1st To shew what an exact Agreement and Harmony there is in all God's Dispensations how every shadow truly represented the substance and every counter-part punctually agrees with the original And 2dly As a means to promote the conversion of the Jews in the latter times when they shall lay to heart and consider that all their own Religion expressed in their own Language is truly and fully to be found in the Christian Religion that the Law therein is exactly conster'd into the Gospel and every particular thing they most valued they shall here find by name expressed and fully to be enjoyed in the substance and perfection of it But for the more punctual and exact discovery of the Apostles sense in these Verses it will be needful to consider the particulars to which he tells the believing Jews they were come severally and distinctly The First thing he tells
aw'd and taught to reverence the Law God raised by them the Smoak and the Fire at Mount Sinai 3dly It was they that shook and rent the Rock 4thly It was they that sounded the Trumpet And 5thly from the consideration of which the great Emphasis of the Apostle's Speech chiefly ariseth 't was they framed and effected the articulate Voices and Words from God by which he spake to the People and by which the Law was conveyed to their Ears that is the Angels received the Law from God's Mouth and uttered it by Sounds and Expressions to the People and thereby became so the publishers of the Law as that it is truly and very properly called the word spoken by Angels and may be very significantly said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator 'T will be a thing in its nature most instructing and full of the greatest spiritual delight and satisfaction to consider over the Apostles first Point those glorious Excellencies of Christ that are appertainant unto him by which he hath the preference of all that went before him and by which he is infinitely exalted beyond what ever can possibly succeed him and therefore a Revelation made and a Religion setled by him must needs with the supreamest Authority command our utmost obedience First he informs us of two transcendent supereminent and unparalled Qualifications of this glorious Person by whom God now speaks first that he hath appointed him Heir of all things and secondly that by him he made the Worlds The first of these relates chiefly to his Assumption of the Humanity and as he is Man this is an eternal statute of the Trinity that the second Person humbling himself to become Man and assuming the Humane Nature to the Divine as he was Man should be Heir of the whole Creation and inherit as a Prince and a Saviour all created Supremacy and Glory and therefore he himself often affirms in St. John that all authority and judgment is given unto him upon this very account because he is the Son of Man a Title only given to him in Scripture by himself and by no other and another expression of the Seed of the Woman that very Humane Nature that look'd so meanly and was such a stumbling-block to the Faith of the Jews and the Philosophy of the Gentils had annexed unto it the Lordship and Dominion of all this could not simply belong to the Humane Nature in it self but was by Divine Ordination of the Father by him of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named and therefore the Apostle saith that God has appointed him heir of all things and by this insinuates to the Jews that if he were Heir of all things then has he power in the Church to alter and settle what Religion he pleaseth dispose of their Ecclesiastick Fabrick as he thought good and that if they did intend to keep those eminent and peculiar Priviledges they had above the rest of the World they must own him and enjoy all from him and under him because God has ordained him Heir of all things But the second is that I shall chiefly insist on by which the Apostle inculcates his Divinity that by him God made the worlds this is a discovery that at first view seems rather to stupifie and amuse the Object so far exceeding the Faculty than any way to encourage us to contemplate or enquire or farther to think over this matter nor can any one Meditation about it be drawn from any other Topick than pure Revelation this is a great Oracle let fall from Heaven for the instruction of the Church and we must with all humble and thankful adoration enquire how far the Holy Ghost has inform'd us in this matter and not farther gaze lest we lose our selves in vain fruitless and unbecoming Speculations By whom also he made the worlds By the Worlds is not meant as some have conceived several Successions of the same World but 't is meant in the sense the Jews took the word to whom the Apostle accommodates himself and they reckoned upon three Worlds that above of Angels and Spirits that beneath them of Sun Moon and Stars and this inferior World in which we converse the Apostles drift is to shew that what was any where created was created and made by him and that according to St. John without him was nothing made that was made and this appears to be his meaning from Col. 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible By whom not as a created instrument any way inferior to himself so it cannot be taken for we are told by Sr. John that the word by which all things were made was in the beginning with God and was God but by him as his own eternal Word Wisdom and Power that is to say the making of the World was an act peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity and the whole Deity in making the World acted by the second Person for 't is not said absolutely that Christ made the World but God by him which notifies to us the order of working in the Trinity and the distinct subsistence and operations of the persons and not bare instrumentality True it is that the act of each Person in the Trinity is in some sense the act of all the three yet by the Trinity a threefold Record is said to be born in Heaven and distinct acts are applied to each of the three and God does appear to us under distinct actings in the same eternal and blessed Essence by that threefold Record To make this deep and important Point as plain and overt as we can the best way is to view over those Scriptures where the Holy Ghost treats most expresly touching this matter St. John begins his Gospel with a great discovery of it In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Apostle's design in this Gospel is evidently to begin it with the Divinity and Godhead of Christ as the rest had begun theirs with the Original and History of his Humanity and Incarnation and this Declaration of his Divinity must needs be very short for no man can write a History of God or make any Narrative of his Eternal Existence the Apostle therefore in a few words tells us all that was needful and proper to be told about his Divinity and all that could be known about the Man Christ Jesus as he was God In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning 't is an allusion to what Moses says about the Creation In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth that is before any thing created was extant and so here St. John says In the beginning was the word
that is Christ was extant when all things else began and so he was and was in being before them and did not then begin to be he was before time or any thing that was created had a beginning 't is in a short way to express him eternal the expression that he was is evidently taken out of the 8th Chapter of Proverbs from the 23d to the 31st Verse where the Word St. John speaks of is represented as present with God in all the Business that relates to this World and principally and especially in the work of Redemption The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was when there was no depths I was brought forth when there was no fountains abounding with water and in the 30th Verse Then I was with him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him rejoycing in the habitable parts of this Earth and my delights were with the sons of men of which we can conceive no more but that God's Works being known unto him and present with him from all eternity the Word the second Person in the Trinity by whom they were to be made managed and finally disposed was with him in that particular concern and relation from all eternity and God took the same complacency in them as if they had been actually in being the Apostle's words are a plain Syllogism Christ was in the beginning not created but existing before all created beings And was and if you ask where he was he was with God and therefore must needs be God upon these premises that Christ was before all and was with God It may be undeniably concluded he was God for nothing but God could precede all beginning and creation and exist with himself Was the Word The Reasons why the Apostle chuseth to express Christ when he writes of his Divinity by the name of the Word seem to be two and they both result from that other undeniable evidence he gives of his Divinity that he was not only before the World with God but that the World was actually made by him and that without him nothing was made that was made The first reason of his being called the Word is because words are the express Image of Ourselves of our Wisdom Councels and Will and so was Christ the very express Image of God the Deity in that work of creation utter'd and express'd it self in its eternal Wisdom Councels and Will by the second Person as the voice of all the three and so he is called the Word Secondly He is called the Word with particular reference to the History Moses gives us of the manner of Creation the Creatures were all originally framed by God's speaking for says he God said of every thing let it be and it was he said let there be light and it was so The Psalmist speaking of the Creation expresseth it thus He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 God spake and the Creation was effected the method of it is so represented and it being performed by the second Person and God speaking solely by him he is thence called the Word And this seems to be all the knowledge we can attain to about this deep and profound Expression and we must know withal that the Expression is metaphorical and suted to our frame and capacity In the first of the Colossians from the 15th Verse to the 19th we find the Apostle's expression very full in this matter who is says he the image of the invisible God and the first-born of every creature for by him were all things created which are in heaven and that are in earth whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning and first-born from the dead that in or among all things he might have the pre eminence In the 15th Verse the Apostle lays down these two deep and grand fundamenral Truths First That he is the image of the invisible God the same that he affirms in the first of this Epistle to the Hebrews That he is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person And Secondly That he is the first-born of every creature The Apostle's meaning in the first of these in both Texts is principally to assert and prove the Divinity of Christ appearing in the fashion of a Man and to give us to understand that the second Person in the Deity united unto the Humanity though he be so distinct from the Father as that the Father and he bear a distinct and twofold Record yet he is essentially God and has all the Qualifications of the Deity appurtenant unto him he is the brightness of his Father's glory Now his glory is the radiation of his excellency and Christ being the brightness of his glory is the perfection of his glory and so an essential part of his being and in that conjunction of God and Man wherein he is visible he is the very Image of the invisible God and represents the inaccessible and invisible Deity unto us the great thing the Wisdom and Philosophy both of Jews and Gentiles stumbled at and renders it the object of our knowledge our delight our communion and unutterable satisfaction the Humane and Divine Nature being united in one person and making and constituting but one Person he that sees what is visible and can be seen in that Person is said and truly so to see that Person as he that sees a Man is truly said to see the whole Man though he do not actually see the Soul of that Man nor distinctly and particularly the Understanding Will and Affections of which that Man is constituted but by their effects in corporeal Operations the Deity was as visible in the Humane Person of Christ as the Soul is in the Fabrick of any Man we converse with and in this sense our Saviour himself says he that seen him hath seen the Father by the Effects and his Mighty Operations he that sees that Person where the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily has seen God himself that is has seen that express visible Image of his Person set forth for us to converse with him by and through which the Godhead acts and shews it self by its omnipotent effects according to that of St. John No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten son in the bosom of the father he declares him that is the Humane Nature of Christ united to the Deity is that Image whereby God is pleas'd to reveal and manifest himself to us and all that is acted in by and through that Image is the Actings of God Secondly The Apostle says he is the first-born of every creature by which the
the Long-suffering he exercises to that purpose 3. By his mighty over-ruling all the violent and raging Oppositions made by the World and the Powers thereof against Him his Church and his Interest and doing it in such a manner as that whatever is most maliciously intended against them shall be rendred useful and subservient to them 4. By his compleat Conquest over and final Judgment upon all his incorrigible Enemies at last Secondly With respect to the Church there he is most eminently triumphant in his Glory and Government for he dwelleth in Heaven and ruleth on Earth but reigneth in Sion the Church is his peculiar Province where he displays the manifold Wisdom of God in curious variety 1. They are all redeemed with his own Blood St. Peter tells us We are not redeemed with corruptible things 2. They bear his Image look upon the Frame and Constitution of every true Christian and if you ask whose Image and Superscription is this the answer is it is Christ's and therefore the same treatment he met with here below the very same will always attend the Church every Christian is a Member of the New Creation Christ has remade him all over herein lyes the great Power and Glory of Christ's Kingdom in remaking and new making of the Sons of Men and this New Creation 't is an Abomination to the fallen Angels and all apostate and unrecovered Men and so will be to the end of the World 3. The tender Heart and gracious Disposition of Christ is most transparently beheld in the Government of his Church of his own House and Family 't is here you may have the report of all his unwearied Kindness and unutterable Forgiveness of all his Attendance upon and Endurance of the froward and perverse Spirits of Men here you may see all the fulfilling of the good pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith with power and all those gentle easie and obliging Methods he useth to gain Souls to himself and render them happy how many Faults he bears with and forgives in his People how many Temptations he shields them from and how many sore Lapses he pities them in and recovers them from under and puts forth his Hand as he did to Peter to every sinking Soul what that eminent Apostle and Servant of Christ said of himself is much more verified in his great Master and ours upon him lyes continually the care of all the Churches and of every particular Member and that not only in one Age but throughout every Generation Laftly The Greatness and Excellency of this Government appears herein that he makes all subservient unto it and brings all his Subjects safely to their Eternal Inheritance all Humane Motions are so over-ruled as to promote the great Work of Salvation as all things were designed in their first make to be serviceable to the manifestation of Divine Grace therein so they are made to be in the future Revolutions of all Ages how glorious and wonderful an Enclosure is the Church out of this prophane apostate World God the Father is the Supreme Benefactor sets the great Wheel going For the Son does nothing but what he sees the Father do And in the great Volume of God's Book this peculiar Memorandum is made and 't is recorded of him that he came to do the Father's Will I come to do thy will O God All that Christ does is but the Execution of the Father's designs the Holy Ghost is their peculiar Comforter and Companion the grand Operator in Christ's Kingdom and that mighty Instrument by which all is effected that heart-changing life-reforming wonder-working Spirit by which all the stubborn unruly unconquerable Lusts of Men all the Wills of the Flesh and of the Mind are all subdued Leopards Spots quite washed away Ethiopian Skins made white and Men old in sinning and such as are accustomed to do evil are so instructed convinced and changed that they readily learn to do well resign up themselves as Temples for that blessed Spirit to dwell in and are no more led by depraved unruly Appetites but wholly conducted and managed by that safe and blessed Adviser Here 's the great delight of God in the Creation restored in Man new made and remade by the mighty workings of the Holy Ghost in the Mediator's hand 's God says of these Men the world is not worthy of them but the World are quite of another opinion for they cry out Away with such fellows from the earth it is not fit they should live Thirdly and lastly As it appears that the whole design of God touching both Angels and Men was laid in his first creation of them by the Son so is it in reference to all the rest of the Creation the inferior Creatures were so made as that God would receive all the Homage of them from Man they were made for his use and put in subjection to him Man's Habitation is this lower World and the Creatures are the Furniture of it given to him of God and as the Dominion and Soveraignty of this inferior part of the World was vested in Man by an unalterable Law of Creation so it has ever since been involved in his condition while Man abode in his primitive state all the rest of the Creatures kept their original lustre and beauty In Man's fall they also fell when Man fell into Rebellion this lower World fell under a Curse for his sake and that Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is renewed and restored by that gracious Covenant of God sealed in the Blood of the Mediator so at last when the Church is compleated the whole Creation shall be restored to its original and first created Glory The Scripture gives plain evidence to both these things First That the Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is restored and the Church built up but 't is in this sense to be taken and no farther that the Curse is taken off from the Creatures As to Man's use and enjoyment of them the Curse upon them lay in two things 1st A natural defacing of them and degrading them from their original Image for at first every thing was very good and there was no deformity nor any such production as Briers and Thorns And 2dly By inverting the use they were created for which was to be a Blessing and laying the enjoyment of them by Man under a Curse and a Judgment for Sin 's sake In respect of the first The Creatures contiliue alike to all and will do so till the restitution of all things the Creatures are naturally the same to good and bad and enjoyed by both alike without any such distinction or change But as to their enjoyment and use the difference is plain As Man is by the Mediator reconciled unto God so he comes to a sanctified enjoyment of and right to all the Creatures for God in the gift of his Son has with him also freely by a second Donation given us
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
carefully with tears Which is in other words to say take great heed least any of you Apostatize from the Christian Doctrine to Judaism and that by such example many others be seduced to do the like For in so doing you will resemble profane Esau who so easily as upon the pressure of a little temporary hunger and the relief of one poor meal sold his birthright and primogeniture upon which God had entailed the Priesthood and the Dominion of the Family the double portion and the blessing of the Covenant for so long as God was served within private walls and before the Tabernacle and Temple were erected to the first born was appurtenant the Priesthood and the right of performing all Holy and sacred Ministrations before the Lord and upon these accounts the Apostle calls him Profane Esau the apostatizing Jews would resemble him and that in a twofold respect 1st Because the Gospel that contained all the glorious priviledges was their peculiar birth-right the promises being made originally as we are told in the 9th of the Romans to them Christ came of them and first offered himself to them and the Gospel was preached in the first place to the Jews and tender'd to them as their particular Right before it reached the Gentiles 2dly If out of the impatience of some Temporary persecution and to obtain some present worldly ease and repose they should quit and forsake the Gospel they would become like prophane Esau who despised all his Spiritual Priviledges to satisfie his present appetite and sold them for so mean a carnal advantage as one poor meal Before we come to a distinct consideration of each particular of the Apostles comparison and for the clearer understanding of it some things may be previously noted First We have here set forth how much more Honourable the call of a Christian is then that of a Jew and how much greater and nobler attainments we arrive at by the Gospel then ever the Jews could pretend to by the Law And this is done First Negatively By shewing that we are past and not come to those lower and more terrene Dispensations and Methods of the Law but we are come to all the wonderful priviledges and advantages of the Gospel it has been God's way from the Beginning to proceed gradually in the Reveration of his love and good will to the World and still to advance farther and farther in discoveries of himself and in methods of Grace till at last the intercourse between God and Man upon the assumption of the Human Nature to the Divine is as near as it can be and Men come to have access to God in the manner the Apostle tells us Eph. 2. ver 18. For through him we both have an access by one Spirit unto the Father which is to Worship in the Grace Glory and Efficacy of the whole Trinity and to have as much Communion and Fellowship with each Person distinctly and as much enjoyment of them as we are capable of in this lower World Secondly The Apostle here sets before the believing Jews the form of giving the Law and the effects of it both which had in them all the discouragement and disswasive imaginable from deserting the Gospel and returning to that for the giving forth of the Law was with all the amazing affrighting Terrour that possibly could be to represent the eternal Majesty and Soveraignty of God the Supream Legislator The dreadful Consequences of breaking his Laws and falling under his Justice and Wrath and how fearful a thing it is for a sinner without some reconciliation to fall into the Hands of the living God and the effect of this dreadful promulgation was suitable to it for the People fell under the Highest consternation and petitioned that God would please to speak for the future to them by Moses being far unable to endure any such personal converse with the Almighty Nay even Moses himself that had so long and so intimately conversed with God was not able to abide by this dreadful appearance but fell into a paroxism of quaking and fear and this sufficiently represented by the vast distance there was between God and Man in this dispensation and how impossible it was for Man under that Law ever to approach unto God with any comfort and satisfaction Thirdly By the Apostles so punctually setting forth the giving of the Law upon Mount Sinai and opposing that fingly to the Fabrick and State of the Gospel is contained this insinuation that it was comprehensive of their whole constitution the highest Priviledge and Honour the Jewish Church had to boast of and that wherein they did most eminently stand distinguished from the rest of the World was their being brought unto Mount Sinai and God Personally meeting them there and himself delivering his Law unto them By this they were most eminently in their publick national State taken into Covenant with God above all the kindreds of the Earth and constituted there by a political State and a National Church unto himself and the Apostle reckons it as one of their highest priviledges the giving of the Law Now the force of the Apostles Discourse lies in this the greatest thing you have to boast is your Law and God's giving it himself to you upon Mount Sinai thence came all your National Priviledges and that was indeed no other then a splendid Ministration of Death Man stood there before God under the greatest Guilt Condemnation and Misery and God ap peared with the severest and most awful aspect that Man could behold him in nothing but Thunders Earthquakes Voices Fires and dreadful Horror round about him The Pardon the Peace the Reconciliation the near Approach unto God that Man stood in need of these things belong to Mount Sion to which we are come by the Gospel and 't is a very sorry change for any Jew that had embraced the Christian profession and viewed the Glory of this spiritual Mount and the Inhabitants of it to return back to Mount Sinai and all the dreadful circumstances appurtenant to it I come now to the distinct consideration of each particular in these verses For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire or as some better read it the fire that burned the Apostle's scope is to discover the Excellency and Glory of the Gospel-state by a Negative comparison of it with that of the Legal and 't is one good step towards the shewing what a thing is to shew comparatively when the comparisons lie near what it is not you are not come says he unto that mount that might be touched coming to that Mount which your Fathers came to is quite out of date that is not your present business that is not the Dispensation God calls you to now but you are by his call come to another Mount a much nobler and better state of things we are said to be come to that to which God calls us unto and to which he requires our
of Jesus cleanseth us from all sin Several things result from this Supreme Priviledge of the Gospel That we are come to God the Judge of all as reconciled to him and having his righteous judgment on our side First That he will certainly revenge the Churches Cause upon all their implacable Enemies who alone is the Judge of all Causes and Complaints and whatever Controversie hath been at any time in any Age between Satan and the Church and between the wicked prophane persecuting part of the World and the Church God the Judge of all will determine it on the Churches side will vindicate their innocency and their faithful adherence to him his own interest and theirs being the same And how great a comfort ought this to be to every sincere Christian however persecuted and oppressed by Men to consider that yet the righteous God is of his side and that the Supreme Judge who cannot do unrighteously whose Judgment is the very perfection of Justice and whose Judgment is final and irreversible will be sure to give judgment for him at last and reward his Enemies with shame and confusion 2dly He will certainly recompence all his Servants for every faithful service they shall perform for him the reward of all their Works will be sure to follow them into the next World this is the great stay and support to all true Christians under their present pressures that their labour shall not be in vain in the Lord this St. Paul encouraged himself in the prospect of in the midst of all the Heroclitons and Hurricanes of Persecution he met with There is says he laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me 3dly All the dreadful fears and apprehensions of God that ever since the fall have inhabited the minds of Men are by this access unto God discharged and dismiss'd this is that which hath kept the whole World in bondage all their days the fear of God as their Judge standing at the door ready to execute Wrath upon all Disobedience this is the inward invisible Wound Mankind carry about them this is the inward heart-afflicting Fear and Terror of every sinner nor can he any way discharge or disburden himself of it for 't is engraven in his being and is part of himself every Man 's own Conscience which is the ability he has to judge of himself with reference to the Judgment of God is God's Vice-Roy and whether he will or no will give in evidence for God against him and justifie truth against carnal and corrupt interest What sad and doleful reflections has the sense of God's judgment occasioned in Men Men think of God and are troubled and say with Job Destruction from God was a terrour to me and by reason of his highness I could not endure How uneasie are Men in all Humane Comforts and Enjoyments where the sense of this abides A Man that has God for his Enemy at last and nothing but this present World for his Portion is meanly and wofully circumstanced now by the Gospel all this is removed we come to the Judge of all as our best friend and are able to say with an holy boast and exâ—ltation Who shall condemn 't is God the Judge of all that justifies who shall lay any thing to our charge since the Supreme Judge of all the World is for us what now can trouble us what is it can now engender sorrow in our breasts we are now impregnable against ever being made truly miserable he that has God of his side can never be made unhappy the false corrupt judgment of this wicked degenerate World will be of mean value with us and little concern us since the Judge of all is on our side and we are secure of being by his judgment made eternally happy for as the Apostle tells the suffering Saints God will reward tribulation to them that trouble them but to those that are troubled eternal rest and glory 6thly We are said to be come to the spirits of just men made perfect that is compleated in the full reward of their Christian course the Apostle mentions all the parts of the Gospel Catholick Church both in Heaven and in Earth to manifest to what a Noble and Honourable Society we are joyned and incorporated by the Faith of the Gospel and how desperate and irrecoverable an evil Apostasie from such a Communion were this Expression throws that foolish idle Fiction of Purgatory quite out of dores 't is by this Expression of the Apostle excommunicated and utterly cast out of the Catholick Church for ever for all the departed Saints are reckoned here to be in one only condition they are not some in one state and some in another but they are all perfect and compleat which utterly confutes all the fictitious doting Dreams of such a refining state as Purgatory every departed Saint's spirit is in a state of perfection with God they are all in his presence and therefore they are by the Apostle in this enumeration placed next unto him The best way of considering this Expression is to discover what prospect we can gain by it into the other World and what can be certainly collected from it of the state of the blessed in Heaven These three things are very plainly deductive from hence 1. That all the Saints departed are in a state of Perfection and enjoy a blessed Communion with God 2. That they also enjoy a Communion with the Church militant here And 3. That the Church here enjoy also a Communion with them both which last particulars are implied in our being said to be come unto them The Souls departed hence have this Communion with the Church below 1. They worship as they do him that sits on the Throne and the Lamb they adore the Merit of Christ's Blood and the Glory of free Grace for ever and wheresoever any Gospel-worship is offered up upon Earth they are present in spirit and concur in it the Service and Worship of Heaven is of the very same nature with that of the Saints upon Earth thô performed in the Royal Presence and in the heavenly Temple and in some respects differently circumstanc'd 2. They have a tender regard to all the labouring fighting striving Servants of Christ here below wishing a happy success to them well remembring that themselves were lately in that condition the state of the Church here that is at Sea and tossed with many storms no doubt is much in their minds thô they are safely arrived themselves in the Harbour of Eternal Rest and Happiness 3. They rejoyce greatly in all the Churches prosperity and particularly in its increase if the conversion of sinners on Earth cause great joy in Heaven no doubt but the Spirits made perfect are partakers of it as well as the Angels for they are altogether as one Society and they are equally capable of it as they are for they are like the Angels of God and they have much
more cause to be concerned in the joy than the others because they themselves have travelled through all the stages of Salvation and all the Methods by which Souls come to glory and are now experimentally informed what blessedness attends and waits upon every converted saved Soul 4. They have communion with the Church here below by being present with Christ and beholding his blessed intercession for it taking unspeakable delight and satisfaction therein they behold all the concerns of the militant Church constantly presented before the Father by the Son and so are conversant with it and have the same vital love and concern for it that animates the whole 3dly Our being said to be come to them implies some effect of that as an attainment and some communion that is had with them on our part 1. We have communion with them in this respect when ever we address our selves to God and perform any Worship to the Divine Majesty we do it with this certain assurance and knowledge that he is incompassed with the holy Angels and all the Souls of the perfected and blessed and so in every act of Divine Worship we have a sort of communion with them he that converseth with any great King has a relative communion with his whole Court as appurtenant to him 2. We are come unto them and have a communion with them upon this account because we are in the same state that brought them thither we are in possession of the very same title to glory that brought them to it we have in faith what they have in fruition and we are continually waiting to be removed to them we are therefore truly said to be come to them because we are of the same Houshold and Family and there is nothing wanting but our dissolution to bring us actually into their Company and into the same Place where they now are And lastly we are come to them so as to receive great incouragement from them in our Christian Course by contemplating what it has brought them unto we are much animated to follow their example and much advantaged every way by setting before us their glorious and blessed state and condition 7thly We are here said to be come to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant Here the Apostle sets down the Alpha and the Omega of all this catholick Society this Jesus is the Sourse and Center of all the great Corner-stone upon which all the Structure depends In two things the force of the Apostle's comparison lies 1. They are come to Jesus himself a Saviour and a Mediator far exceeding Moses And 2. to a much better Covenant of which he is the Mediator The preference of Christ to Moses as a Mediator is largely discoursed of in this Epistle Moses was but a typical Mediator employed as a middle person between God and the People but Christ is the Son in his own House In this case God-man is the Mediator and God is the person mediated unto which consideration perhaps may help to unfold that difficult expression of St. Paul to the Galat. A mediator is not a mediator of one but God is one In two things the Apostle makes the especial difference between Christ and Moses to lie 1. Christ was the Surety of the Covenant unto God on the Peoples part and so they are sure not to fail in the performance of their part under Moses the People constantly failed in their part and he was no way to undertake or perform for them 2. Christ confirmed the Covenant by his own Death which Moses did not what he did was by the Blood of other Creatures of Bulls and Goats what Christ did he did by his own Blood and by the offering up of himself and therefore coming to such a Mediator as he is Jesus a Saviour as well as a Mediator that has redeemed the Church with his own Blood and such a Mediator as he is that lives for ever to make intercession is infinitely better than to be baptized into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea After all the Promises Predictions Types and Prefigurations of him the Apostle tells the believing Jews they are at last come to this Jesus to this Mediator and Saviour their Fathers having travelled through so many Ages and Dispensations before they arrived at his appearing it would be the very last degree of all folly and contradiction to their own interest to think of drawing back and returning to those terrene Elements by which he was figuratively represented and which have now by his appearance totally spent themselves in his signification coming to him as Mediator of this new Covenant implies coming to all the Benefits and Advantages of this Covenant for all the Promises of God are in him yea and in him Amen 't is certain the Apostle by calling Christ the Mediator of the new Covenant intends to shew the excellency of the Gospel-state beyond that at Mount Sinai for the Law there given is said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator which Mediator was Moses by consent both of God and the People upon which account they are said to be baptized into him and in regard God designed Christ as the glorious Mediator of a better Covenant he well approved of what the People said when they desired that God would not himself speak any more to them but deliver his Commands by Moses because it was a Preparative intimation of the necessity of a better Covenant attended with a more sufficient Mediator who had no sins of his own to account for and so could approach unto God without that dread and fear that accompanied Moses in the service he performed Two things will be necessary to be explained fully to unfold the Apostle's sense 1. What is meant by a Mediator 2. What is meant by the New Covenant By a Mediator here is meant one that represents the People and intercedes to God on their behalf which was the circumstance of Moses that these two qualifications might be eminently appurtenant to Christ to compleat him for that service in a way infinitely exceeding Moses he is God and Man in one person as Man a full and perfect representative of all Mankind and as God such an Intercessor as procures Salvation to the uttermost for all that come to God by him and not only in Moses way by a bare representation of the Peoples condition before God but by his own inherent Merit procuring all the grace favour and acceptation on their behalf they could either hope for or desire 2dly By the New Covenant we are sure Mount Sion is opposed to Mount Sinai and the Gospel set in opposition to the Law we find in the New Testament mention but of two Covenants the law given upon Mount Sinai which is said to grow old and to be ready to vanish away and is called the first Covenant and the Gospel preached of old to Abraham and published at large by Christ and his Apostles which is called the
are often ignorant and so his Writings seems to us the more difficult and obscure Thus we have taken a brief view of the Apostle's Comparison of the Law with the Gospel in this short Epitome of both and seen the wonderful preference the Gospel has to the Law and the great and eminent Advantages and Priviledges of the one above the the other and the glorious Inhabitants of this Spiritual Mount Sion and the Heavenly Jerusalem not only all the true Saints upon Earth the Church of the first-born written in Heaven but even God himself Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant all the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect nothing could be more destructive and ruinous to the true Interest of the believing Hebrews than to turn their backs upon such a Communion to go back to the Old Covenant that God upon Man's account found fault with and again put on that Legal Yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear the Jews much boasted of and rested in those literal Typical Advantages they had above the rest of the World upon which they might with very good reason value themselves and therefore the Apostle's business is to manifest to them how much by embracing the Gospel they changed for the better that instead of a Legal Temporary Temple built upon Mount Sion and an Earthly Jerusalem they are come to the true signified Mount Sion to the Spiritual and Heavenly Temple which is Christ Mystical where God dwells for ever and the Heavenly Jerusalem the name of which is Jehovah Shammai that is the glorious spiritual worship of the Gospel and the state of the Catholick Church in all its parts those on Earth and those in Heaven and thereby to all that was signified by and all that was any where promised unto Jerusalem and Mount Sion instead of that Dreadful Appearance of the Angels upon Mount Sinai with which they were so terrified and from which they were kept at so great a distance they are now come to an innumerable Company of Angels that is to a sweet Fellowship Brotherhood and Communion with them all which is implyed in their being said to be come to them under the Law 't was firmly believed whoever should see an Angel so great the distance was thought between Mankind and them should certainly die we are now Men and Angels all of the same Family and Houshold and the Saints on Earth have the whole Ministry and Service of the Angels employed on their behalf they are now always ascending and descending about their Affairs and there is a most endeared and intimate Relation and Affection between all the Myriads of Angels above and the Saints below instead of the National Church of the Jews assembled at Jerusalem they are come to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born whose Names are written in Heaven To the general Assembling of the true Catholick Church who Assemble and Worship all the World over in Spirit and Truth without any confinement to any place whatever they are come to them so as to be of the same Body and Society with them to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and so as to partake of all their Spiritual and Heavenly Advantages and they are come to all the parts of this Catholick Communion as well those in Heaven as those on Earth even to God himself which is as far as they can come the judge of all under the Law they were not suffered so much as to approach the outward signs of his Presence but under the Gospel they have free access to himself and to his very Throne which is now become a Throne of Grace and nothing appears now from thence but a Scepter of Mercy held forth they are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect not only to the Fellowship and Fraternity of all the Saints living from the Fraternity of an outward Typical and only National Church but to those in the Heavenly state all those mentioned in the 11th Chap. before and all the Apostles and those Blessed Saints they had conversed with in the first times of the Gospel who were then removed and gone to their rest even to them by the Gospel-state they were come with them they are embodyed as Members of the same Society and with them in a short time they are sure to be resident And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant a Saviour as well as a Mediator and a Mediator not of the Sinai but of the Sion Covenant a Covenant bringing grace life and peace a Mediator not like Moses a meer Man a Servant a Sinner himself trembling in his Office and weary of his Burden and whose Ministry was like his Person decaying vanishing and dying But to the Son himself in his own House able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him in that he liveth for ever to make Intercession for them and to the Blood of sprinkling infinitely exceeding all the Blood that was sprinkled under the Law for that brought sin yearly and daily into remembrance but those that are sprinkled with this are for ever perfected and to them there remains no more Sacrifice for sin and this Blood they are come to speaks a better Language quite than the Blood of Abel did although the Blood of both was most unjustly shed and they were both wickedly murdered and slain yet they speak two different Languages Abel's Blood called and cried unto God for vengeance upon Cain but this pleads and cries aloud for pardon and forgiveness even for those very Persons that were most guilty of it and deepliest concerned in it so that none are excluded from the benefit of it The Apostle winds up all with deep and solemn Admonitions and Cautions to the Believing Jews not to play fast and lose with the Gospel 't is of such Jews St. James writes in his Epistle directed to the Twelve Tribes when he tells them A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and let not such a man think says he to obtain any thing from the Lord for he halts between two Opinions and is unresolved whether he shall be a Jew or a Christian the Apostle conjures them upon their utmost peril not to refuse him that speaks from Heaven which is no other than God himself speaking by his Son and declaring by a solemn voice from Heaven even from the excellent Glory that he was his Beloved Son in whom he was well pleased which beloved and blessed Son of God might well be said to speak from Heaven because we are expresly told he was also in Heaven when he spake here upon Earth he proceeds to mind them that the Legal state was like an old House ready to fall upon their heads for he that once by his voice shook the Earth at Mount Sinai and made the Mount to tremble will now once more shake both Heaven and Earth and dissolve the Apostle tells them their whole Religious Constitution and Fabrick and this taking away of things that are shaken is in order to this that things that cannot be shaken which are the blessings and glories and sure mercies of the Gospel may remain the Gospel is the last and only remedy that God has provided for sinful Man 't is a fearful thing to fall into his hands and not have this to plead to fall into the hands of the living God without an interest in Jesus the Mediator of this New Covenant and the Blood of sprinkling appurtenant thereunto he that has once embraced the Gospel and then out of choice refuseth it and turns his back upon it refuseth his remedy and thereby renders his Cure desperate and impossible and to such a man nothing can possibly remain but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment The Consideration of this Glorious and Honourable state to which by the Gospel we are come this Celestial Mount of Spirits should always inflame our minds with holy and thankful Contemplations and also with fervent and devout adoration of that infinite goodness that has made such provision for the happiness recovery and welfare of rebellious and apostate Man that has opened the flood-gates of Heaven and showr'd down all the blessings and glories thereof upon the World by the descent of the second person into Human Nature how happy were it if instead of mean low and perishing satisfactions Men would solace themselves with this heart-satisfying and everlasting Salvation let us follow the example of Moses who when God proclaimed his Name unto him and caused all his goodness to pass before him the Text says Moses made haste and bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped he only heard the report of what we possess and enjoy our whole business therefore should be to exalt the Praises of so Gracious a Benefactor and to Magnifie that Glorious being that has all possible Perfection to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be taken away and to whom all Blessing and Honour and Praise and all Worship and Service and Adoration will be due throughout all Generations from time to time till time ceaseth and is dissolved in Eternity and thence Eternally FINIS