or designement unto that high office a calling far more solemne and of better note then that which Aaron had to the Legal Priesthood For of the calling of Aaron it is only said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he was called by God is a common word and therefore like enough 't was done in the common way But the calling of Christ it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a more solemne and significant word and intimates that he was solemnely declared and pronounced by God to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedech Now as the calling was so was the consecration in all points parallel to Aarons and in some beyond Aaron was consecrated to the Priesthood by the hand of Moses but Christ our Saviour by the hand of Almighty God who long before as long before as the time of David had bound himself by oath to invest him in it Aarons head was anointed only with materiall oile Christs with the oil of gladnesse above all his fellowes The consecration of Aaron was performed before all the people gathered together for that purpose at the dore of the Tabernacle That of our Saviour was accomplished in the great feast of the Passeover the most solemne publick and universall meeting that ever any nation of the world did accustomably hold besides the confluence and concourse of all sorts of strangers In the next place the consecration of Aaron was solemnized with the sacrifices of Rams and Bullocks of which that of the Bullock was a sin-offering as well for Aarons own sins as the sins of the people and of the Rams the one of them was for a fire-offering or a sacrifice of rest the other was the Ram of consecration or of filling the hand And herein the preheminence runs mainly on our Saviours side who was so far from needing any sin-offering to fit him and prepare him for that holy office that he himself became an offering for the sins of others even for the sins of all the world And as he was to be advanced to a more excellent Priesthood then that of Aaron so was he sanctifyed or prepared if I may so say after a far more excellent manner then with bloud of Rams For he was consecrated saith the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his own bloud and with this bloud not only his hands or ears were spinkled as in that of Aaron but his whole body was anointed first being bathed all over in a bloudy sweat next with the bloud issuing from his most sacred head forced from it by the violent piercing of the Crown of thornes which like the anointing oyle on the head of Aaron distilled unto the lowest parts of that blessed body and lastly with the streams of bloud flowing abundantly from the wounds of his hands and feet and that great orifice which was made in his precious side Though our Redeemer were originally sanctifyed from the very wombe and that in a most absolute and perfect manner yet would Almighty God have him thus visibly consecrated in his own bloud also that so he might become the authour of salvation to all those that obey him and that he having washed our robes in the bloud of the Lamb might be also sanctifyed and consecrated to the service of our heavenly father Finally the consecration of Aaron and of all the high Priests of the law which succeeded him was to last seven dayes that so the Sabbath or seventh day might passe over him because no man as they conceived could be a perfect high Priest to the Lord their God until the Sabbath day had gone over his head The consecration of our Saviour lasted seven dayes too in every one of which although he might be justly called an high Priest in fieri or per medium participationis as the Schoolmen phrase it yet was not he fully consecrated to this Priestly office till he had bathed himself all over in his own bloud and conquered the powers of death by his resurrection That so it was will evidently appear by this short accompt which we shall draw up of his actions from his first entrance into Hierusalem in the holy week till he had finished all his works and obtained rest from his labours On the first day of the week which still in memory thereof we do call Palme Sunday he went into the holy City not so much to prepare for the Iewish Passeover as to make ready for his own and at his entrance was received with great acclamations Hosanna be to him that cometh in the name of the Lord And on the same day or the day next following he purged the Temple from brokery and merchandizing and so restored that holy place to the use of prayer which the high Priests of the Law had turned or suffered to be turned which comes all to one to a den of Theeves The intermediate time betwixt that and the day of his passion he spent in preaching of the Gospell instructing the ignorant and in healing of the blind and lame which were brought unto him in the performance whereof and the like workes of mercy he was more diligent and frequent and more punctuall far then Aaron or any of his successors in the legal Priesthood in offering of the seven dayes sacrifice for themselves and the people On the fift day having first bathed his body in a bloudy sweat he was arrained and pronounced to be worthy of death in the high Priests hall And on the sixt according to the Iewish accompt with whom the evening is observed to begin the day he went into his heavenly sanctuary to which he had prepared entrance with his precious bloud as Moses at Aarons consecration did purifie and consecrate the materiall Sanctuary with the bloud of Bullocks and of Rams Not by the bloud of Goats and Calves saith the Apostle but by his own bloud hath he once entred into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for us Which Sacrifice of the Son of God on the accursed Crosse although it was the perfect and full accomplishment of all the typical and legal sacrifices offered in the law yet was it but an intermediate though an especiall part of his consecration to the eternall Evangelical Priesthood which he was to exercise and not the ultimum esse or perfection of it That was not terminated till the day of his resurrection untill a Sabbath day had gone over his head which was more perfectly fulfilled in his consecration then ever it had been in Aarons and the sons of Aaron For then and not till then when God had powerfully defeated all the plots of his enemies did God advance him to the Crown to the regal Diademe setting him as a King on his holy hill the hill of Sion and saying to him as it were in the sight of his people Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And then and not till then when he had glorifyed him thus in the
first of these respects the blessed Angels have the title of the sons of God Where wast thou saith the Lord in the book of Iob when I laid the foundation of the earth when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy The sons of God that is to say the holy Angels Per filios Dei Angeli intelliguntur saith the learned Estius on the place And so St. Augustine doth determine who hereupon inferreth that the Angels were created before the stars and not after the six days were finished as some it seems had taught in the times before him Iam ergo erant Angeli quando facta sunt sydera facta sunt autem sydera die quarto as he most rationally concludes from this very text In this respect also the Saints in glory are called the sons or children of God and said to be equall to the Angels in St. Lukes Gospell not that they have all the prerogatives and properties which the Angels have sed quod mori non possunt saith the text but because they are become immortall and no longer subject as before to the stroke of death In the last meaning of the word though all the Saints and holy men of God may be called his children because they are adopted to the right of sons and made co-heires with CHRIST their most blessed Saviour yet is the title more appliable to the Prophets of God at least appliable unto them after a more peculiar manner then unto any others of the children of men I have said saith David ye are Gods and ye are all the children of the most High Of whom here speaks the Psalmist of Gods people generally or only of some chosen and select vessels Not of Gods people generally there 's no doubt of that though both St. Augustine and St. Cyril seem to look that way but of some few particulars only as Euthymius and some others with more reason thinke And those particulars must either be the Princes and Judges of the earth who are called Gods by way of participation because they do participate of his power in government or else the Prophets of the Lord who are called Gods and the sons or children of the most High by way of communication because God doth communicate and impart to them his more secret purposes that they might make them known to the sons of men Them he called Gods as Christ our Saviour doth expound it then whom none better understood the meaning of the royal Psalmist ad quos sermo dei factus est i. e. to whom the word of the Lord came as our English reads it And what more common in the Scripture then this forme of speech factum est verbum Domini c. The word of the Lord came to Isaiah Isa. 38.4 The word of the Lord came to Ieremiah Ier. 1.2 The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel Ezek. 1.3 et sie de caeteris If then such men to whom the word of the Lord came might justly be entituled by the name of Gods and called the sons of the most High assuredly there was not any of the children of men which could with greater reason look to be so called then the holy Prophets And yet in none of these respects abstracted from an higher consideration is CHRIST our Saviour here called by the name of the Son of God or so intended in this Creed For Angel he was none in the proper signification of the word though called the Angel of the Covenant in the way of Metaphore Nor did he take the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham as St. Paul tels us to the Hebrews We may not think so meanly of him as to ranke him only in the list of the Saints departed it being through the merits of his death and passion that the Saints are made partakers of the glories of heaven and put into an estate of immortality T is true indeed he was a Prophet the Prophet promised to succeed in the place of Moses that Prophet in the way of excellence in the first of Iohn v. 21 25. But then withall as himself telleth us of Iohn the Baptist he was more then a Prophet that word which came unto the Prophets in the times of old and to whom all the Prophets did bear witness for the times to come A King indeed he is even the King of Kings though not considered in that notion here upon the earth nor looked on in that title in the present Article Or if we could reduce him unto any of these yet take him as an Angel or a Saint departed or a King or Prophet every of which have the name of Sons in the book of God he could not be his only Son the only begotten Son of God the Father Almighty who hath so many Saints and Angels so many Kings and Prophets which are called his Sons It must needs follow hereupon that IESVS CHRIST our Lord is the Son of God by a more divine and near relation then hath been hitherto delivered And hereunto both God and Man the Angels and internal spirits give sufficient testimony The Lord from heaven procliamed him at his Baptisme and Transfiguration to be his well beloved Son in whom he was well pleased And Peter on the earth having made this acknowledgement and confession saying Thou art Christ the Son of the living God received this confirmation from our Saviours mouth that flesh and bloud had not revealed it unto him but that it came from God the Father which is in Heaven The Angel Gabriel when he brought the newes of his incarnation foretold his mother that he should be called the Son of God the Son of the most High in a former verse And a whole Legion of unclean Spirits in the man possessed joynes both of these together in this compellation IESVS thou Son of God most high A thing not worthy so much noise and ostentation had he not been the Son of God in another and more excellent manner then any of the sons of men who either lived with him or had gone before him had there not been something in it extraordinary which might entitle him unto so sublime and divine a priviledge Though Iohn the Baptist were a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet yet we do not finde that the Devils stood in awe of him for Iohn the Baptist did no miracles or looked upon him in the wilderness as the Son of God To which of all the holy Angels as St. Paul disputes it did the Lord say at any time Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And who can shew us any King but him that was the Son of God as well as of David whom God the Lord advanced to so high an honour as to cause him to sit down at his own right hand till his enemies were made his footstoole Though Angels Kings and Prophets were the sons
Deus in secula brnedictus as St. Paul calleth him in the 9. Chap. to the Romans vers 5. Deus in carne manifestatus God manifested in the flesh in the first to Timothy St. Iohn speakes home unto the point and doth more puzzle the Socinian and Arian hereticks then all the book of God besides In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning when was that When God created first the heaven and the earth when the earth was without forme and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep then the word was that is to say it had a perfect actuall being when all things else did but begin to be and having then an actual and a proper being it could not at that time nor at any time since begin to be but was and is and so continueth without ending In the beginning was the word what word that word by which the worlds were made as St. Paul hath it by whom all things were made saith St. Iohn and without which nothing was made saith the same Evangelist The word which after was made flesh and did dwel amongst us and by the brightnesse of his glory did declare himself to be the only begotten Son of the Father Ioh. 1. The expresse image of his person Heb. 1.3 the image of the invisible God Col. 1.15 That word in the beginning was and was God the word the Son of God not by communication of grace but nature therefore the natural Son of God but so the Son of God his begotten Son as to be very God for the word was God The Word was God saith the Apostle not only by a participation of power or communiâ—ation of a more abundant measure of his graces in which respects some of the Sons of Men are called Gods in Scripture Ego dixi Dii estis saith the royal Psalmist but properly and truly God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very true God and the Son of God We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true And we are in him that is true even in his son Jesus Christ who is the true God and the life eternal saith the same Apostle Here have we CHRIST the Son of God and CHRIST the true God both in one and what need further evidence in a point so clear Such further Topicks as are used for the proof hereof from the names given him in the Scripture the attributes and mighty workes ascribed unto him and the company of such texts in the book of God as being spoken of the Father in the old Testament are applyed in the new unto the Son I purposely forbear at present and shall content my self with such ample testimonies which CHRIST himself hath given to his own Divinity For though it be an unusual thing to admit a mans own testimony in his own cause according unto that of our Lord and Saviour If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true that is to say it would not passe for currant or be taken for truth yet when a man lyeth under any accusation he may then speak what he can in defence of himself and his testimony be allowed of towards his acquitment or justification And therefore Christ our Saviour being challenged by the Pharisees who were apt to cavil at his sayings for speaking in his own behalfe returned this answer Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Upon this ground then we proceed and though it be the last in order of our Saviours life yet we will first alleage that passage which happened in the high Priests hall on the day of his passion The high Priest finding no sufficient testimony for his condemnation resolved to put him to the oath of ex officio and therefore did adjure him by the living God to tell them whether he were the Christ the Son of God to which our Saviour answered saying Thou hast said Which though it be equivalent to an affirmation yet to make sure work of it and put it out of doubt St. Marke hath given his answer in these positive termes Iesus said I am In which it is to be observed that when the high Priests put our Saviour to this dangerous question he spake not of the Son of God in that vulgar sense in which the just and righteous persons were called his sons but of the Son of God in the natural sense in which he could not verifie himself for the Son of God without including necessarily that he was also God As in the 5. Chap. of St. Iohn where our Saviour having said My Father worketh hitherto and I also work the incensed Iews intended him some present mischief not only because he had broken the Sabbath but had said also that God was his Father making himself equal with God And this appears yet further by the following words where it is said that the high Priest rent his clothes saying he hath spoken blasphemy and thereupon pronounced him to be guilty of death which vote they after prosecuted before Pontius Pilate affirming that he ought to die by the Law of Moses because he had made himself the Son of God Assuredly their meaning was that he had made himself the true and natural Son of God and not the Son of God by especial grace for otherwise they had not voted him to be guilty of death Nor had the high Priest rent his clothes if he had only taken upon himself the name of CHRIST or of the Messiah because that could not come within the compasse of Blasphemy For they knew well that the Messiah or the Christ was to come in the forme of man though with more outward pomp and glory as they supposed then our Saviour did and therefore though they might have condemned him of folly in that being a man of no reputation he had taken on himself the name of CHRIST they had no reason in the world to accuse him of Blaspheming the name of God Now that the Messiah was to come in the form of man being he was to come of the womans seed was a thing so perfectly resolved on that Eve immediately on the promise made that her seed should bruise the Serpents head supposed that Cain her first born was to be the man and therefore said upon his birth I have gotten a man or rather the man from the Lord Possedi virum ipsum Jehovah I have gotten a man even the Lord Jehovah as Fagius the learned Hebrician upon severall revises readeth it The like conceit possessed the Parents of Noah as many good Authours do conceive upon which ground they said when they gave him that name this same that is this son of ours shall comfort us concerning our work Nor had the very Iewes of our Saviours time sent to enquire of Iohn the Baptist
it were together to behold the combate And then what marvail can it be saith our learned Prelate if the glory of Gods judgement and the power of his wrath the number of our sins and neglect of our own state the sharp and eager malice of Satan whom he had to do with made Christ with all possible fear of the great might and Majesty of the Judge all passionate sorrow for the crimes and contempts of the Prisoners all earnest and zealous intention of prayer against the impugner and impediment of mans deliverance to agonize himself into a bloudy sweat But if this sweat of our Redeemer proceeded not from natural causes but was rather supernatural and miraculous as Hilarie Rupertus Beda and others do conceive it was neither the fear of Hell pains nor the sense of sorrow could be the cause thereof as some think it was for being supernatural and miraculous it could not have a natural and proper cause Rather it might be wrought by Gods mighty power as a preparative to that Priesthood which he was to execute and to that all-sufficient Sacrifice which he was to make For in the oblations of the law which prefigured the death of Christ it was ordained that not only the sacrifice was to be slain by the shedding of bloud but that the person of the Priest was sanctified as well as the sinner presented by the Priest to God with earnest and humble prayer to make atonement for the trespass And since the Truth must have some resemblance with the Figure CHRIST in the Garden might perform some points required to the Priesthood as the sanctifying of himself with his own bloud and the presenting of himself to be the redemption and remission of our sins with instant and intensive prayer for the Transgressors Either of these may be admitted as agreeable to the rules of piety though for my part I incline rather to the former as having such a firm foundation in the Text it self Thus have we taken a full view of those templations and afflictions which our Saviour suffered in his soul without any participation which the body had in them under Pontius Pilate In which though there were nothing like to the pains of Hell which shall be specified hereafter in a place more proper yet there was in him such an accumulation of fears and sorrows and disconsolations as might entitle him most properly to be Vir dolorum a man compounded as it were of nothing but griefs and sorrows Next let us take a brief survey of those afflictions which he indured in his body and suffered nor in soul at all but by the means and apprehension of the outward senses as it participates with the body in all weal and woe And first no sooner had he ended his devotions and gathered together his Disciples but behold a great multitude armâ—d with swords and staves came to apprehend him and carry him before the high Priests and Elders amongst whom he was sure to find no mercy and but little justice Iudas Iscariot one of the twelve had sold his Master to them for a piece of money a most contemptible piece of money too no more then thirty pieces of silver which in our money reckoning each 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or piece of silver at 2 s. 6 d comes but to 3 l. 15 s. And though they had obtained their purpose at so cheap a rate yet they resolved that now they had him in their hands nothing should save him but a miracle To this end they suborned false witnesses to come in against him and if he did but offer to defend himself and refell their calumnies they have their servants in a readiness to smite him on the face and deride him saying Answerest thou the high Priest so Whether he speak or hold his peace it comes all to one his silence being counted a contempt and his speech a scandall If he passe only for a man how durst he say that he was able to destroy the Temple and in three days to build it again If he declare himself for the Son of God he is presently condemned of Blasphemie and contrary to the Laws both of God and man which would have no man punished more then once for the same offence he is first made a scorn and laughing stock to the standers by and after hurryed to the Iudge to receive his sentence No sooner had the Priests and Elders who had bargained for him pronounced him to be guilty of death but presently they cause him to be blind-folded that he might not see the insolencies which they meant to practise next with a joynt consent they spit on his most sacred face and buffet him and smite him with the palmes of their hands and then say to him in derision that if he were the Christ of God he should prophecie unto them who is was that stroke him Having thus pleased themselves with their own wickedness they blinde him like a common Malefactor and lead him away bound unto Pontius Pilate to have him formally condemned and executed The land of Iewry at that time was a province of the Roman Empire and none had power of life and death but the Roman Presidents or such to whom they delegated part of their authority for the ease of the subject This made them say it was not lawfull for them to put any man to death as indeed it was not not that they did forbear it or do it in regard of the Passeover or that it was unlawfull only in respect of the time Assuredly that bloudy people who made no scruple of transgressing the whole morall law in such an execrable murther would very easily have dispensed with the ceremonial had that stood only in the way to their main designe But there was in it a divine providence which had so disposed it to make him every way conform to those antient types which were given of him by the Lord in the Law and Prophets Had they proceeded with him by their own old Laws as questionâ—esse they would have done had it been in their power they must have stoned him to death that being the punishment ordained for blasphemers by the Law of Moses But he had signified before what kind of death he should die in the alluding of himself to the brazen Serpent which was not in the power of any to inflict upon him but those who did proceed upon him according the Laws of the Roman Empire Well then to Pilate he is carryed and that too early in the morning by the break of day So swift their feet were to shed innocent bloud that the Governour must be wakened before his hour to hearken to their clamorous accusations and more then so he must be won with fair words if not bought with money to come forth unto them for fear good souls lest if they came themselves into the judgment-hall they should be defiled and consequently debarred for that
of Christ. And for that cause the people in the celebrating of these â—olemn sacrifices used to confess their sins to the Lord their God and by that means did make the Sacrifice more acceptable and their atonement with the Lord more assured and certain but expiate â—ins those Sacrifices of their own nature neither did nor could In which sense Chrysostom said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The LEGAL SACCRIFISE saith he was rather an accusation then an expiation a confession rather of their weakness then a profession of their strength Now there are many things observable in these Legal Sacrifices which were performed and really made good in our Lord and Saviour For first the Sacrifice or Beast sacrificed was to be a male Levit. 1.3 and to be a male also without spot or blemish or any corporal defect And so it was with Christ our Saviour the son of David in whose lips there was found no guile in whom there was no sinful blemish no defect of righteousness The man who brought the sacrifice was to present it at the dore of the Tabernacle and to lay his hand upon the head of it in testimony that he laid all his sins thereon that it might be accepted as an atonement for him Levit. 1.3 4. And so CHRIST took upon him our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Matth. 8.17 and bare our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 The Sacrifice being brought before the dore of the Tabernacle was after bound with cords Binde the Sacrifice with cords to the horns of the Altar Psal. 118. slain by the Priest and his bloud sprinkled round about upon the Altar and then burnt with fire So the Redeemer of the world was led bound to Pilate Matth. 27.2 and after fastned to the Altar of the Cross with cords of iron implyed in this that they crucified him Matth. 27.35 i.e. they nayled him to the Cross. The Sacrificer was himself Ipse enim Sacrificium Sacerdos for he himself was both the Sacrifice and the Priest as St. Austin hath it offering his body to the Lord that by the hands of wicked and unrighteous men it might be crucifyed and slain and the whole Cross the Altar upon which he suffered besprinkled round about with his precious bloud issuing from his hands and feet and wounded side As for the burning of the sacrifice which was usual in their whole burnt offerings what could it signifie but those pains and sorrows that bitter cup and all the terrible pangs thereof which even burnt up his heart and consumed his spirits in the whole act of his crucifixion unless perhaps the ascending of the flames on high might signifie the the gracious acceptation of the sacrifice by the Lord their God as in that of Noah which carryed up a sweet savour to the God of Heaven In which regard a sweet savour and an offering made by fire do seeme to be Synonymas in the Book of God as Exod. 24.41 Levit. 3.5 And what more pleasing savour could ascend to God what could he smell more acceptable from the sons of men then the oblation made unto him of the Son of God reconciling the world unto his Father Finally as the bodies of those beasts which were brought into the Sanctuary by the high Priest for sin which was a differing kinde of Sacrifice from the whole burnt offering were burnt without the Camp so Jesus also saith St. Paul that he might sacrifice the people with his own bloud suffered without the Gate Heb. 13.11 12. And of this sort of Types and Figures were both the Anniversary Sacrifice of the Paschal lamb and the daily sacrifice of the two lambs one for the morning and the other for the evening Exod. 29. both of them shadowing or prefiguring in Gods intention though not in the intent of the ignorant Iews that all-sufficient Sacrifice of the Lamb of God which really and truly taketh away the sins of the world How far they are applyable in their other circumstances we shall see elsewhere As for the manner of Christs death and passion there were also some Types and figures of it as well before the Law as after What else was that of Isaac the promised seed the only and beloved son of his Father Abraham from whom the blessing promised by Almighty God to all the Nations of the world was to be derived commanded by an order from the Court of Heaven to be offered to the Lord for a burnt offering What did it signifie or prefigure but the offering of our Saviour CHRIST the dearly beloved Son of God in whom his Father was well pleased the expectation of the Genâ—iles conceived so miraculously beyond hope and reason above the common course of nature more then Isaac was The mountain on which that sacrifice was to be performed what did it signifie but that CHRIST should be offered up to God on a mountain also even the mount of Calvarie Luk. 23.33 What else the laying of the wood upon Isaacs shoulders wherewith himself the sacrifice was to be burned but the compelling CHRIST to take up that Cross whereon himself was to be crusified till Simon the Cyrenian came that way by chance to ease him of that heavy burden The calling of the Angel out of heaven to Abraham bidding him stay his hand and not strike the blow by means whereof poor Isaac was reprieved from slaughter doth it not clearly signifie the sending of an Angel from heaven to CHRIST our Saviour to comfort him in the midst of his fears and troubles and to deliver him from those fears and terrors which make death dreadful unto mankinde that he might undergo it with the greater cheerfulness And when the Devil had tryed all ways imaginable to prevail upon him out of a confident presumption to effect his ends and work some â—inful and corrupt affections to have power upon him what got he at last but a breathless carkass a short dominion of his body The Ram the fleshy part of CHRIST was all which fell unto his share in that bloudy sacrifice and that he was to take or nothing in stead of the Son the Son of the eternal everliving God whom he expected as a prey and in hope had swallowed And yet this Type though full of clear and excellent significancies comes not so home to my purpose unto the manner of Christs death as doth the Type and story of the Brazen Serpent The people journeying in the Wilderness and murmuring as they did too often against God and Moses had provoked the Lord And the Lord sent fiery Serpents amongst the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel died No remedy for this but upon repentance And when the people had repented the Lord said to Moses Fac Serpentem aeneum c. i. e. Make thee a Brazen Serpent and set it upon a pole and it shall come to pass that every one
that is bitten when he looketh upon it he shall live What use makes CHRIST the Lord of this As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Never was type more perfect and exact then that Man by his sins committed against God the Lord had provoked his anger and the Lord gave him over to the hands of the old Serpent the Devil who pierced them with his fiery darts consumed them with the heats of lust and drew them into everlasting danger both of soul and body No way to cure them of those wounds which the sting of sin and Satan had occasioned in them no way to quench those flames of natural concupiscence which were kindled in them and setting them at liberty from the powers of hell but by fastning Christ upon the Cross as was the Brazen Serpent on the top of the pole that whosoever looked on him with the eyes of faith might have the world crucified unto them and they themselves unto the world The Antients generally did thus interpret and apply our Redeemers words as being most agreeable to the scope of the place and to another of his Prophecies concerning himself saying that he should be delivered unto the Gentiles to be mocked scourged and crucified and thereby signifying what death he should die Ioh. 18.32 Calvin indeed of late days will not have it so affirming that this application of our Saviours words nec textui quadrat nec instituto is neither agreeable to the Text nor our Saviours purpose and that the plain and genuine meaning of the words is no more then this Quod Evangelii promulgatione erigendus sit Christus that the name of Christ should be advanced by the preaching or promulgating of the Gospel But whether this agree with our Saviours purpose in making a comparison of himself or rather of his lifting up as Moses lifted up the Brazen Serpent any which hath eyes to see and is not wilfully blinde with prejudice or prepossession may discern most easily Compare the fift and sixt verses of the 21. of Numbers with the 14. and 15. of the third of Iohn and tell me any man that hath not absolutely captivated his own judgement to another mans sense if ever Type and Antitype did agree more punctually The parallel goes further yet but beyond this purpose For as the Brazen Serpent of a remedy did become a disease and was made an Idol of an Hieroglyphick the Children of Israel in the times succeeding burning incense to it So was it also with the Cross or Crucifix in these later ages For who knoweth not how impiously it hath been abused to Idolatry in the Church of Rome how grossely it hath been adored by all sorts of people and with what impudence the greatest and most learned men have bestirred themselves in defence of that most palpable and gross Idolatry Bellarmine sparing not to say though he hope to save himself by a strange distinction of his own that the same honour which is due to Christ crucified is to be also given to the Cross or Crucifix But this is only by the way if it be not out of it I return again These passages premised we now proceed unto the story of our Saviours passion We left him last in Pilates Hall The Priests and people of the Iews cryed out to have him crucified according to the Roman fashion No death but that which was accounted the most shameful and most ignominious of all manner of deaths and was pronounced to be accursed He is accursed of God that hangeth on the tree by the Law of Moses would content their malice And Pilate gave sentence saith the Text that it should be as they required and delivered him to them to be crucified CHRIST had not else redeemed us from the curse of the Law for cursed is he that abideth not in all the words of this law to do them Deut. 27.26 had he not been made a curse for us that is to say had he not willingly submitted to that death of the Cross of which the Lord thus said by the mouth of Moses Cursed is every one that is hanged on a tree Deut. 21.23 the curse and rigour of the law being laid upon him Christ was no otherwise made a curse then so by enduring this most shameful death of the Cross this mortem autem Crucis for the sins of man God saith St. Ambrose made Christ a curse after the same manner as a sacrifice for sin in the law is called sin Bropterea pro maledictis oblatus factus est Maledictum and therefore being a Sacrifice for those who were accursed he became a curse CHRIST saith St. Chrysostom was not made subject to the curse of transgression which is the greatest curse a man can fall into and that which makes him most detested and hated of God but admitted in himself another curse that is the punishment of sin or the curse for sin and this saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another curse but not the same CHRIST then was made a curse for us not that he was detested of God or deprived of blessedness which was the curse denounced by Moses against those who kept not the words of the law to do them but that he was adjudged to this shameful and inglorious death which God and man did hold accursed abolishing one curse and undergoing another Et vincens maledictum de maledicto as St. Augustine hath it But to go on our Saviour being condemned to this cursed death a death which none but Theeves and Murderers and false Bond-men were condemned by the laws of Rome they hale him to the same with as cursed a violence sparing no cruelty or disgrace as they led him to it which a barbarous people could inflict or an innocent suffer They made him carry that Cross at first on his own shoulders which after was to carry his whole body And when they eased him of that burden and laid it upon Simon the Cyrenians back it was not out of pity but upon design that coming more fresh and lively to the place of suffering he might the longer be a dying and they the longer glut their eyes with that pleasing spectacle It was the custom of the Iews as of other people to give wine to those who were condemned and led to their execution to comfort and revive their spirits the better to enable them for the stroke of death Even this humanity shall be corrupted to increase his miseries and adde unto the scorne which which were put upon him In stead of wine some of them gave him vinegar mixed with Gall to drink and thereby literally fulfilled in him that which was metaphorically said of himself by David in some time of his troubles when he was fed with the bread of sorrow and the waters of
resurget qui inter impiorum manus occubuit that is to say with a sure Faith I do beleeve it was it seems a part of his Creed and with as great freedom I profess he both beleeved in his heart and confessed with his mouth that I shal rise again at the last day for as much as my Redeemer shall assuredly rise who is to be done to death by ungodly men And this is further to be noted in this Text of Scripture that we no sooner hear of a Creator in Moses than of a Redeemer in Iob no sooner of the death of mankind in Adam but of their restoring to life in Christ. And more than so that though Moses who wrot this was a Iew yet Iob who spake it was a Gentile not of the seed of Iacob though perhaps of Abrahams to shew that both the Iews and Gentiles as well the Gentiles as the Iews were to have their share in the resurrection of Christ Iesus and therefore in due time to expect their own I know that the Socinians Anabaptists and some other Sectaries who are no very good friends to the resurrection do otherwise interpret these words of Iob and will not have them meant of his resurrection but of his restitution to his former glories But for my part I must profess that if the Greek Catena and the authority of the Latine Fathers and the consent of all the Orthodox and learned Writers of these times were to be laid aside as incompetent Iudges I am not able to discern any thing from the Text or Context that the Holy Ghost intended them any other waies than to set forth Iobs constant faith in the resurrection the knowledge that he had of his Redemption from the jaws of death From Moses pass we to the Prophets to the Psalmist first Thou turnest man unto destruction and sayest Return ye children of men or come again ye children of men as the old Translation Thou turnest men unto destruction there we have their death he calls them to return again there is there resurrection And this appears yet further by the following words Thou carriest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep and if they be but as a sleep they shall be wakened in due time at the sounding of the last Trump without all peradventure I know indeed this Psalm doth bear the Title of the Prayer of Moses but whether made by him or by David or some other in his name is not yet resolved It is sufficient to this purpose that it passeth amongst Davids Psalms as a distinct and separate body from the works of Moses On forwards to Isaiah the Evangelical Prophet who seems to look on Christ as if gone before him Thy dead men saith he shall live together with my dead body shall they arise Awake and sing yee that dwel in dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead And parallel to this in another place When yee be old your heart shall rejoyce and your bones shall flourish like herbs and then the hand of the Lord shall be known towards his Servants and his indignation towards his Enemies In both these Texts we find a Resurrection of the dead effected by the raising of the body of Christ and in some part with it a resurrection like to that of men which do wake from sleep like that of herbs which though they creep into the earth in the time of Winter shall again re-flourish in the Spring And in the last we have not onely a pure evidence for a resurrection but for the Day of Iudgement which shall follow on it wherein the righteous Judge shall distribute his rewards and punishments his hand of mercy towards his Servants but wrath and indignation upon all his Enemies St. Hierom so interpreteth the Prophets meaning and parallels this last place with another of the Prophet Daniel in which it is affirmed expresly that they which sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt Thereupon he doth thus infer Omnes igitur Martyres sancti viri qui pro Christo fuderunt sanguinem quorum tota vita fuit Martyrium resurgent evigilabunt atque laudabunt Deum Creatorem suum qui nunc habitant in pulvere de quibus in Daniele scriptum est c. Add to this rank of Proofs those several passages in which God calls himself the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob and the illation made from thence by our Lord and Saviour to prove the very point which we have in hand Concerning the resurrection of the dead have you not read saith he that which was spoken to you of God saying I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead but of the living Here is authority enough we need seek no further Authority enough to perswade us this that the Patriarchs before the coming of our Saviour were certain of their resurrection to eternal life that they were well assured of this that God would recompence their faith and reward their piety by making death the way onely to a greater happiness And this we finde to be a truth so generally received amongst the Iews even in the most declining time of their Church and State that none but the Sadduces who also did deny the being of Angels and of Spirits also did make question of it who for this cause are branded every where in the Gospel with this mark upon them that they said there is no resurrection as Mat. 22.23 Mark 12.19 Luk. 20 27. Act. 23.8 just as it followeth on the mention of Ieroboham the son of Nebat that he made Israel to sin Now to these Positive Texts of Scripture and such as have their being and foundation onely in the Old Testament we will adde such as are presented in the New and those not barely positive and peremptory as the rest before but such as seem to have a great measure of rationality in them and to be logically inferred upon very sound premises And of this kind we meet with divers in St. Pauls Epistle to the Corinthians amongst whom many doubtful souls had called in question the resurrection of the body To satisfie their doubts and remove their scruples the Apostle grounds himself on this that CHRIST was risen If CHRIST be risen from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead for if there be no resurrection of the dead then is CHRIST not risen Considering therefore we have proved that CHRIST is risen and that by the testimony of no fewer than five hundred brethren at one time besides the other arguments which have been and may be further alleged to confirm that truth it followeth by the reason of the Apostle that there is a
of those imperfections it may be said that then they are not raised in the self-same bodies To this we have the resolution of St. Augustine also affirming That in that glorious day the substance of their bodies shall continue as before it was but the deformities and imperfections shall be taken away Corporibus ergo istis naturae servabitur vitia autem detrahentur as the Father hath it A resolution which St. Paul doth seem to favor saying That the body shall be raised in glory though it be sown in dishonor as do his following words the former viz. Though it be sown in weakness in the weakness of old age or infancy shall be raised in power For neither is it likely that infancy being imperfection and old age corruption can stand with the estate of a glorified body or that our Lord which made the blinde to see and the lame to go which came to seek his grace on Earth will not much rather heal them of their imperfections whom he vouchsafeth to admit to the glories of Heaven A glorious place is fit for none but glorified bodies And so far glorified shall the bodies of Gods servants be as to be raised in power whereby they shall be freed from all wants and weaknesses in incorruption which shall make them free both from death and sickness in glory which shall make them shine with a greater splendor than any of the Stars of Heaven as did the face of Moses in the Book of Exodus and that of Stephen the Proto-martyr in the Book of the Acts and lastly in agility by which they shall be like the Angels mounting as on the wings of an Eagle to meet the Lord JESUS at his coming In reference unto these spiritual qualities St. Paul affirms That it was sown a natural body but shall be raised a spiritual body Natural for the substance still spiritual for the qualities and endowments of it Spiritualia post Resurrectionem erunt corpora non quia corpora esse desistunt sed quia spiritu vivificante subsistunt as St. Augustine hath it Another Quere yet remaineth which had been moved it seems in St. Augustines time by some whose curiosity did exceed their judgments The Question was Whether the woman should be raised to eternal glory in her own sex or the more noble sex of man Alas poor Souls what monstrous crime had they committed that they should be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven Of what strange errors and mistakes must guilty-nature be accused when she framed that sex or rather God when he created it at first out of Adams side by which it is supposed uncapable of immortality Yes certainly say they for it seemeth to us that Christ hath so adjudged it saying That in the Resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage And if no marriage then no woman the woman being therefore made that she might be married Vain men why do they talk so idly in the things of God! Nuptias negavit dominus in resurrectione futuras non foeminas as St. Augustine noteth The Lord hath not excluded women from the Resurrection onely in answer to a captious Question which the Saduces made he returned them this That in that day there should be neither care nor notice taken of those worldly matters This is the sum and substance of our Saviours Answer and this is nothing to the prejudice of the Sex or Persons Nor need we doubt but as that Sex have done most acceptable service to the Lord their God either in keeping constantly the faith of wedlock or in preserving carefully an unspotted chastity or suffering resolutely for the testimony of the Faith and Gospel so shall they also in those bodies receive the crown reserved for so great obedience But what need more be said of this needless Quere which Christ our Saviour hath prevented and resolved already Who therefore first appeared to those of the Female Sex that making them the publishers of his Resurrection he might assure them of their own Qui ergo utrumque sexum instituit utrumque restituet God saith St. Augustine as he made both Sexes will restore both Sexes and raise up both in their own proper and original being unto Life eternal Other particulars of the manner of this Resurrection as the dreadful terror of the day the sounding of the Trump the conflagration of the world and the like to these have either been already handled or else will fall within the compass of the following Article That which remains to be considered at the present will be matters practical first in relation to our friends and then in reference to our selves and our own affairs First in relation to our Friends That we bemoan not their departure with too great extremity or sorrow for them without hope as if lost for ever Were it indeed so irrecoverable a losâ— that either their bodies were for ever banished from their souls or that their souls did die and perish with their bodies it were a misery to which no sorrow could be equal But being so assured of a Resurrection it is not to be supposed of them which die in the Lord that they are either lost to themselves or us They onely have withdrawn themselves for a certain season from the vanity and troubles of this present world and shall return at last unto life again both to our comfort and their glory In this respect it was the antient custom of the Church of Greece and is not yet worn out of use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To set boyled Corn before the Singers of the holy Hymns which are accustomed to be sung at the commemoration of the dead who sleep in Christ. And this they do to manifest their hopes in the Resurrection of which the Corn is so significant an embleme as before was shewn And to say truth Death if considered rightly is the gate of life and of a life not to be shaken with adversities or subject unto change of fortune Hanc Deus fidei praestat gratiam ut mors quam vitae constat esse contrariam instrumentum foret per quod in vitam transiretur it is St. Augustines note But what need Augustine be alleged when we may hear the same of the antient Druides of whom the Poet tells us that they held this Paradox Longae canitis si cognita vitae Mors media est That death was but the middle way to a longer life If then our Ancestors in those dark times of ignorance when they knew not Christ conceived no otherwise of death and the terrors of it than as the way unto a life of more excellent nature then certainly a nobler and moâ—e chearful constancy must â—eeds be looked for at our hands who are not onely more assured of the immortality of the soul which they blindly guessed at but of the Resurrection of the Body also which they never heard of The next consideration doth concern