speak so as Hezekiah spake when he believed he should die Isai 38 or as David Psal 6. It is a matter of astonishment that these great men have been so exceeding fearful of their departure out of this world Here I passe by the particular causes from whence proceeded this weaknesse But in general before that Jesus Christ died death was more dreadful then it hath been since for as yet death was not swallowed up in Victory and the faithful of the Old Testament had not the example of Jesus Christ dead as we have The fear of death therefore was more just in them then it can be in us From whence it followeth that it is not still permitted to us to speak as they did when we are menaced with death It would be very hard to approve that a Christian should complain of this that he should no more behold God in the land of the living and that he is deprived of the conversation of this world or to alleadge that he might not die that the dead praise not God These complaints and the like discourses which the Fathers of the Old Testament have uttered upon this subject have no more place since that Christ died and rose again as I shall speak more particularly upon the Article of the Resurrection The descent of CHRIST into Hell An observation upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 10.6 7. forbidding to ask who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the abysse AMong so many men signalized by extraordinary events there are two remarkable one of which ascended into heaven and descended the other descended into the deep and re-ascended The first is Elijah who was carried up into heaven and afterward came back to the earth to accompany the Son of God in his Transfiguration The other is Jonah who went into the bottom of the gulfs and returned living But the one and the other were but a shadow of Christ to whom all these passages and returns agree more particularly For not onely he descended into the Abysse and returned but he is also ascended into heaven yet once more to come down Now I go not about to examine in what sense he said even before his Ascension that already he had ascended into heaven and already had descended from heaven Joh. 3.13 But concerning his descent into the deep the Apostle explaineth it openly when he opposeth those two one to the other To descend into the deep and To be brought back from the deâ—d For from thence followeth that to be brought back from the dead is to reascend from the Abysse And this also presupposeth that to descend into the Abysse is none other thing then to be reduced to the estate of the dead As for the name of the Abysse it is known that Jesus Christ calleth his Sepulchre the heart of the earth comparing it to the place where Jonah had been in the Abysse Matth. 12.40 From hence it cometh that many understand by the descent of Christ into hell that after his burial he was yet farther humbled so far as to sojourn in the estate of the dead that is to say within his Sepulcher from whence he was raised by his Resurrection Why Christ being on the Crosse pronounced the first words of the 22 Psalm These words expresse the complaint which he made of being forsaken of God And many Orthodox men take that extreme humiliation of Christ for his descent into hell Now why he did use the words of this Psalm a reason is given There is not a passage in all the Old Testament which better representeth the estate of Christ upon the Crosse There is seen the parting of his garments the casting of lots for his coat his hands and feet pierced his enemies wagging the head and vomit-out their mockeries He therefore used this Psalm as having been dictated for him But to this reason which is notorious to every one I will adde another which I ground upon an hypothesis maintained by some interpreters The first action say they that the Priests and the Levites daily did in the Temple into which they entered at break of day was to sing this two and twentieth Psalm the which upon this occasion beareth for the title A Psalm of the dawning of the day and beginneth My God my God why hast thou forsaken me I observe from hence that the first words with which the Priests began the first hour and the first act of their Functions are the same which Christ uttered in the last hour and the last act of the Redemption For having been already three hours upon the Crosse upon the point of rendering up his spirit into the hands of his Father and of declaring that all was finished he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He ended where the Priests began to shew that all the ancient Priesthood and all the service of the Temple from their beginning then expired and finished in him who is the end and closure of the Law The fruits of the death of CHRIST Why the Son of God deserred so long time to come and expiate the sins of the world THis question which the ignorant will blame of rashnesse is suggested unto us by the Scripture it self which hath set down the solution of it It is not enough to say according to the fashion of the ignorant that Jesus Christ came not sooner because God would not have it so We are to know why he would it not since himself hath shewed us the causes in the which are seen the rays of his wonderful wisdom About four thousand yeers passed after the fall of Adam before the Son of God came Sin multiplied with the multiplication of mankinde Death destroyed one generation after another All ages groaned for the Deliverer but he appeared not till after so long a time Now setting aside the marvellous Oeconomy by which God measured and divided the times which preceded the coming of Christ in which is seen an infinity of steps and proportions as so many stars which marched before the Sun we will onely say That it was important for the glory of God and to render so much the more glorious the benefit of Redemption that sin and death should reign a long time and devour a long rank of generations before the Saviour should shew himself For that long durance of sin and death extending it self thorow so many ages and infolding all the successions of people born the one after the other hath caused to be seen how great was the misery of mankinde and the necessity of the remedy and how great is the vertue of Christ who hath healed an evil so universal and so inveterate Rom. 5.14 That for these ends and to shew the abundance of Grace God permitted that sin should abound and that it might abound the Law intervened Rom. 5.20 It behoved therefore first that there should passe a long time before the Law should begin her raign and a long time before she should
yeeld place unto Christ That the sin of Adam lost those that came after him but the death of Christ hath saved both them that went before and came after it As therefore the first Adam hath caused to die those which were born many ages after him so the second Adam hath quickned them which were dead many ages before him And this hath been one of the causes of the retarding of his coming to wit that he would shew his power working backward to the foregoing ages And finally That it was convenient before Christ died to make it known to the world that the expiation of sins could not be wrought any other way To this effect God proposed first the blood of beasts in Sacrifices afterward the blood of man in Circumcision afterward an infinite number of washings with all the works of the Law as if he would that men should assay all the means which could be imagined for the expiation of sins But this was to the end that they should acknowledge their impotency and should cast their eyes upon the future Sacrifice of Christ Now it was requisite that a good part of the age of the world should passe in the studie of these rudiments before God should send his Son Gal. 4.1 c. An admirable concurrence of the time of Redemption with the times of the most famous Ceremonies of the Law An observation upon this subject It concerneth us that we know the Yeer the Season the Days yea the Hours in the which Christ perfected the work of the Redemption The Law hath marked certain Times as notable among all others Among Yeers that of Jubilee which returned from fifty to fifty yeers in the which servants were set at liberty and lands alienated returned to their first owners Among the annual Feasts that of the Passeover which was the first and principal of all the solemnities of the yeer Among the Days the Sabbath of which the preeminencies are sufficiently notorious Among the Hours of the day that between the two vespers which we reckon the third after noon in which every day was offered the evening Sacrifice which was the conclusion of all daily Ceremonies Exod. 29.39 and in which also was slain the Paschal Lamb when his yeer-day was come Exod. 12.6 Now the Redemption met in all these times in the Yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice and in the Sabbath In the Yeer of Jubilee according to the most exact Chronologie which reckoning every fiftieth yeer after the division of the Land of promise to the yeer in which Christ died findeth that he suffered in the yeer of Jubilee in the Passeover as it is evident by the History of the Passion in the Hour of the Evening Sacrifice which the Jews called the ninth hour in the which Jesus Christ gave up the Ghost And finally in the Sabbath our Saviour all that day resting in the Sepulchre I know that many long time agone have considered all these particularities but in parcels every one separately That which I here observe is the general concurrence of all the times the most famous in the Law with the time of the Redemption which comprised and determined all To all this I will adde this Observation The yeer of Jubilee began the tenth day after the Equinoctial of September Levit. 15.9 and Jesus Christ died a few days after the Equinoctial of the Spring following Whence it appeareth that he died in the midst of the yeer of Jubilee between the six first months and the six last But the last six months which his death anticipated have been disjoyned from the precedent as appertaining no more to the yeer of Jubilee which hath been cut asunder in the middle that it might be rendered wholly dead A mysterious reason of the name which the Apostle giveth to the Sacrifice of Christ calling it A Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 Many read these terms of the Apostle without knowing the importance nor seeing at what they aim The common Expositours will be contented to tell us that the Sacrifice of Christ is of a good smell that is to say pleasing to God We know that this is true but to know it well we ought to learn from whence the Apostle fetched this phrase and what it is at which he looketh back It behoveth therefore to observe that there were two kindes of Oblations under the Law One sort was accompanied with a perfume of Incense which was burned with them and for this cause they are called Offerings of a sweet savour Levit. 2.2.9 The others howsoever approved by the Law bare not the name of Oblations of a sweet savour because they were without perfume Levit. 2.12 And particularly it is to be noted that it was forbidden to burn any perfume upon the Oblations which were presented for sins Levit. 5.11 in which the Law-giver gave to understand that the memory of sin yea the Sacrifices which mentioned them were not of a sweet savour Numb 5.15 Upon this we are to consider why the Law declared that that which was offered for sins could not be of a sweet savour seeing that Christ was offered for sins and yet his Oblation was of a sweet savour to God his Father The reason is that the Legal Oblations removed not at all the infection of the sin which they represented rather themselves remained burdened with it But Christ bearing our sins upon him vanquished and carried away this corruption This point furnisheth us with an invincible argument against the Jews By the own sentence of the Law all the Expiatory Offerings which it prescribed failed of a sweet favour and could not content the justice of God From whence it followeth otherwise we are for ever miserable that there is another kinde of Offering another Sacrifice of Expiation quite other then those of the Law which abolisheth the stench of our crimes And this quality cannot appertain but to the body of Christ Isai 53 5 6. The Resurrection of CHRIST Nine examples of the Resurrection of the dead which have gone before or followed the Resurrection of Christ An Harmony between those that were raised under the Old Testament and those that were raised by the Son of God while himself was yet mortal THe Wisdom of God hath shewed the Resurrection of the dead in divers examples which it hath distributed with order and proportion Three before the coming of Jesus Christ Three by Jesus Christ himself before his death And Three after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Before the coming of Christ God raised the son of the widow of Sarephta the son of the Shunamite and one dead man that had been cast into the Sepulchre of Elisha 1 King 17. 2 King 4 and 13. Jesus Christ before his death raised the son of the widow of Naim the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus Luke 7.15 Matth. 9. Joh. 11. After the Resurrection of Christ God hath first caused to be seen that of many Saints
us that the most bloody adversaries of the children of God are not dispensed but by his order Among the resemblances between Moses and Christ the one of which gave the Law the other brought the Gospel there is one notable likenesse that is that the birth of both of them was made memorable by the death of innocents That of Moses by the cruelty of the Egyptians who drowned in the water the children of the Hebrews That of Christ by the barbarousnesse of Herod who caused the cutting of the throats of the children of Bethlehem Why in War the people of God have been often beaten by their enemies and why a good cause hath been overthrown Run thorow the holy History All the times that the people of God have been overcome in War you shall finde that this hath come to passe through their own fault to wit either because they have undertaken a War without cause as Josiah who quarrelled with the King of Egypt Or because they have concluded upon a War without enquiring at the mouth of God as the Israelites against the Tribe of Benjamin Or that they have fought against the expresse prohibition of God as the Hebrews that set upon the Amalekites encamped on the mountain Numb 14. Or because they have abused a precedent Victory as the children of Israel who having purloined of the accursed thing of Jericho were presently after beaten by the inhabitants of Ai Or for having consulted with the enemy of God as Saul who had recourse to a Sorceresse to learn what successe the battel should have Or for having broken the faith given to the enemy as Zedekiah who brake the agreements past between him and Nebuchadnezzar Or in sum by putting themselves out of the protection of God as the Israelites in the days of Eli the Priest to whom the contempt of Religion caused the losse of that lamentable Battel in which the Ark of God it self was taken and carried in triumph by the Philistines In most of these examples we may see that a good cause hath been vanquished but with reason The justice of the cause hath come to nothing through the injustice of them that managed it or through the injustice of the proceedings Sometimes also two parties that make War together may both have a just cause in part although one of them may have the lesse right of the two The Wars which the Christians have moved against Mahomet have had for their cause the honour of the Name of Christ On the other side Mahomet declareth that he hath taken arms to avenge the honour of God defiled by the Idolatries of Christians This cause which is but too true in regard of many men hath given him so many Victories over Christendom Why God never sent above one Angel or two at most when he intended to destroy men and hath often sent many when he intended to preserve one man Three Angels came to Abraham to promise him the birth of Isaac but there were but two which went to destroy Sodom To protect one Elisha an army of Angels appeared in the likenesse of charets of fire but to put to death one hundred fourscore and five thousand men in one night in the camp of Sennacherib to cause to die of the Pestilence seventy thousand in three days by reason of the sin of David who had numbred the people to destroy all the first-born of Egypt in an hour God employed not above one Angel Whence cometh it that to protect one man alone God sendeth sometimes whole legions of Angels and to destroy thousands of men yea whole Nations he sendeth but one Angel Surely the Angels were created for the preservation of men not for their destruction And although God useth them for the execution of his judgements neverthelesse to shew that this is as by accident and beyond the scope of their creation he never employeth above one or two when the businesse is to destroy man where on the contrary he employeth many when it is to save The Psalmist was not ignorant of this Divinity For when he prayeth against his enemies he desireth that the Angel of God the Angel in the singular number might persecute them Psal 35. But when he promiseth to the faithful the protection of God He shall give saith he his Angels charge over thee We know that in another place he speaketh in the singular of the Angel that encampeth about them that fear him and that often God is content to send onely one Angel to defend a great number of men But withal he hath often used the service of many Angels to this effect whereas to destroy man he never would employ in any occasion above onely one Angel or two at the most If man had persevered in original justice there had never been Miracles but onely of one kinde Miracles have been wrought to convince the incredulity of man and therefore they had not been at all necessary if man had not first become incredulous Besides Miracles have been wrought to teach men that which all Nature together knew not how to teach them to wit the benefit of Redemption which presupposeth the fall of man Certainly if man had remained in his first integrity he had never seen the waters of the deluge nor Lot's wife turned into a statue of Salt nor any of all those wonders which have served to chastise man Neither had he seen those miraculous healings nor the dead raised for neither death nor diseases which have furnished the subject of these Miracles had had any place in the state of innocency The onely kinde of Miracle which God would have shewed unto man if he had stil persisted in his integrity had been according to all probability to transport him at the last from earth to heaven without passing thorow death And this is a notable point that after the Creation God wrought no Miracle till the translation of Enoch who was carried up from earth to heaven God began his Miracles with that kinde of Miracle which onely ought to have had place if man had still continued righteous Of JESUS CHRIST A consideration of the divers Names and Titles of our Saviour And the differences that ought to be observed in expressing them VVHen we name him sometimes we call him onely Jesus sometimes we say Jesus Christ sometimes we say onely Christ sometimes we call him Our Lord sometimes we joyn all these names together Our Lord Jesus Christ sometimes we say The Son of God Now it seemeth indifferent by which of these Names we call him and we pronounce the first that cometh in our mouth But howsoever all these names designe the same Person neverthelesse every one of these doth not mark out to us all the qualities and relations which we consider in that person rather one signifieth him in one regard and another hath to it self also a particular meaning So that these Names ought not to be used confusedly or without choice but we are to pronounce that or those
in speaking of some it expresseth the Day of their death as we see in the history of the ten sons of Haman Esth 9. but of whomsoever it speaketh be they Patriarchs or Kings or private men or good or bad it never expresseth the Day of their Nativity though such a date may seem to import greatly the sacred Chronologie Now wherefore the Scripture never nameth the Day of the Birth of the children of Adam no nor one of them there is without doubt some reason though to us it be obscure But whatsoever that reason be the Birth Day of Jesus Christ is clouded in the same silence Wherefore Surely to the end that among other things which are common to him with the other children of Adam he might also be comprised among them in this point not to have his Birth-Day expressed in the holy History But what doth it concern us that this day is not expressed more then that of other men As much as it doth concern us that Jesus Christ hath been reckoned among sinners even from his Birth Neither doth it serve for an Objection that he hath been put into their rank more evidently when he was circumcised and when he underwent that purification which the Law imposed upon the first-born for this truth excludeth not others that second it though they be not founded upon expresse words of Scripture It is enough that they are implied This is out of doubt that the Scripture never said on what day a man was born It is also out of doubt that Jesus Christ is comprised in this universal rule The question is Wherfore If I have not found the true reason I have at the least pointed out a principle upon which it may be searched Adde to this that in stead of the Birth Day of Jesus Christ the Scriptures expresse that of his death That is among divers other reasons because he died on the same day on which Adam was created to wit the sixth day of the week The creation of the first Adam and the death of the second met in the same day The impurity of our birth which we have from the first had not been purged but by the death of the second Of the service which the Angels have done to the Son of God from his manifestation in the flesh until his Ascension Ten times they have served him in this space of time 1. They carried the message of his miraculous conception to the Virgin 2. They advertised Joseph whom the ignorance of this mystery had held perplexed 3. They published his birth unto the shepherds 4. They gave order to carry him into Egypt to avoid the fury of Herod 5. They had care to cause him to be brought back into Judea after the death of the tyrant 6. They accompanied him and ministred unto him after his temptation in the wildernesse 7. They comforted him in his agony in the garden 8. They rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre wherein he had been enclosed 9. They declared his resurrection 10. They instructed his disciples who looked up after him ascending into heaven that one day he would return Never did the Angels serve any person so often nor in so great a number of occurrences nor in so high charges nor through such diversity of means as they served the Son of God This also ought to be reckoned among the marks of the preeminence of our Lord. Of the Miracles which our Lord wrought so long as he conversed in the world Of the advantage of the New Testament above the Old in regard of the number of persons which have had the gift of Miracles IN all the extent of the Old Testament there are not above seven men to whom God gave the power of working Miracles Moses and his brother Aaron famous for the wonders wrought by them in Egypt in the Red-sea and in the wildernesse Joshua who stayed the Sun and Moon in their course Samuel who changed the whole face of the air in an instant affrighting Israel by thunders and miraculous rain 1 Sam. 12. A Prophet mentioned 1 King 13. who rent by his word alone the Altar set up against the Ordinance of God and scattered the ashes The same Prophet also healed the hand of Jeroboam which was dried up Elijah who shut and opened heaven caused fire to come down raised from death the son of the widow c. And lastly Elesha famous for divers great Miracles There have been none but these seven men upon whom this power hath been conferred The other Miracles which are recited in the Old Testament or which have gone before the coming of the Son of God have been wrought without the intervention of men There may be to speak this by the way some allusion or reference of the seven Angels of the Revelation working upon the Sun and upon all the elements to these seven men which have heretofore exercised this miraculous power But this matter concerneth not the present subject That which I have here to say is this That the New Testament hath been furnished with a greater number of persons endued with the power of Miraeles then the Old was yea with a very far greater number At one onely time the Lord ordained seventy men with power to heal the sick to cleanse the lepers to raise the dead to cast out devils to tread upon serpents and scorpions and upon all the force of the enemy And this without reckoning the twelve principal disciples who were also provided of the same gift and those which afterward had it as Saint Paul and others I account this point among the advantages of the New Testament that in it the miraculous power of God hath raised so great a number of instruments in comparison of them which it employed for the Old Testament Wherefore till the coming of the Son of God there have passed many ages without that any person hath had the gift of Miracles The last of all those which wrought Miracles before the coming of our Lord was Elisha Now from Elisha till that time when the Son of God began to manifest his glory by Miracles there passed welnigh eight hundred yeers In so long an interval of yeers there was not found a person that had the gift of Miracles although many had that of Prophecie Certainly the wisdom of God would that this great length of time should serve to make them desire that which had not been seen after so many ages to wit Miracles wrought by the hand of man as afterward those that were spectatours glorified God that had done this honour unto men in giving them this power Matth. 9.8 That it should dispose their spirits to the expectation of the Messiah who was to come with miraculous works That it should serve to make them the better to weigh the importance of his Miracles after so long a surcease of the gift of Miracles And lastly that which is the principal that it should serve to distinguish him from other
that believed in him hath confessed that he saw him in glory after his Ascension 1 Cor. 9.1 and 15.8 The one is the first that sealed this truth with his blood The other is the last who had charge to publish it as having seen it after he had persecuted it All the other disciples saw Christ conversant on earth but these two onely have seen him raigning in heaven All the miraculous prerogatives which have been severally in divers Saints are found united in one onely Christ iâ— a soveraign degree Among the Saints divers have beet rendered famous Either by their miraculous birth as Isaac and John the Baptist Or by the Miracles which themselves wrought as Moses Elijah Elisha c. Or by the gift of Prophecie as Samuel Daniel c. Or by their Resurrection from the dead as Lazarus c. Or for having ascended into heaven as Enoch and Elijah But never had any man all these prerogatives together except the Son of God Some have had a miraculous birth or else have been Prophets which have not had the gift of Miracles Others have wrought Miracles so far as to raise the dead but themselves have not been raised Others have been raised from the dead but their bodies have not ascended into heaven but were returned once more unto the grave Others are ascended into heaven but they have no power to work upon them that are on the earth On the contrary one alone and the same Christ was conceived miraculously exercised the power of Miracles and that of a Prophet came back from the dead is ascended bodily into heaven and that which appertaineth to none other from above governeth the whole Church The same Christ surpasseth infinitely all the others in every one of those miraculous preeminencies which they have had Some were born of mothers which had passed the age of childbearing but Christ was born of a Virgin Some have been Prophets but Christ received not the Spirit by measure Some have had the gift of Miracles in certain occasions but Christ at all times had that power Some have been raised from death by some other but Christ raised himself Some have been lifted up into heaven but Chriâ—â— was carried thither by his own power And finally as he holdeth the firâ—â— place in all things he alone is set dowâ— at the Right Hand of God Of the last Judgement Why doth the holy History never say the God descended but onely where the bâ—sinesse hath been to do justice or to establish it and protect the innocent WHensoever God hath descended it hath been Either to publish Laws as those which he gave 〈◊〉 old to Israel Exod. 19.18 and 34.5 Or to appoint Judges as were read in Numb 11.17 Or to proceed against the guilty as the builders of Babel and the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 11.5 6 7. and 18.21 Or to give protection to Jacob going into Egypt Gen. 46.4 Or to do justice to the Hebrews which were oppressed by the Egyptians Exod. 3.8 Certainly the Scripture intended not to say that God descended locally yet so it is that he will one day really descend in the person of his Son Now forasmuch as he will not descend but to execute judgement all the other Descents which the Scripture attributeth to him meet in the same scope For it never representeth God coming from above but either to do Justice or to preserve it An observation upon the fâ—ur general Judgements mentioned in the Scriptures All the Judgements which God hath shewed or yet doth shew upon any parts of mankinde are but particulars There are four which have concerned or do concern all the generality The three first have already appeared and the fourth is at the door The first Judgement is that which God pronounced against Adam and his wife who represented all their posterity The second is that which caused all the inhabitants of the world except eight to perish by the waters of the Deluge The third is that which divided the society of men by the confusion of Tongues in Babel The fourth is that of the last Day The first Judgement deprived men of immortality and declared them subject to death which by power of it is come upon them successively The second caused all mankinde to die at one time reserving a very small number of persons The third brake off the communion which was among men bereaving them of their universal language and hindering them from understanding one another Now there are divers resemblances and differences between these three first Judgements which are past already and the fourth which is yet to come But we have onely to consider that in the first three God hath judged the living but at the last he shall judge both the living and the dead Upon this subject I am to propound the following Observation A wonderful Mystery which is seen in the several goings out of the three first men which God took out of the world The life of man hath two different issues Some going out of the world by a violent death others by a natural But those which shall be found alive when our Lord shall come to the last Judgement shall passe neither by the one nor the other of these two ways but by a third which shall be a sudden transmutation of their bodies by the which they shall become incorruptible 1 Cor. 15.52 So then there are three several kindes of issues ordained to men to dislodge out of this world some by one some by another to wit Violent death Natural death And the transmutation of them that shall be found alive at the day of Judgement Of these three ways the two first have been open to this day and are the ordinary passage of mortals The third is reserved for the last inhabitants of the world All these three several issues have been visibly marked out in the three first men that have parted out of this life for the first that dislodged was Abel the second was Adam the third was Enoch The first went out of the world by a violent death The second by a natural death The third by a change supernatural and miraculous These three went in this order and the one followed the other immediately among them whose departure is mentioned in the Scripture But they went by different ways which represented all those by which men were to passe after them For all those which shall go out of the world after these three first or who shall go out hereafter by which soever of these three ways go but in the footsteps of some one of these three forerunners who are in this regard an abridgement of all mankinde divided as in three bands And particularly as those who ought to passe by that above-named change to be translated from this life without seeing death shall be the last that dislodge so Enoch who represented them parted from this world the last of the three being preceded by Abel who died a violent death and
by Adam who departed by a natural death We are here to admire the dispensation of this great God and the Wisdom of his Spirit which dictated the Scriptures These three men whom God first withdrew from the world the diversity which is seen in their going out and the order held in it were a sample or epitome of that great piece which he would unfold all along the ages and which was to be extended as far as the last men that shall be found living upon the earth Why God who hath foretold and set down the measures of certain particular times hath not revealed how long the world should endure or when the day of Judgement should be God at other times foretold How many veers space it should be before the Deluge Gen. 6.3 How many yeers the slavery of the Hebrews should endure Gen. 15.13 How many yeers there should be of plenty and famine in the days of Joseph Gen. 41.29.30 How many yeers the Jews should remain in the Captivity of Babylon Jer. 25.12 and 29.10 Dan. 9.2 How many yeers should passe to the death of Christ Dan. 9.24 We know that some of these predictions have been given four hundred yea four hundred and ninety yeers before their time expired Now there might be all the way computed from day to day how many yeers yet remained to the end of the time limited by those oracles Yea God hath not onely given an account of yeers but sometimes hath punctually set down the very day on which a deliverance or other event should come to passe Dan. 12.11 12. But neither the Day of the last Judgement nor the Yeer nor yet the Age which is to make an end of all the rest was ever set down in any Prophecie whatsoever the curious can say against it Now among the causes of this silence we are to consider this When God hath foretold that such or such a notable event where the time could not be foreseen by any humane wisdom should come to passe in such a Yeer or on such a Day the principal scope of these predictions hath been to confirm the faith of them which should see them accomplished Joh. 13.19 For they that lived until that time and saw the Prophecie effected precisely at the day named even against all appearance had so much the more reason to believe in God for the time to come in so manifest an experience of his infallible truth and the same also was a means to convert unbelievers But at the last Day it will not be the work to make provision any more for faith in regard of things to come not will there be any more place for the conversion of miscreants So that a revelation of that Day could not serve for those ends and uses for the which God had revealed divers other Days remarkable The Wisdom of God doth not give us superfluous predictions It is necessary to know that there shall be a last Day but not to know precisely when it shall be Of the holy Ghost Four remarkable productions which the Scripture attributeth to the Spirit of God to wit two in the Creation two in the Redemption AMong so many great and divers effects of the Spirit of God the Scripture mentioneth particularly these four productions 1. That of all the species which were enclosed in the masse of the elements in the beginning of the world for to cause them to bring forth the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters Gen. 1.2 2. That of the Soul For the breath of God which made man a living soul was the Spirit of the Almighty Gen. 2.7 Job 33.4 3. That of the body of Christ which alone among all men was conceived by the holy Ghost Luke 1.35 4. That of the new man For to become such it behoveth to be born again of the Spirit Joh. 3.5 6. Why the Scripture representeth the holy Ghost and his effects under the names of Water of Fire of Anointing with Oil and of Sprinkling of Blood The true interpretation of these terms contained in divers passages The Scripture speaketh of Water and the Spirit by which we are to be born again Of the holy Ghost and of Fire with which we are to be baptized Of the Unction which we have from the holy One which is an effect of the same Spirit Of the Sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ which is wrought also by the holy Ghost Joh. 3.5 Matth. 3.11 1 Joh. 2.20 1 Pet. 1.2 So that the names of Water of Fire of Anointing with Oil and of Sprinkling of Blood are used to denote either the holy Ghost or those acts which he worketh in us Now it is very easie for one of the vulgar to speak to this and to say they are similitudes Many Commentatours and ordinary Preachers content themselves to alleadge to us some resemblances between Water and the holy Ghost and likewise some conformities and analogies between the Fire which purifieth and consumeth and the holy Ghost which produceth the like effects But there are other depths to sound It is requisite therefore to know that all the Purifications of the Law which were figures of that Purification which we have by the holy Ghost were wrought either by Water or by Fire or by Oil or by Blood All things which had need of cleansing were purified by one of these four means 1. By Water as it was practised in divers occasions For we know that washings with Water were very frequent under the Law It is not necessary to produce examples 2. By Fire as when God commanded to purifie the spoil which they had taken from the Midianites he ordained that all that which could endure the Fire to wit Gold Silver Brasse Iron Tinne Lead should be cleansed by Fire Num. 31.22 23. 3. By Oil as it was observed in the Unction of the Priests and that of the leprous Lev. 14.16 17 18. 4. By Blood as it is notorious and we shall see by and by that almost all things according to the Law are purged by Blood Heb. 9.22 Now to shew that all that which is required to a true Purification all that which the Law prescribed to those ends is found universally in the power of the holy Ghost the Scripture representeth it with its effects under the name of the matters and all the acts which served to the Legal Purifications I might speak of other things concerning this subject but they will come better to purpose in the doctrine of Baptism for which I reserve them A catalogue of those actions which were celebrated with Aspersion of Blood in the time of the Law All the Law was written in Blood The Priest the people went not but thorow blood Now to comprehend these so many different actions in which Blood intervened it will be to the purpose to distinguish them and reduce them into ranks or categories We finde therefore that there are seven kindes of actions solemnized by the Aspersion of Blood 1. The first
periods of the Church and many famous mysteries had their beginning in a Desert The first time that Angels spake to men was in a Desert For Hagar the first person to whom Angels spake was in a Desert when the voice of the Angel was directed to her Gen. 16.7 The first time that God spake to Moses was in a Desert in that famous vision of the burning bush Exod. 3. The Law was given in a Desert The Tabernacle was built in a Desert The most illustrious figures of Christ Manna the Rock from whence issued water the miracle of the Brazen Serpent were brought forth in a Desert The miraculous fast of Moses that of Elijah and of Christ passed in a Desert The preaching of the Gospel began in a Desert Matth. 2.1 Baptism the first Sacrament of the New Testament began in a Desert and Jesus Christ himself received it in a Desert The first and the last piece of Scripture to wit the Books of Moses and that of the Revelation were delivered in a Desert The Christian Church gathered from among the Jews after the Ascension of the Son of God withdrew it self into a Desert before the destruction of Jerusalem and sojourned there three yeers and six months Rev. 12.14 Many excellent considerations might be brought upon this subject But principally the Wisdom of God would shew in the most notable beginnings as well of the Israelitish as the Christian Church that his Church is a Body distinguished from all other societies that are in the world formed upon other principles of an original quite different and that it was not founded upon any terrestrial Empire It is worth the noting that as the Church of Israel remained fourty yeers in a Desert before it was established in the land of Canaan so the Christian Church remained after its beginning to wit after that the Son of God was ascended into heaven seven times fourty yeers in a continual persecution which reduced it into solitudes and deserts For after the Ascension of our Lord till the three hundred and fifteenth of his Nativity when Constantine called back the Christians and caused them to build Churches there passed two hundred and eighty yeers seven times as many yeers as the Israelites had passed in the Desert All the Church was never gathered together in one place except then whâ—â— it was in the Ark. After the family of Adam in which for that time was included the Body of the Church it is not found that the believeâ—s which make up the Church Militant have been all gathered together in one place save when they were all enclosed in that Vessel which preserved them from the Deluge The Israelites when they went forth out of Egypt and when they remained in the Desert were all assembled in the same place but yet it could not be said for certain that all the Church was there for we know that God had children among other Nations far distant from that of Israel witnesse Job and his friends who all acknowledged the true-God It is a vanity most vain when Decrees are represented under the name of the Universal Church as if it had been assembled in one place for even the Councels which are called General are not such in effect nor can it be said that they represent the Church Universal For never was there a Convocation made by the suffrages of all the Churches in the world The Remission of Sins A difference between the Remission which the Law presented of old to sinners and that which is offered unto them by the Gospel BEhold a point remarkable against the Jews who believe to finde their salvation in the Sacrifices and other Ceremonies of the Law under pretence that it saith that it shall be pardoned unto him who bringeth such or such an Oblation for his sin I passe by that which is notorious to all Christians that those Legal Expiations had none other quality then that of figures But that which I observe beyond this is that the Law it self never presenteth an universal Remission to the sinner This is a Maxime That the Law had not any Sacrifice which did universally expiate all the sins of a man All the Expiations of which it speaketh were but of certain sins not of all entirely and therefore they promised a plentary Remission but still left the sinner indebted to the Justice of God Against this may be objected the Expiation general which was performed every yeer on the tenth day of the seventh month according to the ordinance contained in Levit. 16. For that beareth expresly that this ceremony did expiate all the iniquities and trespasses of the children of Israel But we must consider that this Expiation was made but once every yeer and onely on one day and it was for sins precedent that is to say which had been committed till then The offences which were committed after that day were not expiated till a yeer after on the same day So that by the space of a whole yeer men remained burdened with an infinite number of crimes which came upon them after the precedent Expiation and there needed another which came not till the yeer was come about Now how many persons died before the revolution of the yeer without being able to attain to the day of Expiation All those therefore which were prevented by death before that day fell departed without having obtained an entire Remission since there remained a number of sins which could not as yet be expiated according to the Law Surely the Law it self shewed the impotency of its Expiations by which there never could be a coming to a total Remission But the Remission which we have by Christ blotteth out universally all the sins of a man that accepteth this pardon Neither yet is it restrained to any circumstance of place or time Therefore whereas the Law presented Remission of sins but one onely time in a whole yeer the Gospel presenteth it unto us every day Which is most injurious and repugnant to God Either â— Despair or Presumption He that despaireth offendeth the Mercy of God But the presumptuous that believeth himself to be capable of giving satisfaction to God offendeth his Justice and his Mercy both together His Justice in requiring that it should approve a payment that is none His Mercy in presuming to content his Justice For whosoever imagineth that he is able to satisfie the Justice of God believeth not that he hath need of his Mercy A believer having commited some sin very enormous is it credible although he have repented and obtained pardon that God will love him altogether as much as he loved him before the offence commited God loveth the righteous but if the righteous happen to commit some great crime it is impossible but God should resent it Neverthelesse the gate of his Mercy is always open to the penitent But is there any likelihood that God having been grievously offended by a man whom he loved will yet love him with so great an affection
at the last Day shall be carried up to heaven All the Miracles from the first to the last tend to carry man to heaven And by their beginning God would shew what should be their conclusion Why Adam was not carried bodily to heaven as well as Enoch The translation of Enoch was a preludium of ours which we expect and a testimony of eternal life where we shall be gathered together in body and soul But it is worth the enquiring Why God wrought not this Miracle in the person of the first man but deferred it until the seventh generation Behold then what may be said concerning it If Adam who represented all mankinde had been carried up to heaven as Enoch afterward was there would not have wanted some that would conclude that heaven appertained naturally unto men as children and heirs of Adam Now to prevent this errour and to teach us that heavenly beatitude is given by Grace and not by Nature the Wisdom of God found it not good that the common father of men should ascend corporally to heaven but would that he should die and that his body should remain in the earth Besides that which is most worthy of observation God would not translate Enoch till such time as Adam was dead and yet Enoch had already lived above three hundred yeers before the decease of Adam But after that Adam was dead Enoch was the first Patriarch that went out of the world For great reasons the going forth of Enoch was preceded by that of his grandfather In that of Adam who died God did shew what it is that men hold of their Nature to wit death In that of Enoch who was carried up without dying God hath shewed what it is that the righteous ought to expect from Grace to wit immortality In that of Adam the father of all is seen the condition of all men to whom it is appointed once to die In that of Enoch is seen the priviledge of Believers who shall be carried to heaven And as the death of Adam went before the rapture of Enoch so it behoveth that we die iâ— Adam before we can be carried up with Enoch Why God hath shewed the glory of heaven to some that were yet upon the earth and yet never shewed hell to any person while he was in this world Saint Steven being as yet here belowe the heavens were opened unto him and he saw the glory of God Saint Paul being as yet mortal was in the third heaven and heard unspeakable words that there were uttered But none whether Elect or Reprobate ever saw hell but after his death Why hath not that place of torment been shewn unto mortals as well as Paradise The cause for which God hath caused the joys of heaven to be seen hath been to the end to comfort his children and to encourage them to those sufferings which should be followed by such a glory The sight of hell maketh not for this purpose Nor is it enough to say that it might serve for the conversion of unbelievers For if a wicked man had seen hell he would no more amend then the brethren of the wicked rich man would have done upon the word of one dead that had come back from the bosome of Abraham Luke 16.31 Why Saint Paul being come back from the third heaven speaketh not of having Seen but onely of having Heard 2 Cor. 14.4 It may be that in effect he was transported thither rather to Hear then to See And this Either because being yet mortal God revealed himself to him as to Moses not by the sight of his face of which every man living is uncapable but by the words of his mouth Exod. 33.18 c. Or because being to descend yet from heaven hither below to instruct others he had need to receive instructions and by consequence it was more necessary for him to Hear then to See more profitable both to him and to those that were afterward taught by him For howsoever the words which he had heard were unspeakable yet they furnished him with great lights the which he forgot not but brought them from above to enlighten both himself and others Of Faith The Conclusion of this Treatise Two onely things at which Jesus Christ as man wondered THe one was the Unbelief of his country-men the Galileans Mark 6.6 The other was the Faith of a stranger to wit the Centurion Matth. 8.10 We read not that Jesus Christ in the days of his humiliation ever admired any thing but these two It is truely a thing to be admired that many are unbelievers in a greater light and that many have a great faith being enlightened but by a little spark Of a strange method by which God obligeth men to believe It were an impertinency and folly for one man to say to another I command thee to believe this for Belief is not formed by Commandment but by Perswasion None is master of the Belief of another no not of his own For a man cannot Believe all that he would yea he is often constrained to believe that which he would not as the devils believe against their will that there is a God The object of Belief is not Imperative but Indicative nor is it proposed in form of a Commandment but in that of a Narration Neverthelesse God doth not onely invite us to Believe in presenting to us the Truths which are the objects of our Faith but himself commandeth us This is his Commandment that we should Believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ 1 Joh. 3.23 Upon which we ought to consider that in commanding to believe he can cause us to believe His words when it pleaseth him to animate them with his Spirit plant Faith in the heart of man Nor doth it import that they be narrative or prohibitive or otherwise conceived For their efficacy dependeth not upon the form of the expressions but upon the secret vertue of their Author It were a great impropriety every way if a man should command me to believe for with all his commandments he cannot cause me to believe as long as my spirit perswadeth me to the contrary But God who is the Father and the Master of spirits can speak in the terms of Commanding because in commanding to Believe in effect he giveth the grace to Believe So that language which were absurd in the mouth of man is admirable in the mouth of God Of those that promise to Believe if the truth be shewn unto them There is nothing more ordinary among them which dispute against the true Religion then these words Prove me that which ye say and I will believe it But these people speak as if Faith onely depended upon themselves They promise that which is not in their power This is as if a blinde man should promise to know colours provided they be shewed unto him The Truth what evidence soever it bringeth with it is not perceptible but to him that hath eyes capable of discerning it Now this
man ever wrought Miracle within the Temple of God except the Son of God An observation upon this subject p. 89. Why Jesus Christ when he was hungry or thirsty or weary with travel never helped himself by his miraculous power to give himself refreshment p. 91. Why the Son of God after he was raised from the dead ceased from healing the sick p. 92. Of the Tears of Christ in the days of his Flesh p. 93. Christ condemned by Pilate AConsideration why the names of diveâ—â— wicked men are set down in the histâ—â— of the Passion of Christ p. 9â— The name of the Romane Empire hath is tervened both in the birth and death of Christ p. 97. The Death and Burial of CHRIST FOur glorious occurrences distant many ages one from the other and coming â—â— passe on the like day p. 98. An advertisement touching the Name of Altar improperly ascribed to the Crosse p. 100. Why the Scripture speaketh of what matter the Crosse was made yet expresseth not the form of it p. 102. None hath wrought Miracles at his death except the Son of God p. 103. Three signes from heaven exhibited in three several passages by the which Jesus Christ hath been declared publikely to be the Messiah p. 104. Why the High Priest who represented Jesus Christ nâ—ver came neer to the dead and yet Jesus Christ did the contrary p. 106. Why the fear of death was more excusable in the Saints of the Old Testament then it is now And why we ought not to imitate them in all that which they have spoken concerning this subject p. 108. The descent of CHRIST into Hell AN observation upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 10.6 7. forbidding to ask who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the abysse p. 110. Why Christ being on the Crosse pronounced the first words of the 22 Psalm p. 112. The fruits of the death of CHRIST VVHy the Son of God deferred so long time to come and expiate the sins of the world p. 114. An admirable concurrence of the time of Redemption with the times of the most famous Ceremonies of the Law An observation upon this subject p. 118. A mysterious reason of the name which the Apostle giveth to the Sacrifice of Christ calling it A Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour Ephes 5.2 p. 120. The Resurrection of CHRIST NIne examples of the Resurrection of the dead which have gone before or followed the Resurrection of Christ An Harmony between those that were raised under the Old Testament and those that were raised by the Son of God while himself was yet mortal p. 123. Why Christ rose not again the day after his death but suffered the whole Sabbath day to passe over before he returned to life p. 125. A comparison of the time which God employed in the Creation with that which he employed in the Redemption And of the days of the one and the other p. 127. The first and neerest cause of the three days detaining of Jonah in the whales belly p. 128. The Resurrection of Christ figured in Hezekiah by a double resemblance p. 129. Why none ever was raised again the third day after his death but onely Christ p. 131. Three miraculous Sepulchres in the holy History p. 134. Four men that raised the dead before and after the coming of Christ p. 135. The continuation of the Article of the Resurrection of CHRIST His Ascension into Heaven His Sitting at the right hand of God CHrist hath verified his Resurrection by all the proofs which could be given p. 136. Why God never raised any person of note to converse among men except the Messiah p. 137. Of all those that have been raised from the dead none is introduced in Scripture speaking except Jesus Christ p. 141. Three several Fourties of Days in the time that our Saviour stayed in this world Observations upon this circumstance p. 143. Why the Son of God entered no more into the Temple after his Resurrection And the difference in this regard between Him and those which were his principal types p. 145. Of those which have seen the Son of God being in heaven p. 146. All the miraculous prerogatives which have been severally in divers Saints are found united in one onely Christ in a soveraign degree p. 148. Of the last Judgement VVHy doth the holy History never say that God descended but onely where the businesse hath been to do justice or to establish it and protect the innocent p. 150. An observation upon the four general Judgements mentioned in the Scriptures p. 151. A wonderful Mystery which is seen in the several goings out of the three first men which God took out of the world p. 153. Why God who hath foretold and set down the measures of certain particular times hath not revealed how long the world should endure or when the day of Judgement should be p. 156. Of the holy Ghost FOur remarkable productions which the Scripture attributeth to the Spirit of God to wit two in the Creation two in the Redemption p. 159. Why the Scripture representeth the holy Ghost and his effects under the names of Water of Fire of Anointing with Oil and of Sprinkling of Blood The true interpretation of these terms contained in divers passages p. 160. A catalogue of those actions which were celebrated with Aspersion of Blood in the time of the Law p. 163. Blood hath no propriety of making white Why then is it said Apocal. 7.14 that the Saints have made white their robes in the blood of the Lamb p. 166. Of the Church and the Communion of Saints WHy Moses is more prolix and more exact in the description of the Tabernacle then in that of the whole world p. 169. The number of persons that make up the body of the universal Church is not onely prefixed and definite but also regulated by measures and proportions p. 171. Of the small number of believers in the three several comings of the Son of God Resemblances on this subject p. 174. Three several states of the Church in three several times and three several titles of it p. 175. A difference between the Church of the Old Testament and that of the New in regard of the Communion of those things which were ordained to sanctity p. 176. Four several buildings of which God hath been the Architect representing severally the estate of the Church p. 178. Why the most notable periods of the Church and many famous mysteries had their beginning in a Desert p. 180. All the Church was never gathered together in one place except then when it was in the Ark. p. 182. The Remission of Sins A Difference between the Remission which the Law presented of old to sinners and that which is offered unto them by the Gospel p. 184. Which is most injurious and repugnant to God Either Despair or Presumption p. 187. A believer having commited some sin very enormous is it credible although he have repented and obtained pardon that God will love him altogether as much as he loved him before the offence committed Ibid. Examples of divers great sinners reestablished in their first estate p. 190. The Resurrection of the Flesh WHy is Abraham so highly commended for having believed that God could raise the dead Heb. 11.19 p. 192. An admirable gradation in those which have heen raised from the dead p. 193. Why there have been more young people raised from the dead then old p. 195. Of the first Resurrection and of the second death mentioned Revel 20. And from whence those terms are extracted p. 197. Everlasting life THe first and the last of all Miracles p. 203. Why Adam was not carried bodily to heaven as well as Enoch p. 204. Why God hath shewed the glory of heaven to some that were yet upon the earth and yet never shewed hell to any person while he was in this world p. 206. Why Saint Paul being come back from the third heaven speaketh not of having Seen but onely of having Heard 2 Cor. 14.4 p. 207. Of Faith The Conclusion of this Treatise TWo onely things at which Jesus Christ as man wondered p. 208. Of a strange method by which God obligeth men to Believe p. 209. Of those that promise to Believe if the truth be shewn unto them p. 110. FINIS