Females and Proselytes and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles as not being at all offensive to them as Circumcision was it being one of their own Religious Ceremonies and much less painful in its own nature But though this was of a quite different nature from Circumcision yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room and to serve its religious ends and purposes viz. to transact and seal and ratifie the new Covenant between God and us For in Baptism the Party Baptized makes a solemn Vow and Profession by himself or his Sponsor of fidelity and Allegiance to God through Jesus Christ and hence Baptism is called the answer or promise of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 For in the Apostolick Age as Origâ—n tells us in Num. Homil. 5. there were certain questions proposed by the Minister to the Person to be Baptized which St. Cyprian calls Interrogatio Baptismi the Interrogation of Baptism Now the questions proposed were first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou renounce the Devil To which the Party answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do renounce then he was asked again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dost thou consent to resign thy self to Christ To which he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do consent and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention was that in all Probability which the Apostle here calls the answer of a good Conscience and if so it is certain that these words do imply our formal Covenanting with God in Baptism Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection where it is plain that those Phrases buried with Christ and risen with Christ are only the sense and signification of that Eastern custom in Baptism viz. of Plunging the Baptized person under water and raising him up again which being Sacramental actions must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy and the significancy of them the Apostle here plainly tells us wholly refers to the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's Death and Burial and the raising up again to his Resurrection The true import therefore of these Baptismal actions must be First a solemn profession of our belief that as we are buried under water and raised up again so Christ died and was buried and raised up from the dead which being the principal Articles of Christianity do include all the rest Secondly They also import a solemn engagement of the Party baptized to die to and endeavour utterly to extinguish all his sinful lusts and affections even as Christ died and was buried and to rise from the spiritual death of sin into newness of life even as Christ rose from his natural death to live for ever Since therefore in their Baptism they did by the same actions signifie their belief of the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with their own resolution of dying to sin and rising to righteousness they might very well be said to dye with Christ in those actions to be buried with Christ and to rise with Christ since what is represented as done together is representatively done together and it is usual in Sacraments to call the representing signs by the names of the things which they represent For so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover and the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper the Body and Bloud of Christ and for the same reason the plunging under water and raising up again in Baptism is here called dying with Christ and rising with Christ because in the same actions Christ's natural Death and Resurrection and our spiritual Death and Resurrection are represented together The meaning therefore of the above cited passage is plainly this You cannot be ignorant that when you were baptized into Jesus Christ you made a solemn Profession that you would conform your selves to his Death in dying to sin even as he died for it so that in your Baptismal immersion you were representatively buried with him that so as Christ was raised from the dead so you in conformity thereto might live a new regenerate life for if we conform to his Death in dying to sin as we promised to do in our immersion we shall be sure to conform to his Resurrection also in living to Righteousness as we promised to do in our rising out of the water again By which it is evident that Baptism is on our part a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the conditions of the New Covenant And indeed the very phrase Baptized into Iesus Christ can import no less than a solemn resignation of our selves to Christ in Baptism For so the phrase Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 plainly denotes the Jews giving up themselves to him to be governed by him as the Minister of God. And accordingly the Apostle tells us that so many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and putting on Christ is opposed by the Apostle to making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 and therefore must necessarily denote an ingagement of our selves to a strict observance of the Laws of Christian purity or which is the same thing a promise or stipulation on our part of universal obedience to his Laws By all which it is evident that in this solemnity of Baptism we put our selves under Christ as our Head and Covenant with him to be ruled by him in our Faith and Manners And as in this Ceremony of Initiation we strike Covenant with him so doth he with us For in this sacred Action the Minister is the authorized Proxy of Jesus Christ and therefore his giving the holy Sign is Christ's own action and doth to all intents and purposes as much oblige him as if he did it in his own Person For since Christ is not upon Earth and so cannot transact the New Covenant with us in his own Person it is necessary he should do it by Authorized Proxies impowered by himself to do it in his Name which Proxies being thus Authorized by him do as effectually oblige him by those federal Rites which they perform in his Name as if he himself had performed them in his own Person For he doth what they do by his Authority and is as effectually obliged by what he doth by them mediately as by what he doth by himself immediately For thus his Commission runs by which he Authorized them and their Successors to the end of the World Go teach all Nations baptizing
his continual intercession in Heaven Royal Authority to dispense that Promise to us doth by vertue of that Authority actually pardon us upon our actual repentance So that as soon as ever we perform the condition of Gods grant of pardon our Saviour who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts and perfectly discerns our sincerity immediately pronounces our sentence of pardon and by a particular application of that general grant to us absolves us from our obligation to eternal punishment and freely receives us into Grace and Favour For though the completion and publication of our pardon is reserved for the day of judgment when we shall be absolved from all punishment i. e. not only of eternal misery but also of corporal death and temporal sufferings in the publick view and audience of the World yet it is certain that every penitent Believer in Jesus is actually pardoned by him in Heaven as soon as ever he believes and repents that is he is in foro Christi and before the Tribunal of his Royal Judgment Absolved from the obligation to suffer eternal misery which he lay under during his state of impenitence and Christ in his own mind judgment and estimation hath Judicially thus pronounced concerning him By vertue of my Fathers grant to all penitent offenders and of that Royal Authority which he hath committed to me I freely release thee from all that vast debt of everlasting punishment which thou hast too justly incurr'd by sinning against him Thus as the Father forgives us vertually by that publick grant of mercy which for Christs sake he hath made to all penitent offenders so the Son forgives us actually by that Royal Authority which the Father hath given him to make a particular application of that his general grant to us upon our actual repentance and as it is by the Fathers grant that the Son pardons us so it is by the Sons application of it that the Father pardons us and therefore we are said in or by Christ to have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Col. 1.14 i. e. to be forgiven for the sake of his blood in consideration whereof God the Father hath given him power to forgive us for so he himself tells us that all power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 28.18 and there is no doubt but in all power the power of forgiving sins was included for so S. Peter tells us that through his Name i. e. by his Authority or judicial sentence Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 And thus you see what the first Regal act is which our Saviour hath always performed and will always continue to perform viz. forgiving of sins II. Another of his Regal acts of this kind is punishing obstinate offenders For as he mediates for his Father in ruling and governing us he must be the Minister of his Fathers providence and being so whatsoever divine punishments are inflicted upon offenders are to be look'd upon as the stroaks of his hand and the Ministries of his power for he hath the Keys of Death and Hell i. e. the power of punishing both here and hereafter Rev. 1.18 and accordingly he threatens the corrupt Churches of Asia that he would remove their Candlestick and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth that he would come upon them as a Thief and that he would spew them out of his mouth Rev. 2.5.3.16 and Chap. 3. Vers. 16. all which is a sufficient proof that the punishment of offenders both here and hereafter is committed to him as a branch of that Royal Authority with which he is invested by the Father in the execution of which Commission he many times Chastens bad men in this life in order to their reformation and amendment for as many as I love saith he i. e. wish well to I rebuke and chasten Heb. 3.19 and many times he persecutes them with exterminating judgments thereby hanging them up in Chains as it were as publick examples of his vengeance to warn and deter the World from treading in their impious footsteps For so he threatens Iezebel and her followers I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not behold I will cast her into a bed i. e. into a Bed-rid and irrevocable condition and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation and I will kill her Children with death and all the Church shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Rev. 2.21 22 23. And though for wise and gracious ends he oftentimes spares bad men in this life and sometimes shines upon them a continued day of prosperity without any cloud or interruption yet he always overtakes them with the fearful storms of his vengeance in the life to come For no sooner do their souls depart from their bodies but they are immediately consigned by his warrant into the hands of evil Angels those skilful spiteful and powerful executioners of his justice under whose savage Tyranny they indure all the tortures and Agonies that the wrath and power of Devils together with their own awakened consciences and furious and unsatisfied affections are able to inflict Of which see Part 1. Ch. 3. For that the souls of bad men are transmitted into a state of wretchedness and misery immediately upon their separation from their bodies is evident from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus wherein in the first place Dives immediately after his death is said to be in great torment in Hell and this while his body lay buried in the grave Luk 16.22 23. which is a plain argument that in all that interval between death and the resurrection of the body the souls of bad men abide in a state of torment for secondly this torment of Dives's soul in hell was then when his Brethren were living upon earth and under the teaching of Moses and the Prophets ver 27. and 28 29 30 31. which shews that our Saviour supposes it to be at that very time when he delivered this Parable and consequently he supposes all bad men who were then dead and whose condition he represents by that of Dives to be then in Hell and there suffering unspeakable Agonies and Torments and if so then it 's plain that when ever impenitent souls leave their bodies they are carried by Devils into some dismal abode and there kept under a perpetual discipline of torment and in this deplorable state they remain expecting that fearful day of accounts when their condition through their reunion to their bodies and that dread bodily Torment they must then be condemned to will be rendered yet far more intolerable III. Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and always will continue to perform is his protecting and defending his Kingdom in this World. For thus he promises his faithful Church of Philadelphia Because thou hast kept the
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after
Imprimatur CAROLUS ALSTON R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis â—nii 26. 1686. THE Christian Life PART II. Wherein that FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF Christian Duty THE Doctrine of our SAVIOURS Mediation is Explained and Proved VOLUME II. By JOHN SCOTT D. D. Rector of S. Peters Poor London The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in S. Paul's Church-Yard and Thomas Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange 1687. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THis second Volume of the second Part of the Christian Life had long since been made Publick had it not been for an unfortunate Accident which befel me when it was almost finished by which I was necessitated almost to begin again and cast the whole into a different Method from what I first designed for according to my first Draught this second Volume had not ammounted to much above half of what it now is only I intended to have added some Notes at the end of it for the fuller proof and explanation of several Points therein handled which now I am forced to leave out the Book being already swell'd so much beyond my first Intention only three or four of them I am forced to Print with it because I had referr'd to them in two of the Sheets which were Printed before I new model'd the whole Design I pray God prosper this Work according to its honest Intention and that will be an abundant compensation for all the Pains and Labor I have undergone in composing it THE CONTENTS SECT I. OF the Signification and Notion of a Mediator pag. 4 c. Six general Articles proposed to our belief in Scripture concerning the Person and Offices of the Mediator First That he is designed and authorized to this Office by God who is our absolute Lord and Sovereign 6. Vpon what accounts the belief of this is necessary 8. Secondly That this Office to which he is Authorized consists in acting for and in the behalf of God and Men who are the Parties between whom he mediates 10. the belief of which Article carries with it the most indispensible Obligations to Christian Piety and Vertue 11. Thirdly That his Mediation proceeds upon certain terms and stipulations between God and Man which terms he obtained of God for us and in Gods Name hath published to us 17. what these terms are ibid. the performance of these Terms our Saviour solicits both of God and us 18. Fourthly That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and Men so be partakes of the Natures of both 23. That he should partake of the Nature of God was highly necessary to qualifie him for this sublime Office of mediating for God with Men 24. and the same necessity there was that he should partake of the nature of Man 27. That he should also partake of the nature of both no less requisite to qualifie him to Mediate for Men with God 30. That he is God as well as Man proved from Scripture 34. and also that he is Man as well as God 39. Fifthly That as he partakes of the Natures of both so that he might transact Personally with both he was sent down from Heaven to us and is returned from us to Heaven 42. Of the Birth and Personal Vnion of the Divine and Humane Natures in Christ 44. Of his Death Resurrection and Ascension 46 c. Sixthly That upon his return to Heaven there to mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the Divine and Omnipresent Spirit personally to promote and effectuate his mediation for God with Men 49 50. This Divine Spirit is the third Person in the Triâ—une Godhead 50. That there is a third Person subsisting in the Divine Nature and that he is the same with the Spirit of God in the Old Testament 51. And first That this Spirit is a Person ibid. Secondly That he is a Divine Person 53. Thirdly That he is the third Divine Person 56. Of the subordination of these Divine Persons and that it arises not from any inequality of Essence but from the inequalities of their Personal properties 57 c. That there was always a subordination of the Son to the Father and of the Holy Ghost to both 58. That in the affair of the Mediation this subordination was founded not only in the inequalities of their Personal properties but also in a mutual compact and agreement 59. That the Holy Spirit acts and hath always acted under Christ in the Kingdom of God 60. That by the Holy Spirit Christ himself acted while he was upon Earth 60 61. That this Spirit is sent both from the Father and the Son and of the different nature of their Missions 61 c. Some things which the Holy Spirit hath done in the pursuance of his Ministry to our Saviour and hath long since ceased to do as first he inspired the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour with the gift of Languages 65 66. Secondly He fully instructed them by his immediate Inspirations in the Doctrine which they were to teach the World 67 c. Thirdly He gave the most convincing evidence of the Truth and Divinity of their Doctrine 70. Fourthly He conducted them by his infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry 72. Of the cessation of these miraculous Assistances 74 c. Other things which the Holy Spirit hath always done and always continues in pursuance of this his Ministry as being continually present with the Church 76. We receive him in our Baptism 77. Of the different manner of his ordinary Operations now from what it was heretofore 78 c. That these his ordinary Operations are all performed by impression of thoughts 81 82. they are all reduced to five Heads First Illumination 83 c. Secondly Sanctification 85. Thirdly Quickning or Excitation 88. Fourthly Comforting and supporting 90. Fifthly Intercession 93. SECT II. Concerning the particular Offices of Christs Mediation From the respective states and conditions of the Parties between whom Christ mediates is shewn the necessity of his being Prophet Priest and King 98. The order in which our Saviour proceeds in the discharge of these Offices 100. SECT III. Concerning the Prophetick Office of Christ. The great need of this Office 101. That the Messias was to be a Prophet 102. Of the import of the word Prophesie 103. The admirable accomplishments of our Saviour for this Office shewn in three Particulars First That when he came down to Prophesie to us he came immediately from the Bosom of the Father 104. Secondly That he came down into our own Natures 160. Thirdly That while he abode among us he was always full of the Holy Ghost 109. how effectualy he discharged this Office shewn in six Particulars First He made a full declaration of his Fathers Will to the World 113. Secondly He proved and confirmed what he declared by Miracles 116. Thirdly He gave a perfect example of Obedience to what he declared and proved to be his Fathers
Essentials of Christian Worship 307 c. Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline 309. SECT X. Concerning the Ministers of the Kingdom of Christ. Which are of a fourfold Rank and Order First The supreme Minister of it is the Holy Ghost p. 315. Secondly next to him are the whole world of Angels both good and bad and as for the good they are subjected to Christ by the Order and appointment of God the Father ibid. That the good Angels were not subject to him as Mediator till his ascension into Heaven but had their distinct regencies over the several Gentile Nations 316 c. But upon Christs ascension these their distinct regencies were all dissolved and they subjected to Christs Mediatorial Scepter 320 c. And as for the bad Angels they were subjected to him by just and lawful Conquest 322. That this Conquest he obtained while he was upon Earth but especially in his last agony 323 c. Seven particular instances of the Ministry of good Angels under Christ first they declare upon occasion his mind and will to his Church and People 331 c. Secondly they guard and defend his subjects against outward dangers 333 c. Thirdly they support and comfort them upon difficult undertakings and under great and pressing calamities 334 c. Fourthly they protect them against the rage and fury of evil spirits 336 c. Fifthly they further and assist them in their religious Offices 340 c. Sixthly they conduct their separated spirits to the Mansions of Glory 342 c. Seventhly they are hereafter to attend and minister to him at the general Iudgment 345 c. The Ministry of evil Angels to Christ in four particulars First they try and exercise the vertues of his subjects 347 c. Secondly they chasten and correct their faults and miscarriages 351 c. Thirdly they harden and confirm incorrigible sinners 354 c. Fourthly they execute the vengeance of Christ on them in another world 357 c. The third sort of the Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the Kings and Governors of the world 361 c. by their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty 363 c. But in the first place have the same commanding Power over all indifferent things and that in Ecclesiastical Causes as well as Civil that they had under the Law of Nature 364 c. And secondly are as unaccountable and irresistible as they were before 365 c. What thâ—se Ministries are which Kings are obliged to render our Saviour shewn in general from Isa. 49.23.476 c. Particularly first they are to protect and defend his Church in the profession and exercise of the true Religion 377.378 secondly they are to fence and cultivate its peace and good order 378 c. they are to chasten and correct the irregular 379 c. they are to provide for the decency of its worship and for the convenient maintenance of its Officers and Ministers 381 c. The fourth sort of Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governors 383. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church 384 c. That this Government is Episcopal proved from four Arguments first from the institution of our Saviour 388 c. secondly from the practice of the Apostles upon it 393 c. thirdly from the Vniversal Conformity of the Primitive Church to this Apostolick practice 404. fourthly from our Saviours declared allowance and approbation of both 421 c. Of the Ministers of this spiritual Government which are either such as are common to the Bishops together with the inferiour Officers of the Church as first to teach the Gospel 427 c. secondly to administer the Evangelical Sacraments 429 c. thirdly to offer up the publick Prayers and intercessions of Christian Assemblies 431 c. Or such as are peculiar to the Bishops as first to make Laws for the peace and good order of the Church 433. secondly to ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices 436. thirdly to exercise that spiritual jurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church 439. fourthly to confirm such us have been Baptized and instructed in Christianity 446 c. SECT XI Of Christs Regal Acts in his Kingdom Which are of three sorts First such as he hath performed once for all of which there are four first his giving Laws to his Kingdom 449 c. That what Christ taught as a Prophet had the force of Law ibid. His Law spiritual 450. His Laws reduced under two heads first his Law of perfection 452 c. secondly his Law of sincerity 455 c. The second of those Regal Acts which he hath performed once for all is his mission of the Holy Spirit 457. A third is his erecting an external Polity and Government 458 c. Another sort of Christs Regal acts are such as he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform of which there are four first his pardoning penitent Offenders the nature of which is explained 461 c. the Scripture attributes it both to Christ and God the Father 462. that both of them have an appropriate part in it 463. The part of God the Father is first to make a general Grant of Pardon 464 c. secondly to make it in consideration of Christs death and sacrifice 466 thirdly to limit it to believing and penitent sinners ibid. c. The part which Christ performs in it is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular sinners upon their faith and repentance 474 c. The second of these Regal Acts of Christ is his punishing obstinate Offenders 476. A third is his protecting and defending his People and Kingdom in this world 479 c. The fourth is his rewarding his faithful subjects in the life to come 483 c. The third last sort of Christs Regal Acts are those which are yet to be performed by him of which there are three first he is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of his Enemies 485 c. secondly he is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection 492 c. this proved from his own Resurrection ibid. The Objections against this argument and the Doctrine of the Resurrection answered 494 c. The manner of the Resurrection described at large from 1 Cor. 15.42.501 First this mortal body is to be the seed or material principle of our resurrection 502. secondly this seed must die and be corrupted before it is to be raised and quickened 503. thirdly this dead seed is to be raised and quickened by the Power of God 505. fourthly it is to be raised and quickned into the proper form and kind of a human body 508. fifthly this human body is to be very much changed and altered 510. the change that will be made in the bodies of good men is
reason to repose our trust and confidence in him and therefore that we might have the same reason to confide in him in his Mediation for us as God had in his Mediation for him God so ordered it not only that he should assume our nature which if he had so thought meet he might have done without either being seen of us or born among us but also that he should so assume it as to be visibly born of humane kind and manifested in it in the open view and sight of the World. For in the fulness of that time which was long before prefixed in the Eternal Council of God the Holy Ghost by an immediate invisible and miraculous operation on the pure and Immaculate Womb of a Virgin called Mary of the Lineage of David inabled her without any Congress of Man to conceive a Child of humane kind consisting of a rational Soul in a mortal body which the Eternal Word or natural Son of God who was before all Worlds immediately assumed into a personal Vnion with himself whereby he became God-man who before was only God and this without either commixing his two natures into one or converting either of them into the other but under their Personal Union preserving them still distinct and separate which God-man the blessed Virgin that conceived him actually brought forth after the natural time of Women and Nursed and Educated till he arrived to the Age of man at which time he began personally to treat with men in his Father's behalf and in order to the reducing them to their bounden duty and allegiance to the Throne of Heaven revealed his Mind and Will to them with his own mouth and pressed and inforced it upon them with the most powerful Motives that ever were urged to mankind and by his own miraculous Works and most holy Example abundantly demonstrated to them that what he revealed to be the Will of his Father was true and practicable Thus far in his own person he Mediated for his Father with Men as I shall shew more fully hereafter The consideration of which ought in all reason and conscience to render his Mediation more prevalent with us For when God the Father hath condescended so far as to send down his only Son from Heaven on an Embassie to us to propose to us terms of reconciliation who had so highly incensed and affronted him when God the Son hath condescended so far as to cloath himself in our nature that therein he might indear himself to us and thereby oblige us to listen more attentively to his gracious proposals what a stupendous height of obstinacy will it be in us to stop our Ears against him and reject those terms of Mercy he proposes to us by persisting in a wilful rebellion Had God sent but one of the lowest Angels in Heaven to us to promise pardon and eternal life to us upon condition we would but sincerely submit to his Will one would have thought a proposal so infinitely reasonable in it self and advantagious to us should have been imbraced by us with transports and raptures but to reject it now when he hath sent it to us by his own Eternal Son whom all his Angels adore and by his Son incarnate in our own natures is such a degree of obstinacy and ingratitude together as no Devil was ever guilty of Suppose that you beheld this most glorious Person coming down to you from the right hand of God to tender you a Pardon and a Crown upon condition you would submit to his Father's Will and denounce everlasting vengeance against you if you persist in your rebellion would you dare by refusing to submit to reject that Pardon and that Crown and defie that vengeance to his face One would think it were impossible but yet in effect you do the same thing who believe that that Jesus who preached this Gospel to the World 1600. years ago was the Son of God in Humane Nature and yet obstinately refuse to submit to its proposals Hence from this very Topick that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his own Son Heb. 1.2 the Apostle himself makes this inference Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip Heb. 2.1 And now having finished his Personal Treaty or Mediation with us for God he lays the foundation of his everlasting Intercession for us with God before our own Eyes viz. in the Sacrifice of himself for the sins of the World. He might if he had pleased have suffered death for us in the invisible state and received those tortures from the malice of Devils which were inflicted on him by the malice of devilish men but that would not have given so great a satisfaction to our Faith. For for the Son of God to lay down his life for Sinners is such a stupendous instance of love as would have exceeded the belief of Mankind had it not been openly and visibly transacted and therefore he rather chose to resign up himself into the hands of the Iews his cruel Persecutors and by them to offer up his Life upon the Cross in the Publick view of the World. And now having given this sensible evidence to our Faith that he died for us to satisfie us farther that his death was accepted by his Father as a full atonement for our sins he rose again from the dead the third day after his Crucifixion which was a plain evidence that his Father was fully satisfied with what he had suffered for us because he exacted no more but by his Resurrection actually discharged him from any farther suffering for ever So that the Resurrection of Christ is not only an evidence of the truth of his Religion under which notion I shall discourse of it hereafter but also of the acceptation of his Sacrifice For so the Apostle intimates in Rom. 8.33 34. Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again i. e. Who is there now that can presume to denounce eternal condemnation against any good Christian since Christ himself hath laid down his life for him yea rather since he is risen again from the dead and hath thereby given sufficient evidence that God hath accepted his death as our ransom from eternal condemnation And now having satisfied our Faith in these two great points that he died for our sins and that God hath accepted his death in lieu of that eternal punishment that was due for them all the farther satisfaction we can ask or need is that as he came down from the Father to Mediate personally with us for him so he should return back again to the Father to Mediate personally for us with him to exhibite and plead his meritorious Sacrifice in our behalf and in vertue thereof to solicite our pardon and acceptation with God.
to his Church was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his authority to send the Holy Ghost yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his Mission immediately And accordingly you may observe that after Christ's departure from this World the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ as the supreme Vicegerent of his Kingdom For next and immediately under Christ he Authorized the Bishops and Governours of the Church and constituted them overseers of the flock of Christ Acts 20.28 it was he that chose their Persons and appointed them their Work Acts 13.2 and gave them their several Orders and Directions Acts 15.28 Acts 16.6 in all which it is evident he acted under Christ and still continues to act as his supreme Substitute and Vicegerent and accordingly he is stiled by Tertullian the Vicarious vertue or power as he was the supreme Vicar and Substitute of Christ in mediating for God with Men so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinated to the Son not only by vertue of his procession from him together with the Father but also by vertue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Father by his meritorious Death and Intercession I proceed III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done and still continues doing in order to the effectuating this his Mediation For there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and some things which he hath always done and will still continue doing to the end of the World of both which I shall give some brief account in order to the fuller explication of the Ministry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great Mediator First therefore there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the Planting and Propagating Christ's Gospel in the World upon and after that his Miraculous Descent of which we read in Acts 2. For when Christ was departing from his Disciples into Heaven he ordered them to stay at Ierusalem and not to undertake that mighty work of Planting his Gospel through the World till they were endued with power from on high Luke 24.49 which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his Descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouchsafe them upon which Order they return to Ierusalem and there continue till the day of Pentecost fasting and praying together in an Upper Room when all of a sudden the Holy Ghost descended upon them in a visible body of bright shining fire and endowed them with all those Heavenly powers which were requisite to qualifie them for the propagation of Christ's Gospel through the World. For as they were to be the first Planters of the Gospel it was requisite First that they should be able to speak the several Languages of those Nations to whom they were to preach Secondly that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrines which they were to preach Thirdly that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their Doctrines Fourthly that they should be conducted by Infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry against all which necessities the Holy Ghost abundantly supplied them For First He inspired them with the gift of Languages without which they must have spent a great part of their lives before they could have been capable of preaching the Gospel to the World in learning the several Languages of the several Nations they were to preach to which must have very much retarded the progress of the Gospel And therefore the Holy Ghost upon this his miraculous Descent did in an instant infuse into them the Habit of speaking several Languages insomuch that all of a sudden and without any Rules of Grammar or previous instructions they were heard to speak to the great astonishment of their Auditors in the fifteen several Tongues of fifteen several Nations Acts 2.4 c. And though they were immediately dispersed abroad in the World and some of them into remote Countries whose names perhaps they had never heard of yet still where-ever they came they were inspired with the Language of the Country which they spake as freely as their own Mother Tongue And this was a vast advantage to them in their Ministry because they were not only enabled by it to preach the Gospel to all Nations but were enabled in such a manner as gave a mighty confirmation to their Doctrine For their very gift of speaking being a miraculous effect of divine power was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine Secondly The Holy Ghost fully and clearly instructed them in the Doctrines which they were to preach and this was no more than what was necessary For what they preached who were the first Planters of the Gospel was to be the standard of truth and falshood to all succeeding Generations and therefore it was highly necessary that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel that so their Successors in all Ages might safely relie on their Authority But whilst they were under the Personal Discipline of our Saviour who instructed them by Humane Methods i. e. by proposing his Doctrine to their Ears and through their Mediation to their Vnderstandings it is plain they made but very slow and slender improvements For after all his pains with them they continued very ignorant of some of the most material Articles of Faith and at best they had but gross Apprehensions of the nature of Christ's Kingdom and of the ends and reasons of his Death and were very diffident even of his Resurrection and the reason was that Christ taught them as a man doth a man i. e. by words which are only the audible Images and Representations of things which being liable to misapprehension and oblivion some of them they utterly foâ—got and some of them they grosly misunderstood But when the Spirit came upon them a wondrous Light broke all of a sudden into their Vnderstandings by which they discovered farther into the Gospel Mysteries in an instant than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching For though the Spirit taught them no new Doctrines but did only repeat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before for he shall receive of mine saith Christ i. e. of my Doctrine and shall shew or explain it unto you yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour For he spoke not to their Ears but to their Minds and represented things more nakedly and immediately to their understandings he conversed with their spirits even as Spirits do with Spirits without involâ—ing his sense in articulate sounds or material representations but objected it to them in its own naked light and characterized it immediately on their understandings And as he immediately
holes through which it ran into a Channel that conveyed it into the Valley of Kidron but in the Sin-Offerings for the High Priest and the Congregation he was to carry the bloud within the Sanctuary and to sprinkle of it seven times before the Vail of the Sanctuary and to put some of it upon the Horns of the Altar of Incense after which the Remainder of the bloud was to be disposed of as was said before on the Altar of Burnt Offerings And at the great day of Expiation the High Priest himself having slain the Sacrifice was to carry the bloud of it into the Holy of Holies and there with his finger to sprinkle the bloud of it seven times before the Mercy-Seat Now this sprinkling of the bloud was nothing else but a solemn presenting of the life of the sacrificed Animal to God as an exchange or price of Redemption for the forfeited life of the Offender For whatsoever was offered upon the Altar was always looked upon as religiously presented to God so that by sprinkling the bloud on the Altar which is the Vehicle of life and therefore is sometimes called the Life vide Gen. 9.4 the Life was solemnly tendered and presented to God as to the supreme Lord of life and death and the meaning of this tendry was to move God by way of Intercession to accept of that life instead of the Offenders which was forfeited into his hands For since as a Learned Author of our own hath observed all Divine Worship whether natural or instituted was either to implore or to commemorate God's grace and favour this solemn sprinkling of the bloud in expiatory Sacrifices must necessarily respect the imploring of God's Pardon of those sins for which the Expiation was designed So that in performing this Rite the Priest was a silent Intercessor with God in the behalf of the People and his action was a solemn Deprecation of which this was the natural language and meaning O Lord I beseech thee be merciful to these guilty Supplicants in lieu of whose bloud which I acknowledge is justly forfeited to thee I here present thee the life of this sacrificed Animal whose bloud I am sprinkling on thy Altar humbly imploring thee to accept it as a ransom for their lives and in consideration of it to release them from that mortal penalty in which they stand bound to thy Iustice. Upon which Intercession of his God's high displeasure was atoned and the Priest thereupon Authorized to bless the People i. e to declare that God was appeased and reconciled to them And thus you see what the Office of Priesthood is and in what acts it consists in sum therefore it consists in sacrificing to God for the sins of the People and interceding with him in the vertue of the Sacrifice to be propitious and merciful to them I proceed now in the second place to shew that both these Acts of the Priestly Office among the Iews were designed and intended by God for Types and Shadows of the Priesthood of our Saviour For as for the first viz. Sacrificing the Scripture plainly tells us that it was instituted for a Typical representation of the death of our Saviour For so the Author to the Hebrews makes the Sacrificed body of our Saviour to answer to and succeed in the room of the whole body of the Iewish Sacrifices as the true Antitype of those Types and Shadows Heb. 10.5 6 c. Wherefore when he cometh into the World speaking of Christ he saith Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me that is a body to be sacrificed in the room of that former Sacrifice and Offering In burnt Offerings and Sacrifices thou hast had no pleasure Then said he verse 9. Lo I come to do thy will O God that is to die a Sacrifice for the sins of the world and hereby saith he he taketh away the first that is those Typical Sacrifices that he may establish the second that is that great Sacrifice of Christ's body for so it follows verse 10. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all in which words he plainly makes all the Jewish Sacrifices in general to be Types and Figures of the great Sacrifice of our Saviour's Death And indeed as those Sacrifices were all of them to be slain and to be all sound and immaculate they were so far forth at least express Types of our Saviour both as to his death and unspotted innocence and purity But then as for those Sacrifices whose bodies were burnt without the Camp they were more peculiarly Types than any of the rest of our Saviour's Sacrifice because they had not only all those things appertaining to them by which the other Sacrifices represented it but besides that they were Expiations for sin as well as the Sacrifice of our Saviour and by their being burnt without the Camp did more eminently prefigure our Saviour's being Crucified without the City Hence the Apostle Heb. 13.10 11 12. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the Tabernacle for the Bodies of those Beasts whose bloud is brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest for sin are burnt without the Camp lest they should pollute the Congregation as being defiled and cursed upon the account of the Peoples guilts which were transferred upon them Wherefore Iesus also that he might sanctifie the People with his own bloud suffered without the Gate that is as an Expiatory Sacrifice that took upon him the guilts of Mankind and thereby became polluted and accursed in which words the death of our Saviour is plainly represented as the true Antitype of the Expiatory Sacrifices of the Iews and accordingly as all Types have much less in them of that which they prefigure than their Antitypes so those Expiatory Sacrifices had something of real Expiation in them though much less than the Sacrifice of our Saviour For so Heb. 9.13 14. For if the bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh by which it is evident that there was a real Expiation made by those Sacrifices so far as concerned the purifying mens flesh i. e. releasing them from corporal punishments and legal uncleannesses How much more saith he shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works where the same expiation in kind that was made by those Legal Sacrifices is expresly attributed though in a much higher degree to the Sacrifice of our Saviour which plainly argues the former to be a Type and Shadow of the later And then as for the second Act of the Jewish Priesthood viz. his presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People this was also instituted for a Typical representation of our Saviour's presenting the bloud of his sacrificed body to
participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven so also Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Throne And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood and of a vexatious and tumultuous World they live in continued ease content and joy wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating loving and imitating God and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which necessarily implies that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ and elsewhere he teaches that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence but that they do so is as plain as words can express it in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 From whence it evidently follows that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness where the blessed inhabitants live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure where all their happiness is eternal and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love and Praise and Ioy and Triumph where there are no sighs or tears no intermixtures of sorrow or misery but every heart is full of joy and every joy is Quintessence and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment But of this blessed state I have given an account at large Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded till the end of the World but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth admits them to the joy of their Master to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed and doth always continue to perform I proceed in the III. And last place To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him before he surrenders up his Kingdom and these are reducible to three Heads First He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies Secondly He is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection Thirdly He is yet to judge the World. I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished So Psal. 2.8 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel so also Dan. 7.4 it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominionâ— should serve and obey him ibid. ver 27. so also Dan 2.34 35 44 45. that the stone cut out without hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ should become a great Mountain and fill the whole earth and that it should break in pieces and consume all those other Kingdoms Thus also it is foretold that the Lord should be King over all the Earth Mich. 5.4 and that there should be but one Lord and his name one Zech. 14.9 and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the Rivâ—r to the 〈◊〉 of the Earth Psal. 72.8 and that all Kings should fall down before him and all Nations serve him ibid. ver 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him because the Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall govern among the Nations These and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers
of the Earth For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered slaughtered and oppressed and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth to shew his mighty power in them and once more render them what they have always been the Subjects of his miraculous conduct For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them such as that was on the day of Pentecost though far more extensive he will all of a sudden and in a most surprizing manner open the eyes of this blinded Nation and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour which like an Heir-loom hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another for thus Rom. 11.25 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer c. From whence it is plain that that blindness which then hapned to Israel and which continues on them to this day shall one day be removed viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated and that then all Israel and not a small remnant of them as at first shall be saved so also 2 Cor. 3.14 16. But their minds are blinded meaning the People of Israel for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away where he first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded and that till now remains so should turn unto the Lord and then asserts that then the vail of ignorance which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land and repossessed of their ancient native Country whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph The fame of which miraculous events spreading far and wide even to the utmost ends of the Earth shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth Truth and Peace Charity and Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth Now all the World shall be Christendom and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry Schism and Heresie Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered and the true Faith the sincere Piety the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles or convinced of their errors by the powerful impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction whose Cause they have hitherto espoused and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth which being effected the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all Thus partly by destroying and partly by converting its Enemies our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment at which time the Devil who had been hitherto chained up will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties when all of a sudden and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death the last Enemy by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead which being one of the great Articles of our Creed I shall insist more largely upon it and endeavour First To prove the certainty of the Fact and Secondly To explain the manner how it will be performed I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it for so 2 Cor. 4.14 we are assured that God will
the substance of our bodies and that all the rest we render back again into the common mass of matter by sensible or insensible evacuations though we should suppose one man to have eaten up the whole substance of anothers body yet he retains but one part of an hundred and what should hinder an omnipotent power from raising the body he hath devoured out of the ninety nine parts which he lets go again And then considering that in seven years time the whole substance of our body Changes he must if he live so long evacuate that one part which he retain'd and so the whole will be at last worn off from the matter and substance of his body Nay suppose this Devourer to feed altogether upon mans flesh as some affirm the Canibals do and that in the last seven years before his death he devours one hundred humane bodies weighing two hundred pound a piece according to this computation the utmost he can be supposed to digest of the flesh of these hundred bodies into the substance of his own amounts not to above two pound of each so that of the two hundred weight of bodily substance whereof these devoured bodies did consist there will still remain one hundred ninety eight undigested into the substance of the Devourer which we may easily conceive is sufficient matter out of which to re-produce the same bodies For we many times lose as much of our substance in a sweat and a great deal more in a consumption as these devoured bodies do in their being eaten and digested notwithstanding which our bodies continue numerically the same But as for the bodies of these Man-eaters there is no doubt but they carry with them a great deal of other substance to their graves besides that of mans flesh for the liquor which they drink with it and the bread which they eat with it and the other accidental nourishments which they receive with it goes into the substance of their bodies as well as that and these being at least one half of their nourishment must constitute at least one half of their bodies What then should hinder but that at the resurrection the other half of them which consists of mans flesh may be separated from them and restored to those humane bodies they devoured and if so then each of them shall recover its whole substance again and not want so much as one particle of all that matter whereof they were composed when they were eaten for it is but just that they should be made to refund those unnatural spoils which they barbarously ravished from the bodies of other men But then you will say How shall the body of the Cannibal that eat them be raised when according to this account it be must deprived of one half of the substance it died withal I answer that to this remaining half of his bodily substance there may without any repugnance to its being raised the same body be added out of the common mass of matter as much new bodily substance as is sufficient to redintegrate it in all its parts for the resurrection of the same body doth not necessarily imply that all the same matter shall be raised and no other and no more For if all shall be raised in the most perfect stature and proportion of humane bodies as there is no doubt but they shall then Infants and Dwarfs and such as die of Consumptions must have new matter added to that which they die withal and therefore the resurrection of the same body can imply no more than this that every body shall be raised out of the same matter so far as it will go and therefore if this remaining half of the substance of the Canibals body will not go far enough to redintegrate his whole body at the resurrection there is no doubt but God will add new substance to it which will no more hinder it from being the same numerical Body than the reparation of an house with new stones and Timber hinders it from being the same numerical house For suppose that God by a Miracle should in an instant restore a man to his full Bulk the substance of whose body is half pined away by a lingring Consumption this would not at all hinder but that still it would be the same numerical Body Why then should the Addition of new bodily substance to the remaining half of the matter of the Canibals body at the resurrection hinder it from being raised numerically the same And this I conceive is sufficient to clear the doctrine of the general Resurrection from all pretence of Repugnancy and Contradiction But suppose after all that there should be some rare and singular instances wherein it will be impossible in the nature of the thing for the same numerical Body to be raised again this would no more impeach the truth of a general resurrection of the same bodies than Enoch's and Elias's not dying do the truth of the Maxim of the Author to the Hebrews It is appointed for all men once to die If therefore in any instance it should be impossible in the nature of the thing for God to raise the same body it will be sufficient to serve the purpose of rewards and punishments for God to cloath the same soul in a new body For it is the soul that individuates the man and makes him to be the same person though he hath not the same body We have not the same matter about us when we are ten years old that we were first cloathed with when we were born and as he who shall be rewarded or punished ten years hence for a Vertue or a Crime which he acts now will be rewarded or punished in the same body though not in the same matter so he who shall be rewarded or punished at the resurrection for the good or evil which he doth in this life will be rewarded or punished in the same person though it should not be in the same body But it being more congruous to the accuracy and exactness of the divine justice that it should be in the same body as well as in the same person and it being every whit as easie to an infinite power to restore to our souls the same bodies as to cloath them in new ones for within the compass of posssibilities all things are equally within the reach of Omnipotence mens bodies shall be universally rebuilt at the Resurrection out of those old Ruins and Materials in which they did good or evil in this life and if there should happen some particular instances wherein such a numerical resurrection should be in it self impossible these will be only a few exceptions from that general rule which rather confirm than destroy it For thus from Scripture we are assured that they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 and that all that are in the grave shall hear Christs voice and come forth John 5.28 29. that the Sea shall give up the dead which are
in it and that death and Hell i. e. the grave shall deliver up the dead which are in them Rev. 20.13 All which expressions according to the literal sense of them from which without necessary reasons we ought not to depart do plainly import a resurrection of the same numerical bodies Our Resurrection therefore being a possible thing is as easie to an omnipotent Power as Christ's was and therefore his resurrection is a most certain pledge of ours since he rose as our common Head and Representative and consequently rose with the very same Will and Power to raise us which he had to raise himself Having thus proved the Truth of the matter of Fact viz. that Christ will raise us at the last day I proceed in the next place to the manner of the Fact how it is that he will raise us In treating of which I shall regulate my self by that account which the Apostle gives of it 1 Cor. 1.5 in which he having proved at large the truth of the Resurrection from ver 12. to the 35th he comes to answer an Objection concerning the manner of it but some man will say how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come In answer to which he gives a large description of it and by the similitude of seed explicates the manner how it shall be performed till he comes to ver 42. where he applies the similitude to the matter in hand so also is the Resurrection of the Dead and then goes on with a farther enlargement on it to the end of the Chapter So that this so also refers both to what went before and to what follows So also i. e. so as I have already in part described and shall farther explain in my ensuing Discourse This so therefore referring to the whole description implies these five particulars of which the whole consists First So is this mortal body to be the seed and material Principle of our Resurrection Secondly So must this Seed die and be corrupted before it be quickned and revived Thirdly So is this dead corrupted body to be raised and quickned by the power of God. Fourthly So is it to be raised by the Divine Power into the proper and natural form of an humane body Fifthly So is this humane body to be changed and altered in its Resurrection I. So is the Resurrection of the dead i. e. so is this mortal body to be the seed and material principle of the Resurrection For this is plainly implied ver 36. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Intimating that as the Seed is the material cause of the Ear of Corn which afterwards springs up so are these mortal bodies which we sow in the Earth at least the main materials of those immortal ones into which we shall be quickned at the Resurrection Perhaps as the Seed digests and incorporates into it self the juyces of the Earth and shoots them up together with its own substance into the Stalk and Ear so in some particular instances at least there may be other matter at our Resurrection interwoven with the appropriate substance of our mortal bodies and together with it spring up into immortal ones Yet from the Apostles comparison it is apparent that this very mortal body which we sow in the Grave shall be at least the Seed and Embryo which shall receive our Soul at the Resurrection and by that supposing other matter be added to it assimilate and digest it into its own substance Now though to reproduce the scattered particles of our dissolved flesh and extricate them out of all those other substances whereinto they have been woven and entangled may seem to us at first view an impossible performance yet that it is not so I have already demonstrated and if a parcel of Quicksilver after it hath run a tedious course of alteration shifted it self out of its natural form into that of a vapour out of a vapour into an insipid water out of water into a white or red or yellow powder out of that into a salt and thence into a malleable Metal may by a skilful Artist be reduced out of all these various contextures into its natural form of plain and running Mercury why should we think it either impossible or difficult for a Being of immense knowledge and power to watch the wandering particles of our corrupted bodies through all their successive alterations and to retrieve them out of all those substances into which they shall be finally resolved to take out of one body what belongs to another and restore to each its own and finally to incorporate them all together into their natural forms and figures II. So is the Resurrection of the dead i. e. so is this Seed of our mortal body to die and be corrupted before it shall be raised again That which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die intimating that as the parts of the Seed are separated in the ground and dissolved into a liquid Jelly before it springs up into a Stalk and Ear so this mortal body of ours must be corrupted its parts must be dispersed and dissipated from one another before it quickens and springs up again at the general Resurrection and indeed the body must naturally corrupt when once it is separated from the Soul that enlivens it and that before it is raised and glorified the Soul should remain for some space separated from it seems highly necessary For the nature of Souls is such as requires a gradual and leisurely progression out of one state into another their faculties are such as cannot in a natural way be improved but by degrees or qualified in an instant for two extream conditions without a miracle But as for this mortal State and that of the Resurrection they are two such remote and distant extreams as that our slow paced natures cannot travel from one to the other under a long space of time and for a Soul to pass in one instant out of an Earthly into an Heavenly out of a fleshly into a spiritual out of a mortal into an immortal body seems too great a leap for a Being whose nature confines it to a gradual improvement For how should a Soul which hath been so long immured in mortal flesh so long accustomed to its sensual pleasures so cloged and incumbered with its unwieldly organs so pinioned and hampered by its brutish appetites How I say is it possible in a natural way for such a Soul to be immediately disposed to act and animate an Heavenly Body And therefore it is requisite that for some time at least it should continue in a separate state there to inure it self to a heavenly life and by a continued contemplation and love and imitation of God to ripen gradually into the state of the Resurrection and to contract a perfect aptitude to animate an heavenly body that so its powers being enlarged and improved by exercise it may be able to manage that active
judgment seat whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own his Fathers and his Angels glory who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him Chap. 7. ver 9 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view cloathed in garments as white as snow with the hair of his head like the pure wooll sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame and its Wheels as burning fire with a fiery stream issuing out from before him and a thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whilst the Iudgment is set and the Books are opened And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming from whence I proceed to the IV. And last general I proposed to treat of viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects viz. the Righteous and the Wicked about which it is to be exercised for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats the Good from the Bad and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another Mat. 25.32 33. And he i. e. the Son of Man shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand and the Goats on the left in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous who are to be judged first for so the Scripture assures us that the dead in Christ are to rise first and that after they have undergone their Iudgment they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air there to meet the Lord and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked vid. 1 Thes. 4.15 16 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2 In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied 1. Their Citation or Summons 2. Their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons which as was observed before is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet so by the same sound the Scripture tells us God will assemble the world of men to judgment and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth I see no reason to doubt because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.16 and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World than it was his coming to give Laws to Israel But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power even his holy Spirit by which he raised himself from the dead by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 For if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body and animate it with immortal vigour and activity and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising those who shall then be living and have not tasted death shall by the same Almighty Power be changed transformed and glorified in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ Mat. 13.27 For II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud and placed in the Region of the Air at a convenient distance from the Earth streaming with light from every part and casting forth an unspeakable glory for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory and is described by S Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne Rev. 20.11 out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed Rev. 4.5 which implies that it will be a Cloud it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed And before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial and receive a happy Doom Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World both Militant and Triumphant meet and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10 III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial for so the Apostle assures us We must all appear i. e. we Righteous as well as others before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 which plainly implies that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them and more expresly Rom. 14.12 he tells us that we must every one of us give an account
all things under him and when all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him which did put all things under him that God may be all in all the whole sense and meaning of which passage I shall cast into these Propositions First That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father Secondly That he is to possess this Kingdom and Dominion so long and no longer as till all things are actually subdued to him Thirdly That during his possession of it he is subject to the Father Fourthly That after his delivering it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now Fifthly That he being thus subjected to the Father all Power and Dominion shall from thenceforth be immediately exercised by the Deity I. That the Kingdom or Dominion here spoken of was committed to him by God the Father and this is expresly affirmed vers 27. For he i. e. the Father hath put all things under his feet which words are a quotation of Psal. 8. ver 6. Thou madest him to have Dominion over the works of thy hands thou hast put all things under his feet which words are to be understood literally of the first Adam but mystically of the second as is evident not only because 't is here applied to Christ by S. Paul but also by the Author to the Hebrews Heb. 2.7 8. where he expresly tells us that it was God the Father that crowned Christ with Glory and Honour and that did set him over the works of his hands and put all things in subjection under his feet and accordingly our Saviour himself declares that all Power in Heaven and Earth was given him i. e. by the Father and that it was the Father that committed all judgment to him and the Apostle expresly tells us that it was God that exalted him with his own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour Acts 5.31 From all which it is evident that the Dominion which the Apostle here treats of is not the Essential Dominion of Christ which as he is God Essential is Co-eternal with him but that Mediatorial Dominion which was committed to him by the voluntary disposal of his Father and which once he had not and will hereafter cease to have II. That he is to possess this Kingdom or Dominion so long as and no longer than till all things are actually subdued unto him So vers 24. you see the time of his delivering up this Kingdom is then when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. till he shall have converted or destroyed all those Powers of the Earth that oppose themselves against him for so vers 25 26. For he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death which plainly implies that when he hath conquered all Enemies and destroyed Death which is the last Enemy by giving a glorious Resurrection to his faithful Subjects then and not till then his Mediatorial Reign is to conclude For so Psal. 110.1 to which the Apostle here refers the Psalmist brings in Iehovah the Father thus bespeaking Iehovah the Son The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thine Enemies thy footstool now to sit at the Right Hand of God when ever 't is applied to our Saviour doth in Scripture always denote his possessing and exercising this his Mediatorial Kingdom so that the meaning of the Psalmist is this the Father hath Commissioned his Son to continue the exercise of his Mediatorial Dominion till such time as either by the dint of his Almighty Vengeance he hath trampled all his Enemies under foot or by the power of his Grace reduced them voluntarily to prostrate themselves before him and indeed the end for which this Kingdom of our Saviour was erected was to subdue the Rebellious World to God and either to captivate men into a free submission to hâ—s Heavenly Will which is its first intention or if they will not yield to make them the Triumph of his everlasting vengeance which end at the day of Judgment will be fully accomplished for then the fate of all the rational World will be fixed and determined then the faithful Subjects will be crowned and the incorrigible Rebels condemned and executed and so one way or t'other all things will be subdued unto him So that from hence-forth the end and reason of this his Mediatorial Dominion will cease and when the end of it ceaseth he who never doth any thing in vain will immediately deliver it up into those hands from whence he received it For when he shall have put down all Rule and all Authority and Power i. e. conquered and subdued all that resisted and opposed him then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father III. That during his possession of this Kingdom he is subject to the Father So Ver. 27. But when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he i. e. the Father is excepted which did put all things under him As if he should say Do not mistake me for when I say all things are put under him my meaning is all things except God the Father for it was he that did put all things under him and it 's manifest that he who gave him this superiority over all things must himself be superior to him and indeed considering Christ as Mediatorial King he is no more than his Fathers Viceroy and doth only act by deputation from him and rule and Govern for him and hence the Father stiles him his King Psal. 2.6 Yet have I set my King upon my holy Hill of Zion So that now he is subject to the Father in the capacity of a Vice-King to a supreme Sovereign and whatsoever he doth in this capacity he doth in his Fathers Name and by his Authority for he Mediates as for men with God in doing which he is our Advocate so for God with men in doing which he is our King. Gods part is to Govern us and our part is to sue to him for favour and protection and both these parts our Saviour acts as Mediator between God and us He acts our part for us in being Advocate and Gods part for him in being King. So that in that Rule and Government which he now exercises over us he is only the supreme Minister of his Fathers Power and Dominion and as the Father reigns by his Ministry so he reigns by the Fathers Authority But tho now while his Mediatorial Kingdom doth continue he is subject to the Father in the Admistration of it yet from this passage of S. Paul it is evident IV. That when he hath delivered it up to the Father he will be otherwise subject to him than he is now for so ver 28. and when all things shall be subdued unto him that