THE BRAZEN SERPENT OR GOD'S Grand Design VIZ. CHRIST'S Exaltation for MAN'S Salvation in his believing on Him OR The Right Way to Regeneration and therethrough to the Heavenly and Eternal Kingdom Discovered by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for our sure Direction therein Considered Opened and Applyed with a double Excursion touching the Glory and Excellency 1. Of the Gospel of Christ 2. Of Christ Himself By J. HORN an Unworthy Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ and sometimes Minister of Lin Allhallows in Norfolk Isa 52.13 Behold my Servant shall deal prudently or shall prosper He shall be exalted extolled and be very high As many were astonied at thee his visage was so marred more than any Man and his form more than the Sons of Men so shall He sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at Him c. Isa 55.5 Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel for He hath glorified thee Psal 99.10 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his Foot-stool for He is holy Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Respiciamus nos in faciem serpentis aenci elevati Christi si volumus à pravorum Daemonum suggestionibus serpentinis liberari respicere autem est fide in ipsum tendere Bern. de pass Dominica LONDON Printed for Benjamin Southwood at the Star near to Serjeants Inn in Chancery-Lane 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Gentle Reader LO Here I present thee with what as to the matter treated of is a most needful and excellent Subject worthy thy most serious consideration the Grand Design of the God of Glory the Devise that He in his Infinite wisdome and goodness devised for our recovery from sin and misery and for reducing and bringing us back to life and safety the product and birth of his eternal purposes and most deep counsels for our welfare and happiness A Subject never sufficiently looked upon never throughly enough seen into while we can see but with mortal eyes and imperfect understandings the great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen yea very intensively pryed into 1 Pet. 1.12 of Angels preached to us Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3.16 The great Catholicon the Soveraign and Vniversal Remedy for all our spiritual distempers and diseases the supply of all our wants the support of us in all our weaknesses temptations and troubles the instructer and helper of us in and unto all our services the stay of us in this life in and under all its various vicissitudes and changes the joy and comfort of our hearts in Death the Raiser and Resurrection both of our Souls to lively hope and comfort when oppressed with griefs and cast down with sadness and also of our Bodies to immortality and Eternal happiness in a word the spring original and fountain of all our felicity the great subject of the Doctrine both of the holy Prophets and of the holy Apostles the substance and body of all the types and shadows in the Law of Moses the accomplishment and fulfilling of Predictions and Prophecies and the ground and end of all our future hopes and expectations Such I say not is this Treatise but the subject treated of and directed to herein for it is no other than Christ himself and Him crucified and through sufferings and death raised up again and glorified Glorified of God for thee in his own glorious actings in and upon Him and glorified of God to thee by the spirit of God in his word and testimony glorified both ways to save and deliver thee from the stings of the old Serpent and to bring thee to glory A Subject which who can sufficiently treat of for who can shew forth all his marvailous acts who can set forth all his praises Psal 106.2 A Subject much too great for my imbecillity and stupidity too deep and high and large and long for my narrow head and heart to reach its dimensions so as to handle it and set it forth worthily A Subject in my reception of it into and conception of this Discourse about it in my mind and earnestness of my heart to draw it out and incorporate it in this body and give it these lines and lineaments so pleasing to me or perhaps rather my exercise therein that it drew me on with so eager an intention and rapid a motion as indangered my miscarrying of it before its perfection for I received in my self in a manner the sentence of Death before I had finished it till God renewing my strength beyond my expectation and confidence it attained to this Period God therein both shewing me my weakness and perhaps also chastening my unworthiness and unmeetness for such an undertaking and my darkning wisdome so much by words without knowledge and so slenderly and slovenly handling so excellent a subject both therein and since in its sticking so long and coming out at length with so many Errata's in its impression and yet also shewing his great power and goodness in what I received of him for my reviving I confess I had some eye in it upon a good and gracious Woman who had met with some exercise in the death of her only Son and intended she should have had one of the first rights of it as for comforting her also I put in some expressions respecting that her tryal in some part of its application but the Lord pleased to put an end to her days also before it could arrive at her and be perused by her He designing to comfort and satisfy her spirit I trust with another and far perfecter sight of the glory of this blessed Son of man here treated of then this so weak a discourse could have given her of him I trust its conception was not altogether without the Holy Ghost though as it was imbodyed in and by me I cannot but see and acknowledge its too great likeness to me in imperfection It is a rule in Philosophy that Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Whatsoever is received of another is received after the manner or measure of the receiver We cannot expect that a Bucket can contain the Ocean and the purest Wine received in a fusty Cask will somewhat tast of it The Eternal Word as conceived in the Virgins Womb was made partaker of her Flesh and as therein brought forth by her appeared a weak and little one not according to the Immensity and Infinity of the Word but in such small and finite dimensions as agreed to the humane nature and the narrowness of her Womb in which it was formed and therefore He was capable of being wrapt in swadling cloths and laid in a Manger and afterward of being taken up in old Simeon's armes and of growing in stature in wisdome and in favour both with God
1.7 8. 2 Tim. 4.1 Secondly For expressions about the Text. In the verse before the Son of Man is said to be He that Descended and came down from Heaven and Ascended up into Heaven and is in Heaven But none hath done so and is so but Jesus Christ Yea and in the very next verse it appears that He who is here called the Son of Man is there called The only begotten Son of God For whereas it is here said That the Son of Man must be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have eternal life It follows in the next verse as the reason hereof For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Now certain it is That God hath not designed two distinct objects of Faith or two distinct Saviours to be believed on and to be the givers of Eternal life but only one and that is his Son our Lord Jesus Christ there being Salvation in no other nor any other name given under Heaven whereby we must be saved Act. 4.11 12. They are then the same the Son of Man And the only begotten Son of God The only begotten Son of God therefore is the Son of Man that 's the Person here meant of and called so 2. But then the reason why he is called or rather calls himself so is worthy to be inquired into and considered For we do not find the Evangelists or Apostles any where so to call him when they speak of him but they usually call him Jesus or Jesus of Nazareth Mark 10.47 16.6 Luk. 24.19 Act. 2.22 Or the Lord Jesus Luk. 24.3 Act. 1.21 4.33 Or simply the Lord. Luk. 7.31 11.39 Or Jesus Christ Mat. 1.18 Mark 1.1 John 1.17 Or Jesus which is called the Christ Mat. 1.16 Or Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16.16 Or The Lord Jesus Christ Acts 15.11 26. But he often and usually speaking of himself calls himself the Son of Man as is easie to observe in reading the Evangelists Now the reason of this may be manifold as Reason 1. That he calls himself the Son of Man might be to shew us and set us an example of his Humility and to instruct us how to withstand and be kept free from temptations to pride and high-mindedness to which Sathan is ready to tempt us from the consideration of any priviledges or more excellent endowments bestowed upon us It is an evident thing that we are very prone to lift up our selves in the view or conceit of any thing almost either inward or outward wherein we differ from so as to appear better therein then others If it be but a better suite of Apparel or Hair or Stature or Beauty or Strength or Estate or Birth we are apt to know our selves by them and to think so much the goodlier of our selves and carry our selves above or loftily towards others that are or appear inferiour to us in such things how much more if we be more honoured or honourable be in greater office or place among men have better gifts or parts Yea the very works of righteousness wrought by us or the Revelations of Mysteries and great things to us reflected on by us are apt to puff us up as is implyed both in the pride of the Pharisees trusting in themselves that they were righteous and despising others Luk. 18.9 And that admonition given to the believing Gentiles Not to be high-minded but fear When they consider Gods goodness to them and their better state then that of the unbelieving and in part rejected Jews Rom. 11.21 22. and by what the Apostle saith of himself viz. Least through the abundance of Revelations given him he should be exalted above measure there was given him a thorn in the Flesh c. 2 Cor. 12.3 Now as God out of faithfulness to and care of the Prophet Ezekiel to prevent his being lifted up when he had seen the Visions of the glory of God the God of Israel Chap. 1. 3. 8. 10. c And the Visions of the re-edification of the Church and Temple of God and of the New Jerusalem alwaies I think in his speaking to him calls him Son of Man as is to be seen in Chap. 2.1 3 6 8 3 1 3 4 10 17 25. c. Yea it s used in that Prophecy in Gods speaking to that Prophet at least ninety times whereas its never used to any of the Prophets else except once to Daniel who also had diverse great Visions of things to come shewed to him Dan. 8.17 Even as for the like cause or reason namely to prevent his being exalted above measure through the abundance of the Revelations given him he gave the Apostle Paul a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to buffet him 2 Cor. 12. â— 8. That title the Son of Man having in it a signification of an earthy and low extract and used often by way of abasing and diminishing persons to whom it is applied As Job 25.6 Man that is a Worm and the Son of Man that is a Worm And in Isa 51.12 The Son of Man that shall be made as grass So also our Lord Jesus who was in the nature of Man taken up into and priviledged with the highest honour and excellency of State that ever man was far above all the Prophets Priests and Princes of the Earth being as none of them were taken into unity of Person with the Eternal Word and therein made the Son of God the only begotten Son the chosen and appointed one of God to be the Saviour of the World the Saviour of sinners from Sin and from the power of Death and Devil as none ever else was or could be Yea and being indued with such power and authority to do great Miracles and Wonders and doing them also such as never any before him did Yea both so speaking and speaking such things Joh. 7.46 15.22 and doing such works and therein being of that wonderful benefit and advantage to the World as never any beside mighty occasions for Sathan to find matter for tempting to pride and high-mindedness and to carry himself loftily above all others He to shew his humility and lowliness of mind and heart in the greatness of his honour and these manifold occasions of temptation to high-mindedness stiles himself as God stiled that Prophet to keep him low and humble as the greatness of Christs humility was also shewed in his being so the Son of Man Not that Christ had as man that corruption of Nature in him as Ezekiel Daniel and other holy men had that he should need to use such expressions to keep down that corruption from working in him as they and we need to have it kept down and mortified For he knew no sin though he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 8.3 He was the spotless Lamb in whom there was no blemish 1
God and Man and the high Priest and Apostle of our professiion in that thereby he hath both contracted an affinity and kindred to us as is partly said afore and hath had experience of what is in man even of the weakness and frailty of the nature of man and what temptations oppositions and evils from Men and Devils they are exposed to and meet with that walk with God and by Word and Conversation witness against the wickedness of men and warr against the lies and deceipts of Sathan As also he hath had an experimental knowledge of the weakness of the nature of man to stand under and bear the Wrath of God the hidings of his face from or strokes of his hand upon him Inasmuch as he being made man the Son of man hath proved the frailties of man and as a good man obeying his Father hath grappled with the contradictions of sinners and the rage and malice of evil man and Devils and as bearing our sins in his own body on the Tree hath felt in his humanity the force and power of the Wrath of God And so also hath had tryal of poverty reproaches hunger thirst weariness c. Through which he is the meeter to be the high Priest over the house of God and the mediator for us This the Apostle mentions Heb. 2.17 18. Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like to his Brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful high Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he suffered being tempted He is able also to succour those that are tempted And in Heb. 4.14 5. As the greatness of his Person in being the Son of God and gone into the Heavens So also the reality of his Manhood and therein the experience he had of our condition is made an incouragement to a bold and confident approach to him and so to God for his mercy and grace to be extended to us for our seasonable help for so those words imploy wherein it is said Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith for we have not an high Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like to us without sin And that was also for our great advantage that he sinned not under any temptation for he thereby is the more pure and acceptable to the holy and pure God in all his actings for us with him Let us therefore go boldly c. Were there any sort of men of any Profession or occupation that stood in need to Petition the King in any thing of concernment for their welfare or for removing any impediment thereto redressing any grievance or the like of what great advantage would it be to them to have a friend that is set up purposely by the King to seek their welfare so gracious with the King as that there is none like him with him his ear and eye and heart and hand all at his dispose as it were And this person one advanced from among the men of that Profession and occupation and one that himself had been sometime before such his advancement tryed and exercised with the very same grievances that they now groan under and seek redress in Surely in such a case though they might have no incouragement to hope of success upon their own account as being ignorant how to draw their Petition and how to present it in such manner as might be becoming the person and presence of one so Mighty having been also rebels against him yet in the confidence of their friends interest in him and faithfullness to them how might they be assured of speeding in putting up their Petition by his hand and as directed formed and tendred by him Such our case Our Lord Jesus that came on purpose into the World to save sinners and is gone up to the Father to be our friend with him A Prince and Saviour ever living as the great high Priest to make intercession for them that come to God by him is one of us as it were a real man and our kinsman and hath been tryed with our infirmities temptations and grievances and so knows our mold and temper as to the weakness and frailty of it by his own proper experience And how also may that give incouragement to hope for mercy and help from him as in mediating with God for us so in ordering the government of God as the great Prince and Lord over us so as not to lay upon us more then we can bear much less more then is equal and right He being also such a lover of us as is manifest in the next consideration Namely that 3. He therefore became the Son of Man and so a real very man that he might be in a capacity to suffer and offer for us what was needful and behooveful for our Redemption from sin and death and for obtaining for us Gods favour and blessing It was his great business in coming into the World to save sinners And to that purpose to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself 1 John 3.5 Heb. 9.26 Now in all Sacrifices for Sin there was the suffering of the Sacrifice to Death that being given and taken in exchange for the Sinner who ought to have suffered else for his own sin and then there was the offering of it up unto God on the Altar as a gift as it were to him Now then Christ being come into the World to take or purge away our sin by Sacrifice was first to bear our sin on himself even the punishment of it and so suffer for it as to satisfie Gods Justice and make amends to the Law that sin had violated that so God might with equity and justice release the punishment and forgive the sinner and so destroy the interest right and title of him that had the power of Death that is the Devil to urge for or be an arbitrary inflicter of punishment upon us according to his will Christ as in the form of God and as God could not suffer the weight of our sin and punishment unto Death Therefore it was behooveful that he should be made in a nature capable of suffering And what should that be for us men but the nature of man even the same that sinned And so it 's said in Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch as the Children were partakers of flesh and blood He himself also took part of the same that by Death he might destroy him who had the power of Death that is the Devil As implying that he could not have destroyed the Devil that is made null his Power and Jurisdiction over us but by death Nor could he have died to that end if he had not been partaker of flesh and blood with us and therefore he took part with us in flesh and blood that is was made of a Woman and under the Law in the similitude of sinful flesh The Son of Man
upon which they Ascend and Descend John 1.51 Rev. 19.10 And so we find the Angel Gabriel lifting up and commending the Messiah in his work and business Dan. 9.24 27. where he speaks both of the cutting off the Messiah and of the fruits and consequents thereof as the finishing transgression making an end of Sin making reconciliation for iniquity bringing in everlasting Righteousness c. The Angel Gabriel also brought down an honourable Testimony of him in which he lifted him up in Luk. 1.26.31 32 33. Where he said to the Virgin concerning him That He should be great and be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God should give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall Reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end c. As also an Angel lifted him up to the Shepheards at his Birth Saying to them Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you You men in distinction from us Angels is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Luk. 2.10 11. Yea A multitude of the heavenly Host then also immediately being with that Angel honoured and lifted him up at his Birth Praising God and saying Glory to God on the highest and on Earth peace and good will toward men Luk. 2.13 Angels also witnessed to his Resurrection Mat. 28.2 5 6 7. Luk. 24.4 5 6 7 23. And to his Ascending up to Heaven and return from thence Act. 1.10 11. Yea and of his Glory there received as is evident in those Doxologies or Glorifyings of him mentioned Rev. 5.11 12. 7.11 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was stain to receive Power Riches Wisdom Strength Honour Glory and Blessing 2. I might add also That all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and such are in the Seas do exalt and lift him up for so John tells us he heard them all saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Rev. 5.13 But I only briefly mention those and come to those Creatures that are most concerned in him and his praises even our selves Men. And so he hath been is and must be lifted up By 3. Holy men his holy Apostles and Prophets as also by all his Messengers Servants and Saints even his whole Church through the helpfulness and by the power and strength of the holy Ghost as instruments in his hands And so he was lifted up and exalted 1. By the holy Prophets which were before his coming For To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name all that believe in him shall receive the forgiveness of sins Act. 10.43 And the Apostle Peter speaking again of the Death Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ tells us That all the Prophets from Samuel and those that followed spoke of those days Aâ—â— 3.24 Namely those in which those things were done and accomplished And that they Prophesied of the grace brought now unto us 1 Pet. 1.10 Whence also the Apostle Paul saith That he testified to small and great saying no other things then those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass Viz. That Christ should suffer and be the first that should rise from the Dead and shew Light to the Gentiles and to the People Act. 26.22 23. 2. By John the Baptist who was the immediate forerunner of Christ a Prophet and more then a Prophet Being the Man sent of God to bear witness to Christ the Light That messenger sent before his face to prepare the way for him And his work and business was in bearing Witness of him to exalt and lift him up that all men through him might believe And he did highly lift him up and bare an honourable testimony of him as that he was before John and he himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of his Shoes That He is the Christ the true Light the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World the Baptizer with the holy Ghost the Bride-groom that hath the Bride c. John 1.6 7 8 9 15. 3. By the holy Apostles also whose office and business it was to be witnesses to him John 15.27 And to Preach and proclaim him so as to set him forth lift him up exalt and magnifie him in and unto all things And they by the holy Spirit and the holy Spirit in an by them and their Ministry according to the Doctrine of the Prophets fore-given forth by the holy Spirit concerning him Rom. 1.1 2 3 have highly extolled and lifted him up Preaching him 1. As to his person The Son of God Even the same that according to the Spirit and Divine Nature was in the beginning with God and God He by whom and for whom all things were made whether in Heaven or Earth visible or invisible Thrones Dominions Principallities or Powers all things were Created by him and for him and that by him all things consist he being before them That he is the Heir of all things the express character of the Fathers Person and the brightness of his glory The Wonderful the Councellor the Mighty or great God and our Saviour The Immanuel God with us John 1.1 2 3. Col. 1.15 16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 1 Tim. 3.16 Tit. 2.13 Isa 9.6 That he is the Christ the Messiah He that was prophesied before of and promised by all the Prophets of God from the beginning of the World The only excellent person designed of God and promised from the beginning to be the Author Procurer and Dispenser of all grace and blessing to us John 1.41 45. Mat. 1.21 22 23. 1 Pet. 1.20 21. The very Christ Act. 9.20 22. He that was in the form of God not thinking Robbery to be equal with God but was sent of God in the nature and fashion of a man to be the Saviour of the world Phil. 2.6 7. John 3.17 Gal. 4.4 5. 1 John 4.14 2. As to his work and business that it was totally for us and our good a work of exceeding advantage to us and necessity for us Not to Condemn the World but that the World might be saved by him John 3.17 Not to judge the World but to save it John 12.4 7. And that by taking away its Sin John 1.29 And that by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 1.3 9.26 Giving his flesh for the life of the World John 6.51 And so that he might by his death destroy him who had the power of Death the Devil and deliver those who by reason of the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage Heb. 2.14 15. That he might abolish or evacuate the destructive power and force of Death and bring life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 Taking away Sin and destroying the works of the Devil 1 John 3.5 8. That so he might bring us to God 1
and there-through even through those things done to him in his personal body we are healed As it is said Through his stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 1 Pet. 2.24 But as a remedy against what we meet with from Satan in our selves in our own personal despisings of Christ and Gods bounty and goodness towards us through him and provocations to anger against us was and is it needful that he be also further lifted up by way of demonstration both by God and his Spirit and servants for our helpfulness there against That whosoever believeth on him might not perish in a second Death 2. In the place of Moses lifting up the Serpent That was in the Wilderness So must the Son of Man be lifted up in the state of this world that is as a desolate forsaken wilderness void of all good order and fruitfulness full of briars thorns Wolves Tygers all that is evil and confused Through which while the Israel or followers of God walk they meet with and are exposed to many trials and temptations affections and troubles from the barrenness of goodness and good men that they find in it and from the many evil men and the unclean covetous oppressive and wicked carriages both among themselves and towards them Here in this day and state it 's behoveful that the Son of Man be lifted up for the comfort healing and helpfulness of his followers against the evil Spirits and Serpents and their venomous stings were Rom. 3.19 That we might receive the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4.4 5. That he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That he hath delivered him up for our offences and raised him again for our Justification Rom. 4.25 Raised him from the dead and given him glory that our faith and hope might be in him 1 Pet. 1.21 And all this and what is contained in it done and perfected of God in Christ for us so as he therein hath prepared his dinner his Oxen and Fatlings are slain and all things are ready nothing for us to do but come to the Wedding and therein taking on the Wedding Garment sit down and eat and drink of this Provision and that will so heal us as we shall be fit to go or walk after him and serve him So that if thou confess with thy mouth Jesus the Lord and with thy heart believe that God hath raised him from the dead that is if thou believe this understandingly and affectionately thou shalt be saved This will put a man into a right mind to seek and hope for all grace and blessing from God and so in that faith to call upon him and it will make him to love and in love obey and serve him Rom. 10.8 9 10 12.1 John 4.19 There is nothing for the Ministers to do for the healing and saving men but to open and publish this grace and therein call invite and exhort them to look to and obey it and warn them of and reprove them for neglecting it c. Not to prepare any thing of their own nor put men upon preparing any thing for their own Salvation and healing Nor for any man to do but in the hearing this to look upon it and mind what it discovers and yeild up to what it requires and calls for which the Ministers are to help them to understand and discern for their healing Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the endâ— of the Earth Even as Moses did not put the people upon looking into their stings and seeking or preparing for themselves any Salves or Medicines but only lifted up the Serpent and directed them to look to it for healing 4. The Serpent as Moses lifted it up was not made of Gold or of Silver or of any more precious Mettals but only of Brass a more vulgar and contemptible Mettal and of less price And that formed through the fire and by other ways of cutting beating and framing of it into the form of a Serpent a way no way of it self likely or probable to heal them of their wounds And yet this he lifted up as the means and Medicine appointed of God and through his appointment and the conjunction of his Divine power and virtue with it it was effectual for healing those that being stung of the fiery Serpents looked upon it Even so Christ the Son of Man according to the Flesh was not a likely person and means to effect any mans Salvation and deliverance from Sin and Death he being not descended of high and honourable Parentage in the World or endued with worldly Grandeour or greatness or with worldly Authority Learning and such like ornaments as might commend him to us but born in Bethlehem Judah of a poor Virgin espoused to a mean man a Carpenter Springing up as a tender plant easily to appearance to be pluckt up or broken And as a root out of a dry ground likely to come to no great bulk or strength No form in him nor comeliness no beauty when looked upon to render him desirable Isa 53.2 3. A mean man Mark 6.3 Not Learned John 7.15 Nor attended with any worshipful and honourable persons openly as his Disciples John 7.47.48 Yea a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs Yet this man is he that being prepared for it and made perfect through sufferings and Death is both lifted up of God to be the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that obey him and is effectual thereto through the divine Ordination and presence of God in and with him The Deity fully possessing him even all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him And through this Man so prepared and perfected of God is and must be Preached unto men the forgiveness of Sins And through him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Act. 13.37 38 39. Nor is he therefore as the Son of Man to be laid by of the Builders Preachers Teachers and Masters in Israel as too many knowing him after the Flesh are therefore offended at him and do lay him by because he was and is the Son of Man and was partaker with us in flesh and blood in firm and tempted as we be yet without Sin or because he suffered such things in the Flesh and appeared weak and mortal therein Nor may any therefore refuse to look to him and expect salvation from him because a Man and the Son of Man made so low and weak as he was so despicable and unlikely to appearance as that the Preaching of him and his Cross is to the Jew a stumbling block and to the Grecian foolishness even to such as seem wise in this World But he is notwithstanding that yea because of that that he was so abased and crucified and humbled himself so low the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and so to be eyed hoped in
That whosover believeth on him might not perish but have eternal life He doth not say indeed that Gods end is simply that every one might have eternal life without respect to their believing or whether they believe or not But yet he saith Verse 17. That the world through him might be saved Which is as much as that the world through what he hath done and doth for them might in looking to and believing on him would they so do be saved As also it 's said He gave his flesh for the life of the world John 6.51 That is that the world set free by his death sustained in his flesh from the first death so as out of it to as all shall 1 Cor. 15.21 22. be raised might also in feeding thereon live and not dye the second Death Nor doth he say that every one might believe on him and be saved and have eternal life but it is said that John bare witness to the light that all men through him might believe John 1.7 8. And the Apostle saith God wills all men to be saved and come to the knowledge or acknowledgment of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And another Apostle that God would not that any man should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 And God sent the Prophet Ezekiel to say to the People As I live I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked but rather that he should turn and live which is all one as if he had said that he might believe and have eternal life for of such a life the Prophet doubtless is to be understood But he saith here that every one that believeth or whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have eternal life In which we may note these six Points or Observations implyed and signified Viz. 1. That men even the World as the next verses mention are in themselves generally in danger of or in the way to perishing 〈◊〉 there needed no indeavour for preventing it if no danger of it 2. That God hath no pleasure or likement that they should perish but rather that they should have eternal Life His using such a means or providing such a remedy to prevent the perishing and that men may obtain the life eternal clearly implies that in both its branches 3. That the Son of Man is the only person or Medium by whom we may be preserved from perishing and obtain eternal life And he is the Medium God hath appointed to those purposes This is clear in the whole scope of the Verse and in the verses following 4. That thereto it 's needful even for escaping perdition and obtaining eternal life and it's Gods good will that men believe on him the Son of Man so ordered of God for them 5. That it 's the gracious mind of God that every one that believeth on the Son of Man should not and accordingly whoso believeth on him shall not perish but have eternal life 6. That in order both to mens believing on him and also to their not perishing but having eternal Life in their so doing it 's Gods gracious mind and in it self needful and necessary that He the Son of Man be so lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness Of these in order and with convenient brevity or inlargement Obser 1. That men even the World are in themselves generaâ—ly in danger of or in the way to perishing This is evidently declared in the Scriptures of truth Yea all that God hath done to Christ in abasing and raising him and all that he doth through Christ in his words and works in his calls counsels repoofs corrections c. are declared to be done primarily and directly while it is a day of his grace and patience towards any to prevent or keep men from perishing which would have been and would be needless and groundless if they were not without it in danger of perishing Far be it from us to make God the God of Wisdom or only wise God to do or say so much in vain or needlesly or without ground or cause Nor is that perishing simply a bodily dying which God doth nothing to prevent that it should not at any time or at all come upon us but a perishing from Gods presence so as to be utterly lost miserable and undone Man was wholly and universally fallen into sin and misery even under the sentence of Death and Condemnation the first Death in the first Adam and therein we were in danger to have perished bâ—cause 1. As the people here in the Wilderness were bitten by the fiery Serpents and their bite was so poysonous venemous and perilous that it caused Death Num. 21.6 So there the old Serpent the Devil and Sathan inticing and tempting man to sin through Adams and Evah's listening to and acting according to his temptation he got power over them and all in them that is all men to bite them to Death by bringing them under the sentence of that righteous Law wherein God hath denounced death to them in case of their acting so as he inticed them For therein 2. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God or are deprived of it Rom. 3.23 By one man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed over all men because all had sinned Rom. 5.12 The wages of Sin being Death Rom. 6.23 Not only a bodily Death but a Death of the whole person that sinned in being deprived of the favour and presence of God Psal 30.5 3. And from this no man could deliver himself nor be delivered by any other Creature the sentence of God and his Law standing against us and binding it upon us which no meer Creature could bear upon himself so as to redeem us from it nor had any power enough to raise us up from under it for who can stand under or prevail against God's anger Psal 98.7 8 9 11. 130.3 Nah. 1.6 If Christ had not dyed for us yea and risen again we had all perished in this Death and there had been no Resurrection out of it 1 Cor. 15.12 18 21 22. But we are redeemed from this first death by Jesus Christ having therefore given himself a Ransom for all and dyed for all and brought all to be under his gracious Lordship and dispose having so satisfied the justice and pacified the wrath of God for that offence as that whereas all had sinned and came short of the glory of God they are all justified by his grace as to that through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And as by one offence the Judgment was unto all men to Condemnation So through the Righteousness of one the free gift is unto all men to justification of life 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 14.9 3.23 24. 5.18 So that no man shall perish in this first Death for ever but all shall be raised again there-from For as in Adam all dye so in Christ all shall be made
him Gen. 22.12 How may not we then much more perceive the love of God to us in not withholding but sending down his onely begotten Son from Heaven and making him the Son of Man that he might save us This is Love indeed passing all parallel yea all knowledge Surely we need not as the Pharisees seek after another or greater sign from Heaven that God desires not our ruine but our salvation and happiness but may well rest in this unspeakable gift of God as a sufficient demonstration thereof to us accepting it with all reverence love and thankfulness This is a faithful saying and worthy all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 To save us from the curse of the Law from the wrath of God from the state of death and destruction from the power malice and rage of the Devil and in a word from all that might harm us And had that been all it had been very much but it was not all he sent him also to bring us back to him and so to eternal life glory and happiness 1 Pet. 3.18 John 3.16 Surely this may engage us also Secondly To think well of God to land and bless him perpetually as our great Benefactor our merciful Father our mighty yea almighty Helper as one that so desired our good so loved the world as to send us such a one to save us He may well expect from us and we give to him upon this account all possible love thanks dutifulness and ready obedience He is worthy to be honoured by us that had such a respect for us Well may we cry out with admiration Lord what is man that thou shouldst so magnifie him and that thou shouldst so set thine heart upon him as to send thine own and onely Son not by Adoption and Regeneration a Son onely but by eternal and divine Generation thine onely begotten Son to be the Son of Man and so in Relation and of Kindred to him to help and save him when none else could help him This was the Lords own doing and greatly worthy our admiration Psal 118.22 3. And well may we accept of and confide in such a one as this Son of Man Gods onely Son as a person fit and meet and All-sufficient to save us and to bring us to Heaven and Happiness Good encouragement may this consideration give us as well as it shews us a necessity there being Salvation and Life in none other for us to hearken to him and give up our selves wich full assurance of faith and expectation of good success to his direction and dispose We need not fear but God will be with him to help him in and carry him on with success in all his undertakings for us seeing God is in him and he is God When God sends any on any gracious message he uses to accompany them and give them good success So he was with Moses and Aaron when he sent them to Pharaoh and gave them a command to bring Israel out of Egypt and they effected it in his name notwithstanding the many threatning difficulties and discouragements they encountred with though they were but Gods servants neither of them his proper Son Indeed they led not the people into Canaan because they failed in their faith in and obedience to him not sanctifying him before them at the waters of strife He sent Joshua therefore to lead them in thither expelling and driving out the Gentiles to divide the Land to Israel for their Inheritance And God was with him therein and did not fail him nor forsake him or them that followed him and obeyed his commands but made them successfull by his assisting presence He was with Gideon also when he sent him against their enemies so as with a small handful by unlikely means he vanquished an innumerable number of enemies And what should I mention David Cyrus and divers others Now if God strengthned his servants always in their obedience to him in what he sent them to do how shall we question or doubt the Sufficiency and prevailing powerfulness of his onely Son with whom and in whom he was reconciling the world to himself and is still after a more wonderful way of presence and union of Being then with any of them Surely we may have high expectations of Life and Salvation by him He being sent of God to such purposes to and for us He being neither liable to sin as Moses Aaron and many others did nor hath death any place upon him much less dominion as it had over all them so as that he should fail there-through in his undertakings till he hath perfected what concerns us Indeed his undertakings or the things God sent him to do are and were of a far higher nature and heavier then ever he sent any others about As to take away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Destroy the power of Satan Abolish death through his own death And to save our souls But by how much his work was and is greater by so much is his person more excellent and glorious And why then should we not thankfully entertain and embrace him depend on and trust to him yielding up our selves to his guidance with greatest confidence and fullest assurance both of his sufficiency and faithfulness For in that he is Gods Son his onely Son he hath his power and virtue strength and all-sufficiency rendring him able to save us And in that he is his onely begotten he hath in him his perfect likeness and similitude and therefore God being Love or Charity full of goodness and faithfulness to us he is so also being the express character of his person the brightness of his Glory And being our Kinsman and our Brother and become so on purpose for our good what may we not expect of compassion and faithfulnes from him upon that account also Object But if the Son of God was in his love sent to be our Saviour and he so able and willing to do the work he was sent about how is it then that all are not in the issue saved from perishing nor have eternal life But so many and great multitudes as the Scriptures imply perish If he will save us who can hinder him therein seeing he being Gods onely Son and coming in his Name and Power is Almighty to do what he pleases for and to us Answ He was not sent or came to save us so as to bring us to eternal life absolutely by his omnipotent power otherwise then in a way of willing obedience to him performed by us being endued by him with capacities for such obedience He is able to save us to the utmost and he is willing but he expects that we should come and seek to him in the grace wherewith he prevents us that we may be saved by him and live with him and through him as is agreeable to what we observed in the next place viz. CHAP. XII The Fourth Observation considered and therein the necessity
to us to lead us into his truth Joh. 16.7 14 16 17. Heb. 9.24 25 26. Act. 2.33 And so as the great Lord and King command deliverances honours and blessings to us we could not have him as an Object to look to to forgive us our sins to give us the holy spirit to support our spirits renew our natures guide us to death raise us up from death and give us the Kingdom if he were not impowered to do all these things and all things else for us our faith in him for all these things would be otherwise in vain But now being in all things before-mentioned lifted up made the Son of God in the nature of man delivered up to death for our sins as a ransom and attonement for us and therein supported and accepted and therefrom raised and revived exalted to Gods right hand and there glorified He is a compleat Object of faith to be believed on being every way able to help and save us One who in his death and Resurrection hath delivered us from perishing in the first death or judgment for the first offence and as exalted at Gods right hand able to save us also from the wrath to come and so from the second Death and so he will all that come to God by him through his exercise of his glorious Office of High Priest with God for us and of his Prophetical and Kingly Offices towards all men and especially those that believe and of his Lordly authority over all Creatures in Heaven Earth and Hell for our behoof and benefit and to give Eternal Life to all of us that believe on him being a person also both willing and faithful as his ready undertakings and sufferings of such things for us evince and as his glorious Offices to such purposes put upon him and received by him in a sense enjoyne or require of him I might add hereto that as all this exaltation and lifting up of the Son of Man was necessary to render him an Object to be believed on So was it also necessary for the discovering him to be such an Object which is necessary also to the begetting belief on him for God being true and one that could not lie could not nor would not have discovered that as an Object to be believed on that were not such his making peace was the ground as well as the matter of his preaching in preaching Peace Nor could there therefore have been any sending forth of the Spirit with such a discovery to inable and move to believe it His personal lifting up in those ways and particular being the foundation of all the rest nothing of the rest could have been without that but I only hint it and pass to the second Branch Branch 2. That his being so lifted up and exalted in those real Acts done to himself as is before mentioned was necessary for his saving us from perishing and for his giving us Eternal Life in believing on him and this is evidenced both in what is said before in the fifth Observation about the way of his saving us from perishing and our having Eternal Life and also in what is said on the former Branch And indeed this evinces it in general and as to all the particulars included therein that that being Gods grand design in giving him as the next Verses shew God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him mtght be saved yea and of his lifting him up as this Verse saith That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Eternal Life it follows that either these things before mentioned were necessary to be ordered and done to him to those ends or else those ends might have been otherwise brought about and so they were ordered and done to him needlesly and in vain which would impose upon the infinite wisdom or goodness of God and imply that which neither may be conceived nor conceded or granted For if there had saith he been a Law and by consequence any other way that could have given life doubtless Righteousness should have been by it Gal. 3.21 But besides that all these things were necessary to be ordered and done to him for his saving us from perishing and giving us Eternal Life may be seen also by induction For his being taken into unity of person in the Divine nature that was necessary to his saving us from perishing in the first Death for otherwise his power and ability his worth and excellency would have been too small to have done and suffered what was needful for our Redemption therefrom and for Gods acceptance as sufficient thereunto It was the work of an Infinite and boundless strength such as the finiteness of a Creature or meer man could not reach unto to stand under and bear upon himself the weight of mans Sin and Death and by bearing to overcome them and to satisfie Gods justice for the sin and abolish the death required a Sacrifice of an infinite merit and worth no meer man had either strength or worth enough for such a thing not strength to endure and overcome such agonies and death nor worth to be taken for a sufficient ransom or price of Redemption for all men no nor for any one man for no man that is but a man can give to God a ransom for his Brother a price to God sufficient for him that he may not see death Psal 49.6 7 8. But the Lord Jehovah He that is God also will Redeem my Soul saith David from the hand or power of Hell or of the Grave for he will receive me Verse 15. Nor can any meer man or Creature be able either to raise up the body out of the first death and Grave or to deliver or preserve us from the second death that we should not perish in that for he that would preserve from that must have virtue in his Sacrifice to take away by obtaining for us and dispensing to us the pardon of our following sins committed by us in our own proper persons against the light and truth of God and prevail with God for Grace and Spirit to be given to us and give it to us too to inlighten inliven and raise from Spiritual death discover the evil of sin and the deceits of Sathan so as to enable the Soul to see and avoid them and obtain and give grace for repenting of any such sins and forgiveness of them thereupon and for renewing the Heart yea he must be able to deliver from the power of Sathan and his policy or else he cannot deliver from perishing either from the way to life or in the second death in the end as the issue of perishing from the way Much less can any meer Man or Creature be able to give to us or possess us of Eternal Life because to that it 's
Grace heartily repent and turn to God by him Yea of such Value and Force was and is his Obedience and Righteousness therein with his Father that upon account and in the virtue thereof he is both the Propitiation for our sins that believing have him our Advocate with the Father taking away our defects sins and failings from before him so as we walking in the Light as God is therein we have fellowship with God and God with us and his blood cleanseth us from all sin yea if through temptation sinning we confess it he is here-through just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness And also he is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world So as he obtains here-through a day of Grace and Patience towards them and keeps off destruction therein from them and obtains the holding open as it were of a door of Repentance to them and a Readiness in God to accept of any of them in heartily repenting and turning to him Yea he here-through obtains all that Goodness Bounty Long-suffering and Patience towards them which is afforded them with whatsoever Calls Counsels means of Repentance and Grace with Dispensations and Operations of the Holy Spirit to Move Lead Excite Provoke and strengthen to Repentance and Faith are afforded to them that they might be Saved 1 Tim. 2.6 Isa 53.4 5 6 9 10. Heb. 2.9 and 9.26 and 10.5.10 Rom. 3.24 and 5.18 1 John 2.1 2. and 1.7 9. Acts 10.43 and 13.38 39. Psal 68.18 19 20. Yea 6. And also as it declares by virtue hereof and as a reward therefore God having taken him up and he being gone into Heaven to Gods Right-hand whereon he hath set him and where he hath glorified him even the Man Christ Jesus with himself with the Glory he had with him before the world was all Authority in Heaven and upon Earth is committed to him and all the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwells in him So as he is the Great God and our Saviour the Saviour of the World even of all men and especially of all those that believe Having the Power of forgiving sins and justifying from them all that come to and believe on him As also all Power of Teaching and Guiding into and in all right Ways and preserving from all hurt and evil of doing us good by and seasonably bringing us out of all Troubles Afflictions and Death subduing all Enemies within or without working all good for and in us and filling us with all Good and Blessing In a word of doing all things to and for us that may prevent our Perishing and promote our eternal Happiness Phil. 2.9 10 11. Isa 53.12 John 17.4 5. 1 Pet. 3.22 Acts 5.31 Col. 1.19 and 2.9 Mat. 28.18 Isa 9.6 and 63.1 Tit. 2.13 1 Tim. 4.10 Ephes 1.3 c. As also 7. That he is unspeakably Merciful Gracious and Loving to Mankind ready to do us good and save us yea actually doing great good to and for all and ready to do all good to all that will listen to and be ruled by him having received his Power and Offices to that purpose and that having ingaged and promised to God and men to do whatever may be requisite to the Salvation and Eternal Life of all that listen look to and obey him he is also Infinitely Faithful to both for performing all his Ingagements and Promises to them Heb. 2.17 18. and 3.1 2. and 4.14 15. and 5.9 Isa 42.1 2 3 4. Yea and further that 8. He abides for ever an everlasting unchangeable Priest after the order of Melchisedeck and an everlasting King whose Kingdom shall continue for ever and his Dominion have no end nor shall his Divine Power as God ever alter So that he is perfectly able to save to the utmost and for ever all that come to God by him being unchangeably the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 1.10 11 12. and 7.1 24 25. and 13.7 8. to whom that in Psal 146. may be applied Where having asserted the happiness of him that hath the God of Jacob for his help and whose hope is in the Lord his God upon the account of his Power and Greatness shewed in his having made Heaven and Earth the Seas and all therein and of his Faithfulness in keeping truth for ever and of his Mercy and Goodness in Executing Judgment for the Oppressed giving Food to the hungry loosing the Prisoners opening the Eyes of the Blind raising up those which are bowed down loving the Righteous preserving the Strangers relieving the Fatherless and Widow and turning upside down the way of the Wicked All of them works of Mercy and Goodness to men and such as argue his special Care over them that have him for their God He shuts up all with the consideration of his Eternity or Ever-abiding saying The Lord shall reign for ever even thy God O Sion to all Generations praise ye lift ye up the Lord. Whereto we may yet add 9. That herein is declared how by his Death and Sacrifice he hath purchased and obtained and in his Word and Testimony promised and assured not only supply of all good things and defence from evil so as he sees good in this Life and World but also a glorious and perfectly happy state and blessed condition for ever in a World to come in an everlasting Kingdom to be brought in and manifested by him as the certain and infallible Portion of all that love and look to and believe on him and wait for him Such as is beyond all our present Capacities to conceive of much more to express and set forth to the understandings of others so as the Excellency and Glory thereof may be perceived by them Ephes 4.14 Isa 53.12 Rom. 2.7 10. Rev. 2.26 27. and 3.21 Jam. 1.12 and 2.5 Heb. 6.12 13 18 19. Isa 64.5 1 Cor. 2.9 And in those things are contained all that may allure the heart to seek after and believe on him yea and to further that also there is further in this Testimony of him 10. A discovery of our unspeakable Wretchedness Lostness and Misery in our selves and the Emptiness Weakness and Insufficiency of all other Things and Persons to Help Save and Satisfie us None other in Heaven or Earth having been Crucified and Died for our sins nor is any else Exalted of God to Relieve and Save us There is none of them therefore that have in them Redemption Remission of sins Deliverance from wrath and vengeance None of them have the fulness of the Holy Spirit and of the Godhead in them nor any thing thereof but as he extends of it by them and so no Thing or Person else hath Power Riches Wisdom Strength Honour Glory and Blessing but only he who is judged of God and all his holy Angels worthy to receive of God all fulness This Voice is in this Testimony to take us off from all other things that might detain or withdraw us from him viz. All flesh is Grass and
Palaces wherewith they have made him glad Psal 45.8 And we find his Spouse clothed and adorned by him and for him too in Ezek. 10 11 12 13. and in Rev. 19.7 8. But of these things I shall not speak more largely III. We have seen the perfections of man Let us a little as we may view also those of the Angels He is also called the Angel of the Covenant Angel is in English a Messenger and therefore so translated in our later Editions of the Bible in Mal. 3.1 The Angel of Gods presence that saved Israel Isa 63.9 And that redeemed Jacob out of all evil and had power of blessing Gen. 48.16 And surely He is the highest and best Messenger or Angel that was ever sent of God being his only Son Nor can we find any excellency in the Angels in which he doth not out-strip them They are said to excel in strength doing Gods commandments Psal 107.20 but they excel not nor equalize him in either They cannot uphold all things by the Word of their Power as He doth Heb. 1.3 Nor could they stand under the weight of our sins as He did 1 Pet. 2.24 Therefore they give him the preheminence and judge him only Worthy to receive the Power Riches Wisdom and Strength Honour Glory and Blessing Rev. 5.12 Nor do they Gods Commandments like or equally to him who obeyed to the death the Death of the Cross laying down his life at his Fathers commandement and delighting to do his will therein so as to bear and take away our sins by the sacrifice of himself Philip. 2.8 Joh. 10.18 Heb. 9.26 and 10.5 6. Psal 40.48 Joh. 14.31 They are also intelligent and understanding spirits great in knowledge and excellent in speech 1 Cor. 13.1 yet far short of him for God hath found folly in them saith Job 4.18 but Christ is the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 knowing his Father whom none else so knows Matth. 11.27 and grace is poured into his lips so as God hath blessed him for ever Psal 45.2 They are also great in power especially such of them as are called Principalities and Powers Eph. 1.20 21. but not equal with Christ to whom all of them are commanded to give worship He hath obtained a far more excellent name by inheritance then they as may be seen Heb. 1.5 6. to the end They are indeed Spirits but ministring Spirits to him He is the Lord that Spirit the quickning Spirit so as none of them are 2 Cor. 3.16 17. 1 Cor. 15.45 So that in him are all the perfections and more then all the perfections of Creatures Yea CHAP. XXII Secondly That in Christ are all things Answering the Needs of Fallen man all things that pertain both to Life and Godliness AGain he is and in him are all things answering the Needs of his fallen Creatures of Mankind All things pertaining to Life and Godliness and they are given us in the knowledg of him 2 Pet. 1.3 Let us view that in either Branch First All things pertaining to Life he is and are in him for us And that both as 1. Necessary to the Being and Upholding of it not only as by his Death and Sacrifice we are and this Old World for us is upholden so as that we may subsist and Live as it were from Death or the state thereof which we were Obnoxious to under a comfortable Injoyment of a natural Life and Being and have therein opportunities of seeking the Lord Psal 73.3 Acts 17.26 27. But also in reference to a Spiritual life and happy being in and from him And so whereas First It 's necessary to our so Living that we be Begotten from the Dead to live to God he is the Begetter of men thereto the everlasting Father Isa 9.6 Who Begets in his own likenes as Adam did in his but far better Children because Adam Begat none till he was fallen into Sin and Misery whereas Christ Begets as one acquit of sin and raised from Death in and unto Righteousness and Life an holy Seed a blessed off-spring Children of Light and heirs of Life everlasting Yea he is the very Seed of Regeneration as held forth in his Testimony by the holy Spirit the Immortal Seed whereof the Sons of God are Begotten the Word preached in the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.23 24 25. And as he himself is the first Begotten from the Dead so by his Resurrection from the Dead he Begets from Death and quickens to a Lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 with Ephes 2.1 Col. 2.12 John 5.21 25. And this as to the Soul here as he will also by his powerful Voice quicken the Dead in Body to Life again at his Coming being the quickning Spirit John 5.28 29. 1 Cor. 15.45 And in both respects the Resurrection and the Life John 11.25 Yea and he gives Power to others and makes them Instruments to Beget Children to God and to bring them forth for him too as in 1 Cor. 4.15 The Apostle tells the Corinthians he was their Father for in the Gospel he had Begot them yet so as in Christ Jesus there is none can Beget Children to God but in him and his Virtue And as they are the Fruit of the travail of his Soul Isa 53.10 So in and from him others are instrumental Mothers to Travail in Birth with them also Gal. 4.19 2. The Children Born must be Nursed up and he is the prime in Nursing what he Begets and brings forth for he can no more forget them then no nor so much as a Mother her sucking Child Isa 49.14 15. He nourishes them principally though he makes his Servants Instruments of Nursing them up too with the sincere Milk of his Word which he also primarily is as more understandibly discovered to the weak in his heavenly Doctrin 1 Pet. 2.2 Isa 55.13 Heb. 5.13 Yea and he comforts his Children as one whom his Mother comforts Isa 66.13 And surely its by manifesting himself to them that he gives them comfort John 14.16 17 21. And in this Nursing up and causing to live as the living Child must have So 1. He is the Bread and Water of Life John 6.35 and 4.10.14 his Flesh meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed And as the living Child needs clothing So 2. He is the Clothing and Apparrel For he as our Righteousness put on by us in believing on him and his Virtues as adorning us is our Raiment and Ornament too Whence that So many of us as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 And he bids us Buy of him white Raiment that our Nakedness may be covered and that our shame may not appear Rev. 3.18 3. It must have harbour and Lodging And he is the Dwelling-place for his Children in all Generations Psal 90.1 Where is sweet Peace Rest and Safety Psal 4.8 and 91.1 He being a house of Stone a strong habitation to defend and save us from our Enemies Psal 31.4
they might none of them ascend upon the Cherubims and sit down upon the Throne of God no it would have been high Arrogance and Luciferian pride and presumption to have assumed that place which was proper and peculiar to God alone The Priests or high Priests under the Law might not fit at all in the Temple but always stood and Ministred Heb. 10.11 much less on that Seat of God Only the Antichrist under the Gospel-times the man of sin presumes to seâ— himself in the Temple of God and likes to be worshipped as if he were God and exalts hâ—mself above all that is called God or that is worshipped He only of all that we read of dares to assume that Power and Place 2 Thes 2.4 A Wickedness the worst of the High-priests under the Law durst not presume to commit for this Place was reserved peculiarly to Christ Gods High-Priest Who having offered one Sacrifice once for all is set down on the Right-hand of God or of Power even on the Throne of Majesty in the highest Heb. 10.12 13. 1.3 8.1 12.2 The Father fully possessing him and putting on him all his own Power and Glory so as he the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to him the Son that all men might honour the Son even as they honour the Father that hath sent him John 5.22 23. So as That he that believeth on the Son believeth not on him but on him that sent him and he that seeth him seeth him that sent him John 12.44 45. And so we have an Object to worship even the same to whom all the Gods or Angels of God are commanded to do honour Worship him all ye Gods Psal 97.7 Heb. 1.6 Him we may Worship without Idolatry against God nay it 's rebellion against God and a refusing to Worship God not to Worship him for God is in him and he is God And therefore 1. We are Baptized into his Name and therein stand ingaged to Believe Depend on and Worship him yea the Father Son and Holy Ghost have but one and the same Name Mat. 28.19 And are one 1 John 5.7 2. The Apostles therefore joyn the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father in saluting the Churches Grace and Peace or Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and to him also together with the Father and the holy Spirit they commend them 2 Cor. 1.2 and 13.14 2 Tim. 1.2 and 4.22 And well they may For First The Father and all his fulness is in him Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me saith he to Philip John 14.9 10. The Wisdom Holiness Grace and Glory yea and all the Power of the Father is in and on him And therefore also Secondly The Works of God are attributed to him As the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth whom he will so the Son quickneth whom he will And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself and he hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of man John 5.21.26 27. Yea he is the Creator and Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth Visible and Invisible Col. 1.16 And the Upholder of all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.3 For he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1.17 Is God the Repairer and Redeemer of his Creature He is so by Christ the great Repairer of the Breaches and Restorer of the Paths to dwell in the Ransome and Redeemer from Sin Death Hell Devil and Destruction 1 Tim. 2.6 Tit. 2.14 Gal. 1.4 and 3.13 and 4.4 5. The Father worketh hitherto in the works of Providence and he worketh also John 5.17 Yea what is said of Jehovah the Lord in that respect in Psal 146 6 10. is applicable to him as was above noted For he feeds the hungry with himself The Bread that he gives being bis flesh which he hath given for the Life of the World As he opened the eyes of the bodily Blind in the days of his flesh so he Preacheth the opening of the eyes to them that are spiritually blind Luke 4 18 19 And the Opening of the Prison to those that are bound raiseth up the bowed in Spirit loveth his Disciples as the Father loveth him John 15 9 Receiveth and Preserveth them that were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel and makes them fellow Citizens with the Saints Yea What things the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise John 5.19 Yea Thirdly He is what ever God is He and the Father is one one thing John 10.30 And he hath all that the Father hath For the Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hands John 16.15 Fourthly The attributes of God are ascribed to him as Eternity He is that Eternal life that was with the Father and is manifested unto us 1 John 1.1 2. And he in the beginning laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of his hands and when they perish yet he endures and his Years fail not nor have an end Immutability for he is the same and alters not yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 1.10 11 12. and 13.7 Omnipotency for he upholds all things by the word of his Power Heb 1.3 The Alpha and the Omega the first and the last he that was and is and is to come the Almighty Rev. 1.8 Omnisciency Now know we that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man ask thee any thing c. John 16.30 He knew all men and needed not that any man should testifie of what is in man for he knew what is in man John 2.24 25. All things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.12 13 Ubiquity or Omnipresence Where two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Yea Is God the Law-giver So is he Isa 42 4. The Isles shall wait for his Law Is God the Judg So is he Judg of Quick and Dead Acts 10.42 Is God the King So is he King of all the Earth Psal 47.2 3. Yea he is All and in all in the New Creature Col. 3.11 Again as for Spirit to Enlighten Quicken and Inable us to Worship acceptably The holy Spirit in the fulness thereof dwells in and rests upon him The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 And with him and by him he Inlightens Quickens Teaches and so fits for Worshipping God creates a clean Heart renews a right Spirit raises from spiritual death to spiritual life and so to Worship and serve God in the Spirit which Service he makes acceptable and he by that Spirit will raise the Body from the Dead and fashion it into the likeness of his
believe on the Lord Jesus And to that end preached and held forth to him the Word of the Lord The Doctrine concerning him which contains according to his own expressions to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 15.3 4 the Doctrine of his Death Burial and Resurrection and so of those great Points of the Gospel wherein the Grace of God in Christ is set forth to us in minding and believing of which he was healed Act. 16.27 29 30 31 32. with 20.24 Gal. 1.6 Yea in looking to and minding this we shall be armed against all accusations of Sin Law or Sathan as in Rom. 8.32 33 34. Case 2. In case of a benummedness of our spirits through senslesness of our vileness in our selves or aptness to be puffed up with conceits of our wholeness or betterness then others and thence a carelesness to seek for health to our Souls the way to be convinced of our vileness and emptiness and so to be humbled and abased in our selves is to look to and upon Christ crucified and behold his Cross and Sufferings for us as set forth in the Gospel to us that that 's the best way to take down our pride and bring us to a sense of our wretchedness is implyed in that the Apostle tells us they judged all dead from ones having dyed for all The sight of our deadness and helplesness in our selves is best seen in that Glass that represents that Christ dyed for all and so for us 2 Cor. 5.14 Where also the sight of his grace in dying for us will cure our deadness quicken and put life into us so as to make us live so that that sight both kills and makes alive wounds and heals casteth us down in our selves and raiseth us up in Christ Crucifies us with Christ and yet makes us live in him and brings him in to live in us 1 Sam. 2.6 7. Gal. 2 20. and so the Exalting Preaching and witnessing to Christ both throws down the mountains and fills up the Vallies Isa 40.4 which was the work of the Baptist bearing witness to the Light and the effect wrought in them who beheld and looked to the Light witnessed to by him Luc. 3.4 5 6 16. with Joh. 1.6 7 8 15 23 c. Many that cannot by the law be convinced of their lostness in themselves and their need of Christ by reason that they are strict and zealous Observers and Performers of the Law in their apprehensions so as that upon that account they judg themselves righteous may and must be seen to be naturally wretched sinners and to have need of Christ in this that He dyed for them if they look upon and discern what is set before them therein yea therein they may see the utter undonness of their state upon any other account then only by his Death where together with the convincement of their being dead in themselves there is hope also presented to them that they may be saved by him Case 3. In case of temptations from our inabilities and insufficiencies to help our selves by freeing our selves from the defilement of our sins or getting victory over them or saving our selves out of the snares of sin and Sathan or working in our selves holiness and conformity to Christ so as may fit us for his Kingdom and glory our way is to look off from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and above our selves unto Jesus and consider him as the High-Priest and Apostle of our profession the Author and Finisher of the Faith what He hath undertaken with the Father for us How he is appointed and hath engaged to sanctify and wash his Church that is such as cleave to believe on and obey him and to bring forth Judgment into Victory subduing their Enemies and treading Sathan under their Feet And how faithful and powerful He is for performing his engagements This is the way I say to be helped against such temptations Heb. 2.17 18. and 3.1 2. And the like we may say for temptations from the consideration of his appearing slowness in performing his promises our finding no more deliverance from any sinful distempers and temptations to sin and from the oppressions of other enemies as Abraham was helped and Sarah also against temptations from Gods not making more hast to perform his promises by considering God's Power and Faithfulness Rom. 4.17 18 19. Heb. 11.11 12. Yea Case 4. Would we be delivered from the power of corruption and sin occasioning barrenness and temptation or otherwise prevailing over and polluting us This is our way to get freedom from and victory over them even the eying of Jesus the Son of Man for its the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus and which He himself is that makes free from the service of Sin Joh. 8.32 34 35 36. Eph. 4 20 21 22 23. and it 's the beholding his glory with open face as in a Glass in which we may be transformed into his Image and likeness from glory to glory as by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3.18 His Word and Faith it is that sanctifies Joh. 17.17 Act. 26.18 Case 5. In case of Persecutions or Chastisements from God or any troubles and afflictions here befalling us Look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of the Faith who for the Joy set before Him endured the Cross despised the shame and is now set down on the right hand of the Throne of God And this will preserve us from being weary of Gods chastisements or fainting under the contradiction of sinners partly while we there see how Christ suffered the like or greater for us and hath thereby taken away the evil and destructiveness of them from us and partly while we see how He is impowered and is faithful and compassionate to help us under them and bring us out of them He being as well the Finisher as the Author of the Faith and set down on the Throne of Majesty as one invested with the fulness of the power of God to help us and also appearing there to make Intercession for us Heb. 12.1 2 6. and 7 24 25. Rom. 8.34 Case 6. Would we see the odiousness of sin that we might abhor and beware of it Behold the Son of man suffering for it on our behalf see the Agonies Perplexities Shame Reproaches Death and Curse it brought upon Him There we may see Sin condemned in the Flesh Rom. 8.3 and 6.3 4. Having dyed to it there how should we again live in it should we not cease from that for which in Christ we have suffered in the flesh and must have suffered for it in our flesh even in our souls and bodies for our selves had not he suffered for it yea and must yet suffer for ever if through the sight of his Grace we turn not from it 1 Pet. 1.24 and 4.1 2. Case 7. Would we see the hainousness of neglecting Christ and the grace of God in him or of sinning against him after the knowledge of him received The way for it is to behold and mind
designs to do it hateth the light neither cometh to the light least his deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.19 20. and so we find the Scriptures every where assert that the cause of Mens destruction is their voluntary rejections of the remedy as in Psal 81.10 11 12 c. When God offered himself to Israel to be their God bidding them open their mouth wide and he would fill it their refusing him his advise and counsel not hearing his voice nor accepting him to be their helper but preferring others before him procured his leaving them to themselves and their Idols and then what but misery and destruction could befall them the like we see in Prov. 1.20 24 25. Wisdom addresses her self to all within and without the City or Church of God reproving their love of their simplicity scornfulness and folly and tendring her grace and spirit to them but they generally will not answer her calls and hear her counsels nor regard the stretching forth of her hands to relieve help or draw them in to her self but put away all her counsels and will none of her reproofs and therefore destruction comes upon them the like may be seen in Isa 66.3 4. Jer. 7.24 25 26. And the like we find our Saviour and his Apostles say of the cause and reason of mens perishing not to be any want of goodness or graciousness in God or want of provision in Christ or readiness in him to help them but mens own wilfulness in refusing and putting from them the grace and truth discovered of God in and by Christ to them for their salvation that they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. That they stop the ear close or wink with the eye least they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and he should heal them Matth. 13.14 15. Acts 28.20 27. Yea the very Heathens who had the least discoveries of God and his goodness and grace that through Christ he exerciseth towards and among men yet perish upon this account that they with-hold the truth in unrighteousness that when they know God they glorified him not as God nor were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkned that they liked not to have God in their knowledge and the like Rom. 1.18 21 28. 2. As to the equitableness and justness hereof what more just and equitable then that men who will not be saved should perish that they who refuse the most excellent remedy and compleat Medicine and way of healing which the most wise and gracious God in his most perfect understanding and heighth of love and affection hath devised and prepared for them dye of their wounds which through their own default and wickedness they have brought upon themselves Yea when God hath been at a great cost and charge to provide man a Saviour and prepare them help and shewed forth his great goodness therein for their happiness when He hath not spared his own Son but delivered him as made man the Son of man for our offences and raised him again for our Justification and therein and thereby hath saved men from perishing in the first Death into which they were fallen in and through Adam and therein cured that deadly wound given them at first by the Serpent and hath glorified him and filled him with his own infinite fulness of power spirit and all spiritual grace and blessing therein both impowering him and appointing him to raise all men out of the first death which he also will not fail to do and also providing in him all things by which he is furnished for calling and drawing them in to believe and in believing on him to preserve them from the second Death and to make them to live for ever being furnished with authority and fitness to cure all such stings of the old Serpent as might and would otherwise sting them to that second Death and all this without their knowledge motion or desire Yea and through him also and by him making known to us what he hath done and calling and counselling us to come to him and accept of his grace and salvation in and through him through whom also we live and move and have our beings and are made capable of hearing and coming at his call to him in whom we are so compleatly provided for that there is no defect or want of any thing needful for our salvation and everlasting well-being yea and that we might have both the greatest ground of assurance of finding help in him and the greatest ingagements upon all accounts to hearken to and comply with his counsels and yield our selves subject to his will and commandements he hath set before men both his alsufficiency as being the Son of God and God and his having in him all the fulness of God and also the greatness of the love both of the Father in not sparing him but giving him forth and preparing him through so great sufferings to be our Saviour and of the Son in sustaining them for our sakes that there-through he might be so perfected for us how should he not be provoked to great displeasure and so to leave us to dye and perish of our wounds if they or any of us after and notwithstanding all this refuse his calls and will not submit to him to be saved and be made happy for ever by him What man of us and especially what Prince or Nobleman if he be at great cost and labour to prepare either a feast to entertain or a Medicine to heal his poor neighbours likely otherwise to perish through want or diseases could take it well if after that they scorn his love and make light of his provision and yet such is the case of Mankind towards God as the parables in Matth. 22.1 14. and Luc. 14.17 24. shew And surely the offence is so much the greater and the more inexcusable and unpardonable in us men and lays open to the greater and deserves the more severe punishment then any can be deserved from or inflicted by the greatest or mightiest man by how much God is greater than man and more uningaged to us than man and by how much his provision and love therein and the tenders and proffers thereof to men exceed all that can be found in or from men So that God will certainly be just in his proceedings against men in his condemning them and will be justified in the eyes and sight of all his Creatures both Angels and men yea the condemned ones themselves when he is judged as is said Rom. 3.4 And there will be nothing found by men to plead for themselves or condemn him when he enters into Judgment with them not so much for that his power and greatness will bear them down as because of the exceeding great equity and righteousness that will
he pleaseth to be Apostles Prophets or otherwise useful for perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the acknowledgment of the Son of God unto a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the age of Christ Eph. 4.8 11 12 13. Col. 2.3.9 That it is He that hath prevailed to open the book in the right hand of God and unâ—rose the seals and discover and declare the hidden Wisdom and secret Mysteries contained therein Rev. 5.1 6. The great Apostle faiâ—hful in all things to him that appointed him as Moses in all his house accounted worthy of more honor then Moses to be more acquainted and intimate with God even as his Son in his bosome and so fullier furnished for declaring his Glory and glorious grace and good-will and more faithful even as a son in his own house built by himself Whereas Moses was faithful but as a servant therein Wherefore as the Holy Ghost also saith to day if ye will hear his voice even his that is Gods own Son the heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds his who is the express character of his Fathers person and the brightness of his glory giving forth the fullest and brightest discovery of God and of his holy mind and will and speaking to us from heaven harden not your hearts c. Heb. 3.1 2 3 4 7. with 1.3 12.25 Secondly As the Priest in and High Priest over the house of God the most authorized and consecrated person consecrated with the Word of Gods Oath and after the power of an endless life by a sacrifice once offered for ever and that never needs to be iterated made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck an everlasting Priest in the vertues of his once endured Death for us and therefore able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 A Priest upon the throne and so both a King and Priest the true Melchisedeck being both King of Righteousness and after that King of Peace working performing and commanding righteousnes and so commanding and prevailingly making and giving Peace far greater then Aaron Levi or Abraham Such a Priest as we needed and it behoved us to have being holy harmless undefiled and separated from sinners and made higher then the heavens Heb. 7.1.26 â—7 A great High Priest entred into the heavens even into Heaven it self by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle and by vertue not of the bloud of others as Aaron did into the figure of the heavens onely but of his own precious bloud and sacrifice Where he now appears in the presence of God for us having obtained eternal redemption Heb. 4.14 9.11 12 24. A faithful High Priest and therefore made like is brethren in all things that he might be so to make atonement and reconciliation for the people and to succour and help the tempted Heb. 2.17 18. To which end also he is both perfectly furnished with knowledge of our cases and conditions by reason both of his exceeding quickness and powerfulness as the VVord of God for searching into all things and piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So as there is not any creature that is not manifested in his sight but all things are naked and opened as things anatomized and laid perfectly before his view Heb. 4.12 13. The Spirit that rests upon him making him quick of understanding Isa 11.2 3 4. And also as having had an experimental feeling of our infirmities and temptations as man in himself having himself suffered and been tempted yea tempted in all points like to us yet without sin and so the more acceptable and prevalent in his mediating and interceding with God for us And also perfectly merciful and compassionate towards us ready to plead for us and help us Heb. 2.17 18. with 4.15 5.1 2. So as we have great ground of encouragement from this consideration of his Priesthood and its perfection and his fitness by the vertues of his Sacrifice to make the worshippers of and comers to him and to God by him perfect to draw nigh and come with boldness to the throne of grace with true hearts and full assurance of faith to ask and receive grace and mercy to help us seasonably in all our trials and temptations Heb. 4.14 16. 9.14 10.19 22. Thirdly As a King he is set forth as furnished with the most sovereign Authority over all creatures in heaven earth and under the earth all things being put under him and the Throne and power of God given him in the manhood So as also to be every way accomplished to be the Law-giver Saviour and Judge He being indued also with all the fulness of the Spirit of counsel and might which resting upon him renders him both infinitely quick in understanding in the fear of the Lord and perfect in Righteousness in all his Government and the exercise of it Girded up in his loyns with righteousness and in his reins even in all his thoughts purposes and desires from whence issue all his words and motions for action with faithfulness Isa 11.2 3 4 5. Having a white horse under him as supported by his own Righteousness or as riding on the Heavens and having them at his command for the help of his subjects and riding swiftly and prosperously in all his Government Deut. 33.26 27. being called faithful and true and in righteousness judging and making war His eyes as a flame of fire discovering and trying all things And on his head are many Crowns Either as denoting his superlative Power or Jurisdiction over the many Countreys brought into an acknowledgment of him yea Kings and Kingdoms Or the many great Victories gotten by him over his enemies whether evil spirits or evil men engaging themselves against him and gotten by his truth against errour and impiety Or also the many praises ascribed to him And he hath a name Dignity Title Power which none knoweth but himself as signifying that he is exalted above all blessing and praise Neh. 9.5 and that none can set forth all his praises Ps 106.2 And he is clothed in a vesture dipt in bloud either because all his appearance in his Government to the spiritual eye is such as in which is manifested the vertue of his most precious Bloud Sufferings and Sacrifice for us Or because it represents the overthrow of his and our enemies And his name is called the Word of God as being the great speaker forth and Interpreter of the knowledge of God to us And he hath a sword that goeth out of his mouth A sharp cutting word full of killing convincing efficacy to all that stands cross to him which is therefore said to go out
according to the testimony of God by his Holy Spirit concerning him Psal 106.3 and accordingly in their hearts liking loving and desiring after the knowledge and enjoyment of him trusting in and cleaving to him with purpose of heart Psal 31.23 Cant. 1 2 3 4. 2.4 5. 5.7 8. 8.6 7. 1 Cor. 16.22 Isa 26.8 9. Phil. 3.7 8 9 10.1 John 3.23 Acts 11.23 24. 2. In their word speaking nothing but what is high holy and honourable concerning him Holding forth the word of life and blessing and speaking well of his name Psal 47.6 7. 98.1 4. 66.1 2 3. 100.1 2 4 5. 3. In their Life and Conversation for there also he may be lifted up and glorified and magnified of us yea both in life and in death Phil. 1.20 As therein also he may be blasphemed dishonoured and denied as is implied 1 Tim. 6.1 Tit. 2.5 1.16 But surely he ought not to be denied blasphemed or put to reproch by us or by occasion of us He hath not so deserved of any man but to be blessed and highly honoured And that is best done when to a high commendation of him in our words we add also such a conversation and carriage as speaks him excellent in our esteems and experiences of him When we shew that he is upright and that there is no unrighteousness in him Matth. 5.16 2 Thess 1.12 Psal 92.15 1 Pet. 2.9 11 12. Now though the lifting him up by his Father in the acts done to him in his personal body in his calling him to upholding and accepting him in raising him from and rewarding him for and after his Sufferings and the obedience and service done and performed by him for us be the main and most fundamental lifting him up absolutely necessary with respect to us and our Regeneration and Salvation Yet I apprehend That the lifting him up also as to manifestation and commendation of him to and in the eyes of others both by the Spirit of God and by men especially his holy Saints and Servants that desire and are set for his Glory and the good of others is here also with the former way and acts directly included and intended And indeed as to his being lifted up of God both Father Word and Spirit it must be so as we have partly said because it was so purposed and decreed of God It was his purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world that is made manifest now by his appearance in what God hath wrought by and done to him for us 2 Tim. 1.9 10. And as for mans exalting him and lifting him up in his ministration and service in the Gospel and in heart and life it 's no more then God requires of us and his love and the excellency in and love of Christ to us obliges us to and challengeth of us And therefore so it must and ought to be also Psal 96.3 4. But because that must be lifted up the necessity of his being lifted up hath direct and main respect to the end whereto he is to be lifted up that is That whosoever believeth on him may not perish but have eternal life As also the necessity that he be so lifted up As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness hath reference thereto Therefore I shall not more fully speak to the necessity of his being lifted up and so lifted up till after the speaking to those two following Points The Son of Man must be lifted up that 's the second Point The other two follow in order The manner how and the end to which he must be and must be in such manner lifted up For I shall also leave the Use of all this till we have considered and viewed those Points also they both appertaining to the full view of this which is the main Point CHAP. VIII The third Point That the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness Where several Analogies and Agreements between them are considered Point 3 HOw the Son of Man is to be lifted is the next Point to be spoken to and that is As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness In which may be implied 1. As verily and certainly as that was done so must this be done also and indeed that lifting up of the Serpent being a type and figure preaching forth this lifting up of the Son of Man must not be made frustrate for then as a type it should have failed and been false Where the shadow goes before the body follows And where the type and figure was fore-ordained to instruct into the truth that was to be revealed there the truth also thereby signified must in its time take place and be accomplished all things written of him in the Law of Moses also whether Prophecy or Type and Figure must be fulfilled Luke 24.46 But not onely so but also 2. As so As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness So even after such a sort and manner must the Son of Man be lifted up There is agreeableness correspondency and answerableness between the one and the other as may be seen in many Particulars As 1. In the occasion of it There the people walking in the Wilderness were disobedient murmured against God despised his mercy bounty and goodness and provoked him in wrath to send fiery serpents among them to bite and kill them and as a remedy there against that Serpent was commanded to be and accordingly was lifted up And so here men in the wilderness of thâ—s world being ransomed by Christ out of that sentence of Condemnation that lay upon us all for our first Fathers Transgression and under a state of much mercy and bounty from God yet not without trials and temptations are found sinning against God and despising the Heavenly Manna Christ Jesus and the knowledge of God in him and discontent with Gods dealings through the temptations of sin and Satan and so fall under his power and are obnoxious to destruction This occasions a necessity of lifting up the Son of Man both in his exaltation by God and unto men for their healing Yea our first Parents and we all in them being tempted though in a Paradise listening to the Tempter and siding with him to a discontent with Gods allowance to us in the Creation because one Fruit was forbidden and to a desire of and coveting after what was unlawful and forbidden us fell under the power of the old Serpent the Devil and Satan So as by him to be stung and wounded to death even a death of our souls and spirits from the life and favour of God and of both body and soul to be exposed to and filled with misery and mischief to destruction and as a remedy against that Bite it was necessary Christ should be lifted up on the Cross and dye for us and be raised up again and exalted to a state of Power and Glory for raising us up and so he is
through him and obtain eternal life But that is true as it is said in ver 16 17. And as we may see also in our speaking to that observation 1. Object But the Scripture saith that the World goeth to Destruction 1 Cor. 11 32. Or shall be condemned Answ True but that is because it goeth contrary to what God would have it it disobeys and rebells against his will and doth that which pleaseth him not Isa 66.3 4. John 3.19 20. 2. Object But God hated Esau before he was born therefore had pleasure in his Death and perishing Answ It is not said that God hated him before he was born but only that the Elder people Esau namely and his Posterity should serve the younger that is Jacob and his See Rom. 9.12 The other of hating Esau was said in Malachie's time Mal. 1.2 long after Esau was dead and was said of his Posterity when he laid their Mountains wast 3. Object But the Apostle adds this of Esau's being hated to that said before they were born as a demonstration of its truth and therefore that saying also refers to the same time Answ 1. That follows not for it confirms the truth of the former saying though understood of Esau nationally and in Malachie's time For Gods laying Esaus Mountains wast for his hatred against his Brother and therein testifying hatred against Esau in his Posterity when as he more gently chastised Jacob in his posterity was an evidence of Gods resolving to make good his purpose of making him a servant to Israel as nationally considered Gods destroying the Elder for not serving the younger was a demonstration that his place was to have been subject to him but if we should refer this hatred to the same time yet then 2. Less love is in Scripture called hatred and so Gods less love in respect of purpose to shew him grace and give him honour and priviledges might be called his hatred and stand well enough with a desire of his Salvation and that he might not perish As we are willed in such a sense to hate those whose destruction yet we may not desire yea whose good and happiness we are greatly to desire and endeavour as our Fathers Mothers Brethrens c. whom we are to hate that is love less then Christ so as to be willing to displease or forsake them for Christs sake Luk. 14.26 So may God be said to hate in such a sense also 4. Object But God raised up Pharoah to destroy him Answ 1. That is not so said but that he might shew his power in him and make his name to be declared in all the Earth And that he might do and yet desire his Salvation Yea as Origen in his Philocal also notes He might order those Judgments to him and harden him that he might bring them upon him to the bodily death and destruction to awaken him to Repentance and to prevent his perishing hereafter Sometimes God punishes men here to Death that they might not perish for ever 1 Cor. 11.31 32. But granting him to be perished Answ 2. I answer further that its true that there is a time when patience abused ends in vengeance and the day of Mercy may be followed with a day of Destruction And then he that in the day of grace would rather that the wicked turn and live will afford them no more space or grace to turn but will laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear comes Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27. Yea and yet further Answ 3. Gods ways are oft-times unsearchable and his judgments past finding out when as yet his Word is right and all his works are done in truth Rom. 11.33 Psal 33.4 We are not therefore to doubt of or deny his words because we cannot always comprehend his ways 5. Object But he may make some Vessels to dishonour Answ 1. That he may do and yet in their humbling themselves under his Judgments shew them mercy as well as destroy those whom he was framing to be Vessels to honour as is signified in Jer. 13.11 14. With 18.3 4 6 11. He can make another Vessel of what is marred as easily as the Potter can turn again and make a new Vessel of what is broken upon the wheel And he may make any a Vessel to dishonour that will not obey his calls and counsels as well as make any a Vessel to honour that through his grace cleanseth himself from what defiles 2 Tim. 2.21 6. Object But the Lord made all things for himself and the wicked for the day of Wrath. Prov. 16.4 Therefore he made some to destroy them Ans 1. The words may be read And the Wicked are for the day of Wrath. Where by day of Wrath may be understood a time of Wrath against others the wicked then are fit for God to make use of as rods to scourge with For Wickedness proceeds from the wicked See Isa 10.5 6. 2. And the wicked must go to wrath notwithstanding Gods not desiring or delighting that they should so do in case they will be and persist to be wicked contrary to Gods desire I do not say that the wicked abiding wicked are not appointed to wrath but I say that God would not that men should be much less persist to be wicked but rather that they turn to him and be happy Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts c. Isa 55.7 Vse This then commends the love of God and shews that he is Charity and that mens Destruction is not of him but of themselves And it affords Motive to all to seek and submit to him in order to their happiness yea it invites the wicked also to repentance as that that is most pleasing to him And that they may do so and meet with mercy it 's good for them to mind where God hath provided safety and acceptance for them which leads to the next Observation Namely CHAP. XI The third Observation briefly spoken to shewing Christ to be the only Medicine for our Misery and way to happiness appointed of God for us and what an inducement that consideration is to love God and accept of Christ Obser 3 THat God in order to the preventing mens perishing and bringing them to eternal life hath appointed the Son of Man his only Son to be mans Saviour Or that he is the only Medicine and Medium of Gods appointment in whom we may have Salvation and life everlasting This also is positively and abundantly asserted in the Scriptures for there we find 1. In the Scriptures of the Prophets that David spake of Gods raising up a King over men who should be and be Proclaimed to be Gods Son set upon his holy Hill for the good of Men so as that the Kings and Judges of the Earth should have cause of rejoycing in him and yet of trembling too because of his infinite power and terrible Judgments breaking in pieces as a Potters Vessel all that rebel against him but
and the Salvation of his Soul And if he perish as to any other hope and design which is carnal which as a man yet subject to infirmity and in many things offending he may as Abraham did in his hope and design of bringing about Gods promise by his going in unto Hagar and the birth and life of Ishmael Gen. 16 such perishings of such hopes and designes though causing some grief shall not hurt them It may be said of such as it is of the hay and stubble built upon the good foundation which shall be burnt and the builder of it suffer loss but himself shall be saved so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.12 15. The believer himself as to his great hope and design shall not perish nor shall he his Soul perish as they that draw back but his believing is to the Salvation of that both in his Death wherein he hath hope that will not make him ashamed or fail him Prov. 14.32 Rom. 5.5.6 And in the Judgment when he shall be adjudged to and enter into everlasting life Mat. 25.35 46. Qu. 2. As to the Second Querâ— How the believer shall be saved from this perishing either from the way or in the end in his Death or in the Judgment We may say 1. He shall be saved from perishing from the way by Christ 1. By his giving in light and truth faithfully to direct him and shew him the way that he should go in As it is said The meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his way And what man is he that fears the Lord him shall he teach the way that he shall chuse his Soul shall dwell at ease or lodge in goodness shall not fall into snares and mischiefs Psal 25.8 12 13 14. And in beholding him who is Gods Servant upon whom he hath put his Spirit to bring forth Judgment He that is Christ will not fail to teach him and to bring forth Judgment into truth or victory Isa 42.1 3 4. Christ being come a Light into the world that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness but see the light of Life John 8.12 And his word being believed and abid in as it is in believing on the Son of man keeps from sinning against him Psal 119.11 Yea it cleanseth their way and makes it more perfect ver 9. And so gives a continuance in the Father and in the Son both in dependance on them and in their favour and protection from what might harm them whether it be the World or any Antichristian principles or Doctrine 1 John 2.24 And that because Christ also therein and there-with 2. Gives in his holy Spirit to work in men both a right discerning of his truth and love and affection to it and so conformity to him in and by it his Doctrine being a ministration of Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Yea his words are Spirit and Life John 6.63 And he hath promised that they that believe on him as the Scripture hath said to them he will give so as they shall receive his holy Spirit Joh. 7.37 38 39. Act. 5.32 We have not now his blessed Body of Flesh to see and converse with sensibly or to shew and testifie our love to as his Disciples and Mary had but instead thereof he hath left us his words and therein his mind and Commandment and we may shew love to him therein though we cannot anoint his head kiss his feet take his body in our armes which his enemies might do and one that pretended love to him in some such actions betrayed him yet we have that in which we may testifie love even his word we may attend to him in that hear him and hugg him too as it were therein take that and lay it up in our hearts keep it in our breasts and diligently observe and follow it And he that hath his Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth him and he that loveth him shall be loved both of the Fathe and of him and he will manifest his own self to him praying the Father for them and sending his holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth and abide with them for ever John 14.15 16 17 21. And he will so glorifie Christ to the Soul and shew it things to come as to make afflictions and persecutions light and bearable to it and give it peace and comfort in them and carry them above and keep them from being harmed by the prosperity and allurements of this World or by any baits or temptations It being the spirit of wisdom will make wise and fill with such discretion and understanding as will preserve from the way of the evil Man and of the strange woman and so from every false way as was noted before Prov. 1.23 2.10 11 12 15 16. Psal 119.104 17.4 And the Soul that trusts to and follows its conduct shall not miscarry To these ends also 3. He preserves them by mediating with God his Father from them that the weaknesses and infirmities and through infirmity neglects and wanderings from him being seen confessed and turned from might not be imputed to hinder or with-hold his grace and Spirit from being given forth to lead instrust reprove reduce comfort and work the works of God in them till it perfect what concerns them Heb. 7 25. And there-through he saves them to the utmost So he helped Peter Luk. 22.31 32. 4. By the exercise also of his glorious power and authority over all things he keeps off what might be too hard for us in our depending on him he will be faithful to us and will not fail nor be discouraged Isa 42.1 4. He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but with the temptation will give an issue that we may escape 1 Cor. 10.11 12. Surely the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder thereof he can and will restrain Psal 76.11 Yea and 5. By ordering merciful and faithful corrections and Chastisements to us to break us off from our purposes and hide pride from us to purge away our sins purifie and make us White and so to be partakers of his holiness that we might be kept from going down to the Pit and our life might see the light and that we being made holy might see the Lord. Job 33.16 17 29. Dan. 11.35 Heb. 12.10 11. Thus he delivers the believer on him from every evil way and preserves him to his heavenly Kingdom 2 Tim. 4.18 And then 2. He preserves him from perishing in the end 1. By receiving his Spirit when it departs hence washing it in his precious Blood and presenting it pure and glorious to himself Eph 5.25 26. Psal 49.15 Acts 7.59 Rev. 6.10 11. 2. By redeeming him from the power of the Grave raising him up from death and redeeming the body from all corruption and mortality Psal 49.15 Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 4.15 3. By his adjudging him being raised to a better condition fully blotting out
with-hold no good thing c. Psal 84.11 4 Nor shall this happy state be ever taken from him but though through workings of the flesh a man may not be always sensible of these things nor have always actual rejoycing while here yet his state is always such and shall hereafter appear and be most sensibly and perfectly such for this life here begun by Christ and by his Spirit never shall terminate or end but increase and be more full as to the injoyment and perception of it in the abiding believer on the Son of Man till it be most immutably perfect They that seek God shall Praise him their hearts shall live for ever Psal 22.26 Death shall not put an end to this life when the body dies the man even then shall be in a living state of the Spirit or inner man in a truly happy and joyful condition though it appear not upon the body of man or to the view of the natural man much less shall it terminate after death to the Spirit made perfect for it being with Christ shall be in a better state then while here Phil. 2.21 23. To be dissolvd and to be with Christ is far better then to be here much less shall this life cease fail or terminate in the state of the resurrection for that state is most properly and fully called Eternal Life Mark 10.30 In the world to come Eternal life because then neither Soul nor Body shall die any more but then 1. The body shall be in an eternally unchangeably happy and blessed state of life a glorious body like the glorious body of Christ. Phil. 3.20 Raised up in honour incorruptibility power and glory so as it shall never feel or be capable of feeling hunger thirst pain weariness weakness decay sickness old age or any other trouble any more forever For there shall be no more death nei-neither sorrow nor crying c. for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.3 with 7.16 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 The Soul and inward man shall be perfect in its knowledge of conformity to and joy in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord For then we shall see as we are seen know as we are known Then that which is perfect being come that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 12. Then we shall have fulness of joy in Gods presence and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16.12 1 Joh. 3.2 There shall then be no more ignorance or envy nor sorrow nor care nor whatever may render the Soul in the least defective in its happiness but the favour of God and of the Lamb as a clear River of pure waters pure and immixed and never failing shall fill it perpetually with all Heavenly and Spiritual fruitfulness in every good thing Rev. 21.4 11. and 22.1 Isa 11.9.13 Deut. 33.23 Yea 3. The whole state of the man both in Body and Soul and with respect both to God and Men a state of perfect freedom from all evil Nothing in themselves to treuble or disquiet and nothing from without themselves either of wrath and curse from God he shall neither inflict any evil upon or with-hold any good from them but as one perfectly well pleased with them perpetually fill and satisfie them with his favour and blessing afford them his fellowship and the fellowship of the Lamb and whatsoever so happy a Spring may pour forth to them and therefore neither shall any evil befall them either positively from any man or from any other Creature Angel Devil or any other thing to molest or annoy them the Devil and all his Instruments their Enemies and all evil things being for ever removed from out the Creation or what of it the Saints shall have to do with except so as they may look upon and behold their miseries Isa 66.24 And as the happiness of the Saints may be seen by their Enemies for aggravating their miseries Luke 13.28 16.23 and all other things and persons filled with good for and towards them and not with any thing that may in the least be evil and troublesom to them nor privatively for they shall be in no danger to loose any thing of the good they have or shall have none of those deprivations and losses that here afflict and exercise them shall they then be capable of being exercised and tried with no more Widdowhood or loss of Children or of Fathers Mothers Friends no loss of Riches Honours Pleasures Habitations Ornaments or any thing but what they here lost or were deprived of shall in a better manner and more to their comfort be restored if they were such as appertain to the Kingdom their Relations Husbands Parents Wives Children c. shall be restored then with Christ though not as such Relations or as having such dependance then on them as here but in a far more perfect satisfying and glorious manner Nor shall any one thing or person in the world with-hold from them or any of them any one thing that they may have any need of or good by so that their state then shall be a state of perfect life and that everlasting a spiritual and spiritually sensible and intelligent life an holy life an happy and Eternal life wherein the shall have full knowledge of God and his favour blessing righteousness in the full perfect and perpetual performance of all his blessed promises a full and perfect injoyment of the Lamb and of all the virtues and products of his Cross and sufferings and fellowship of his joys and glory and of and with one another even all the whole company of them in the most perfectly united peaceable satisfying way and manner for ever the fulness of the Spirit filling them all and every one with all Spiritual excellencies and satisfactions for ever and in that their fellowship with Christ and one another they shall have an everlasting full and perfect glory glorious Kingdom and Inheritance such as from the beginning of the world men have not heard of or perceived by the Ear or the Eye seen besides God himself being the glorious things which God hath prepared for them that wait for him Isa 64.5 A life worthy our most constant and earnest seeking after laying hold of and embracing But now Quest 4. How shall they that believe on Christ the Son of man have this Eternal Life Answ I may answer to this diversly with respect to 1. The way to their having it 2. The maner of their having it 1. In respect of their way they have and shall have it 1. Through sufferings and death even as our Lord Christ himself that way entred into his glory It is a faithful saying or the word is faithful for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him And if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him If we even we who at present believe in him deny him he will also deny us 2 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Through much
the Lord your God but not believe on his Prophets And therefore if Christ the Son of man were not also the Son of God and God Jehovah he were not a lawfull object to be believed in or relyed and depended on for procuring or conferring safety and eternal life nay nor for the mercies of this life much less those which are of that nature that it 's not possible for any that is but a creature to procure or confer But we are bid and commanded to believe on the son of man Jesus Christ Believe in God believe also on me Joh. 14.1 And this is his commandement that ye believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God c. 1 Joh. 3.23 2 Had he not been lifted up by men upon the Cross as thereto appointed of God and so called forth to supported under his sufferings for us he had still not been an object to be believed on for life and salvation as the son of man because there could have been none in him for us but we had been left under the necessity of perishing for ever the law of God being broken by us and the sentence and curse of it therethrough falling upon us we naked and open thereunto Under the Law the figure of heavenly things there was scarce any thing purged but by blood and without shedding of blood was no remission Heb. 9.22 Shadowing and signifying the necessity of the death of a sacrifice for our redemption from under the wrath of God and for the remission of our sins But no sacrifice of the law could make an expiation because of the weakness and unprofitableness of them For it was not possible for the blood of Bulls and Goats to take away sin wherefore God rejected them when it was said Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldst not have but a body hast thou prepared for me Heb. 5.6 Which was spoken prophetically of Christ the Son of God becoming the son of man signifying the necessity and certainty of his being made a sacrifice and shedding his precious blood for us to make atonement for us And indeed if our sins could have been purged or expiated and redemption obtained without the death of Christ for us and his bearing and therein and thereby making satisfaction for our sins then would his death and sufferings be rendred vain and needlesse which is horrible for us to think that God would put his own and only begotten son to such agonies sorrows and death without need for them as the Apostle implies when he saith I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness be by the law then Christ dyed in vain that is needlesly The end of his dying might have been brought about without it Gal. 2.21 Some rich man might have redeemed his brother by buying and giving to God a multitude of those legal sacrifices for him contrary to Psal 49.6 7 8. Yea and the Apostle by saying if righteousness be by the law excludes righteousness by any other means than by the death of Christ Taking it for granted that the law was the most absolute way for getting righteousness that ever was in the World besides the death and sufferings of Christ it containing precepts and appointments ordered of God and if that was insufficient surely all the riches and honours in the World could not procure it nor any doctrines or documents of the Phylosophers or wise men of the Gentiles or of any people whatsoever they being far short of God and his wisdome in appointing things pleasing in his sight so that it follows that there was a necessity of Christs death and of his being lifted up in such sense as we shewed before that he was exalted and lifted up therein because otherwise he could not have been an Object to be looked to or beleived on for salvation because no salvation or redemption from death and curse and by consequence no eternal life or lawfull power to give it could have been in him but by his death and sufferings 3. Necessary hereto also it was that he should not himself perish in his sufferings as to his humanity but be raised up again otherwise he could be no object still to be believed on for life and salvation Because had he not risen again from the dead but been lost and perished therein he could not have been as the Son of man in any capacity of helping us nor could we have been justified and acquitted from our sins by his sufferings seeing his body in which he bare our sins was the payment given to law and justice for them and had not that been raised the debt had not been acknowledged as sufficiently paid or to have been sufficient to satisfie justice Yea he being our Champion had he perished in the conflict or combate and not returned Victor we had all been routed as it fared with the Philistines when Goliah was slain by David or rather as it would have fared with Israel had Goliah killed David If Christ be not risen preaching is vain and our faith is vain we are yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15.14.17 Nor could he as the Son of man have been in a case to releive or help us any further much lesse to keep us back from perishing and give us eternal life For from a person dead while dead what help can be expected 4. Nor could he be an Object to be believed on or we have had any ground to believe on him for procuring for us further grace or dispensing it to us for preserving us from perishing in the second death or for directing leading us in the way to or bringing us to the injoyment of eternal life if he had been only raised to live as a private person or in a mean condition as before on the earth again without being exalted to Gods right hand and invested in the nature of man and as the Son of man with those Offices of the great Prophet and Apostle and High-Priest of our profession the great King of Saints and Nations and Lord of all creatures If he had not been glorified with the glory of God and filled with his fulnesse If he had been here on earth still he should not have been a Priest seeing there were Priests that offer gifts according to the Law Heb. 8. Nor would the comforter have been sent to his Apostles and servants seeing it behooved him to present himself to God as the perfect sacrifice and become the great High-Priest even in the Heavens themselves appearing in the presence of God for us and making intercession for transgressors and for all that come to God by him that he might purge the Heavens themselves from the effects and cries of our sins there and sprinkling the vertues of his precious blood there in the presence of God make an attonement and obtain and receive the holy spirit for us to shed forth upon us and to remove the guilt of our sins from before God that it might be dispensed
perfect possessing them of himself and of that Eternal life that is in him Such the true Church its Manners and Priviledges Use 10. Lastly that at length we may come to a Conclusion By all that hath been said we may be and let us be provoked and stirred up to admire Love Laud and Magnifie the Lord even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great Love and Grace that hath devised found out made set forth and discovered such an Object as this to be looked to by us and therein such a way of Salvation and Life Eternal for us That hath chosen out of the People the Son of man one of us as it were as to his Humanity and united that to and filled it with the Deity and its infinite Virtues and perfections that he hath magnified his blessed Son and that through so great Sufferings and Abasement to so high Dignity and Glory in the Nature of man for us and so lifted him up also in the discoveries of him by his Spirit in the Gospel to us even to us such sorry and miserable Creatures so fallen and rendred so unprofitable that we neither could or can be of any advantage or profit to him that so in his being lifted up before us and looked to by us we might be healed of all our spiritual Diseases and Maladies delivered from all the things of the old fiery Serpent the Devil and Satan the venome and poyson of it and the pain and destruction brought into and upon us by it the sin and guilt thence derived the infirmities death grave hell that it brought upon us Yea and from all the several stingings of the said Serpent and his Angels and Instruments whether by inward Temptations and their Prevalencies or outward sufferings and afflictions keeping us alive that we may not die of them Yea so expelling the venome and poyson of them and infusing Virtue and Vigour into us that we may be safe and found from them and live in a perfect life and walk in a perfect way and serve and honour him This Grace may be somewhat Illustrated by Gods dealings of old with Israel they were in a sore and heavy Bondage in Egypt God beheld it came down and with various Wonders wrought deliverance for them so as he brought them all out thence not one of them being left behind and then also he became their Perfect Alsufficient Merciful and Faithful Leader and Bringer in in their following after him into the Land of Canaan Even so God seeing us mankind all in great misery and destruction under the Power and Tyranny of the Devil and the first Death and Judgment which we fell into in and through Adam came down in the person of the Son and by more wonderful ways of bearing the Judgment and Curse of the Law for us tasting Death for every man and giving himself a Ransome for all men hath bought all men from under that misery the Free gift being to all men through his Righteousness to Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 So as to justifie them from that fault and condemnation so as they live now under the patience of God and merciful Lordship of Christ as Lord of all through his said Death and Sufferings who also offers to all men in the Gospel a free Justification of them from all their forepast sins in yielding themselves up to his Government so as they may live in his Sight Yea and now the same Christ that died for all and every one and hath so Ransomed us is become the Leader and Captain of our Salvation calling all men to look to and follow him Isa 55.4 Heb. 2.10 with Psal 50.1 Prov. 1.20 23. Isa 45.22 And he will save them in so doing and every way secure them from perishing and bring them into the possession of an Heavenly Canaan an everlasting and glorious Kingdom For which Guidance and Conduct of us thereto he is every perfected and most gloriously Accomplished with Power Authority Strength Wisdom Riches for Supply of all Wants and is infinitely Merciful and Gracious Compassionate and Faithful and will not fail or be discouraged but will bring every faithful Follower of him or Believer on him to the Injoyment of his Kingdom Indeed as there God having saved his People out of Egypt afterward destroyed those that believed not which also for our Admonition the Apostle Jude would have us to remember though we have once known it but that was not through any defect or want of Power Pity or Faithfulness in God toward them but through their unbelief not depending on him obeying and Following him but stubbornly rebelling against him and provoking him to anger with their Disobediences towards and withdrawings from him So also here though all men be Ransomed by Christ from perishing in the first Death and Condemnation that namely which passed upon all men in Adam before any man was Born to him yet there will many perish in the second Judgment that which shall be by Christ after all are Dead and Raised again In the second Death but that proceeds not neither from want of Power or Pity Fulness or Faithfulness in Christ but from the want of their Compliance with his Calls and Counsels to believe on and Obey him as the Scripture every where declares as was Noted before in Use 7. It 's most sure that every one that will hearken to his Voice and Believing on him Follow him shall have Eternal Life Yea and though many Sins and Failings may be found with us in our Hearing and Following him as well as many sticks and Hang-backs before our first yielding to him to be Followers of him as were also found in Israel Exod. 5. and 14. Yet as there were many Sacrifices and a Priesthood appointed to make atonement for their offences so as they were kept still in Gods favour and under his conduct to the Land of Promise not stubbornly and persistingly rebelling against him so here also we have a far better Priest and Sacrifice greater fuller and faithfuller and of an eternal vertue and continuance to keep the Followers after Him from perishing from Gods favour and for bringing them to the injoyment of eternal glory so that we may well say Herein is manifested the love of God to us in that He sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Yea we may well cry out with admiration and thankfulness Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou hast so visited him c. Heb. 2.6 7. Yea surely in the mindfulness and consideration of this his so rich and wonderful love and mercy which led him to this as the next verse saith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but