obscure and burthensom and narrow it hence follows that that Remnant of Jews who received and embraced it were so far from renouncing their old Religion that they still admitted and professed and adhered to it under its greatest advantages and improvements that they renounced nothing of it but only its comparative defects and did only admit of these new reformations of it by which our Saviour advanced it to its utmost lustre and perfection and rendered it infinitely more clear and easie and extensive and since it was their old Religion thus reformed and improved that they still embraced and continued in upon their turning Christians it necessarily follows that they did not become a new distinct Church but were only a continued succession of the Old one And hence it is that Christians in the New Testament are sometimes called Iews Rev. 2.9 i. e. reformed Jews or which is the same true Christians and sometimes the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and sometimes the Children of Abraham Gal. 3.7 and sometimes a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people which is the proper Character of the Iews because by their Faith and Religion which is nothing but the true spiritual and mystick Judaism they were Iews and Israelites and the Children of Abraham though they were not all so according to the Flesh as the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 10.18 and hence also it is that the Christian Church is called the new Ierusalem Rev. 3.12 because it is nothing but the Old Ierusalem or Jewish Church renewed and enlarged Eighthly and lastly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity When the main body of the Jews had rejected our Saviour his Kingdom was reduced to a very narrow compass and consisted only of one single Congregation of Christians in Ierusalem which through the blessing of God upon the indefatigable industry of his Apostles and Disciples was by degrees spread and dilated over all the World. For this single Congregation was the Primitive root out of which the vast stock of the Catholick Church sprung which hath since branch'd forth it self into particular Churches to all the ends of the Earth for it is of this Church that the Apostle speaks Acts 2.47 when he tells us that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved So that all that were converted to the faith of Christ were but so many additions to this Primitive Church so many living stones incorporated into this spiritual building which by the industry of its builders did soon encrease and multiply into several other Congregations and these Congregations though they were several yet were not separate or independent but continued all of them united to the first as Homogeneous parts growing out of the same body or distinct Apartments superadded to the same building So that the Christian Church began in one Congregation and by degrees enlarged it self like a fruitful stock by branching forth it self into other Congregations in a continued unity with its own body which for the convenience of Worship and Discipline were afterwards formed into several though not separate particular Churches under the conduct of their particular Pastors and Governours And thus all the particular Churches that are now in the World are only so many Lines drawn from this Primitive Centre and united in it and it is upon this account particularly that they all of them constitute but one Catholick Church because they all grew out of one and so are but comparts of the same body and branches of the same root and are only that one Primitive Church multiplied into several Churches living in the same Catholick Communion and Vnity And accordingly the Gentile Converts are said to be grafted into the Jewish Church which the Apostle calls the good Olive tree in Rom. 11.17 18 For if some of the branches that is the unbelieving Jews be broken off i. e. rejected from being any more the Church and People of God and thou being a wild Olive Tree growing in the wild common of the World without the Pale and Inclosure of God's Church wert grafted in among them i. e. incorporated with the believing Jews and made a member of the body of their Church and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree i. e. communicatest with them in all the blessings of God's Promise to Abraham which is the foundation of their Church boast not against the branches but if thou boast consider thou bearest not the root but the root thee i. e. the Jewish Church grew not out of thee but thou out of that she is no branch of thee but thou of her as being ingrafted into her Stock and added to her Communion By which it is evident that the converted Gentiles were all but so many superadditions to that Primitive Church of Ierusalem which was the only remainder of the ancient Jewish Church and which from one single Congregation did by degrees increase and multiply it self into an infinite number of particular Churches in Vnion with it self from one end of the World to the other And this in short is the Progress of Christ's Kingdom which from Adam to Abraham consisted of all such as were true Worshippers of God of whatsoever Kindred or Nation from Abraham to Jesus Christ principally of the Iewish Nation and when the greatest part of that Nation had revolted from Christ and renounced their relation to him his Kingdom extended no farther than to the small Remnant of the Jews that adhered to him who made up but one single Congregation which Congregation by the diligence of its Ministers and the blessing of God increased and propagated from it self vast numbers of other Congregations and these were formed into particular Churches which like so many conquered Provinces were still united to that Primitive Kingdom till at last by a continued accession of new Conquests it was spread and enlarged into an universal Empire SECT VIII Of the Nature and Constitution of Christ's Kingdom THE Kingdom of Christ and the Church of Christ are phrases of a promiscuous use in holy Scripture and do import the same thing Thus Matth. 16.18 19. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same thing And thus to be translated into the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 and called to the Kingdom of Christ 1 Thess. 2.12 imports no more than to be made a member of the Church of Christ. And thus also by the Kingdom Matt. 13.38 by the Kingdom of God Matth. 21.31 by the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 11.12 and by the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 11.15 no other thing can be intended but only the Church of Christ. I confess the Kingdom of Christ taken in the largest sence extends a great deal farther than the
Church of Christ. For under God the Father he is universal Lord and King of the World his Kingly power being upon his Ascension into Heaven extended as was shewn before to the utmost limits of the Vniverse For so he himself tells us by way of Anticipation that God hath given him power over all flesh John 17.2 i. e. over all mankind For his Regal power extends as far as his power of judging which is one of the principal Acts of his Regality and his power of judging is over all mankind for so we are assured that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World by the man Christ Iesus Acts 17.31 and that Christ is ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead Acts 10.42 and not only so but that when he shall sit down upon the throne of his glory all Nations shall be gathered before him Matth. 25.31 32. Since therefore by the right of his Royalty he shall judge all Nations it necessarily follows that all Nations are under his Empire and Dominion and accordingly the Apostle tells us that God hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. So that the Kingdom of Christ in a large sence extends to all Nations in the World even to the Heathens and Infidels that never heard of his name and upon this account he is stiled The blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6.15 and so also Rev. 17 14. But the Church is more peculiarly his Kingdom as consisting of that part of the World which owns and acknowledges his authority makes a visible profession of fealty to him and submission to his Laws and Regulations As for the other parts of the World they are all of right his Subjects by vertue of that Vniversal Regal Authority wherewith the most High God and Father of all things hath invested him but de facto they are Slaves to the Prince of darkness all whose Dominions in this World are nothing but usurpations on the Kingdom of Christ. But the Church is that part of the World that hath thrown off the yoke of this Vsurper and by a solemn Profession surrendered up it self to the Authority of Christ its rightful Lord and Sovereign and hence the Members of the Church are said to be translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Col. 1.13 The Church therefore being more peculiarly Christ's Kingdom as being that part of the World which is actually subjected to him and under his Government I shall with as much brevity as the Argument will admit inquire into the nature and constitution of it In general therefore the Church or Kingdom of Christ may be thus defined It is the one universal society of all Christian People incorporated by the new Covenant in Baptism under Iesus Christ its supreme head and distributed under lawful Governours and Pastors into particular Churches holding Communion with each other in all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Worship and Discipline For our better understanding of which definition it will be necessary to explain the several parts of it First Therefore it is the one universal Society of all Christian People Secondly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant Thirdly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism Fourthly Of all Christian People incorporated under Iesus Christ its supreme Head and Governour Fifthly It is a Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches Sixthly It is distributed into particular Churches under lawful Pastors and Governours Seventhly It is distributed into particular Churches holding Communion with each other Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold with each oâ—hâ—r is First In all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Secondly In all the Essentials of Christian Worship Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Discipline First The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society consisting of all Christian People who as was shewn before were at first comprised in one single Congregation at Ierusalem and then this single Congregation was the whole Church or Kingdom of Christ which by the continual accession of new Converts increased and multiplied by degrees till at length it was spread over the whole Earth So that the Christian Society as it is now enlarged is nothing but that Primitive Church diffused and dilated For it was not diffused into separate and independent Societiâ—s but into similar parts and members of the same Society and therefore as a man is one and the same person when he is full grown as he was when he was an Infant but of a span long because his growth consists not in an addition of other persons to him but only of other parts of the same person so the Church of Christ is the same individual Church now since it is grown to this vast Bulk and Proportion that it was in its infant state when it extended no farther than one single Congâ—egation because it grew not into other divided Churches but only into other distinct parts of the same Church and therefore since its growth consisted only in new accessions of similar parts to the same body it must be as much one Body or Society now as it was at first when it was but one single Congregation For this Congregation was the root out of which the Catholick Church sprang or as our Saviour phrases it the grain of mustard-seed which though a very small seed shot up into a mighty tree in whose far-spread branches the Birds of the Air came and lodged and therefore as the stock and branches grow up from the root in a continued Vnion with it and all together make but one Tree so all the Christian People in the World sprang out of this single Congregation and as they sprang were still incorporated and united to it so as that all together they make but one Church And this is that which in our Creeds is called the holy Catholick or universal Church For so the Apostle tells us that there is but one body or Church as well as one Spirit one Lord one Faith and one Baptism Eph. 4.5 6. and our Saviour tells us Other sheep have I meaning the Gentiles which are not of this fold meaning the Iewish Church and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd John 10.16 For so the Gentiles added to the Christian Iewish Church are said of twain to make one new man Eph. 2.13 and both together are compared to a building fitly framed together growing into an holy Temple in the Lord Ibid. ver 21. And indeed since all
are all equally obliged not to Communicate with any Church upon sinful terms of Communion and that Church which excludes all parts of the Catholick Church from its Communion must in so doing separate it self from the Communion of the Catholick Church And so on the other hand that Church which refuses the Communion of any other Church upon lawful and Catholick terms doth thereby separate it self from Communion of all parts of the Church Catholick because it separates from a part that is in Communion with all the parts of it for that Church which may be lawfully Communicated with is in Communion with all other Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and therefore that Church which separates from its Communion cannot be in the number of those Churches that are in Communion with the Catholick Church and how then can this separating Church be in the Communion of the Catholick Church when it is out of the Communion of any one of those Churches of which the Catholick Church consists All those particular Churches therefore into which the Catholick Church is distributed must be in Communion with each other otherwise they are so far from being distributions of the Catholick Church that they are only so many Schisms and divisions from it For if every Christian is obliged by his Baptism to Communicate with the Catholick Church and if he can no otherwise Communicate with it than by Communicating with some particular Church which is in Communion with the Church Catholick and lastly if no particular Church can be in Communion with the Church Catholick which is not in Communion with all the Churches of which the Church Catholick consists then it is absolutely necessary that all those Churches into which the Church Catholick is distributed should maintain a Catholick Communion with one another Eighthly and lastly The Communion which these particular Churches into which the Catholick Society of Christians is distributed hold with each other is threefold 1. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith 2. In all the Essentials of Christiâ—n Worship 3. In all the Essâ—ntials of Christian Discipline I. In all the Essentials of Christian Faith By the Essentials of Christian Faith I mean those Doctrines the belief of which is necessary to the very being of Christianity for as in all Arts and Sciences there are some first Principles upon which the whole Scheme of their Doctrines depends and the denial of which like the removing the foundations of a building dissolves and ruines the whole structure so in Christianity there are some Principles so fundamental to it as that the removal of them shakes the whole Scheme of it in pieces Now the great Fundamental as the Apostle tells us is Jesus Christ for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 3.11 so that by removing the belief of Iesus Christ from the Christian Religion we necessarily sink and dissolve the whole structure and accordingly the Apostle pronounces those men Apostates from Christianity who hold not the head which is Jesus Christ Col. 2.19 but yet the bare belief of Iesus Christ or of this Proposition that Christ came from God and was his Messias and Anointed is not all that is essential to the Christian Faith which includes not only his Mission from God but also the end of his Mission viz. to be a Mediator between God and Man. For Christianity as it is distinguished from Natural Religion is nothing but the Religion of the Mediator as consisting wholly of the Doctrine of the Mediator together with the duties thence arising so that whatsoever Proposition the Mediatorship of Christ necessarily and immediately implies it is a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith which no man can deny without innovating the whole Religion and turning it into a quite different Doctrine from true and real Christianity For this Proposition that Christ came from God to Mediate between God and Man includes the whole Doctrine of the Gospel and therefore whatsoever Proposition is either so necessarily included in it or so inseparably conjoyned with it as that the denial of it doth by necessary and immediate consequence overthrow the Mediation of our Saviour it must be essential to the Christian Faith and the more necessary Connection there is between any particular Doctrine and this all-comprehending Doctrine of the Mediation the more necessary and essential it is to the Christian Faith. Now whosoever believes not or at least denies any Essential part of the Christian Faith is not a Christian and that not only because he wants a part of that Faith which denominates men Christians but also because by disbelieving that part he doth by necessary consequence overthrow the whole of Christianity for so Tertul. de Praescr c. 37. expresly asserts Si Haeretici sunt Christiani esse non possunt i. e. they who are Hereticks cannot be Christians and hence it is that Hereticks who are such as obstinately deny any fundamental Article of Christianity are in Scripture ranked in the same Câ—ass with Heathens and Infidels for all true Christians are required to shun and avoid them as unclean persons the very touch of whose conversation was enough to defile them Rom. 16.17 and the Governours of the Church are required to anathematize or exclude them from all Christian Communion Gal. 1.8 to reject them Tit. 3.10 and withdraw themselves from them 1 Tim. 6.5 that is to treat them as Heathens and Infidels who have no right or title to Christian Communion and if Heretical persons are to be thus treated then much more are Heretical Churches and if every single Heretick be condemned of himself as the Apostle affirms Tit. 3.11 i. e. excommunicated by his own Sentence or Doctrine whereby he voluntarily departs from the Church and so cuts off himself from its Communion then certainly so is every Heretical Community and therefore as such must be utterly unqualified for Christian Communion And if Heresie excommunicates not only Heretical Persons but Heretical Societies then a common Agreement in all the Essentials of Christian Faith which is the opposite of Heresie is necessarily included in Catholick Communion and accordingly the Scripture frequently presses all Christian People to this common agreement as to a most essential part of their Communion with each other For so they are required to mind or think one and the same thing Phil. 2.2 to stand fast in one spirit with one mind 2 Cor. 13.11 to walk by the same rule and think the same thing Phil. 1.27 to be joyned together in the same mind and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1.10 To hold fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1.13 to strive together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 and to keep that which is committed to us 1 Tim. 6.20 which is that one form of Doctrine which was delivered to us Rom· 6.17 The meaning of all which is not to oblige us to be of one mind and judgment in all points
of Religion for that is no more in our power than it is to be all of one stature or complexion but that we should all unanimously consent in all those fundamental Articles of which that one Faith consists which is the common Creed of Christians So that it is not the differing of one Church from another in Doctrines that are either remote from or near the foundations of Christianity that dissolves their Communion in the Christian Faith but so long as the essential Doctrines of the Gospel are secured on both sides no corrupt Doctrines on either side can warrant a breach of Communion between them It is true if the erring Church imposes the belief of its errors as a Condition of its Communion no Church or Christian that believes them to be errors can lawfully Communicate with it be those errors never so small or inconsiderable not that in themselves they are a sufficient cause of separation but because they who do not believe them cannot profess they do without telling a lie which is a condition that is simply unlawful And so also when the errors are such as do corrupt the vital and essential parts of her Worship so that there is no communicating with her in her Worship without communicating in her corruptions all Churches and Christians are obliged to abstain from its Communion not because of the errors simply considered in themselves but because they profane and desecrate her Worship with those sinful intermixtures they infuse into it so that we cannot joyn with her in her Worship without joyning with her in her sin so that there is no error can separate any Church or Christian from the Catholick Communion of Faith but only Heresie which is a perverse renunciation of some essential part or fundamental Article of that Faith. Secondly The Communion which the particular Churches of which the Catholick Church consists hold with each other is in all the Essentials also of Christian Worship By the Essentials of Christian Worship I mean the Invocation of the one Eternal God through the one Mediator Jesus Christ and the participation of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Hence the Apostle tells us that as there is but one common Faith wherein all true Christians communicate with each other so there is but one Lord Eph. 4.4 and but one God for us to address to and one Mediator between God and man for us to address by 1 Tim. 2.5 and therefore to address to this one God by this one Mediator is an essential part of Christian Worship And the same Apostle tells us that there is but one Baptism Eph. 4.4 and but one bread of which we are all partakers 1 Cor. 10 17. and therefore to participate of these Sacraments must also be essential to Christian Worship so that all those particular Churches that admit each others Members upon lawful terms to communicate with them in worshipping this one God through this one Mediator and in this one Baptism and one Eucharistical Bread and Cup are so far in Communion with the Church Catholick For in these acts of Christian Worship consists the principal part of Christian Communion and therefore that Church which refuses either to admit other Churches to communicate with her in these acts of Worship or to communicate with them in them upon lawful terms doth so far separate it self from the Christian Communion I say upon lawful terms because if it either require unlawful or refuse lawful ones it utterly excludes all other Churches from its Communion If on the one hand it hath sophisticated its Worship with any unlawful intermixtures so that there is no participating with her in the one without partaking with her in the other If we cannot pray with her to the one God by the one Mediator without praying to Creatures too or praying by other Mediators also If we cannot partake with her in her Baptism without partaking with her in some sinful and impure Rites of Baptism In a word if we cannot be admitted to receive the Lord's Supper with her without receiving it by halves or being obliged to pay divine homage to its Elements in this case I say all Christians and Christian Churches are utterly excluded by her from communicating with her in the Essentials of Christian Worship And so on the other hand if a Church forbid its Members to Communicate upon occasion with any other Church in these acts of Christian Worship upon lawful terms in so doing it divides it self from the Communion of the Church Catholick and though that Church it refuses to communicate with should through the neglect of its Discipline have a great many bad men as well as good in it though it should require the observation of a great many indifferent Rites Customs and Ceremonies yea and of contrary Rites and Customs to its own yet so long as the Essentials of its Worship are kept pure and entire and are not so blended with unlawful intermixtures but that we may safely partake of them without being at all obliged to partake of any sin in this case I say to refuse to Communicate with it is to separate from the Communion of the Catholick Church For for the same reason that any Church refuses to Communicate with this Church it must refuse to Communicate with all other Churches in the World because we cannot to this day nor ever could Communicate with any Church in the World in which there was not some defect of Discipline some intermixture of bad men with good and some indifferent Modes and Ceremonies of Worship Thirdly and lastly Another thing wherein those particular Churches into which the Catholick Church is distributed do communicate with each other is in the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline for though the particular Modes and Circumstances of Christian Government and Discipline are not determined by divine Institution but left for the most part free to the prudent ordering and disposal of the Governours of particular Churches yet there is a standing form of Government and Discipline in the Church instituted by our Saviour himself which as I shall shew hereafter is this that there should be an Episcopacy or Order of men authorized in a continued Succession from the Apostles who were Authorized by himself to oversee and govern all those particular Churches into which the Church Catholick should be hereafter distributed to Ordain inferiour Ministers to teach and instruct and administer the holy Offices to particular Congregations and having Ordained them to guide and direct them in the discharge of their Functions to prescribe the particular Rules of outward Order and Decency to the People of the respective Churches committed to their Charge to confirm the weak and admonish the disorderly and correct the obstinate by excluding them from the Communion of the Church of Christ. These things therefore being all of divine Institution are the Essentials of Christian Government and Discipline in which all Christian Churches are obliged to Communicate
bestows upon us he bestows by the hand of Jesus Christ whom upon his first Oblation of his precious Sacrifice in heaven and continual intercession with it he constituted and continues the Royal distributer of all his graces and favours to the World. And therefore since there is no doubt but that that which he obtains by his intercession is the thing which he intercedes for it necessarily follows that the thing which he intercedes for is power to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant because he hath actually obtained that power by his Intercession Having thus given as plain and as brief an account as I could of this second Priestly Act of our Saviour viz. his Intercession for us in Heaven by the continual Oblation of his Sacrifice there I proceed in the second place to shew the admirable tendency of this method of God's communicating his Graces and Favours to us through the intercession of our Saviour to reduce and reform Mankind which will plainly appear by considering the following particulars First This method naturally tends to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of God's Majesty Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins Thirdly It also tends most effectually to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins Fourthly It tends to encourage us to draw near to God with Chearfulness and freedom Fifthly It tends to give us the most ample assurance of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and return to our duty I. This method of God's communicating his Favours to us through our Saviour's intercession is naturally apt to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of the divine Majesty For in this degenerate condition wherein our Nature is inverted and turned upside down and our sensitive faculties have got the ascendant of our Reason rational Objects have incomparably less force on and prevalence with us than material and sensitive And hence it is that we are so unapt to be affected with the Majesty of God though in it self infinite and incomprehensible because it being purely spiritual is objected only to our Faith and Reason and doth not strike upon our sense with the Rays of a visible glory And hence it was that under the Old Testament God so frequently exhibited himself to mens eyes in sensible appearances as particularly sometimes in a humane shape and sometimes in a body of light or of shining flame that so by making an impression of his great Majesty on their sense he might affect them with a sutable aw and dread of it And for the same reason that he conversed with them in these sensible appearances he also treated with them by a Mediator on Mount Sinai for God commanded that bounds should be set round about the Mountain which the People were forbid upon peril of death to break through unto the Lord to gaze and only Moses their Mediator together with his Brother Aaron were permitted to ascend the Mount and to have immediate access to him and by thus keeping them at a distence from his sacred presence and only suffering them to approach him by their Mediator he took an effectual course to inspire their minds with a reverential aw of his divine Majesty which is in it self so infinitely sacred and August that it seems it would have been an high Prophanation in them to have conversed with it immediately And accordingly God by keeping us at a distance from him and allowing us to have access to him only by our Mediator expresses the greatness of his Majesty which is too sacred to be mingled in conversation with us too sublime to admit of the immediate addresses of poor Mortals yea and which no Mortal must approach without the Mediation of his own Eternal Son for thus Plato in his Sympos gives it as an instance of the Majesty of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God doth not mingle himself with men but all the converse and intercourse between him and us is transacted by the Mediation of Demons And if it were thought so great an instance of God's Majesty that he would not be approached by us without the Mediation of Angels to what an infinite height must he be exalted above us when no less a person than he who is God-man can so much as give us access to him or present our Prayers and Supplications at his feet O! what an awful sense therefore of the Majesty of God should this consideration beget in our minds For how can we think of him without dread and reverence when we consider how he is secluded by the infinite sacredness of his own Majesty from all immediate converse and intercourse with us and how he is exalted so infinitely above us as that we cannot have access to him so much as by our Prayers and Supplications without the interposition of a Mediator who is greater than the greatest of all the Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven Surely he who can thus think of God without being struck into a profound aw and reverence of his Majesty must have a mind so hardened against all the impressions of Reason as that no wise thought can ever move or affect it II. This method of God's communicating his favours to us through our Saviour's Intercession tends also to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins For doubtless to convince us how deeply he resents our sinful behaviour towards him the most effectual course he could take next to that of banishing us from his presence for ever was to exclude us from all immediate intercourse with him and not to admit of any more addresses or supplications from us but by the hand of some Mediator Hereby he plainly demonstrates how infinitely pure and abhorrent to sin his nature is that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him but by Proxy nor accept of a service from a guilty hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful mouth till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator If therefore we are not infinitely conceited of our selves this procedure of his cannot but lay us low in our own eyes and make us deeply sensible of our own vileness and baseness For how infinitely detestable must our sins be in his eyes when notwithstanding all his kindness and benevolence towards us he keeps us at such a distance from him and will not be prevailed with without some powerful intercession so much as to hear our Prayers or to have any kind of communication or intercourse with us And accordingly you find that when the three Friends of Iob had treated him so despitefully and uncharitably God to manifest his displeasure against them commands them to make use of Iob's Mediation Iob 42.7 My wrath saith he to Elephas is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that
by an Angel requiring him to send to Ioppa for St. Peter to instruct him in the Christian Religion in Acts 10.3 4 5. But since that Christ hath revealed his whole Will to his Church and transmitted it down by a standing Scripture this Ministration of the holy Angels is in a great measure ceased and to this written Word of his we are intirely referred as to the perpetual Rule of our Faith and Manners insomuch that if thenceforth even an Angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel to us than what we have there received he is pronounced accursed Gal. 1.8 Not but that sometimes and upon great Emergencies they may be still sent from heaven with new Messages to us to discover some useful secret or to inspire our minds with the notices of some future contingencies that are of great moment to us though this very rarely it being no part of their ordinary Ministry But since the Revelation of the Gospel was compleated to be sure they never reveal any new Doctrine to us they may be assisting Geniuses to our understandings to excite in them a true apprehension of what is already revealed by impressing our imaginations with clear and distinct Idea's and Representations of things that are revealed more obscurely But to suppose that they still reveal new Doctrinal truths to us is not only to deny the perfection of written Revelation but to open a wide door to all manner of Enthusiasm II. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their guarding and defending his Subjects against outward dangers for thus the Angels are said to encamp round about those that fear God to deliver them Psal. 34.7 And though I see not sufficient reason to be fully persuaded that every faithful Subject of the Kingdom of Christ hath an appropriate Guardian Angel appointed to him yet from that Caution of our Saviour Matt. 18.10 it is evident that he imploys his Angels to attend as an invisible Lifeguard upon the persons of all good Christians for saith he Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones for I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven i. e. those blessed spirits which are appointed by God to be their Guardians upon Earth have yet their continual returns and recourse to God's glorious Presence in Heaven and having always access to him to offer up requests or complaints in their behalf it must needs be a very dangerous thing for any to presume to despise or offend them lest he thereby provoke those mighty spirits to sue out and execute some Commission of vengeance upon him From whence it is evident that the blessed Angels are greatly concerned in the vindication and protection of the faithful and that that promise Psal. 91.10 11 12. is still in force viz. There shall no evil befal thee for he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways they shall bear thee up in their hands left thou dash thy foot against a stone And this they do sometimes by removing such evil accidents from us as in the course of necessary causes must have befaln us for there is no doubt but these powerful Spirits have a mighty influence upon necessary causes at least upon a great many of them and can retard or precipitate or vary or divert their motions as they see occasion and thereby prevent a great many accidents which must otherwise have befaln had they permitted them to proceed in their natural courses Other times again they divert the mischievous intentions of our Enemies by injecting sudden fears into them and brandishing horrid Phantâ—sms before their imaginations as the Angel did the flaming Sword before Balaam when they are just upon executing their Malice Sometimes again they warn us of dangers approaching either by some external sign or unaccountable impression on our fancies by which we are vehemently solicited without any visible Cause or Reason either to proceed very cautiously in the ways where our danger lies or to stop and forbear a while or steer some other course Of all which there are innumerable instances to be found in History III. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their supporting and comforting his faithful Subjects upon difficult undertakings and under great and pressing Calamities for thus not only our Saviour himself was comforted in his last Agony by an Angel from Heaven Luk. 22.43 but St. Paul also tells us that being in imminent danger of being shipwreck'd in a storm in his voyage to Rome there stood by him in the night an Angel of God whose he was and whom he served saying fear not Paul thou must be brought before Caesar and lo God hath given thee all them that sail with thee Acts 27.23 24. So also when the Apostles by an Order from the High Priest were cast into the common Prison the Text tells us That an Angel of the Lord by night opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and said go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this life Acts 5.19 20. So also in the ancient Martyrologies of the Church we meet with sundry relations of the appearances of Angels to the suffering Martyrs and of the wonderful Comforts they administred to them to support their Faith and Patience under their Agonies and Torments And although since the Cessation of Miracles they do not Ordinarily perform this Ministry to us in visible appearances yet there is no doubt but as they are Spirits they have spiritual and invisible ways of conversing with our Spirits and of administring Comforts to us in our needs and extremities for though they can have no immediate access to our mind which is a dark Mysterious Chamber into which no other Eye can penetrate but his who is the searcher of all hearts yet that they can vehemently impress our Fancies with joyous Representations and thereby exhilarate our drooping spirits to that degree as to transport us into Raptures of bodily passion is not to be doubted there being so many sensible experiments of it in the ancient Prophets whose imaginations were sometimes so vehemently impressed with frightful Idea's by the Angels which conversed with them as that they immediately fell into an Agony and were seized with unaccountable horrors and tremblings and not only the Prophets themselves that saw the Angel were thus affected but sometimes their Companions too that saw him not of which you have an instance in Dan. 10.7 where Daniel tells us that he alone saw the vision of the Angel and that the men that were with him saw not the Vision but a great quaking fell upon them so that they fled to hide themselves which is a plain evidence of the great power which the Angels have over our bodily passions even when they are invisible to us so as to strike what note soever they please upon