comfortable message unto the sonnes of men f Goe to my brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father and to my God and your God For as long as g hee is not ashamed to call us brethren h GOD is not ashamed to be called our GOD And his entring of our apparance in his own name and ours after this manner i Behold I and the children which God hath given mee is a motive strong enough to appease his Father and to turne his favourable countenance towards us as on the other side when we become unruly and prove Rebellious children no reproofe can be more forcible nor inducement so prevalent if there remaine any sparke of grace in in us to make us cast downe our weapons and yeeld than this k Doe ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee and bought thee l not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious bloud of his owne Son How dangerous a matter it is to be at ods with God old Ely sheweth by this maine argument m If one man sinne against another the Judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall plead or intreat for him and Job before him n He is not a man as I am that I should answer him and we should come together in judgement neither is there any Dayes-man or Vmpire betwixt us that might lay his hand upon us both If this generall should admit no manner of exception then were we in a wofull case and had cause to weep much more than Saint Iohn did in the Revelation when o none was found in heaven nor in earth nor under the earth that was able to open the booke which he saw in the right hand of him that sate upon the Throne neither to look thereon But as S. Iohn was wished there to refraine his weeping because p the Lion of the tribe of Iuda the root of David had prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seales thereof so he himself else where giveth the like comfort unto all of us in this particular q If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is a propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world For as r there is one God so is there one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Iesus who gave himselfe a ransom for all and in discharge of this his office of Mediation as the only fit Umpire to take up this controversie was to lay his hand as well upon GOD the party so highly offended as upon Man the party so basely offending In things concerning God the Priesthood of our Mediatour is exercised s For every high Priest is taken from among men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God The parts of his Priestly Function are two Satisfaction and Intercession the former whereof giveth contentment to Gods Justice the latter solliciteth his Mercy for the application of this benefit to the children of God in particular Whereby it commeth to passe that God in t shewing mercy upon whom he will shew mercy is yet for his justice no looser being both u just and the justifier of him that beleeveth in Iesus By vertue of his Intercession our Mediatour x appeareth in the presence of God for us and y maketh request for us To this purpose the Apostle noteth in the fourth to the Hebrewes 1. That we have a great high Priest that is passed into the heavens Iesus the Sonne of God vers. 14. 2. that we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all things tempted as wee are yet without sinne vers. 15. Betwixt the having of such and the not having of such an Intercessor betwixt the height of him in regard of the one and the lowlinesse in regard of his other nature standeth the comfort of the poore sinner He must be such a suitour as taketh our cause to heart and therefore z in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a mercifull and faithfull high Priest In which respect as it was needfull hee should partake with our flesh and bloud that he might be tenderly affected unto his brethren so likewise for the obtaining of so great a suit it behoved he should be most deare to God the Father and have so great an interest in him as he might alwayes be sure to be a heard in his requests who therefore could be no other but he of whom the Father testified from heaven b This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased It was fit our intercessor should be man like unto our selves that we might c boldly come to him and finde grace to help in time of need it was fit he should be God that he might boldly goe to the Father without any way disparaging him as being his d fellow and e equall But such was Gods love to justice and hatred to sinne that he would not have his justice swallowed up with mercy nor sinne pardoned without the making of fit reparation And therefore our Mediatour must not looke to procure for us a simple pardon without more adoe but must be a f propitiation for our sinnes and redeem us by fine and g ransome and so not only be the master of our requests to intreat the Lord for us but also take upon him the part of an h Advocate to plead full satisfaction made by himselfe as our i suretie unto all the debt wherewith we any way stood chargeable Now the Satisfaction which our surety bound himselfe to performe in our behalfe was of a double debt the principall and the accessory The principall debt is obedience to Gods most holy Law which man was bound to pay as a perpetuall tribute to his Creator although he had never sinned but being now by his owne default become bankrupt is not able to discharge in the least measure His surety therefore being to satisfie in his stead none will be found fit to undertake such a payment but he who is both God and Man Man it is fit he should be because Man was the party that by the Articles of the first Covenant was tied to this obedience and it was requisite that k As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one Man likewise many should be made righteous Againe if our Mediatour were only God he could have performed no obedience the Godhead being free from all manner of subjection and if he were a bare Man although he had beene as perfect as Adam in his integrity or the Angels themselves yet being left unto himselfe amidst all the temptations of Satan
this wicked world he should be subject to fall as they were or if he should hold out as l the elect Angels did that must have been ascribed to the grace and favour of another whereas the giving of strict satisfaction to Gods justice was the thing required in this behalfe But now being God as well as Man he by his owne m eternall Spirit preserved himselfe without spot presenting a farre more satisfactory obedience unto God than could have possibly been performed by Adam in his integrity For beside the infinite difference that was betwixt both their Persons which maketh the actions of the one beyond all comparison to exceed the worth and value of the other we know that Adam was not able to make himselfe holy but what holinesse he had he received from him who created him according to his owne Image so that whatsoever obedience Adam had performed God should have n eaten but of the fruit of the Vineyard which himselfe had planted and o of his owne would all that have been which could be given unto him But Christ did himselfe sanctifie that humane nature which he assumed according to his owne saying John 17. 19. For their sakes I sanctifie my selfe and so out of his owne peculiar store did he bring forth those precious treasures of holy obedience which for the satisfaction of our debt he was pleased to tender unto his Father Again if Adam had p done all things which were commanded him he must for all that have said I am an unprofitable servant I have done that which was my duty to doe Whereas in the voluntary obedience which Christ subjected himselfe unto the case stood farre otherwise True it is that if we respect him in his humane nature q his Father is greater than he and he is his Fathers r servant yet in that he said and most truly said that God was his Father s the Jewes did rightly inferre from thence that he thereby made himselfe equall with God and t the Lord of hosts himselfe hath proclaimed him to be the man that is his fellow Being such a man therefore and so highly borne by the priviledge of his birth-right he might have claimed an exemption from the ordinary service whereunto all other men are tied and by being u the Kings Sonne have freed himselfe from the payment of that tribute which was to be exacted at the hands of Strangers When x the Father brought this his first-begotten into the world he said Let all the Angells of God worship him and at the very instant wherein the Sonne advanced our nature into the highest pitch of dignity by admitting it into the unity of his sacred person that nature so assumed was worthy to be crowned with all glory and honour and he in that nature might then have set himselfe downe y at the right hand of the throne of God tyed to no other subjection than now he is or hereafter shall be when after the end of this world he shall have delivered up the kingdome to God the Father For then also in regard of his assumed nature he z shall be subject unto him that put all other things under him Thus the Sonne of God if he had minded only his owne things might at the very first have attained unto the joy that was set before him but a looking on the things of others he chose rather to come by a tedious way and wearisome journey unto it not challenging the priviledge of a Sonne but taking upon him the forme of a meane servant Whereupon in the dayes of his flesh he did not serve as an honourable Commander in the Lords host but as an ordinary souldier he made himselfe of no reputation for the time as it were * emptying himselfe of his high state and dignity he humbled himselfe and became obedient untill his death being content all his life long to be b made under the Law yea so farre that as he was sent c in the likenesse of sinfull flesh so he disdained not to subject himselfe unto that Law which properly did concerne sinfull flesh And therefore howsoever Circumcision was by right appliable only unto such as were d dead in their sinnes and the uncircumcision of their flesh yet he in whom there was no body of the sinnes of the flesh to be put off submitted himselfe notwithstanding thereunto not only to testifie his communion with the Fathers of the old Testament but also by this meanes to tender unto his Father a bond signed with his owne bloud whereby he made himselfe in our behalfe a debtour unto the whole Law For I testifie saith e the Apostle to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtour to the whole Law In like manner Baptisme appertained properly unto such as were defiled and had need to have their f sinnes washed away and therefore when all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem went out unto John they g were all baptized of him in the river Jordan confessing their sinnes Among the rest came our Saviour also but the Baptist considering that he had need to be baptized by Christ and Christ no need at all to be baptized by him refused to give way unto that action as altogether unbefitting the state of that immaculat Lamb of God who was to take away the sinne of the World Yet did our Mediatour submit himselfe to that ordinance of God also not only to testifie his communion with the Christians of the new Testament but especially which is the reason yeelded by himselfe because h it became him thus to fulfill all righteousnesse And so having fulfilled all righteousnesse whereunto the meanest man was tied in the dayes of his pilgrimage which was more than he needed to have undergone if he had respected only himselfe the workes which he performed were truly works of supererogation which might be put upon the account of them whose debt he undertook to discharge and being performed by the person of the Sonne of God must in that respect not only be equivalent but infinitely overvalue the obedience of Adam and all his posterity although they had remained in their integrity continued untill this houre instantly serving God day night And thus for our maine and principall debt of Obedience hath our Mediator given satisfaction unto the Iustice of his Father with i good measure pressed down shaken together running over But beside this we were liable unto another debt which we have incurred by our default and drawn upon our selves by way of forfeiture and nomine poenae For as k Obedience is a due debt and Gods servants in regard thereof are truly debters so likewise is sinne a l debt and sinners m debters in regard of the penalty due for the default And as the payment of the debt which commeth nomine poenae dischargeth not the tenant afterwards from paying
he is Paul and who is Apollo but ministers by whom you beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man I have planted Apollo watered but God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth anything neither he that watereth but God that giveth the increase Two things therefore we finde in our great Prophet which do far exceed the ability of any bare Man and so do difference him from all the h holy Prophets which have beene since the world began For first we are taught that i no man knoweth the Father save the Son and hee to whomsoever the Son will reveale him and that k no man hath seen God at anytime but the only begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him Being in his bosome he is become conscious of his secrets and so out of his own immediate knowledge enabled to discover the whole will of his Father unto us whereas all other Prophets and Apostles receive their revelations at the second hand and according to the grace given unto them by the Spirit of Christ Witnesse that place of S. Peter for the Prophets l Of which salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you searching what or what manner of time THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST WHICH WAS IN THEM did signifie when it testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow and for the Apostles those heavenly words which our Saviour himselfe uttered unto them whilst he was among them m When the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth for he shall not speak of himselfe but whatsoever he shall heare that shall he speake and he will shew you things to come He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine shew it unto you All things that the Father hath are mine therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall shew it unto you Secondly all other Prophets and Apostles can do more as hath been said but plant and water only God can give the increase they may teach indeed and baptize but unlesse Christ were with them by the powerfull presence of his Spirit they would not be able to save one soule by that ministery of theirs We n as lively stones are built up a spirituall house but o except the Lord doe build this house they labour in vaine that build it For who is able to breath the spirit of life into those dead stones but he of whom it is written p The hour is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Son of God and they that hear it shall live and again q Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Who can awake us out of this dead sleep and give light unto these blinde eyes of ours but the Lord our God unto whom we pray that he would r lighten our eyes least we sleep the sleep of death And as a blinde man is not able to conceive the distinction of colours although the skilfullest man alive should use all the art he had to teach him because he wanteth the sense whereby that object is discernable so s the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned VVhereupon the Apostle concludeth concerning himselfe and all his fellow-labourers that t God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us Our Mediatour therefore who must u be able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him may not want the excellency of the power whereby he may make us capable of this high knowledge of the things of God propounded unto us by the ministery of his servants and consequently in this respect also must be God as well as Man There remaineth the Kingdome of our Redeemer described thus by the Prophet Esay x Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdome to order it and to establish it with judgement and with justice from henceforth even for ever and by Daniel y Behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the Ancient of daies and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdome that all people nations languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not passe away and his kingdome that which shall not be destroyed and by the angel Gabriel in his ambassage to the blessed Virgin z Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Iesus He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David And he shall reigne over the house of Iacob for ever and of his kingdome there shall be no end This is that new a David our King whom God hath raised up unto his b owne Israel who was in truth that which he was called the Son of Man and the Sonne of the Highest that in the one respect c we may say unto him as the Israelites of old did unto their David d Behold we are thy bone and thy flesh and in the other sing of him as David himself did e The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstoole So that the promise made unto our first parents that f the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpents head may well stand with that other saying of S. Paul that g the God of peace shal bruise Satan under our feet seeing h for this very purpose the Son of God was manifested i in the flesh that he might destroy the works of the Divel and still that foundation of God will remaine unshaken k I even I am the Lord and beside mee there is no Saviour l Thou shalt know no God but me for there is no Saviour beside me Two speciall branches there bee of this Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour the one of Grace whereby that part of the Church is governed which is militant upon earth the other of Glory belonging to that part which is triumphant in Heaven Here upon earth as by his Propheticall office he worketh upon our Mind and Understanding so by his Kingly he ruleth our Will and Affections m casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it selfe against the
the dead presenting himselfe in Heaven before him unto whom the debt was owing and maintaining his standing there hath hereby given good proofe that he is now a free-man and hath fully discharged that debt of ours for which he stood committed And this is the evidence we have to shew of that righteousnesse whereby we stand justified in Gods sight according to that of the Apostle y Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Now although an ordinary man may easily part with his life yet doth it not lye in his power to resume it againe at his own will and pleasure But he that must doe the turne for us must be able to say as our IESVS did z I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it downe of my selfe I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it againe and in another place a Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will raise it up saith he unto the Jewes speaking of the Temple of his body An humane nature then he must have had which might be subject to dissolution but being once dissolved he could not by his owne strength which was the thing here necessarily required raise it up againe unlesse he had b declared himselfe to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead The Manhood could suffer but not overcome the sharpnesse of death the Godhead could suffer nothing but overcome any thing He therefore that was both to suffer and to overcome death for us must be partaker of both natures that c being put to death in the flesh he might be able also to quicken himselfe by his owne Spirit And now are wee come to that part of Christs mediation which concerneth the conveiance of d the redemption of this purchased possession unto the sons of men A deare purchase indeed which was to be redeemed with no lesse price then the bloud of the Sonne of God but what should the purchase of a stranger have been to us or what should we have beene the better for all this if we could not derive our descent from the purchaser or raise some good title whereby we might estate our selves in his purchase Now this was the manner in former time in Israell concerning redemptions that unto him who was the next of kinne belonged the right of being e Goël or the Redeemer And Iob had before that left this glorious profession of his faith unto the perpetuall memory of all posterity f I know that my Goël or Redeemer liveth and at the last shall arise upon the dust or stand upon the earth And after this my skinne is spent yet in my flesh shall I see God Whom I shall see for my selfe and mine eyes shall behold and not another for me Whereby we may easily understand that his and our Redeemer was to be the invisible God and yet in his assumed flesh made visible even to the bodily eyes of those whom he redeemed For if he had not thus assumed our flesh how should we have been of his bloud or claimed any kindred to him and unlesse the Godhead had by a personall union beene unseparably conjoyned unto that flesh how could he therein have beene accounted our next of kinne For the better clearing of which last reason we may call to mind that sentence of the Apostle g The first man is of the earth earthy the second man is the Lord from heaven Where notwithstanding there were many millions of men in the world betwixt these two yet we see our Redeemer reckoned the second man and why but because these two were the only men who could be accounted the prime fountains from whence all the rest of mankinde did derive their existence and being For as all men in the world by meane descents do draw their first originall from the first man so in respect of a more immediate influence of efficiencie and operation do they owe their being unto the second man as he is the Lord from heaven This is Gods own language unto Jeremy h Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and this is Davids acknowledgement for his part i Thy hands have made me and fashioned me k thou hast covered me in my mothers wombe l thou art he that took me out of my mothers bowels and Jobs for his also m Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews and the n Apostles for us all In him we live and move and have our being who inferreth also thereupon both that we are the off-spring or generation of God and that he is not farre from every one of us this being to be admitted for a most certaine truth notwithstanding the opposition of all gain-sayers that * God doth more immediately concurre to the generation and all other motions of the creature then any naturall agent doth or can doe And therefore if o by one mans offedce death raigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace of the gift of righteousnes shall raign in life by one Jesus Christ considering that this second man is not only as universall a principle of all our beings as was that first and so may sustaine the common person of us all as well as he but is a far more immediate agent in the production thereof not as the first so many generations removed from us but more near unto us then our very next progenitours and in that regard justly to be accounted our next of kinne even before them also Yet is not this sufficient neither but there is another kinde of generation required for which we must be beholding unto the second man the Lord from heaven before we can have interest in this purchased Redemption For as the guilt of the first mans transgression is derived unto us by the meanes of carnall generation so must the benefit of the second mans obedience be conveyed unto us by spirituall regeneration And this must be layd downe as a most undoubted verity that p except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdome of God and that every such must be q born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now as our Mediatour in respect of the Adoption of Sons which he hath procured for us r is not ashamed to call us Brethren so in respect of this new birth whereby he begetteth us to a spirituall everlasting life he disdaineth not to owne us as his Children s When thou shalt make his
done himselfe alone It may be his burden being thus lightened the abilities that were left him for government were not altogether so great as the necessity of his former employment required them to have beene and in that regard what was given to his assistants might perhaps be said to be taken from him But we are sure the case was otherwise in him of whom now we speake unto whom b God did not thus give the spirit by measure And therefore although so many millions of beleivers do continually receive this c supply of the Spirit of Iesus Christ yet neither is that fountaine any way exhausted nor the plenitude of that well-spring of grace any whit empayred or diminished it being Gods pleasure d that in him should all fullnesse dwell and that e of his fulnesse all we should receive grace for grace that as in the naturall generation there is such a correspondence in all parts betwixt the begetter and the infant begotten that there is no member to be seen in the Father but there is the like answerably to be found in the Child although in a far lesse proportion so it falleth out in this spirituall that for every grace which in a most eminent manner is found in Christ a like grace will appeare in Gods childe although in a far inferiour degree similitudes likenesses being defined by the Logicians to be comparisons made in quality and not in quantity VVe are yet further to take it into our consideration that by thus enliving and fashioning us according to his owne Image Christs purpose was not to raise a seed unto himselfe dispersedly and distractedly but to f gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad yea and to g bring all unto one head by himselfe both them which are in heaven and them which are on the earth that as in the Tabernacle h the vaile divided between the holy place and the most holy but the curtains which covered them both were so coupled together with the taches that it might still i be one Tabernacle so the Church militant and triumphant typified thereby though distant as far the one from the other as Heaven is from Earth yet is made but one Tabernacle in Jesus Christ k in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord and in whom all of us are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit The bond of this mysticall union betwixt Christ and us as l elsewhere hath more fully been declared is on his part that m quickening Spirit which being in him as the Head is from thence diffused to the spirituall animation of all his members and on our part n Faith which is the prime act of life wrought in those who are capable of understanding by that same spirit Both wherof must be acknowledged to be of so high a nature that none could possibly by such ligatures knit up so admirable a body but he that was God Almighty And therefore although we did suppose such a man might be found who should perform the Law for us suffer the death that was due to our offence and overcome it yea and whose obedience and sufferings should be of such valve that it were sufficiett for the redemption of the whole world yet could it not be efficient to make us live by faith unlesse that Man had been able to send Gods spirit to apply the same unto us VVhich as no bare Man or any other Creature whatsoever can doe so for Faith we are taught by S. o Paul that it is the operation of God and a worke of his power even of that same power wherewith Christ himselfe was raised from the dead VVhich is the ground of that prayer of his that the p eyes of our understanding being enlightened we might know what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power to ms-ward who beleeve according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when be raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places farre above all principality and power and might and every Name that is named not only in this world but also in that to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church which is his body the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all Yet was it fit also that the Head should be of the same nature with the Body which is knit unto it and therefore that he should so be God as that he might partake of our Flesh likewise q For we are members of his body saith the same Apostle of his flesh and of his bones And r except ye eat the flesh of the Sonne of man saith our Saviour himselfe and drink his bloud ye have no life in you s He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me I in him declaring thereby first that by this mysticall and supernaturall union we are as truly conjoyned with him as the meat and drink we take is with us when by the ordinary worke of nature it is converted into our owne substance secondly that this conjunction is immediately made with his humane nature thirdly that the t Lamb slaine that is u Christ crucified hath by that death of his made his flesh broken and his bloud poured out for us upon the crosse to be fit food for the spirituall nourishment of our soules and the very well-spring from whence by the power of his God-head all life and grace is derived unto us Upon this ground it is that the Apostle telleth us that we x have boldnesse to enter into the Holiest by the bloud of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vaile that is to say his flesh That as in the Tabernacle there was no passing from the Holy to the most Holy place but by the vaile so now there is no passage to be looked for from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant but by the flesh of him who hath said of himselfe y I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth unto the father but by me Jacob in his dreame beheld z a ladder set upon the earth the top whereof reached to heaven and the Angels of God ascending and descending on it the Lord himself standing above it Of which vision none can give a better interpretation then he who was prefigured therein gave unto Nathanael a Hereafter you shall see heaven opened and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man Whence we may well collect that the only meanes whereby God standing above and his Israel lying here below are conjoyned together and the only ladder whereby Heaven may be scaled by us is the Son of man The type of whose flesh the vaile