Apostle no way refers to the order of time in which things were made but his meaning is that his Humane Nature in that conjunction with the Divine has the preference to all Humane Beings God has given him the right of Primogeniture and the Dominion appurtenant to the First-born and made him Heir of all things as he is said in the 89th Psalm to make David his first-born higher than all the kings of the earth not by any priority of Time nor by vertue of that Dominion he had in Palestine but as he was a Type and Representation of Christ who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords God has made the Man Christ Jesus Lord of the whole Creation and given him the precedence of all things in Heaven and Earth St. Peter tells us he is gone into heaven angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him and this as being his First-born from all Eternity in purpose and as our Saviour stiles himself the Beginning of the creation of God he decreeing from everlasting that all that should be created should be created by him and not only so but for him and be entirely his property as he was the blessed Mediator God and Man in one person In a word he is the First-born amongst the Elect they are all chosen in him the eldest Brother in the Family of God whereunto is annex'd the Dominion and Power over the whole Creation whence he is called the First-born of every Creature What is more briefly expressed by St. John that all was created by him that was created and what is in few words said in this Epistle that by him God made the Worlds is here enlarged by the Apostle into particulars shewing that all Creatures both in Heaven and Earth whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers they were all made by him the Apostle instanceth in the noblest and highest sort of Creatures as comprehensive of all the rest even all the Supream Rulers and Governours amongst Angels and Men all were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist as their Maker he must needs precede them and by whom they were originally created by him they must needs live move and have their being And as he is the Sourse of all Natural Creation so he is the Spring of the New Creature and of all Spiritual Life being called in the 18th Verse the head of his body the church the first-born from the dead he that first rose himself as victorious over the Grave and by whose influence as an effect of that Victory all others shall rise that in both the Creations both Natural and Spiritual in the whole concerns of this World and the next he might have the pre-eminence for it pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell that that blessed Person our Saviour and Mediator should be as full of perfection and as glorious as all the glory of Heaven and Earth created and uncreated could possibly make him The most material difficulty that seems to result from these Illuminations the Holy Ghost has been pleased to give us in Scripture touching these matters is this If the Divinity and the Humanity in that conjunction constitute but one intire person how can so much be properly and distinctly ascribed to Christ as Man all things must needs belong to him as God but the Holy Ghost makes them appurtenant to him as Man the Reasons of which seem most probably to be these First To Honour and Recommend to the World that Humane Nature Christ debased himself to assume that because he in that Nature performed the Work of the Mediator and all the suffering part lay upon that therefore God has highly exalted it above all created things Secondly Because all the additional Glory that accrued unto Christ by vertue of his performance of the Law of his Mediatorship must needs fall upon his Humanity for there could be no addition made nor nothing accrue cumulative to his Divinity nothing could be added to him as God and therefore 't is attributed to him as Man Thirdly The Constitution of Christ as he appeared visibly to the World and wherein he acted all was Man the Prophesies and Promises that preceded him pointed to him as Man the Humanity was the Temple of the Deity in the Humanity he suffered died and rose again and performed all his Mediatory Work 't was all promised and designed to be performed by a Man visibly and Humane more though acted by the second Person in the Deity and therefore all the Glory is attributed in Scripture to his Humane part without which the Work of Redemption could not have been effected so we have it in the 5th of John all Authority is there said by Christ himself to be given to him Because he is the son of man which Expression I take to relate to his Office as Mediator which he could not have performed had he not been Man and so the sense of it is this that because Christ is the true Seed of the Woman that real Son of Man prophesied of by the Prophet Daniel by whom the World is to be redeemed and saved therefore all the Supremacy and Authority appurtenant to that Office by God's ordination belongs to him From what hath been discoursed upon this Argument that the Lord Jesus Christ is he by whom all things were originally created we may arrive at a twofold conclusion and safely establish these two most important Truths First That the Foundation of all God's Designs and his Eternal Councels and Purposes touching Angels and Men and the whole that was made by him was laid in his creation of all by the second Person in the Trinity And Secondly That all the Works of the first Creation were so framed and made that they might lye in a direct subserviency to the new Creation and the manifestation of God's infinite Grace in redeeming and saving the World by the second Person becoming Man and incarnate I shall apply my self chiefly to the former of these Our discovery of this Matter is a parte post no Man was conversant with God's Councels from everlasting all Men are eternally silenced with God's Question and Demand to Job he may say to all as he said to him Where were ye when I laid the foundations of the earth where were the Councels of your Hearts where were your Thoughts and Contrivances then ye were so far from instructing or assisting the Almighty that ye were not in being nor knew any thing what he was about to do what we know therefore is what God is pleased since to reveal to us and from the providential future effects which our eyes behold from both which we are plentifully instructed herein Moses indeed in his Writings is silent about this matter the full Relation of it was reserved for the Days of the Gospel when it came to be known how and by whom the World was to be redeemed then
that is Christ was extant when all things else began and so he was and was in being before them and did not then begin to be he was before time or any thing that was created had a beginning 't is in a short way to express him eternal the expression that he was is evidently taken out of the 8th Chapter of Proverbs from the 23d to the 31st Verse where the Word St. John speaks of is represented as present with God in all the Business that relates to this World and principally and especially in the work of Redemption The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting from the beginning or ever the earth was when there was no depths I was brought forth when there was no fountains abounding with water and in the 30th Verse Then I was with him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him rejoycing in the habitable parts of this Earth and my delights were with the sons of men of which we can conceive no more but that God's Works being known unto him and present with him from all eternity the Word the second Person in the Trinity by whom they were to be made managed and finally disposed was with him in that particular concern and relation from all eternity and God took the same complacency in them as if they had been actually in being the Apostle's words are a plain Syllogism Christ was in the beginning not created but existing before all created beings And was and if you ask where he was he was with God and therefore must needs be God upon these premises that Christ was before all and was with God It may be undeniably concluded he was God for nothing but God could precede all beginning and creation and exist with himself Was the Word The Reasons why the Apostle chuseth to express Christ when he writes of his Divinity by the name of the Word seem to be two and they both result from that other undeniable evidence he gives of his Divinity that he was not only before the World with God but that the World was actually made by him and that without him nothing was made that was made The first reason of his being called the Word is because words are the express Image of Ourselves of our Wisdom Councels and Will and so was Christ the very express Image of God the Deity in that work of creation utter'd and express'd it self in its eternal Wisdom Councels and Will by the second Person as the voice of all the three and so he is called the Word Secondly He is called the Word with particular reference to the History Moses gives us of the manner of Creation the Creatures were all originally framed by God's speaking for says he God said of every thing let it be and it was he said let there be light and it was so The Psalmist speaking of the Creation expresseth it thus He spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Psal 33.9 God spake and the Creation was effected the method of it is so represented and it being performed by the second Person and God speaking solely by him he is thence called the Word And this seems to be all the knowledge we can attain to about this deep and profound Expression and we must know withal that the Expression is metaphorical and suted to our frame and capacity In the first of the Colossians from the 15th Verse to the 19th we find the Apostle's expression very full in this matter who is says he the image of the invisible God and the first-born of every creature for by him were all things created which are in heaven and that are in earth whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers all things were created by him and for him And he is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body the church who is the beginning and first-born from the dead that in or among all things he might have the pre eminence In the 15th Verse the Apostle lays down these two deep and grand fundamenral Truths First That he is the image of the invisible God the same that he affirms in the first of this Epistle to the Hebrews That he is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person And Secondly That he is the first-born of every creature The Apostle's meaning in the first of these in both Texts is principally to assert and prove the Divinity of Christ appearing in the fashion of a Man and to give us to understand that the second Person in the Deity united unto the Humanity though he be so distinct from the Father as that the Father and he bear a distinct and twofold Record yet he is essentially God and has all the Qualifications of the Deity appurtenant unto him he is the brightness of his Father's glory Now his glory is the radiation of his excellency and Christ being the brightness of his glory is the perfection of his glory and so an essential part of his being and in that conjunction of God and Man wherein he is visible he is the very Image of the invisible God and represents the inaccessible and invisible Deity unto us the great thing the Wisdom and Philosophy both of Jews and Gentiles stumbled at and renders it the object of our knowledge our delight our communion and unutterable satisfaction the Humane and Divine Nature being united in one person and making and constituting but one Person he that sees what is visible and can be seen in that Person is said and truly so to see that Person as he that sees a Man is truly said to see the whole Man though he do not actually see the Soul of that Man nor distinctly and particularly the Understanding Will and Affections of which that Man is constituted but by their effects in corporeal Operations the Deity was as visible in the Humane Person of Christ as the Soul is in the Fabrick of any Man we converse with and in this sense our Saviour himself says he that seen him hath seen the Father by the Effects and his Mighty Operations he that sees that Person where the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily has seen God himself that is has seen that express visible Image of his Person set forth for us to converse with him by and through which the Godhead acts and shews it self by its omnipotent effects according to that of St. John No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten son in the bosom of the father he declares him that is the Humane Nature of Christ united to the Deity is that Image whereby God is pleas'd to reveal and manifest himself to us and all that is acted in by and through that Image is the Actings of God Secondly The Apostle says he is the first-born of every creature by which the
every Man comes naturally to speak and understand this heavenly Language when he is born of the Spirit and brought up in the Nurture and Instruction of the Holy Ghost The prophane part of the World are ever deriding this and making it a constant part of their diversion Now what a profound solid part of Discretion do such Men act who have in contempt the Result and Effects of Infinite Wisdom The Papists have a Saying That never any Dog barked at a Crucifix but he run mad The Moral of that Fable is very good and may serve to instruct a prophane Protestant God himself gives a very solemn and withal dreadful Caution and Premonition to all prophane Scoffers by the Prophet Esaias Be not Mockers saith he lest your Bands be made strong that is lest I chuse your Delusion and give you irrecoverably up to your own prophane sence which will be found at last to be the worst sort of Madness I will not believe any will be so unnecessary critical and nice as to blame the Title of this small Tract in regard the Catholick Church under the Gospel is so very often in Scripture denominated by Mount Sion called the Mountain of the Lord's House which is to be set up upon the top of the Mountains And to this Mount Sion that is to the Gospel-Catholick Church are some way or other related all the blessed and glorious Spirits that are extant the fallen Angels are only excluded for by coming to this Mount the Apostle tells us we are come to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect A great part of a true Christian's Life and I am sure the best part of it is a Converse with Spirits the best and noblest part of Man is a Spirit and he must shortly for some time exist only in that part and when the Body is reunited to it that second Coalition and Constitution will be altogether Spiritual for a Soul and a Spiritual Body conjoyned will render a Man not less Spiritual than he was while he existed singly in his Soul but will make him perfectly like to an Angel so we are told by our Saviour That in the Resurrection the Saints shall be like to the Angels of God Upon this account God is training us up and gradually fitting and preparing of us for this state he is acquainting us as much as our present condition will allow with himself and other Spirits here that so we may joyfully resign up our earthly state to become of their number and at last abide in that condition that will be purely Spiritual without any sort of Terrene Allay and such who live without any Communion with Spirits here and have no sort of foretaste nor any preparative relish of that state must needs if they any way make use of the thinking faculty leave their Bodies with very great Amusements The Mount of Spirits Hebrews 12.18 For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest Verse 19. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Ver. 20. For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart Ver. 21. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Ver. 22. But we are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels Ver. 23. To the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Ver. 24. And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel THis Epistle is a Funeral Sermon preached at the Interment of the Law the material Body of Moses God himself buried long before and no man ever knew the place of his Sepulture and now his mystical Body his Doctrine growing old and ready to vanish away ripe for abolition or rather dissolution not so much by being repealed or rescinded but its use ceasing the end and substance of it appearing and its glory being naturally and of course swallowed up and dissolved into a greater glory that excels The Holy Ghost himself by this Epistle lays it honourably in the grave and so we have the Sepulchre of this mystical Body of Moses abiding with us at this day And happy had it been for the whole Nation of the Jews if this Sermon had had its due effect upon them God in his wise and gracious Providence gave them this Warning this Holy Instruction and Admonition to prevent their obstinate adhaesion to the Mosaical Rites and violent opposition of the Gospel thereby which ended in a very few years after the writing of this Epistle in the sad and utter Ruine of their Temple their City and themselves The Penman of this Epistle by such Probabilities as come very near to a Certainty appears to be St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and that Person whom it pleased God so eminently to make use of in the glorious Fulfilling of that early prophetick Prediction God shall perswade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Sem. The exact Time when this Epistle was written is very uncertain Antiquity affords us little or no Information about it what Knowledge we can have of it must be by consulting the Scripture and comparing it with it self It seems reasonable to suppose that St. Paul wrote it after his Release at Rome from two Years Imprisonment there with which the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends wherein is contained an Ecclesiastical History of the Church for about 28 Years after our Saviour's Resurrection unto the 7th Year of Nere that he wrote it after his Release appears from hence that Chap. 13. v. 23. he intends and promiseth a Journey with Timothy which had he been a Prisoner and not in his own power is not reasonable to think he would have done 'T is likewise very probable to be written before the sharpest and most violent Persecutions fell upon the believing Jews before the slaughter Herod made at the instance of the Jews of St. James and those at Jerusalem because he tells them in this Epistle they had not yet resisted unto Blood and 't is very evident to be writ and to be well known to the Jews before St. Peter wrote his second Epistle for therein he seems very plainly to refer to this Epistle and if so then 't is plain also beyond denial the Author of it was St. Paul And Account says he that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved
and super-exceeding Excellency of the Doctrine published and delivered the Gospel in the very kind and constitution of it utterly exceeding all the Dispensations of God that ever preceded it being the very natural genuine and proper Issue and Product of them all Divine Revelations since the World began tended to Christ and the Gospel as their ultimate End and Center Although God had by sundry Ways and by divers Persons both Angels and Men at several times distinctly declared his Mind to the World yet he never before spake by his Son this is the Memorial of the Gospel throughout all Generations that it was first published by the Lord and after confirmed by those that heard him it came first from the Oracle of his Sacred Mouth and was sanctified by his most Blessed Lips and upon that account well may it be called as it is in the 1st of Timothy The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 'T is true that all former Divine Revelations brought to us either by the Ministry of Angels or Men were the Voice of God and had him for their Author but herein lyes the peculiarity of the Gospel Glory above them all that now he speaks to us without any intermediate Instrument personally Himself in his Son he comes Himself from Heaven Tabernacles in Humane Flesh becomes Emanuel converseth with us and speaks Face to Face with us in our own Nature Let us with an Holy Astonishment as Moses said in another case turn aside and view this great Sight and cry out with the Psalmist in Holy Admiration Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldest so visit him and consider deeply what infinite condescention was this that when nothing else would serve to recover the lost World God comes from Heaven himself to treat with us about our recovery so that no man can now reasonably say who shall ascend into Heaven to instruct us from thence or who shall fetch Divine Knowledge beneath from the Deeps for all that we need to know and all that we can know is brought home to our Dores is put into our Hearts and into our Mouths by God himself in the fashion of a Man and like to us in all things sin only excepted Two things the Apostle seems to insinuate in his very first entrance and the beginning of this Epistle God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son First That it was the same God that spake now that spake before by Moses and the Prophets and so prevents their taking prejudice against the Gospel as if it came from any other hand than the God of Israel or were built upon any other Foundation than Moses and the Prophets And Secondly That God speaking now by his Son we may reasonably expect to hear more than ever was yet known and all that we are like ever to know by way of Revelation from above such a Person as He may well be supposed to bring down all God's Errand to the World at once he has none greater to send by and upon that account it is that the Gospel times are called in Scripture the last times because no more Revelation is to be expected If we consider Christ as he is God he is exalted far above all Heavens and beyond all reach of Comparisons if we consider him in that conjunction as he was Man even in that state he is Heir of all things he is the First-born of every creature and in all things has the pre-eminence he exceeds the noblest of creatures the Angels those glorious Spirits who in their very make and constitution were nearest of kin of all others to their Creator and are called Elohim a sort of Gods for God never said unto any of them thou art my Son this day speaking both of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection have I begotten thee but at the Son 's first arrival in the World to give an eternal Instance of his Divinity he commands all the Angels of God to worship him and to worship him with the greatest Prostration and Adoration imaginable for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used upon this occasion intimates That the Apostle should treat so much when he is dealing with the Jews of the Preference of Christ above the Angels we may well conceive when we consider that he himself in this Epistle declares that the Law was the Word spoken by the Angels and Gal. 3. says that it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator not as if this were to be taken as Grotius and some learned men have conceived that the Law upon Mount Sinai was originally given forth by a created Angel there for it was most certainly published authoritatively by God himself there present nor is it any where said to be originally given forth by Angels but to be spoken by them and given forth by their Manage and Ministry In the 68th Psalm we are told The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of thousands the Lord is among them as in Sinai by which 't is evident enough the glorious and eternal Jehovah was there personally present after a very peculiar and eminent manner And in Stephen's last Sermon he tells the Jews in that Historical Recapitulation of their whole Affairs that they had received the Law by the disposition of Angels and had not kept it So that the meaning is the delivery of the Law was by the Ministration of Angels and their ordering of things upon Mount Sinai though it was uttered by God himself but the delivery of the Gospel is singly by the Ministry of the Son of God in person And when we are told the Law was the Word spoken by Angels and that it was ordained by Angels it is in this sense and no other to be understood and well may it be so stiled if we reflect upon these several things 1st The whole heavenly Hoast of Angels those glorious Guards of Spirits that attend the Eternal Jehovah were all there present in a solemn and particular manner such as we no where else read of in their courses and order to execute what their Supream Lord came about and beholding with wonder and admiration the Wisdom of the Supream Legislator in giving forth those wise Laws to the World upon which the legal Dispensation was chiefly founded which was the reason perhaps made them so earnest afterwards to look down into the Gospel Dispensation having seen so much of the legal and been such Actors in it and behold the glory of that for by it the Apostle tells us expresly the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto them and by beholding the second Person incarnate they saw somewhat more of Heaven upon Earth then they could see in Heaven it self 2dly It was by the Ministry of Angels that those prodigious Terrors were effected by which the People were so
we are more particularly told how and by whom it was made the blessed Person of our Lord Jesus Christ is represented to us as the Alpha and Omega of all the Beginning and the Ending of the Creation of God in whom there is a recapitulation of the whole God designing after things were scatter'd disorder'd and lost by sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bring all Jews and Gentiles Angels and Men the whole Creation into one Head and under one Rule in him as the Apostle expresseth it in the first of the Ephesians that he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are one arth even in him and so as God was pleased to make all by him he recovers all back again through him and under him In discoursing this deep and mysterious Point what ever advance is made towards the right understanding of it be it never so small the design ought to be in every step that is taken to do it with perspicuity and evidence that so it may not be rendred a Notion obscure and useless but a Truth wherein the comfort satisfaction and interest of every Christian may appear much concerned And in order to this I will take a distinct and threefold Consideration of all the Works of God's Hands 1st Of the Angels 2ly Of Mankind 3ly Of all the rest of the Creatures Two things are eminently and principally to be considered about the Creation of the Angels 1st That they were so made that some of them might apostatize and fall and that others of them should keep their first and original station 2ly That all of them should be under the Lordship and Dominion of Christ as the great Recoverer of Mankind and the Mediator and Head of the Church Moses in his History of the Creation gives us no account of the Angels nor does the New Testament inform us any thing of the manner of their Creation so that when they were made in what part of the six days or how whether of pre-existing Matter or as the Soul of Man and other parts of the Creation without any such pre-existing Matter and whether when made they had all an equal vision and fruition of God because it seems difficult to conceive how any created Being could turn aside from that Vision or whether they sinned in God's presence and in foro Coeli because their Judgment is so heavy and irreversible are things unrevealed by the Scriptures passed over in silence nor can they by searching or any humane endeavour be found out The Angels that fell being of the noblest nature and complexion nearest unto God of any that he made and of greatest power and influence their fall was it that first introduced Sin and Apostacy amongst Men and occasioned all the Rebellion of this lower World against God and upon that account we are told by St. John for this cause was the Son of God manifested that he might destory the works of the devil as comprehensive of all the Apostasie both of Angels and Men and therefore it is that they first fell of all other Creatures under the Lordship and Dominion of Christ as Mediator by vertue of that declaratory Promise from which the mediatory Dominion of Christ bears actual date the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head Hence it came to pass that the apostate Angels who by the Temptations they laid before our first Parents and so early assaulted them withal appeared to be of an aspiring Temper and not contented with that present station which by their first and original make they were placed in but attempted something farther beyond those bounds God by the Law of their Creation had confined them to which could be nothing else but to deifie themselves for God had already made them above every thing but himself they fell from that glory they had received from the second Person in the Trinity by whom they were made as God into an absolute subjection to him as his Enemies and Vassals as he was Man and by God's most just wise and holy Judgment saw themselves subjected to that very Nature they so maliciously with respect both to God and Man sought the ruine of and the same Nature wonderfully assumed to the Divine by the second Person and in that glorious and splendid Conjunction the World recovered and a Dominion established over all the Rebellions Apostasies and Declensions both of Angels and Men. The Devil having been thus a Lyar and a Rebel from the beginning and using all the fraudulent endeavours possible to have all the Creation to their final and utmost Ruine his Associates therein and God having been pleased in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness to encounter all his Designs and Endeavours by the second Person incarnate whom he constitutes a Prince and a Saviour and sets him as his King upon his Holy Hill and declares his Decree from everlasting to establish his Kingdom with all Authority and Power the World has been ever since under a twofold Dominion that of Satan and that of Christ and these two Kingdoms that of the Fallen Angels and that of the Mediator have stood in direct opposition and in all Ages contested each other the Contest grew high very early in the World and continued so till the Flood the four great Monarchies since have all ofthem been Satan's Allies and Instruments and Factors for his Interest not only by their multiply'd Idolatries thereby throwing as much as in them lay the true God out of the World but by their proud and insolent defiance of him and placing themselves in his room upon all occasions To what inconceivable Insolence and Pride were those first Babylonian Monarchs arrived at we need no other account of it but to read what the Prophet Esaw tells them Thou hast said in thine heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north I will ascend above the heighths of the clouds I will be like the Most High The Persian Monarchy that next succeeded much affected to retain and improve the Grandeur and Heighth of their Predecessors and if it were possible to out do them one Instance they gave of that in which they greatly prided and valued themselves which was to make their Laws unalterable the Laws of the Medes and Persians were not to be changed as if they had arrived at once to all the Wisdom and Foresight of God himself The folly of this insolent Project of this vain Exaltation of Humane Wisdom and Power beyond its due bounds and setting themselves in the supreme Legiflator's place the Scripture has sufficiently recorded to its eternal shame and confusion in one Instance we have of it in the Book of Esthers Ahasuerus upon the Petition of Haman made an Edict that all the Jews in his Territories should be upon a prefixed day slain and destroyed after upon the
the behalf of Mankind He it is that by his own Arm brings Salvation and singly undergoes the Burden and Weight of all Humane Miseries and Misfortunes the care of all the concerns that belong to Mankind are laid upon him and the recovery of the fallen Posterity of apostate Adam is solely left to his Undertaking Conduct and Manage ever since that first Promise concerning him set forth by the Seed of the Woman Mankind has been his Care and the Church his peculiar Province the Faith of all the Holy Men in the first times was built upon his promised and intended coming It was prophesied of him in the 72 Psalm Prayer also shall be made for him continually that is for his coming and incarnation before he did come and for the success of his Kingdom and his second coming after he was come It is he that hath been with the Church in all Ages and appeared so often to the Fathers in the Patriarchal times in humane shape to confirm their Faith and assure his future Incarnation and when the fulness of time for his being born of a Woman and born under the Law that is standing in Man's steed and obliged to the mediatory righteousness God required from him came the whole course of his Life his Sufferings Death and Resurrection and his Intercession above are all on the Churches account to make a full and ample provision for all the Declensions and Apostasies of Humane Nature and secure Man's Eternal Happiness with himself for ever so that 't is evident that God's making the World at first by the second Person was in order to the discovery of his manifold Wisdom and infinite Grace in redeeming and recovering it by the same blessed Person Thirdly This will appear from hence because that the whole Dominion and Soveraignty over Mankind the intire disposal of Man is committed unto him how correspondent is it to all God's revealed purposes touching his own Glory and Man's Happiness that a mediatory Dominion should be vested in the second Person that the creating and redeeming Right over Man should all concenter in him sometimes we are in Scripture told of his creating Right so in the first of St. John's Gospel He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not sometimes we are told of his Right by Redemption The Father so he himself tells us judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son and the reason given for it is because he is the Son of Man the true Seed of the Woman and the only Mediator between God and Man and upon that account 't is said he will judge the World by that man whom he hath appointed the ordering governing and final disposal of Man belongs alone to this blessed Person he that made us and knew our original frame he alone could best tell how to recover and remake us and from everlasting 't was God's pleasure it should be so In his Redemption all is taken care for all is recover'd and fetch'd back not a Hoof of what was made and lost is left behind there is a Plaister provided for every Sore and a Remedy for every Malady an infinite Treasury of Grace provided and suted to all depraved humane Faculties to unite Man again to his Maker and Redeemer with cords of love and bands of a man to influence the whole Soul of Man to convince his Understanding and govern him in a way of true Wisdom and Knowledge to seize his Affections with the most heart-affecting Motives and most glorious Objects and to fix the unruly Will in a right Path out of which it should never again wander All the Workings since Adam's fall of the Souls of Men towards God and the Influences of God and his Spirit upon them they are all transacted managed and will be finally judged of by the second Person this is the Kingdom of God and the great Realm of Christ within Men not a Divine Whisper into any Man's Breast by the Holy Ghost but 't is from the Mediator and a consequent of his Ordination and Government the great Effect of Christ's ascending Conqueror into Heaven was the sending down the Holy Ghost and till he did so the Holy Ghost could not in that glorious eminent manner appear as afterwards he did for he came from Heaven with the Ratification of that Peace and Reconciliation that Christ had purchased this we are positively told in the 7th of St. John's Gospel The Holy Ghost was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified It appears to be an eternal determination by the blessed Trinity that till the mediatory Work was all compleated and Christ was ascended and had made his triumphant appearance in Heaven as a Conqueror the Holy Ghost should not be sent down and therefore our Saviour tells his Disciples plainly Unless I go away the comforter cannot come and it is expedient for you upon that account that I do go away for if I go I will send him unto you this is the grand effect of Christ's ascention to procure the descent of the Holy Ghost that great Engine of Salvation the Sword of the Lord in Christ's hand the mighty Operator by which the Mediator erects his Kingdom and without whose Influences upon the Souls of Men to change and remark them no Laws of Grace no Terms of Salvation though never so easie would ever have proved effectual for Man's Recovery and Happiness this is the great effect of what Christ hath purchased for the World for Men to receive an ability from Heaven to believe and obey what God requires of us had not this been the Conditions of the Gospel would have been as little performed as those of the Law this sending down the Holy Ghost from Heaven St. Peter tells us the Angels desire to look into 't is an Allusion unto the Cherâ—bims that were made with their Faces looking upon the Mercy-seat to let us know that the Angels above diligently behold the glorious effects of God's Grace to this lower World and two sights they have had by their attentiveness thereon which were both stupendious and wonderful First The second Person leaving Heaven descending upon Earth becoming Man and making his abode for a time here And secondly Upon his return so soon as the second Person ascended the Holy Ghost coming down to manage all the concerns Christ left behind him here below And as all the Operations of the Holy Ghost upon the Spirits of Men are under the Mediator's Conduct so the Behaviour of all Men is noted in his Book and laid up in his Records in order to a future Judgment which Judgment is of everlasting duration for after he has given up the Kingdom to the Father both the Righteous and the Wicked will for ever remain in the same posture and condition his Judgment left them the Wicked will be for ever miserable by vertue of his Sentence and the Righteous enjoy their everlasting portion of
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
to accuse calumniate and misrepresent before God so these blessed Angels are constant Spectators and publick Notaries of all the Proceedings of the Church and all the Actings and Sufferings of every Member thereof in order to bear a faithful Witness before God and be a punctual Record thereof at the Day of Judgment And in this sense we are come unto them they are not only present in publick Assemblies but conversant in the Closet of every Saint and take an exact view of all their devout and fervent Addresses unto God upon this account it is that St. Paul tells us that the Apostles by their Preaching and Suffering were a Spectacle to Angels the holy Angels beheld their Spiritual Courage and Conquest with wonderful satisfaction and upon this account it is that St. Paul chargeth Timothy before the Elect Angels to look well to the discharge of his Work and Office because they are Witnesses appointed of God to take punctual notice of his Behaviour therein and the Presence of the Angels is made an Argument by the Holy Ghost for the well-ordering our selves and all our Actions in Church-Assemblies 5thly The Angels as they are God's Officers employed for the guard and security of the Church so they are also for the revenging of his Wrath upon their Enemies so it often was under the Old Testament and so it is under the New and will continue till the end that wretched prophane Herod who added to all his former wickedness to shut up John in Prison and after added to that addition to cut off his Head to please a Dalilah and at last came to make himself his own Idol by taking to himself that glory that should have been ascribed to God at last an Angel smote him and dispatch'd him to his own place by a woful and miserable Catastrophey the Angels stood all ready when our blessed Saviour was led to the Cross to have rescued him upon the least Command this our Saviour himself told the Jews when he was encompass'd with a Roman Guard he could upon request to his Father have more then twelve legions of angels to rescue and assist him which exceeded the number of Men the Romans then had in their whole Army for their Army at that time did not consist of twelve Legions and in the Revelations we find the Angels constantly employed by God as the great Executioners of his Wrath upon the Churches Enemies to the end of the World 6thly We are come to this innumerable company of Angels as to our truest Friends and most faithful Companions for they never leave us till they have brought us home 1st To the rest of our Souls in Heaven for they wait upon every dying Believer to comfort and chear his spirit so soon as ever it hath left the Body and safely to convey it into that Blessed fellowship above and into that glorious place and state of rest called Abraham's Bosom And 2dly They will be assisting and instrumental though it be effected by the mighty Power of God to call and raise the Bodies of the Saints out of their Graves at last when Christ comes to effect the first Resurrection he will be attended with all his Glorious Angels and by their Ministry the Dead in Christ shall rise first the Trumpet that will sound to summon them out of their ashes will be an Angelical sound probably the Voice of the Arch-Angel and when they arise out of the Earth they will together with all the Saints then living be caught up by the Angels and conveyed by them to meet the Lord in the Air the last office the Angels will have to perform and so will ever abide with him Whose heart would not burn within him upon the contemplation of these things that God should be such a lover of Men that the Eternal Son should by his death redeem them his own spirit by his influences come down and dwell in them and all the Angels in Heaven made their Guardians and their whole Ministry and Service employed on their behalf How blessed a condition does the Gospel instate us in above the Law in reference to this particular When Man first fell by sin the Angels became his most avowed Enemies and Executioners of Wrath that went out against him for the Cherubims stood with a flaming Sword to keep the Tree of Life and to shut Man out of Paradise he made his Angels Spirits and at that time his ministers a flame of fire When the Law was given upon Mount Sinai and Man considered only in his natural state the Angels were most dreadful and terrible in their appearance but now under the Gospel Angels and Men by the Blood of the Cross are embodyed into one Fellowship and Society united in and under one head engaged in the same Worship and Service and enjoy a sweet and most endeared communion each with other all which is fully insinuated and intimated by the Apostle in telling the Believing Jews they were come to this innumerable company of angels 4thly The Apostle tells them they are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in Heaven This is an expression of that part of the Catholick Church here upon Earth to which by the Gospel all Believers come and with which they are incorporated and imbodyed two things are intended hereby to shew the preference of the Gospel-state before that of the Legal 1st That instead of the Assembly of all the Males three times a Year at Jerusalem which is called in Scripture the great congregation they are come now to the great Assembly of all the Members of the true Catholick Church amongst Mankind to all the true servants of God both of Jews and Gentiles that any where call upon God in Spirit and Truth and that God would have such a general Assembly and such an universal Church of the first-born throughout all Nations without any farther respect to the Jews or their Church was a secret undiscovered till the Gospel Revelation came 2dly That this assembly consists only of real and true Saints such as have the right of the first born the great inheritance that men are born capable of in this World is the possession of Heaven at last those that obtain that are the eldest sons of this lower World and the first-born amongst Mankind in the Scripture sense and none obtain this inheritance but such as are eternally elected in Christ to it and therefore the Apostle when he names the Church of the first-born adds as explanatory of it whose names are inrolled in Heaven that is in the Lamb's Book of Life in the Roll of God's eternal purposes and councels there they are Registred and not in an Earthly Register as the Jews were this Church of the first-born is called in Scripture the first fruits of the whole Creation unto God and the Lamb they are said to be Heirs to God and Joynt-heirs with Christ they are made Kings and Priests unto God and so have
are often ignorant and so his Writings seems to us the more difficult and obscure Thus we have taken a brief view of the Apostle's Comparison of the Law with the Gospel in this short Epitome of both and seen the wonderful preference the Gospel has to the Law and the great and eminent Advantages and Priviledges of the one above the the other and the glorious Inhabitants of this Spiritual Mount Sion and the Heavenly Jerusalem not only all the true Saints upon Earth the Church of the first-born written in Heaven but even God himself Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant all the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect nothing could be more destructive and ruinous to the true Interest of the believing Hebrews than to turn their backs upon such a Communion to go back to the Old Covenant that God upon Man's account found fault with and again put on that Legal Yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear the Jews much boasted of and rested in those literal Typical Advantages they had above the rest of the World upon which they might with very good reason value themselves and therefore the Apostle's business is to manifest to them how much by embracing the Gospel they changed for the better that instead of a Legal Temporary Temple built upon Mount Sion and an Earthly Jerusalem they are come to the true signified Mount Sion to the Spiritual and Heavenly Temple which is Christ Mystical where God dwells for ever and the Heavenly Jerusalem the name of which is Jehovah Shammai that is the glorious spiritual worship of the Gospel and the state of the Catholick Church in all its parts those on Earth and those in Heaven and thereby to all that was signified by and all that was any where promised unto Jerusalem and Mount Sion instead of that Dreadful Appearance of the Angels upon Mount Sinai with which they were so terrified and from which they were kept at so great a distance they are now come to an innumerable Company of Angels that is to a sweet Fellowship Brotherhood and Communion with them all which is implyed in their being said to be come to them under the Law 't was firmly believed whoever should see an Angel so great the distance was thought between Mankind and them should certainly die we are now Men and Angels all of the same Family and Houshold and the Saints on Earth have the whole Ministry and Service of the Angels employed on their behalf they are now always ascending and descending about their Affairs and there is a most endeared and intimate Relation and Affection between all the Myriads of Angels above and the Saints below instead of the National Church of the Jews assembled at Jerusalem they are come to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born whose Names are written in Heaven To the general Assembling of the true Catholick Church who Assemble and Worship all the World over in Spirit and Truth without any confinement to any place whatever they are come to them so as to be of the same Body and Society with them to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and so as to partake of all their Spiritual and Heavenly Advantages and they are come to all the parts of this Catholick Communion as well those in Heaven as those on Earth even to God himself which is as far as they can come the judge of all under the Law they were not suffered so much as to approach the outward signs of his Presence but under the Gospel they have free access to himself and to his very Throne which is now become a Throne of Grace and nothing appears now from thence but a Scepter of Mercy held forth they are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect not only to the Fellowship and Fraternity of all the Saints living from the Fraternity of an outward Typical and only National Church but to those in the Heavenly state all those mentioned in the 11th Chap. before and all the Apostles and those Blessed Saints they had conversed with in the first times of the Gospel who were then removed and gone to their rest even to them by the Gospel-state they were come with them they are embodyed as Members of the same Society and with them in a short time they are sure to be resident And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant a Saviour as well as a Mediator and a Mediator not of the Sinai but of the Sion Covenant a Covenant bringing grace life and peace a Mediator not like Moses a meer Man a Servant a Sinner himself trembling in his Office and weary of his Burden and whose Ministry was like his Person decaying vanishing and dying But to the Son himself in his own House able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him in that he liveth for ever to make Intercession for them and to the Blood of sprinkling infinitely exceeding all the Blood that was sprinkled under the Law for that brought sin yearly and daily into remembrance but those that are sprinkled with this are for ever perfected and to them there remains no more Sacrifice for sin and this Blood they are come to speaks a better Language quite than the Blood of Abel did although the Blood of both was most unjustly shed and they were both wickedly murdered and slain yet they speak two different Languages Abel's Blood called and cried unto God for vengeance upon Cain but this pleads and cries aloud for pardon and forgiveness even for those very Persons that were most guilty of it and deepliest concerned in it so that none are excluded from the benefit of it The Apostle winds up all with deep and solemn Admonitions and Cautions to the Believing Jews not to play fast and lose with the Gospel 't is of such Jews St. James writes in his Epistle directed to the Twelve Tribes when he tells them A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and let not such a man think says he to obtain any thing from the Lord for he halts between two Opinions and is unresolved whether he shall be a Jew or a Christian the Apostle conjures them upon their utmost peril not to refuse him that speaks from Heaven which is no other than God himself speaking by his Son and declaring by a solemn voice from Heaven even from the excellent Glory that he was his Beloved Son in whom he was well pleased which beloved and blessed Son of God might well be said to speak from Heaven because we are expresly told he was also in Heaven when he spake here upon Earth he proceeds to mind them that the Legal state was like an old House ready to fall upon their heads for he that once by his voice shook the Earth at Mount Sinai and made the Mount to tremble will now once more shake both Heaven and Earth and dissolve the Apostle tells them their whole Religious Constitution and Fabrick and this taking away of things that are shaken is in order to this that things that cannot be shaken which are the blessings and glories and sure mercies of the Gospel may remain the Gospel is the last and only remedy that God has provided for sinful Man 't is a fearful thing to fall into his hands and not have this to plead to fall into the hands of the living God without an interest in Jesus the Mediator of this New Covenant and the Blood of sprinkling appurtenant thereunto he that has once embraced the Gospel and then out of choice refuseth it and turns his back upon it refuseth his remedy and thereby renders his Cure desperate and impossible and to such a man nothing can possibly remain but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment The Consideration of this Glorious and Honourable state to which by the Gospel we are come this Celestial Mount of Spirits should always inflame our minds with holy and thankful Contemplations and also with fervent and devout adoration of that infinite goodness that has made such provision for the happiness recovery and welfare of rebellious and apostate Man that has opened the flood-gates of Heaven and showr'd down all the blessings and glories thereof upon the World by the descent of the second person into Human Nature how happy were it if instead of mean low and perishing satisfactions Men would solace themselves with this heart-satisfying and everlasting Salvation let us follow the example of Moses who when God proclaimed his Name unto him and caused all his goodness to pass before him the Text says Moses made haste and bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped he only heard the report of what we possess and enjoy our whole business therefore should be to exalt the Praises of so Gracious a Benefactor and to Magnifie that Glorious being that has all possible Perfection to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be taken away and to whom all Blessing and Honour and Praise and all Worship and Service and Adoration will be due throughout all Generations from time to time till time ceaseth and is dissolved in Eternity and thence Eternally FINIS