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
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
fulnesse which so doth dwell in him is the NATURE Now there dwelleth in him not onely the fulnesse of the Godhead but the fulnesse of the Manhood also for we beleeve him to be both perfect God begotten of the substance of his Father before all worlds and perfect Man made of the substance of his Mother in the fullnesse of time And therefore we must hold that there are two distinct Natures in him and two so distinct that they doe not make one compounded nature but still remaine uncompounded and unconfounded together But Hee in whom the fulnesse of the Manhood dwelleth is not one and hee in whom the fulnesse of the Godhead another but he in whom the fulnesse of both those natures dwelleth is one and the same Immauel and consequently it must be beleeved as firmly that he is but one Person And here wee must consider that the Divine Nature did not assume an humane Person but the divine Person did assume an humane Nature and that of the three Divine Persons it was neither the first nor the third that did assume this Nature but it was the middle Person who was to bee the middle one that must undertake this mediation betwixt God and us which was otherwise also most requisite aswell for the better preservation of the integrity of the blessed Trinity in the Godhead as for the higher advancement of Mand-kinde by meanes of that relation which the second Person the Mediatour did beare unto his Father For if the fulnesse of the Godhead should have thus dwelt in any humane person there should then a fourth Person necessarily have been added unto the Godhead And if any of the three Persons beside the second had been borne of a Woman there should have been two Sonnes in the Trinity whereas now the Sonne of God and the Sonne of the blessed Virgin being but one Person is consequently but one Sonne and so no alteration at all made in the relations of the Persons of the Trinitie Againe in respect of us the Apostle sheweth that for this very end f God sent his owne SON made of a woman that WE might receive the Adoption of SONS and thereupon maketh this inference Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a SON and if a SON then an HEIRE of God through Christ intimating thereby that what relation Christ hath unto God by Nature we being found in him have the same by Grace By Nature hee is g The only begotten Sonne of the Father but this is the high Grace he hath purchased for us that h as many as received him to them he gave power or priviledge to become the Sonnes of God even to them that beleeve on his Name For although he reserve to himselfe the preeminence which is due unto him in a * peculiar manner of being i the first borne among many brethren yet in him and for him the rest likewise by the grace of adoption are all of them accounted as first-bornes So God biddeth Moses to say unto Pharaoh k Israel is my Sonne even my first-borne And I say vnto thee Let my sonne goe that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him goe behold I will slay thy sonne even thy first borne And the whole Israell of God consisting of Jew and Gentile is in the same sort described by the Apostle to be l the generall assembly and Church of the first borne inrolled in Heaven For the same reason that maketh them to be Sons to wit their incorporation into Christ the selfe-same also maketh them to be first-bornes so as how ever it fall out by the grounds of our common Law by the rule of the Gospell this consequence will still hold true m If children then heires heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ And so much for the SON the Person assuming The Nature assumed is the seed of Abraham Hebr. 2. 16. The seed of David Rom. 1. 3. The seed of the Woman Gen. 3. 15. The WORD n the second Person of the Trinity being o made FLESH that is to say p Gods own Sonne being made of a Woman and so becomming truly and really q The fruit of her wombe Neither did he take the substance of our nature only but all the properties also and the qualities thereof so as it might be said of him as it was of r Elias and the s Apostles that he was a man subject to like passions as we are Yea he subjected himselfe t in the dayes of his flesh to the same u weaknesse which we finde in our own fraile nature and was compassed with like infirmities and in a word in all things was made like unto his brethren sinne only excepted Wherein yet we must consider that as he took upon him not an humane Person but an humane Nature so it was not requisite he should take upon him any Personall infirmities such as are madnesse blindnesse lamenesse and particular kinds of diseases which are incident to some only and not to all men in generall but those alone which do accompany the whole Nature of mankinde such as are hungring thirsting wearinesse griefe paine and mortality We are further here also to observe in this our x Melchisedeck that as he had no Mother in regard of one of his natures so he was to have no Father in regard of the other but must be borne of a pure and immaculate Virgin without the helpe of any man And this also was most requisite as for other respects so for the exemption of the assumed nature from the imputation and pollution of Adams sinne For y sinne having by that one man entred into the world every Father becommeth an Adam unto his child and conveyeth the corruption of his Nature unto all those whom hee doth beget Therefore our Saviour assuming the substance of our Nature but not by the ordinary way of naturall generation is thereby freed from all the touch and taint of the corruption of our flesh which by that meanes only is propâ—gated from the first man unto his posterity Whereupon he being made of man but not by man and so becomming the immediate fruit of the wbome and not of the Loynes must of necessity be acknowledged to be z that HOLY THING which so was borne of so blessed a Mother who although shee were but the passive and materiall principle of which that precious flesh was made and the holy Ghost the agent and efficient yet cannot the man Christ Jesus thereby be made the Son of his a owne Spirit Because Fathers do beget their children out of their owne substance the holy Ghost did not so but framed the flesh of him from whom himself proceeded out of the creature of them both b the hand-maid of the Lord whom from thence all generations shall call blessed That blessed wombe of hers was the bride-chamber wherein the Holy Ghost did knit that indissoluble knot betwixt
was therefore commanded to be b made with Cherubims to shew that we come c to an innumerable company of Angels when we come to Iesus the Mediatour of the New Testament who as the Head of the Church hath power to d send forth all those ministring spirits to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Lastly we are to take into our consideration that as in things concerning God the maine execution of our Sauiours Priesthood doth consist so in things concerning Man he exerciseth both his Propheticall office whereby he openeth the will of his Father unto us and his Kingly whereby he ruleth and protecteth us It was indeed a part of e the Priests office in the old Testament to instruct the people in the Law of God and yet were f they distinguished from Prophets like as in the new Testament also g Prophets as well as Apostles are made a different degree from ordinary Pastours and Teachers who received not their doctrine by immediate inspiration from heaven as those other h holy men of God did who spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost Whence Saint Paul putteth the Hebrewes in mind that God who i in sundry parts and in sundry manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his Son Christ Jesus whom therefore he styleth k the Apostle as well as the high Priest of our profession who was faithfull to him that appointed him even as Moses was in all his house Now Moses we know had a singular preeminence above all the rest of the Prophets according to that ample testimony which God himself giveth of him l If there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self knowne unto him in a vision and will speake unto him in a dream My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all mine house with him well I speake mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall be behold And therefore we finde that our Mediatour in the execution of his Propheticall office is in a more peculiar manner likened unto Moses which he himself also did thus foretell m The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me umto him ye shall hearken According to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly saying Let me not heare againe the voyce of the Lord my God neither let me see this great fire any more that I dye not And the Lord said unto me They have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words into his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to passe that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him Our Prophet therefore must be a man raised from among his brethren the Israelites n of whom as concerning the flesh he came who was to performe unto us that which the fathers requested of Moses o Speak thou to us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we dye And yet that in this also we may see how our Mediatour had the preeminence p when Aaron and all the children of Israel were to receive from the mouth of Moses all that the Lord had spoken with him in mount Sinai they were afraid to come nigh him by reason of the glory of his shining countenance so that he was faine to put a vaile over his face while he spake unto them that which he was commanded But that which for a time was thus q made glorious had no glory in respect of the glory that excelleth and both the glory thereof and the vaile which covered it are now abolished in Christ the vaile of whose flesh doth so overshadow r the brightnesse of his glory that yet under it we may s behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father yea and t we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord And this is daily effected by the power of the ministery of the Gospell instituted by the authority and seconded by the power of this our great Prophet whose transcendent excellency beyond Moses unto whom in the execution of that function he was otherwise likened is thus set forth by the Apostle u He is counted worthy of more glory then Moses in as much as he who hath builded the house hath more honour then the house For every house is builded by some one but he that built all things is God And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as the Son over his owne house x This house of God is no other then the Church of the living God whereof as he is the only Lord so is he properly the only Builder Christ therefore being both the Lord and the y Builder of his Church must be God as well as Man which is the cause why we finde all the severall mansions of this z great house to carry the title indifferently of a the Churches of God and b the Churches of Christ True it is that there are other ministeriall builders whom Christ employed in that service this being not the least of those gifts which he bestowed upon men at his triumphant Ascension into heaven that c he gave not only ordinary Pastours and Teachers but Apostles likewise and Prophets Evangelists for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Which what great power it required he himself doth fully expresse in passing the grant of this high Commission unto his Apostles d All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Amen S. Paul professeth of himself that he e laboured more abundantly then all the rest of the Apostles yet not I saith he but the grace of God which was with me And therefore although f according to that grace of God which was given unto him he denieth not but that as a wise master-builder he had laid the foundation yet he acknowledgeth that they upon whom he had wrought were Gods building as well as Gods husbandry For who saith g