That he might be capable of suffering such things as Death and Curse for us to redeem and deliver us from death and curse and from the fear of them And to the same purpose he speaks of his offering in Chap. 8.3 With 10.5 6 10. Every high Priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices wherefore also it was necessary that this man should have something to offer And what that was is said Chap. 10.5 6 10. Namely the body that God prepared for him the body of his flesh that died This through the eternal Spirit being raised from the dead he offered up unto God for us as an offering of a sweet smelling savour unto him In which God finding rest and well-pleasedness through him he is gracious and propitious to us Upon this account therefore and upon this mainly it was needful that Christ should be the Son of man very man for us For as Adam was something before he was a man namely dust and clay something below the nature of man and therefore in that form incapable of knowing and praising God till being made into a man indued with a reasonable and understanding Soul he was made capable so even so Christ also was something before he was a man something higher and better then earthly man even the Lord in heaven and therefore not capable as being in the form of God of dying and so of being an offering and sacrifice for man so as in the Nature of man he was and this is that wherein the greatness of Gods grace was testified toward us in making his only begotten Son the propitiation or propitiatory Sacrifice for our sins to prepare him a body for us and to lay the iniquities of us all upon him therein And this is the foundation and bottom as well as also the great and main matter of his declaration to us of what concerns us to know and the foundation and ground of his appearing for us with his Father as Mediator of God and Man and the great high-Priest over his house and his being Man the Son of Man Verily man fitted him for this both as thereby he had what to suffer in and what to offer as also I might adde as therein he became our Brother and Kinsman as is said before and so according to the Law of Moses Levit. 25.48 49. The The right of redeeming us appertained to him For the man that hath sold himself for a servant must be redeemed by one of kin to him as is there said And that he might hint to us all this grace of God in these forementioned branches we may understand him stiling himself the Son of Man That 's the Fourth Reas 5. Lastly he stiles himself the Son of Man or as some read it That Son of Man with reference to that Prophecy of Daniel that went before of him in which he was represented in such an appearance and so declared that he might signifie that he is that Son of Man of whom the said Prophet wrote and spoke in his said Vision And so to shew himself to be what is therein signified which what it was may be perceived by considering the place It is in Dan. 7. Where God shewed to Daniel the things that were to come to pass in the World The Kingdoms that should be set up and take place therein And so he saw first four great Beasts arise up out of the Sea which the Angel afterwards tells him should be four Kings that is succesionâ— of Kings or Kingdoms with their Kings as may appear by comparing ver 17. With ver 23. Now those four Beasts Kings or Kingdoms were the four Kingdoms or Empires of the Gentiles or Heathen that should with their Kings and Emperours have the great command of the Earth and they are represented like Beasts there or as the word properly signifies Wild or Savage Beasts as the Lyon Bear Leopard and the fourth a composure of them all Ver. 7. With Rev. 13.2 To signifie and imply the Savageness Brutishness and unreasonableness of those Governments That they should rule by Might Will and Power more then by yea with a neglect and contempt of right reason and equity as indeed they have generally done But then in ver 13. There is a Vision of one said to be like the Son of man coming in the clouds of Heaven brought near to the ancient of days to whom was given dominion and glory And a Kingdom that all Nations Peoples and Languages should obey and serve him Now this is afterward interpreted to be the Kingdom of the Saints or of the People of the Saints of the most high God ver 26 27. In which Christ shall be the great King and Governour and he therefore is principally and properly denoted by that one like to the Son of Man to whom was given the Dominion Glory and Kingdom as was before expressed But by the opposition of this mention of his appearance to the mention of the appearance and resemblance of the other Kings and Kingdoms is denoted doubtless not only that he should be a real Man as to the verity of his human nature to whom the Kingdom should be given But also that he should be as the Son of Man as to his Government and ordering of the Kingdom in distinction from or opposition to those that would be and Govern like Savage and Ravenous Beasts Namely that he should Govern and his Kingdom be governed or ordered by right reason equity mildness gentleness and discretion c. Which things belong to man as made of God and in distinction from the Bruit and Savage Beasts And so that He should reign in righteousness and his Princes the Saints reigning with him should decree Justice and govern with Law and equity Isa 32.1 2. Now our Saviour in calling himself the or that Son of Man May and as I apprehend did therein imply and signifie that he was that person spoken of in that Vision and Prophecy to whom the Kingdom and Glory and Dominion was appointed and should be given of God To whom all Peoples Nations and Languages owe obedience and service And who should and will Judge the Nations of the Earth both as to that Judgment exercised in his Word and Providences and by his Spirit now And as to his ordering the Government of God judging disposing and reigning at the last in his glorious Kingdom with his Saints in equity and righteousness according to the rules of that reason that is sound indeed even according to the word and mind of God To this purpose it is also that our Saviour said John 5.22 23 26. That the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment or Government to the Son that all men might honour the Son even as they honour the Father He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that sent him And he hath given him power to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of man even the or that Son of Man who in the
they might none of them ascend upon the Cherubims and sit down upon the Throne of God no it would have been high Arrogance and Luciferian pride and presumption to have assumed that place which was proper and peculiar to God alone The Priests or high Priests under the Law might not fit at all in the Temple but always stood and Ministred Heb. 10.11 much less on that Seat of God Only the Antichrist under the Gospel-times the man of sin presumes to seâ— himself in the Temple of God and likes to be worshipped as if he were God and exalts hâ—mself above all that is called God or that is worshipped He only of all that we read of dares to assume that Power and Place 2 Thes 2.4 A Wickedness the worst of the High-priests under the Law durst not presume to commit for this Place was reserved peculiarly to Christ Gods High-Priest Who having offered one Sacrifice once for all is set down on the Right-hand of God or of Power even on the Throne of Majesty in the highest Heb. 10.12 13. 1.3 8.1 12.2 The Father fully possessing him and putting on him all his own Power and Glory so as he the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to him the Son that all men might honour the Son even as they honour the Father that hath sent him John 5.22 23. So as That he that believeth on the Son believeth not on him but on him that sent him and he that seeth him seeth him that sent him John 12.44 45. And so we have an Object to worship even the same to whom all the Gods or Angels of God are commanded to do honour Worship him all ye Gods Psal 97.7 Heb. 1.6 Him we may Worship without Idolatry against God nay it 's rebellion against God and a refusing to Worship God not to Worship him for God is in him and he is God And therefore 1. We are Baptized into his Name and therein stand ingaged to Believe Depend on and Worship him yea the Father Son and Holy Ghost have but one and the same Name Mat. 28.19 And are one 1 John 5.7 2. The Apostles therefore joyn the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father in saluting the Churches Grace and Peace or Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and to him also together with the Father and the holy Spirit they commend them 2 Cor. 1.2 and 13.14 2 Tim. 1.2 and 4.22 And well they may For First The Father and all his fulness is in him Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me saith he to Philip John 14.9 10. The Wisdom Holiness Grace and Glory yea and all the Power of the Father is in and on him And therefore also Secondly The Works of God are attributed to him As the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth whom he will so the Son quickneth whom he will And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself and he hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of man John 5.21.26 27. Yea he is the Creator and Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth Visible and Invisible Col. 1.16 And the Upholder of all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.3 For he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1.17 Is God the Repairer and Redeemer of his Creature He is so by Christ the great Repairer of the Breaches and Restorer of the Paths to dwell in the Ransome and Redeemer from Sin Death Hell Devil and Destruction 1 Tim. 2.6 Tit. 2.14 Gal. 1.4 and 3.13 and 4.4 5. The Father worketh hitherto in the works of Providence and he worketh also John 5.17 Yea what is said of Jehovah the Lord in that respect in Psal 146 6 10. is applicable to him as was above noted For he feeds the hungry with himself The Bread that he gives being bis flesh which he hath given for the Life of the World As he opened the eyes of the bodily Blind in the days of his flesh so he Preacheth the opening of the eyes to them that are spiritually blind Luke 4 18 19 And the Opening of the Prison to those that are bound raiseth up the bowed in Spirit loveth his Disciples as the Father loveth him John 15 9 Receiveth and Preserveth them that were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel and makes them fellow Citizens with the Saints Yea What things the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise John 5.19 Yea Thirdly He is what ever God is He and the Father is one one thing John 10.30 And he hath all that the Father hath For the Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hands John 16.15 Fourthly The attributes of God are ascribed to him as Eternity He is that Eternal life that was with the Father and is manifested unto us 1 John 1.1 2. And he in the beginning laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of his hands and when they perish yet he endures and his Years fail not nor have an end Immutability for he is the same and alters not yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 1.10 11 12. and 13.7 Omnipotency for he upholds all things by the word of his Power Heb 1.3 The Alpha and the Omega the first and the last he that was and is and is to come the Almighty Rev. 1.8 Omnisciency Now know we that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man ask thee any thing c. John 16.30 He knew all men and needed not that any man should testifie of what is in man for he knew what is in man John 2.24 25. All things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.12 13 Ubiquity or Omnipresence Where two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Yea Is God the Law-giver So is he Isa 42 4. The Isles shall wait for his Law Is God the Judg So is he Judg of Quick and Dead Acts 10.42 Is God the King So is he King of all the Earth Psal 47.2 3. Yea he is All and in all in the New Creature Col. 3.11 Again as for Spirit to Enlighten Quicken and Inable us to Worship acceptably The holy Spirit in the fulness thereof dwells in and rests upon him The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 And with him and by him he Inlightens Quickens Teaches and so fits for Worshipping God creates a clean Heart renews a right Spirit raises from spiritual death to spiritual life and so to Worship and serve God in the Spirit which Service he makes acceptable and he by that Spirit will raise the Body from the Dead and fashion it into the likeness of his
in and dallied with Is there any thing of so great danger to us as to dye of those wounds and to fall into everlasting misery and perdition and therefore is there any thing more seriously to be looked after then that we may escape it Would not men with the whole heart fly from the biting of Serpents or the devouring teeth of Lyons or Fire and Brimstone from Heaven as Lot did or the Earths opening its mouth as the People of Israel did when it swallowed up Dathan and Abiram Oh how should these worse destructions of the Soul be much more heartily fled from Would we be in earnest or dally and trifle when labouring of the Gout or Stone or Strangury we look out for deliverance from them And shall we not much more seriously look for deliverance from Hell and destruction eternal wrath and everlasting burnings which are infinitely worse and not to be avoided but by looking diligently that we fail not of Gods grace Heb. 12.15 2. The fitting us for any or all acceptable service to God and profit to men we cannot serve him acceptably please him and profit others till looking to Jesus we receive grace and fitness And is it nothing to please God Seeing thence also flows 3. The attaining to that perfectly healthy state of Soul and Body too in the Resurrection in which we shall have the greatest and fullest happiness and that for ever Fulness of joy in Gods presence and pleasures at his right hand for evermore Psal 16.11 Will men trifle in seeking health and life much more in offers made of Crowns and Kingdomes with all the confluence of riches honours and delights therein I trow not and if they that strive for Masteries that they might get corruptible Crowns wreaths of honour much more Crowns of Gold and Kingdomes would be temperate in all things and endure all kind of hardships and labours for them how much more ought we to be diligent and do and endure all things for an incorruptible Crown of such infinite worth and value 1 Cor. 9.25 26 27. I read of Socrates Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. lib. 2. cap. 1. a Heathen Philosopher that he would endure to stand a whole Day and Night together in a fixed posture looking up to Heaven without so much as moving his foot or winking with his eye though yet he had no such sight before him as the Gospel discovers to us Oh that we may not be so effeminate and impatient of trouble and labour as to let every or any thing divert or turn us away from looking unto and upon Christ crucified for us which leads to the last particular viz. Let us look to him 5. With patient continuance and perseverance for it s He that continueth looking into the perfect Law of Liberty and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work that is and shall be blessed in his doing Jam. 1.25 26. The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways but the good man that continues so shall be satisfied from himself with what he drinks in namely from Christ Prov. 14.14 Joh. 4.14 They that draw back Gods Soul shall have no pleasure in them and so they draw back to Perdition but it s He that believes so as not to draw back that believes to the saving of the soul Heb. 10.38 39. Motive 4. I shall add to all this one other Motive to perswade to it viz. the reasonableness and smalness of the thing required to so great advantages it s but look up and be healed Numb 21.8 Look to me and be ye saved Isa 45.22 Hear and your Souls shall live Isa 55.3 Open thine eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread Prov. 20.3 May not that man be justly left to starve or pine for want of provisions that for opening his eyes and looking about him diligently might have enough to maintain him and will not and that man justly perish that in looking to Christ may be saved and refuses it We may apply to such as stick at this and turn from it what was said to Naaman by his Servants If the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much more when he saith wash and be clean 2 King 5.13 When he saith look up and live look to Christ and be saved CHAP. XXV Exhortation to lift up the Son of man with some Motives to it and Demonstration of the usefulness of it in several Cases and Directions in it Exhort 2 ANd seeing the Son of man must be lift up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness that whosoever believeth on him may not perish but have Eternal Life and this lifting up is required of men as Instruments in Gods and his Spirits hands as to the lifting him up by way of commending him and setting forth his vertues as hath been more largely opened let us considering diligently what hath been said in Explication hereof both in love to and compliance with God in his blessed appointment herein and in love to Jesus Christ this most precious one as being most worthy of all possible love and testimonies of it from us being in the Name of God the Author and Procurer of all good for us and Dispenser of it to us and in love to the Souls and Persons of our Neighbours and Brethren to whom our love is pleasing in the sight of God and Christ if duly testified by us Let us I say eyeing and looking stedfastly upon him and unto him for help and guidance strength and blessing herein make it our business to lift up and extol this Son of man with all our skill and power Knowing that Motive 1. Herein we shall do the will of God and therein also not darken and obscure but greatly commend and lift up God himself for this being his device and design the issue off-spring and product of his infinite Wisdom Holiness Grace and Goodness and He his only begotten Son in whom is all his delight and well pleasedness in lifting him up we extol his wisdom and holiness grace and goodness and in neglecting or dishonouring him or calling him Anathema we abrogate the grace and reject the wisdom and counsel of God give him the lye and most horribly dishonour him as if a God of no judgment or understanding He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father that hath sent him Joh. 5.23 Who judgeth no man himself immediately but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all should honour him as they do the Father that sent him And surely if we shew our selves so unkind to God and Christ if we be so opposite to his Grand Design and undertaking we must needs fall under the heat and weight of his indignation and there will be no escaping it But in lifting him up and honouring him if we do it in deed and in truth with our hearts as well us with our lips we please God and have fellowship with him as
of this he hath given evident and abundant demonstration both that he perfectly hates sin and that he will severely punish it where not pardoned and purged As 1. In his casting down the Angels that sinned not sparâ—ng them though high and glorious creatures but throwing them down to hell and reserving them in chains of darkness to the Judgment of the great day 2 Pet. 2 4. Jud. 6. 2. And in his casting man out of Paradise and inflicting upon us all the Sentence of Death upon the account of his owâ— offence we being all in him and in him offending Rom. 5.12 18 19. 3. And in his not sparing his only begotten Son when â—e stept in between God and us to Ransom and deliver us from perishing in the first Death Though he was his only begotten Son yet he pleased to bruise him and make his Soul an offering for sin and did not release us from the punishment of it to destruction upon his only praying and interceding for us without his suffering to the shedding of his Blood or powring out of his Soul unto death and therein being made a curse for us Isa 53.4 5 6 10. Gal. 3.13 Rom. 8.32 And surely if sin be so odious to him that he would not let it pass unpunished in his own Son when but imputed to him and undertaken for by him for us how can it be expected that any other person not saved from it by him but abiding in it and committing and practising it to the death especially also against Christs gracious calls and counsels and endeavours to reclaim us shall escape his Judgment If such things were done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry tree As himself said Luk. 23.31 4. And in the great and terrible day that he hath appointed whereof he hath given faith or Assurance to all men in his having raised up Christ from the dead Act. 17.30 31. And the dreadful punishments and destructions which he hath decreed and threatned then to execute upon the wilful and impenitent sinners There is a Judgment appointed to be after Death as well as there was one pronounced before it Heb. 9.27 Rom. 5.16 An Eternal Judgment Heb. 6.3 A day of the Destruction and Perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3.7 The Judgment of the great day Jude 6. When Christ shall be revealed from Heaven with all his mighty Angels in flaming fire to take vengeance on all that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thes 1.6,7 8. When all the workers of iniquity shall perish being destroyed with as everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength or mighty power When all that are proud and all that work wickedness shall be like stubble and the day of the Lord that burneth like an oven shall utterly consume them and neither leave them root nor branch Mal. 4.1 5. Yea and in those many terrible judgments and destructions of ungodly sinners which God hath oftentimes and in all ages and places signally executed in this world are demonstrations of the severity of his anger against sin and of the power of his wrath prevailing against all the policy or strength of the sinner to withstand it and as certain Types Tastes or Ensamples of the Eternal vengeance in the great day to come to be executed and endured Such was the overflowing of the Old World the World of the ungodly with a Flood in the days of Noah 2 Pet. 2.5 The burning up of Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent Cities with Fire and Brimstone from Heaven for their great wickedness Setting them forth as ensamples of suffering eternal Vengeance as the Apostle saith Jude 7. â— 2 Pet. 2.6 The overthrow of Pharoah in the Red Sea the destructions of Saul Nabal c. The destruction and desolation of Jerusalem and the like Psal 9.16 17. Yea and that men are not only in danger of but in the way to perishing naturally and generally in and of themselves is evident too for if we mind the ways men generally walk in we shall find they are such as God hath threatned his Judgments to and revealed his wrath from Heaven against Rom. 1.18 Both so as to exclude from the Kingdom and the Glory to come and so as to destroy with everlasting destruction such as walk in them for are not the generality of men either proud persons and such he hath denounced destruction upon being hateful and abominable to him Mal. 4.1 Isa 2.11.12 Prov. 2.17 Or covetous and such God abhorreth Psa 10.3 Or Idolaters or Fornicators or Adulterers at least in heart Mat. 5.28 Or abominable defilers of themselves with mankind or effeminate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.9 10. delicate sost persons or Thieves or Lyers or Extorâ—ioners or Drunkards or Revilers or Murtherers or the like None of which may have any part in the Kingdom of God or of Christ but in the Lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second Death A death infinitely more dreadful then the bodily Death however inflicted though in the most lingring painful and tormenting manner that ever was devised or heard of being the punishment prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1 Cor. 6.9.10 Eph. 5.3 4 5 6. Rev. 21.8 22.15 Mat. 25.41 46. At the best are not men too generally walking and passing their times as our Saviour saith of the old World and of the Sodomites in the days of Noah and Lot in eating and drinking marrying and being given in marriage buying selling building planting with a neglect of the safety of their Souls and yet upon those that so walk Destruction will come as the Flood and Fire did upon the men of those days there mentioned by him Luk. 17.26 27 28. c. Yea what need we further Testimony then that of the Apostle proving all men both Jews and Gentiles to be under Sin Rom. 3.9 19. Their throat is an open Sepulchre with their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of Asps is under their lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and misery are in all their ways and the way of Peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes And whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world become guilty or obnoxious to judgment in the sight of God This to the first Point which tends to shew us Vse 1. Our miserable state in our selves that we might be low and little in our own eyes and not lift up our selves and walk either proudly and stoutly as if all were well with us and we in no danger of seeing evil or slothfully and securely in not earnestly looking out for a remedy yea against that it's useful to shew us 2. Our need great need of a Saviour and to inquire diligently after