atomes so the Holy Spirit by diffusing himself throughout this mystical body joyns and unites all its parts together and makes it one separate and individual Corporation So that when by Baptism we are once incorporated into this body we are intitled to and do at least de jure participate of the vital influence of the Holy Ghost who is the Soul of it and accordingly as Baptism joyns us to that body of which this divine Spirit is the Soul so it also conveys that divine Spirit to us So that as in natural bodies those Ligaments which unite and tie the parts to one another do also convey life and spirit to them all so also in this mystical body those federal rights of Baptism and the Lord's Supper which are as it were its Nerves and Arteries that joyn and confederate its members to one another are also the conveyances of that spiritual life from the Holy Ghost which moves and actuates them all And hence the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost the being born of water and of the Holy Ghost are put together as concurrent things and in Acts 2.38 Baptism is affirmed to be necessary to our receiving the Holy Ghost and if by Baptism we receive the Holy Ghost that is a right and title to his Grace and Influence then must the Holy Ghost be still supposed vitally united to the Church whereof we are made members by our Baptism and like an Omnipresent Soul to be diffused all through it and to move and actuate every part of it by his heavenly Grace and Influence It is true he doth not move and actuate us by meer force and irresistible power so as to necessitate us or to determine our natural liberty one way or t'other nor doth he ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way as he did in the first Ministration of the Gospel when he frequently transformed men in an instant from Beasts and Devils into Saints and as it were at one act turned the whole Tide of their natures into a quite contrary Current For so Origen against Celsus very often triumphs in these sudden and miraculous Conversions wrought by the Christian Religion so lib. 1. p. 21. should any man saith he release men's Souls from all sorts of wickedness from Lust and Unrighteousness and Contempt of God and this but in a hundred instances surely no man would imagine that he could ever have inspired so many men with reasons strong enough to conquer so many Vices without a divine assistance but if you enquire into the lives of those that have imbraced Christianity you will find that whereas before they lived in all impurities and lusts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. from that very time wherein they received the Word how much more equal and temperate serious and constant are they grown So again li. 2. p. 78. in answer to Celsus who calls Christianity a pestilent Doctrine neither Jew saith he nor any one else can ever make it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that a pestilent Doctrine should so wonderfully convert the most profligate persons that embraced it to a life most sutable to Nature and Reason and all manner of Vertue Such were the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in those days as to transport men in an instant from an inveterate habit of wickedness to a habit of Piety and Vertue For so Lactantius de fals sup lib. 3. c. 26. what a mighty influence the divine Precepts have upon mens Souls daily experience shews for saith he Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus maledicus effraenatus paucissimis Dei Verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam da cupidum avarum tenacem jam tibi eum liberalem dabo pecuniam suam plenis manibus largientem da timidum doloris ac mortis jam cruces ignes Taurum contemnet da libidinosum Adulterum Ganeonem jam sobrium castum continentem videbis da crudelem sanguinis appetentem jam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur da injustum insipientem peccatorem continuò aequus prudens innocens erit i. e. Give me a man who is wrathful reproachful ungovernable and with a few words of God I will render him as placid as a Lamb give me a covetous a niggardly and tenacious man I will return him to thee liberal and distributing his money with a bountiful hand give me one that is timorous of grief and death he shall despise all manner of torment give me one that is lustful adulterous and a Buffoon you shall presently see him sober chaste and continent give me one that is cruel and thirsty of bloud his fury shall be immediately converted into pity and clemency give me one that is unjust foolish and criminal and he shall be presently rendred just prudent and innocent which wondrous Changes were so very frequent in the Primitive times that the Heathen as St. Austin hath observed were very much amazed at them and therefore attributed them to the power of Magick thinking it impossible they should ever be effected without the assistance of some very powerful Spirit But since Christianity hath been spread through the World and prevailed so far as to be the Religion of Nations the divine Spirit doth not ordinarily work upon men in such a strange and miraculous way nor produce in them such sudden Changes and instantaneous Conversions but proceeds more gradually and more suitably to the Methods of Humane Nature by joyning in with our understandings and leading us on by reason and persuasion from Acts to Dispositions and from Dispositions to Habits of Piety So that whatsoever Grace he now affords us it ordinarily works on us in the same way and after the same manner as if all were performed by the strength of our own reason so that in the Renovation of our natures we cannot certainly distinguish what is done by the Spirit from what is done by our natural Reason and Conscience co-operating with him only this we do most certainly know that in this blessed work the Spirit is the main and principal Agent that without him we can do nothing and that he is the Author and Finisher of our faith who worketh in us to will and to do according to his own pleasure but yet that he doth not work upon us as a Mechanick upon dead materials but as upon living and free Agents that can and must cooperate with him that he acts not on us by any necessary causality but in such a way as is fairly consistent with the natural liberty of our Wills and doth not renew us whether we will or no but takes our free consent and endeavour along with him and that having done all on his part that is necessary to perswade us he expects that we should consider what he saith and upon that consent to his gracious Motions and express this consent in a constant course of holy and vertuous endeavour and
ingenuous tender or apprehensive in Humane Nature it will be impossible for us to resist these endearing instances of the love of God and our Saviour which carry warmth and fervour enough with them to melt the most obdudurate natures Fourthly Christ's Death and Sacrifice is also to be considered as a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon if we repent and amend For it was upon the vertue of Expiatory Sacrifices that all Mankind depended for their reconciliation with God and therefore these Sacrifices were a principal part not only of the Religion of the Iews but of the Gentiles too who besides their Eucharistical had their constant Expiatory Oblations to atone and pacifie their Gods. And this more especially in times of publick Danger and Calamity when they conceived their Gods to be most offended with them at which Seasons they were wont to offer up their most costly Sacrifices and devote not only Hecatombs of Beasts to their Altars but many times the more precious lives of Men Women and Children imagining that the more valuable the life was the greater vertue there was in it to appease the angry Deity And upon this sacred Rite did all the World build their hope of reconciliation with God as being conscious that by their sin they had forfeited their own lives to him and that there was no other way to redeem them but by making a commutation with him and offering him another life for their own which was therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. a life for their life and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the price of their Redemption But alas so miserably defective were the very best of their Sacrifices that they could not rationally depend on them with any confidence or assurance For as for the Heathen Sacrifices God had never promised to accept them and it being an act of pure grace and favour in him to admit of such a commutation it wholly depended on his own good-will whether he would admit it or no and without some express revelation it was impossible for them to know which way his Will was determined in the case And then even their most precious Sacrifices which were the lives of Men were infinitely short in value to redeem the Lives and Souls of those that offered them those sacrificed men being sinners themselves and they but a few sinners for many And as for the Iewish Sacrifices though God in many cases had promised to accept them in commutation for the lives of their Bodies yet those being only the lives of Brutes which were but negatively innocent as being incapable of Sin or Vertue could merit nothing of God and consequently were infinitely short of a valuable commutation for the forfeited lives of their Souls All which considered there was no relying on them for Redemption from the Obligation they lay under to eternal punishment But now all these defects are abundantly supplied in the Sacrifie of our blessed Saviour For his life was not only infinitely valuable by reason of his personal Union to the Godhead and so in it self an equivalent Ransom he was not only no Sinner which the best of the Heathen Sacrifices were he was not only Negatively innocent which was all that the Iewish Sacrifices were but he was also perfectly righteous and by vertue thereof infinitely dear and acceptable to God and to crown all God himself both by express Revelation and by raising him from the dead hath openly declared his acceptance of his precious bloud as a Ransom for the sins of the World. And upon this most sure and certain ground stands our hope of pardon and reconciliation with God. So that in the precious bloud of this our meritorious and accepted Sacrifice we openly behold the mercy of God inviting us into grace and favour and with out-stretched arms ready to receive and embrace us which gives us the most effectual encouragement in the World to return to our duty I confess if we had no such Sacrifice to depend on the sence of our past guilts might justly discourage us from all thoughts of future repentance for though the natural goodness and benignity of God might happily give us some small hope yet on the other hand the consideration of his natural abhorrence of sin and the mighty Obligations he lies under to punish it as he is a wise and righteous Governour would very much dash our hope out of countenance So that the utmost encouragement we could have had would be that which the King of Nineveh gave his People Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not Jonah 3.9 But now we can certainly tell that if we will turn from our sins he will turn from his anger for our hope depends not on a doubtful peradventure but upon a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice paid down to and accepted of God. What then should hinder us from returning to him who are thus firmly assured of his gracious reception and do certainly know before-hand that all our past provocations shall be blotted out and our penitent Souls embraced with the same grace and favour as if we had never offended Fifthly and lastly This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as the Seal and Confirmation of the New Covenant For thus of old Covenants between God and Men were wont to be sealed and transacted by Sacrifice So Gen. 15. Abraham by God's Command being to strike Covenant with him offered a Sacrifice which he divided in the middle laying each Moyety one against the other between which God passed in the likeness of a burning Lamp and so made a Covenant with him saying Vnto thy Seed will I give this Land in which Rite of passing between the parts God condescended to the manner of Men for so the Iews when they struck Covenant with God were wont to cut the Sacrifice in sunder and pass between the parts thereof Ier. 34.18 19. by which action they made this imprecation on themselves Thus let me be divided and cut in pieces if I violate the Oath I have now made And accordingly the bloud of the Sacrifice is called by Moses The bloud of the Covenant Exod. 24.8 and the Iews are said to make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice Psal. 50.5 For all Expiatory Sacrifices were regularly attended with Peace-offerings in both which the Priest or the People were God's Guests and in token of reconciliation did eat and drink with him of the provisions of his Altar or Table For in the burnt-offerings the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings the Priests only as the Proxies and Representatives of the People were admitted to be God's Guests but then in the Peace-offerings which followed them the People themselves were admitted to his Table to partake with him of those sacred Viands So that in the first the Priests as the Peoples Representatives struck Covenant with God for them in the second they struck Covenant with God for
the substance of our bodies and that all the rest we render back again into the common mass of matter by sensible or insensible evacuations though we should suppose one man to have eaten up the whole substance of anothers body yet he retains but one part of an hundred and what should hinder an omnipotent power from raising the body he hath devoured out of the ninety nine parts which he lets go again And then considering that in seven years time the whole substance of our body Changes he must if he live so long evacuate that one part which he retain'd and so the whole will be at last worn off from the matter and substance of his body Nay suppose this Devourer to feed altogether upon mans flesh as some affirm the Canibals do and that in the last seven years before his death he devours one hundred humane bodies weighing two hundred pound a piece according to this computation the utmost he can be supposed to digest of the flesh of these hundred bodies into the substance of his own amounts not to above two pound of each so that of the two hundred weight of bodily substance whereof these devoured bodies did consist there will still remain one hundred ninety eight undigested into the substance of the Devourer which we may easily conceive is sufficient matter out of which to re-produce the same bodies For we many times lose as much of our substance in a sweat and a great deal more in a consumption as these devoured bodies do in their being eaten and digested notwithstanding which our bodies continue numerically the same But as for the bodies of these Man-eaters there is no doubt but they carry with them a great deal of other substance to their graves besides that of mans flesh for the liquor which they drink with it and the bread which they eat with it and the other accidental nourishments which they receive with it goes into the substance of their bodies as well as that and these being at least one half of their nourishment must constitute at least one half of their bodies What then should hinder but that at the resurrection the other half of them which consists of mans flesh may be separated from them and restored to those humane bodies they devoured and if so then each of them shall recover its whole substance again and not want so much as one particle of all that matter whereof they were composed when they were eaten for it is but just that they should be made to refund those unnatural spoils which they barbarously ravished from the bodies of other men But then you will say How shall the body of the Cannibal that eat them be raised when according to this account it be must deprived of one half of the substance it died withal I answer that to this remaining half of his bodily substance there may without any repugnance to its being raised the same body be added out of the common mass of matter as much new bodily substance as is sufficient to redintegrate it in all its parts for the resurrection of the same body doth not necessarily imply that all the same matter shall be raised and no other and no more For if all shall be raised in the most perfect stature and proportion of humane bodies as there is no doubt but they shall then Infants and Dwarfs and such as die of Consumptions must have new matter added to that which they die withal and therefore the resurrection of the same body can imply no more than this that every body shall be raised out of the same matter so far as it will go and therefore if this remaining half of the substance of the Canibals body will not go far enough to redintegrate his whole body at the resurrection there is no doubt but God will add new substance to it which will no more hinder it from being the same numerical Body than the reparation of an house with new stones and Timber hinders it from being the same numerical house For suppose that God by a Miracle should in an instant restore a man to his full Bulk the substance of whose body is half pined away by a lingring Consumption this would not at all hinder but that still it would be the same numerical Body Why then should the Addition of new bodily substance to the remaining half of the matter of the Canibals body at the resurrection hinder it from being raised numerically the same And this I conceive is sufficient to clear the doctrine of the general Resurrection from all pretence of Repugnancy and Contradiction But suppose after all that there should be some rare and singular instances wherein it will be impossible in the nature of the thing for the same numerical Body to be raised again this would no more impeach the truth of a general resurrection of the same bodies than Enoch's and Elias's not dying do the truth of the Maxim of the Author to the Hebrews It is appointed for all men once to die If therefore in any instance it should be impossible in the nature of the thing for God to raise the same body it will be sufficient to serve the purpose of rewards and punishments for God to cloath the same soul in a new body For it is the soul that individuates the man and makes him to be the same person though he hath not the same body We have not the same matter about us when we are ten years old that we were first cloathed with when we were born and as he who shall be rewarded or punished ten years hence for a Vertue or a Crime which he acts now will be rewarded or punished in the same body though not in the same matter so he who shall be rewarded or punished at the resurrection for the good or evil which he doth in this life will be rewarded or punished in the same person though it should not be in the same body But it being more congruous to the accuracy and exactness of the divine justice that it should be in the same body as well as in the same person and it being every whit as easie to an infinite power to restore to our souls the same bodies as to cloath them in new ones for within the compass of posssibilities all things are equally within the reach of Omnipotence mens bodies shall be universally rebuilt at the Resurrection out of those old Ruins and Materials in which they did good or evil in this life and if there should happen some particular instances wherein such a numerical resurrection should be in it self impossible these will be only a few exceptions from that general rule which rather confirm than destroy it For thus from Scripture we are assured that they who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake Dan. 12.2 and that all that are in the grave shall hear Christs voice and come forth John 5.28 29. that the Sea shall give up the dead which are
in it and that death and Hell i. e. the grave shall deliver up the dead which are in them Rev. 20.13 All which expressions according to the literal sense of them from which without necessary reasons we ought not to depart do plainly import a resurrection of the same numerical bodies Our Resurrection therefore being a possible thing is as easie to an omnipotent Power as Christ's was and therefore his resurrection is a most certain pledge of ours since he rose as our common Head and Representative and consequently rose with the very same Will and Power to raise us which he had to raise himself Having thus proved the Truth of the matter of Fact viz. that Christ will raise us at the last day I proceed in the next place to the manner of the Fact how it is that he will raise us In treating of which I shall regulate my self by that account which the Apostle gives of it 1 Cor. 1.5 in which he having proved at large the truth of the Resurrection from ver 12. to the 35th he comes to answer an Objection concerning the manner of it but some man will say how are the dead raised up and with what body do they come In answer to which he gives a large description of it and by the similitude of seed explicates the manner how it shall be performed till he comes to ver 42. where he applies the similitude to the matter in hand so also is the Resurrection of the Dead and then goes on with a farther enlargement on it to the end of the Chapter So that this so also refers both to what went before and to what follows So also i. e. so as I have already in part described and shall farther explain in my ensuing Discourse This so therefore referring to the whole description implies these five particulars of which the whole consists First So is this mortal body to be the seed and material Principle of our Resurrection Secondly So must this Seed die and be corrupted before it be quickned and revived Thirdly So is this dead corrupted body to be raised and quickned by the power of God. Fourthly So is it to be raised by the Divine Power into the proper and natural form of an humane body Fifthly So is this humane body to be changed and altered in its Resurrection I. So is the Resurrection of the dead i. e. so is this mortal body to be the seed and material principle of the Resurrection For this is plainly implied ver 36. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die Intimating that as the Seed is the material cause of the Ear of Corn which afterwards springs up so are these mortal bodies which we sow in the Earth at least the main materials of those immortal ones into which we shall be quickned at the Resurrection Perhaps as the Seed digests and incorporates into it self the juyces of the Earth and shoots them up together with its own substance into the Stalk and Ear so in some particular instances at least there may be other matter at our Resurrection interwoven with the appropriate substance of our mortal bodies and together with it spring up into immortal ones Yet from the Apostles comparison it is apparent that this very mortal body which we sow in the Grave shall be at least the Seed and Embryo which shall receive our Soul at the Resurrection and by that supposing other matter be added to it assimilate and digest it into its own substance Now though to reproduce the scattered particles of our dissolved flesh and extricate them out of all those other substances whereinto they have been woven and entangled may seem to us at first view an impossible performance yet that it is not so I have already demonstrated and if a parcel of Quicksilver after it hath run a tedious course of alteration shifted it self out of its natural form into that of a vapour out of a vapour into an insipid water out of water into a white or red or yellow powder out of that into a salt and thence into a malleable Metal may by a skilful Artist be reduced out of all these various contextures into its natural form of plain and running Mercury why should we think it either impossible or difficult for a Being of immense knowledge and power to watch the wandering particles of our corrupted bodies through all their successive alterations and to retrieve them out of all those substances into which they shall be finally resolved to take out of one body what belongs to another and restore to each its own and finally to incorporate them all together into their natural forms and figures II. So is the Resurrection of the dead i. e. so is this Seed of our mortal body to die and be corrupted before it shall be raised again That which thou sowest is not quickened unless it die intimating that as the parts of the Seed are separated in the ground and dissolved into a liquid Jelly before it springs up into a Stalk and Ear so this mortal body of ours must be corrupted its parts must be dispersed and dissipated from one another before it quickens and springs up again at the general Resurrection and indeed the body must naturally corrupt when once it is separated from the Soul that enlivens it and that before it is raised and glorified the Soul should remain for some space separated from it seems highly necessary For the nature of Souls is such as requires a gradual and leisurely progression out of one state into another their faculties are such as cannot in a natural way be improved but by degrees or qualified in an instant for two extream conditions without a miracle But as for this mortal State and that of the Resurrection they are two such remote and distant extreams as that our slow paced natures cannot travel from one to the other under a long space of time and for a Soul to pass in one instant out of an Earthly into an Heavenly out of a fleshly into a spiritual out of a mortal into an immortal body seems too great a leap for a Being whose nature confines it to a gradual improvement For how should a Soul which hath been so long immured in mortal flesh so long accustomed to its sensual pleasures so cloged and incumbered with its unwieldly organs so pinioned and hampered by its brutish appetites How I say is it possible in a natural way for such a Soul to be immediately disposed to act and animate an Heavenly Body And therefore it is requisite that for some time at least it should continue in a separate state there to inure it self to a heavenly life and by a continued contemplation and love and imitation of God to ripen gradually into the state of the Resurrection and to contract a perfect aptitude to animate an heavenly body that so its powers being enlarged and improved by exercise it may be able to manage that active
those dreadful words Go ye cursed into everlasting fire the persons concerned will immediately perceive the dire effects for all on a sudden they will see the Clouds from above and the Earth from beneath casting forth Torrents of fire upon them which in an instant will set all the World in a Blaze about their ears At the sight of which all this wretched World will be turned into a mournful Stage of Horrours in which the miserable actors being seized with inexpressible amazement to see themselves all on a sudden encompassed on every side with flames will raise a hideous Roar and outcry millions of burning men and women shrieking together and their noise shall mingle with the Archangels Trumpet with the Thunders of the dying and groaning Heaven and the crack of the dissolving World that is sinking into eternal ruins In which miserable state of things whither can the poor Creatures fly or where can they hope to find a Sanctuary If they go up to the tops of the Mountains there they are but more openly exposed to the dreadful lightnings of Heaven if they go down into the holes and caverns of the Rocks there they will be swallowed up in the burning furnaces of the Earth if they descend into the deep there they will soon be overtaken with a storm of fire and brimstone and where-ever they go the vengeance of God will still pursue them with its everlasting burnings And thus having no retreat left them no avenue to escape out of this burning World here they must remain for ever surrounded with smoak and fire and darkness and wrap'd in fierce and merciless flames which like a shirt of burning pitch will stick close to and pierce through and through their passive bodies and for ever prey upon but never consume them And now the Almighty Judg having seen his dread sentence executed will arise from his Throne and from thence return to the Seat of the blessed in a solemn and Glorious Triumph with all his holy myriads of Angels and Saints who as they follow him through the Air and aether will with loud Hosanna's and triumphant acclamations celebrate the praises of their Redeemer Thus shall the Ransomed of the Lord return with him with Songs to the heavenly Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and everlasting praises in their mouths For being arrived into those blissful Regions there in those glorified Bodies which they put on at their Resurrection they shall live for ever in unspeakable pleasures and delights and be entertain'd not only with all that happiness which they enjoyed in the state of their separation when they were only blessed Spirits but also with all the satisfactions and delights that their glorified Bodies can require and enjoy So that now their blessedness shall be consummate and all the capacities of their humane nature compounded of body and soul shall be fulfilled with bliss till they overflow and can contain no more But wherein the happiness of their glorified Bodies shall consist I shall not presume to inquire the Scripture being silent concerning it And what the happiness of their souls shall be hath been shewn at large before Part 1. c. 3 4. So that as to that state of eternal life in which our Saviour shall place his faithful servants in the conclusion of this great Judgment I need say no more of it in this place SECT XI Concerning the conclusion and surrender of the Kingdom of Christ. WHen our Saviour hath finished that last and most glorious act of Royalty viz. Iudging the World and hath finally condemned to everlasting fire the irreclaimable enemies of God and crowned all his faithful subjects with eternal Glory and Beatitude the Apostle tells us He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father 1 Cor. 15.24 For our better understanding of which we are to consider that the Kingdom of Christ is twofold First Essential as he is God Essential and doth subsist in the divine Essence by the supereminent perfections of which he being exalted above all things hath an essential Right of Dominion over all things and this is Co-eternal with himself and is as inseparable to him as his Being this he can no more deliver up than he can his Godhead which without ceasing to be can never cease to be supreme over all things But then in the second place there is his Mediatorial Kingdom which is that of which we have hitherto been treating and this as hath been shewn before was by solemn compact and agreement confâ—r'd upon him by the Father upon condition that he should assume our Nature and therein make expiation for our sins in consideration whereof the Father obliged himself to grant a Covenant of Grace to the sinful World and to constitute him the Mediator of it by which Mediatorial Office he is authorized to rule for God according to the tenour of that gracious Covenant as well as to intercede for us and in ruling for God according to that Covenant he is to crown and reward all such as return to and persevere in their duty with everlasting happiness and to render eternal vengeance to all such as obstinately persist in their rebellion So that when this is done as it will be in the conclusion of the day of Judgment the whole business of his Mediatorial Kingdom is at an end then the Covenant of which he is now Mediator will be completely executed and consequently his Mediation will cease as being of no farther use and having no farther part to act For now God and Man being made completely one the Office of a Mediator ceases of its own accord for a Mediator is not a Mediator of one Gal. 3.20 and therefore the two parties being perfectly united there is no farther use of a Mediator between them Wherefore as our beatifical Vision will supercede the necessity of his prophetick Office to teach and instruct us as our perfection and intire fruition will supercede the necessity of his Priestly Office to offer and intercede for us so the security of our possession of both will supercede the necessity of his Kingly Office to protect and defend us and therefore when our Affairs are once reduced to this happy issue his Kingly Office as well as all other parts of his Mediatorship will for ever cease But since this great Mystery is no where expresly delivered in Scripture but only in that forecited 1 Cor. 15. I shall endeavour to give a brief account of the whole passage which lies in vers 24 25 26 27 28. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall put down all Rule and all Authority and all Power for he must reign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death for he hath put all things under his feet but when he saith all things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted which did put
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
sacrificed body to the Father he did what the High Priest did when he sprinkled the bloud of his Sacrifice i. e. he interceded for us with God and indeed he interceded more prevalently by this significant action than if he had used all the Eloquence of Men and Angels For his wounds are vocal and his bloud speaks yea and not only speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel spoke but also expresses what it speaks far more powerfully and emphatically than it is possible for any verbal Oratory to do So that by the presenting to his Father his wounded and bleeding body which carries with it an inexhaustible fountain of Rhetorique and Persuasion he makes the most moving and pathetical intercession for us the sense of which is this though the full force and Emphasis of it no Language can express O my Father behold this sacrificed body of mine which by thy consent and approbation hath been substituted to bear the punishment which was due to thee from Mankind and through the wounds of which I have chearfully poured out the precious bloud of God as a ransom for the sins of the World for the sake of this bloud therefore be thou so far propitious to those miserable sinners it was shed for as upon condition they shall repent to accept it in exchange for the lives of their Souls which are forfeited to thee to release them from the Obligation they are under to die eternally and upon their final perseverance in well-doing to crown them with eternal life and that this bloud which at thy command I have willingly shed for them may not through their inability to repent and persevere be utterly ineffectual to them O send thy Holy Spirit to assist their weak faculties to excite their endeavours and co-operate with them This is the Language of Christ's sacrificed body in Heaven and these are the better things which his bloud bespeaks for us For his bloud bespeaks those good things for us in Heaven for which he shed it upon Earth i. e. the remission of our sins and our eternal life of which blessings his bloud being the price that God had promised to accept his presenting it to him in Heaven not only speaks for but humbly demands them as carrying with it the unanswerable claim of an accepted Price to a stated Purchace So that this address which Christ makes for us to God in heaven is not performed by him after the manner of a prostrate Supplicant with bended knees up-lifted hands and lowly supplications but in such a manner as comports with the Kingly Majesty he is advanced to and so as at the same time to assert his own right of purchace in the blessings he addresses for and yet to acknowledge God to be the supreme fountain and disposer of them And this the Scripture tells us he performs by appearing in the presence of God for us and presenting his sacrificed body to him as a standing motive to prevail with him to be propitious to us and to crown us with all those graces and favours in consideration of which he laid down his life for us And accordingly he is said to offer himself to God for us in heaven Heb. 9.25 and to offer his one Sacrifice i. e. to God in heaven for sin for ever Heb. 10.12 By which offering or presenting his Sacrifice to God he doth at once claim for us by the right of his purchace all those good things for which he paid down the price of his bloud and also by a silent desire pray to God to bestow them upon us whereby he acknowledges him to be the sovereign disposer of them So that this significant action of Christ's presenting his sacrificed body to God is both a Claim and a Prayer or rather it is a Prayer backt and enforced with a rightful claim to the blessings he prays for For so for that particular blessing of the Spirit he himself tells us I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever John 14.16 not that he offers up any other Prayer to the Father but what his wounds and bloud continually make which with incessant importunity do move and solicite God in our behalf but his meaning is this by presenting that Sacrifice to my Father in Heaven which I am going to offer on the Cross and by which among other blessings I shall purchace of my Father his Holy Spirit for you I will pray him to send his Holy Spirit to you I will pray him by my wounds and bloud which are a thousand times more moving and eloquent than any vocal Prayer I can offer in your behalf for while they pray him to send his Spirit to you they lay an undeniable claim to what they pray for as being the dear and inestimable price by which I am purchasing his Spirit for you From all which it is evident that this address which Christ now makes for us to his Father in Heaven consists in the presenting his sacrificed body to him by which he both prays to him and claims what he prays for III. It is by the continued and perpetual oblation or presentment of this his sacrificed body to the Father that Christ continues and perpetuates this his address or intercession in our behalf For the fiâ—st presenting or oâ—lation of his sacrificed body in Heaven was the beginning and commencement of his intercession and the whole progress of his intercession is nothing but that same oblation continued and perpetuated For as the High Priest was interceding for the people all the time that he was presenting the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Lord so Christ is interceding for us all the while that he is presenting his sacrificed body in Heaven For it is by the presence of his sacrificed body that he intercedes and therefore so long as his body is present in Heaven so long he must be interceding by it in our behalf So that between the Iewish High Priest's Intercession and Christ's there is this vast difference that the former presented himself in the Holy of Holies with his Sacrifice and consequently interceded by it but once a year viz. on the great day of Expiation whereas the latter continually presents his Sacrifice in Heaven and so doth continually intercede by it and whereas the bloud which the High Priest presented was so mean and inconsiderable that the whole vertue of it was still spent in one Act of Intercession as not being available enough for him to intercede with it twice insomuch that in every new act of Intercession he was still fain to present new bloud the bloud of Christ was of that infinite moment and value as that though he makes a continued and perpetuated Intercession by it yet the vertue and efficacy the power and prevalency of it with God remains fresh and unimpaired so that he needs not sacrifice again that so he may have new bloud to present but with that
raise us up by Iesus Christ i. e. by his personal Power and Agency and accordingly Iohn 6. 39 40.44.54 Christ promises us over and over again that he will raise us up at the last day and Iohn 11.25 he thus declares himself to Martha I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and Iohn 5.28 he tells us that the hour is coming in which all that are in the Grave should hear his voice And of the truth of this he hath given a most sure and certain pledge by his own Resurrection which not only demonstrates the possibility of the thing that the dead may rise but also gives ample assurance that they shall For that he hath in him a power to raise the dead is evident by his raising himself and to be sure that Power and Spirit that was in him when he raised himself is able to raise all those in whom it resides Whoever therefore hath the Spirit of Christ that Spirit by which he rose from the dead hath the power of the Resurrection in him which power to be sure will not be always in vain but one time or other will most certainly be reduced into Act For so the Apostle assures us Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us And indeed considering that Christ in dying and rising from the dead acted as our Head and Representative we may justly conclude that as when he laid down his life he laid it down for ours so when he took it up again he took up ours with it and consequently that he vertually raised us by the same Spirit whereby he actually raised himself because he hath not only Power but also Will as he is our Head and Representative to raise us even as he raised himself So that we are already risen in our causes since our Head and Representative is risen and hath the same power to raise us as he had to raise himself and hence he is called the first-born from the dead and we the Sons of the Resurrection Col. 1.18 because our Resurrection is now in the same causes that is in the same Will and Power as his was before he arose And therefore also he is called the first fruits of them that rise that is the pledge and handsel of the general Resurrection because he is risen with the same Will and Power to raise us that he had when he arose to raise himself and hence we find the Apostle argues from the Resurrection of Christ to the general Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead If we are all agreed that Christ is risen what reason can any man have to doubt of the general Resurrection But if there be no resurrection from the dead then is Christ not risen ver 13. To say that we shall not rise is by consequence to deny the resurrection of Christ because that very same will and power which must have been the cause of Christs resurrection if he be risen must be the cause of ours if ever we rise and therefore if it be insufficient to raise us it could never have been sufficient to raise him and consequently he cannot be risen If it be objected against this reasoning of the Apostle that our resurrection will be far more difficult to accomplish than Christs was because his body was never corrupted nor were the parts of it ever dispersed as ours will be long before the resurrection and therefore that cause which was sufficient to raise Christ may not be sufficient to raise us It may easily be answered that to the infinite power by which Christ was raised all possible things are equally easie and therefore allowing our resurrection to be but possible it must be every whit as easie to that infinite power by which Christ was raised to reduce all our scattered atoms into one mass again and to reorganize them into a humane body and reunite it to its ancient soul as it was to quicken the yet uncorrupted body of our Saviour So that all the question is whether the thing be possible for if it be it will be every whit as easie to the omnipotent cause of our Saviours resurrection to raise our bodies as it was to raise his But I beseech you why should it be thought more impossible for God to raise a dead corrupted body whose parts are all dispersed and scattered throughout the vast wilderness of matter and reunite it to its primitive soul than it was at first to create the matter of it and then form it into a humane body and animate it with a humane soul He who at the first creation could separate the confused mass of matter into so many distinct kinds and species of Beings can doubtless at the general resurrection as easily separate the same matter into its distinct and several individuals For what should hinder him who numbers the stars of the Heavens the sands of the Sea and the hairs of our heads from keeping an exact account of all our scattered particles and from knowing what dust belongs to every body and what body to every soul Or how can it be difficult to him whose power is as immense as his knowledg to recollect all the parts of this curious piece of Clockwork which he both made and took in sunder and to restore every pin into its proper place every spring to its due vigour and activity and every wheel to its primitive figure and motion If it be farther objected that there is an impossibility in the nature of the thing for the same dead body after it is corrupted and its parts all disperst to be reunited and raised to life again I answer that since these dispersed parts of our bodies do not perish but are safely laid up in the Chambers of Nature however they are scattered or wherever lodged they are all within the ken of Gods knowledg and within the reach of his power and so long as they are so why should their separation render it impossible for them to be reunited how and when he pleases If you say that in that perpetual course of transmutation which the matter of humane bodies runs it may happen and sometimes doubtless it doth that the same particles at several times are incorporated into several bodies As for instance when one man eats either the flesh or that which hath the flesh or substance of another in it and digests it into a part of his own body and substance in which case how is it possible at the resurrection that the substance or matter of this part should be reunited to them both To this I answer that considering that scarce the hundredth part of what we eat is digested into
infinite power with the vigorous activity of a glorified Soul II. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from earthly and fleshly into spiritual and heavenly So ver 44. It is sown saith he a natural body it is raised a spiritual body where those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render a natural body may perhaps be better translated an animal Body i. e. a body suted and adapted to this animal life which the beasts that perish enjoy in common with us a body that is sustained by animal operations and recreated with animal pleasures and which by reason of its gross substance doth continually crave to be supplied with suitable nourishment and treated with gross and carnal pleasures which is the very thing that renders it so great a Cumber to the immortal Spirit that animates it But at the Resurrection it will be improved into a spiritual body not that it will be converted into a spiritual substance for the Apostle's own words do assure us that it will still remain a body but the spirituality of it will consist in this that being wrought into a purer and finer substance it will no longer need or crave these animal nourishments and pleasures but be perectly fitted for and contemper'd to the soul and intirely resigned to its use and service for it will then be refined from all those animal appetites of eating drinking and carnality which do now too often not only render it unserviceable to the soul but also hurtful and injurious so that then it will be in intire subjection to the mind and all its members will be devoted Instruments to the service of Righteousness so that now there will be no longer any Law in its members to wage war against the Law in the mind but the mind will govern and the body obey without any contest or reluctancy and as the body will be wholly obedient to the mind so it will be perfectly adapted to its service for whereas now by reason of its gross consistency it is an unwieldy Luggage to the Soul and doth very much clog and incumber her in her operations it will then be wrought into so fine and tenuious a substance as that instead of a clog it will be a wing to the Soul for its consistence will be subtil as the finest Aether and active as the purest flame it will have nothing that is gross or burdensom in it to retard or weary it in its flights to rebate its vigour or slacken its motion but it will be all life and spirit and wing and like a perpetual motion be carried on with unwearied swiftness by its own internal springs and being freed from all that weight which now renders it so slow and heavy it will be able to move like a thought and to keep pace with the most nimble wishes of the Soul so that what Hierocles saith of his spiritual Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it is such a body as is every way fitted to the intellectual perfections of the Soul will be true of this resurrection body which will be perfectly attempered to a perfect mind and fashioned into a most convenient Organ for it whereby to exert its purest and most spiritual operations III. The Bodies of good Men will be changed from weak and passive into active and powerful Bodies so ver 43. It is sown in weakness it is raised in power that is whereas the body which we sow in the grave is exceeding weak and infirm liable to infinite passions and diseases and can do but little but suffers much it shall be raised with a temperament so pure and just so hail and vigorous that no disease or infirmity shall ever find any place in it or be able to cramp it in its operations For besides that its elementary qualities if any such remain in it shall be turned into such an exquisit temper that they shall never jar or disagree with each other it shall be so spirited and invigorated by the blessed Soul that animates it that nothing shall be able to impair its health or discompose its Harmony So that it shall live for ever without decay move for ever without weariness fast for ever without hunger and wake for ever without either need or desire of refreshment And indeed considering for what purpose our Bodies shall be raised they have need to be very strong and vigorous for they shall be raised on purpose to be the Organs and Instruments of the operations of our glorified Souls which being exceeding active as they are spirits but exceedingly more active as they are glorified spirits will require bodies suitably strong and vigorous such as can support their joys express their activities and keep pace with their raptutous emotions to do which will require a mighty firmness and vigour of temper Since therefore at the Resurrection God will fit and adapt our bodies to the utmost activity of our glorified spirits they must necessarily be supposed to be endued with unspeakable strength and agility upon which account they are called by the ancient Hebrews Eagles wings upon which they suppose our glorified Souls shall be able to fly as fast and as far as they please and this I am apt to think is intimated in that passage of S. Paul 1 Thes. 4.17 And they that are alive and whose bodies are changed in the state of the resurrection shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air the meaning of which is not that they shall be snatched up from the Earth by any external cause of Agent but that their Bodies being changed into pure aetherial flame they shall of their own accords ascend in them as in so many fiery Chariots to the Throne of their Redeemer in the Clouds and from thence when the judgment is concluded shall as nimbly ascend with him through all those spacious Fields of Air and Aether that lie between that and the eternal Paradise of Blessedness For that they shall be caught up by Angels as some imagin I see no reason to think since our Saviour himself assures us that at the Resurrection they shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore shall not need their help in this angelified state either to waft them up into the Air or from thence into the Heaven of Heavens and if by their own activity they shall be able to perform so vast a flight as 't is from the earth into the uppermost Region of the Air and from thence into the supreme Region of everlasting glory we may from thence collect what a vast power they will be endued with at their Resurrection But this is most certain that then they shall be perfectly released from all dolorous passion and continue in perfect strength and health and vigour for ever So that whereas now our Bodies are exceeding weak and passive a kind of walking Hospitals of pains infirmities and diseases the time will come when our soul shall be accommodated with a much more
bound and tremble as miserable Captives under our hands Others of them appeal to the Consciences of the Heathens themselves who had been Spectators of their miraculous Victories over these infernal Spirits So Minutius Faelix All these things are very well known to a great many of your selves that your Gods are forced by us to confess themselves Devils when by the torment of our words and by the fire of our Prayers they are chased out of human Bodies even Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter and the greatest of those Gods you worship being overcome with sorrow are forced to acknowledge what they are and tho it be to their shame especially when you are present yet they dare not lye but being adjured by the true and only God they quake and tremble in the bodies they possess and either leap out immediately or vanish by degrees Others of them offer to make the experiment even before the Tribunals of the Heathen and to answer for the success with their own lives So Tertullian in his Apologetick Let any man that is apparently acted by one of your Gods be brought before your own Tribunals and if that supposed God being commanded by any Christian to speak doth not confess himself to be a Devil as not daring to lye to a Christian take that malepert Christian and pour out his blood immediately Yea how often saith he a little after only upon our touch of and breathing upon possessed persons are these Gods you adore forced to depart out of their Bodies with grief and reluctancy you your selves being present and blushing at it And these things as Origen tells us cont Cels. lib. 7. were ordinarily performed even by the meanest Christians which is a plain Argument that it was done merely by the power of Jesus without any Conjuration or Magical Art. And can we imagine that the Devil without any constraint from some superior power would ever have quitted that Tyranny he had so long exercised over the bodies and consciences of men who had thitherto adored and worshiped him or that he would ever have confessed himself to be a Devil to those men who sought the ruin of his Kingdom and made use of his Confessions to that purpose had he not been forced to it by the Authority of the Father of Spirits Is it likely he would have exerted his power to the ruin of his own interest and the amendment of those Souls he had insnared and captivated as he must necessarily have done should he have impowered the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection to confirm their Testimony by Miracles And since they all along declared they did them in the name and by the power of Iesus to be sure if it had not been so the God of truth would never have impowered them to impose such a cheat upon the World. These Miracles of theirs therefore were plain signs and tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead and that not only as they were so many divine seals by which God himself did confirm their Testimony whose goodness and veracity could never have permitted him to set the seal of his miraculous power to a lye But besides this the Apostles Miracles were so many plain demonstrations that Jesus was risen and alive since they did them all in his name and by his power For how is it possible that Jesus could have impowered them to do Miracles had he been still among the dead and in a state of inactivity A dead man can do nothing himself much less can he impower others to do Miracles So that by those miraculous Works which the Apostles did by the power of Christ they did in effect thus bespeak the World Look here O incredulous World if nothing else will persuade you that our Lord is risen and alive behold the vital operations which he exerts in us his Disciples tho of our selves we are as impotent as you yet no sooner do we invoke our great Masters Name and implore his Aid but we are presently enabled to perform mighty things beyond the power of any mortal Agent without any other Charm but his powerful Name we raise the Dead bind the Devils restore the Blind recover the Lame and cure all manner of Diseases and is not this as plain a token of his being alive as if he were now standing before you in our room and doing all these things in his own Person If he were dead still he could not act in us as you see him do and therefore if nothing else will convince ye that he is alive again behold these mighty powers which he exerts in us and be at length persuaded by these sensible tokens of his activity which we produce before your eyes that he is risen from the dead For it is worth observing that this gift of Miracles was never so plentifully communicated to the Apostles as after Christs Ascension into Heaven for before he ascended he commanded them to tarry at Ierusalem till they had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost or which is the same thing the Gift of Miracles Acts 1.4 5. and this gift as he himself tells them vers 8. was to enable them to bear Testimony to him unto all the World for he being now ascended into Heaven they could no longer produce his person to convince unbelievers of the truth of his Resurrection and therefore to supply this defect Christ gave them the gift of Miracles that that might be instead of his bodily presence a plain and sensible token of his being restored to life again And indeed this was as certain a sign of it as if he had continued upon Earth and openly conversed among men in the view of the World for the most crrtain sign of life is action and by what hath been said it is apparent that Christ did not more visibly act in his own Person when he was upon Earth than he did in the persons of his Apostles after he ascended into Heaven These miraculous Operations therefore which they performed by the Power of Jesus were all of them so many plain and sensible Signs and Tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead So that considering all these circumstances of the Apostles Testimony I dare boldly affirm that from the beginning of the World to this day there never was any matter of Fact more sufficiently and credibly testified than this of the Resurrection of our Saviour and by raising him from the dead God hath bore witness to him before all the World that he really is what he pretended to be the true Messias and only Mediator between himself and us Which brings me to the second Head I proposed to shew what an excellent convincing Argument this is of the truth of our Saviours Doctrine and Mediation and how effectually it justifies his pretence of being the true Messias and only Mediator 'T is true all the Miracles which our Saviour wrought while he