God that ordained such Sacrifices for sin as he was pleased in his mercy to accept In the Old Law as we may read Leviticus the 16. the Lord required that there should every year once bee made an Atonement for the Sins of all Israel both Priests and others for the doing whereof Aaron alone was to sacrifice for himself and the Priests a young Bullock and for the rest of the people he was to receive from them two young Goates of which he was to sacrifice one but as for the other which was the Scape Goat he was to lay his hands on the head thereof and by a confession of the iniquities of the people to lay them all on that head and then by some opportune man to cause the Goat to be led into the wildernesse and there to escape and carry away with him the iniquities of the people As the Sacrifice of the one Goat was a sufficient because an acceptable price for the Ransome of all Israel so the death of the Messiah is a sufficient price for the Sins of all mankind because there was no more required Our Saviour Christs sufferings seem to be here figured as cleerly as in the oblation of Isaac or in any other type of him in the Old Testament He was both the sacrificed Goat and the Scape Goat Hee was oppressed and he was afflicted Esay 53. 7. he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep is dumbe before the shearer so opened he not his mouth Here he is the sacrificed Gâ—…at He hath born our Griefs ver 4. and carried our sorrows And again ver 6. the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all And so he is the Scape Goat He was cut off from the land of the living ver 8. for the transgression of my People There again he is the sacrificed Goat And again ver 11. he shall bear their sins Hee is the Scape Goat Thus is the Lamb of God equivalent to both those Goates sacrificed in that he dyed and escaping in his Resurrection being raised opportunely by his Father and removed from the habitation of men in his Ascension For as much therefore as he that redeemeth hath no title to the thing redeemed before the Redemption and Ransome paid and this Ransome was the Death of the Redeemer it is manifest that our Saviour as man was not King of those that he Redeemed before hee suffered death that is during that time hee conversed bodily on the Earth I say he was not then King in present by vertue of the Pact which the faithfull make with him in Baptisme Neverthelesse by the renewing of their Pact with God in tisme they were obliged to obey him for King under his Father whensoever he should be pleased to take the Kingdome upon him According whereunto our Saviour himself expressely saith Iohn 18. 36. My Kingdome is not of this world Now seeing the Scripture maketh mention but of two worlds this that is now and shall remain to the day of Judgment which is therefore also called the last day and that which shall bee after the day of Judgement when there shall bee a new Heaven and a new Earth the Kingdome of Christ is not to begin till the generall Resurrection And that is it which our Saviour saith Mat. 16. 27. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works To reward every man according to his works is to execute the Office of a King and this is not to be till he come in the glory of his Father with his Angells When our Saviour saith Mat. 23. 2. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses seat All therefore whatsoever they bid you doe that observe and doe hee declareth plainly that hee ascribeth Kingly Power for that time not to himselfe but to them And so hee doth also where he saith Luke 12. 14. Who made mee a Iudge or Divider over you And Iohn 12. 47. I came not to judge the world but to save the world And yet our Saviour came into this world that hee might bee a King and a Judge in the world to come For hee was the Messiah that is the Christ that is the Anointed Priest and the Soveraign Prophet of God that is to say he was to have all the power that was in Moses the Prophet in the High Priests that succeeded Moses and in the Kings that succeeded the Priests And St. Iohn saies expressely chap. 5. ver 22. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son And this is not repugnant to that other place I came not to judge the world for this is spoken of the world present the other of the world to come as also where it is said that at the second coming of Christ Mat. 19. 28. Yee that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his Glory yee shall also sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel If then Christ whilest hee was on Earth had no Kingdome in this world to what end was his first coming It was to restore unto God by a new Covenant the Kingdom which being his by the Old Covenant had been cut off by the rebellion of the Israelites in the election of Saul Which to doe he was to preach unto them that he was the Messiah that is the King promised to them by the Prophets and to offer himselfe in sacrifice for the sinnes of them that should by faith submit themselves thereto and in case the nation generally should refuse him to call to his obedience such as should beleeve in him amongst the Gentiles So that there are two parts of our Saviours Office during his aboad upon the Earth One to Proclaim himself the Christ and another by Teaching and by working of Miracles to perswade and prepare men to live so as to be worthy of the Immortality Beleevers were to enjoy at such tiâ—…e as he should come in majesty to take possession of his Fathers Kingdome And therefore it is that the time of his preaching is often by himself called the Regeneration which is not properly a Kingdome and thereby a warrant to deny obedience to the Magistrates that then were for hee commanded to obey those that sate then in Moses chaire and to pay tribute to Caesar but onely an earnest of the Kingdome of God that was to come to those to whom God had given the grace to be his disciples and to beleeve in him For which cause the Godly are said to bee already in the Kingdome of Grace as naturalized in that heavenly Kingdome Hitherto therefore there is nothing done or taught by Christ that tendeth to the diminution of the Civill Right of the Jewes or of Caesar. For as touching the Common-wealth which then was amongst the Jews both they that bare rule amongst them
people were obliged to take him for Gods Lieutenant longer than they beleeved that God spake unto him And therefore his authority notwithstanding the Covenant they made with God depended yet merely upon the opinion they had of his Sanctity and of the reality of his Conferences with God and the verity of his Miracles which opinion coming to change they were no more obliged to take any thing for the law of God which he propounded to them in Gods name We are therefore to consider what other ground there was of their obligation to obey him For it could not be the commandement of God that could oblige them because God spake not to them immediately but by the mediation of Moses himself And our Saviour saith of himself If I bear witnesse of my self my witnesse is not true much lesse if Moses bear witnesse of himselfe especially in a claim of Kingly power over Gods people ought his testimony to be received His authority therefore as the authority of all other Princes must be grounded on the Consent of the People and their Promise to obey him And so it was For the people Exod. 20. 18. when they saw the Thunderings and the Lightnings and the noyse of the Trumpet and the monntaine smoaking removed and stood a far off And they said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die Here was their promise of obedience and by this it was they obliged themselves to obey whatsoever he should deliver unto them for the Commandement of God And notwithstanding the Covenant constituteth a Sacerdotall Kingdome that is to say a Kingdome hereditary to Aaron yet that is to be understood of the succession after Moses should bee dead For whosoever ordereth and establisheth the Policy as first founder of a Common-wealth be it Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy must needs have Soveraign Power over the people all the while he is doing of it And that Moses had that power all his own time is evidently affirmed in the Scripture First in the text last before cited because the people promised obedience not to Aaron but to him Secōdly Exod. 24. 1 2. And God said unto Moses Come up unto the Lord thou and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel And Moses alone shall come neer the Lord but they shall not come nigh neither shall the people goe up with him By which it is plain that Moses who was alone called up to God and not Aaron nor the other Priests nor the Seventy Elders nor the People who were forbidden to come up was alone he that represented to the Israelites the Person of God that is to say was their sole Soveraign under God And though afterwards it be said verse 9. Then went up Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the Elders of Israel and they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a saphire stone c. yet this was not till after Moses had been with God before and had brought to the people the words which God had said to him He onely went for the bnsinesse of the people the others as the Nobles of his retinue were admitted for honour to that speciall grace which was not allowed to the people which was as in the verse after appeareth to see God and live God laid not his hand upon them they saw God and did eat and drink that is did live but did not carry any commandement from him to the people Again it is every where said The Lord spake unto Moses as in all other occasions of Government so also in the ordering of the Ceremonies of Religion contained in the 25 26 27 28 29 30 and 31 Chapters of Exodus and throughout Leviticus to Aaron seldome The Calfe that Aaron made Moses threw into the fire Lastly the question of the Authority of Aaron by occasion of his and Miriams mutiny agaiust Moses was Numbers 12. judged by God himself for Moses So also in the question between Moses and the People who had the Right of Governing the People when Corah Dathan and Abiram and two hundred and fifty Princes of the Assembly gathered themselves together Numb 16. 3. against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them Ye take too much upon you seeing all the congregation are Holy every one of them and the Lord is amongst them why lift you up your selves above the congregation of the Lord God caused the Earth to swallow Corah Dathan and Abiram with their wives and children alive and consumed those two hundred and fifty Princes with fire Therefore neither Aaron nor the People nor any Aristocracy of the chief Princes of the People but Moses alone had next under God the Soveraignty over the Israelites And that not onely in causes of Civill Policy but also of Religion For Moses onely spake with God and therefore onely could tell the People what it was that God required at their hands No man upon pain of death might be so presumptuous as to approach the Mountain where God talked with Moses Thou shalt set bounds saith the Lord Exod. 19. 12. to the people round about and say Take heed to your selves that you goe not up into the Mount or touch the border of it whosoever toucheth the Mount shall surely be put to death And again verse 21. Goe down charge the people lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze Out of which we may conclude that whosoever in a Christian Common-wealth holdeth the place of Moses is the sole Messenger of God and Interpreter of his Commandements And according hereunto no man ought in the interpretation of the Scripture to proceed further then the bounds which are set by their severall Soveraigns For the Scriptures since God now speaketh in them are the Mount Sinai the bounds whereof are the Laws of them that represent Gods Person on Earth To look upon them and therein to behold the wondrous works of God and learn to fear him is allowed but to interpret them that is to pry into what God saith to him whom he appointeth to govern under him and make themselves Judges whether he govern as God commandeth him or not is to transgresse the bounds God hath set us and to gaze upon God irreverently There was no Prophet in the time of Moses nor pretender to the Spirit of God but such as Moses had approved and Authorized For there were in his time but Seventy men that are said to Prophecy by the Spirit of God and these were of all Moses his election concerning whom God said to Moses Numb 11. 16. Gather to mee Seventy of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest to be the Elders of the People To these God imparted his Spirit but it was not a different Spirit from that of Moses for it is said verse 25. God came down in a cloud and took of the Spirit that was upon Moses
The same difficulty is also in the place of St. Marke And if it be lawfull to conjecture at their meaning by that which immediately followes both here and in St. Luke where the same is againe repeated it is not unprobable to say they have relation to the Transfiguration which is described in the verses immediately following where it is said that After six dayes Iesus taketh with him Peter and Iames and Iohn not all but some of his Disciples and leadeth them up into an high mountaine apart by themselves and was transfigured before them And his rayment became shining exceeding white as snow so as no Fuller on earth can white them And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses and they were talking with Iesus c. So that they saw Christ in Glory and Majestie as he is to come insomuch as They were sore afraid And thus the promise of our Saviour was accomplished by way of Vision For it was a Vision as may probably bee inferred out of St. Luke that reciteth the same story ch 9. ve 28. and saith that Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep But most certainly out of Matth. 17. 9. where the same is again related for our Saviour charged theÌ„ saying Tell no man the Vision untill the Son of man be Risen from the dead Howsoever it be yet there can from thence be taken no argument to prove that the Kingdome of God taketh beginning till the day of Judgement As for some other texts to prove the Popes Power over civill Soveraignes besides those of Bellarmine as that the two Swords that Christ and his Apostles had amongst them were the Spirituall and the Temporall Sword which they say St. Peter had given him by Christ And that of the two Luminaries the greater signifies the Pope and the lesser the King One might as well inferre out of the first verse of the Bible that by Heaven is meant the Pope and by Earth the King Which is not arguing from Scripture but a wanton insulting over Princes that came in fashion after the time the Popes were growne so secure of their greatnesse as to contemne all Christian Kings and Treading on the necks of Emperours to mocke both them and the Scripture in the words of the 91. Psalm Thou shalt Tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon thou shalt Trample under thy feet As for the rites of Consecration though they depend for the most part upon the discretion and judgement of the governors of the Church and not upon the Scriptures yet those governors are obliged to such direction as the nature of the action it selfe requireth as that the ceremonies words and gestures be both decent and significant or at least conformable to the action When Moses consecrated the Tabernacle the Altar and the Vessels belonging to them Exod. 40. he anointed them with the Oyle which God had commanded to bee made for that purpose and they were holy There was nothing Exorcized to drive away Phantasmes The same Moses the civill Soveraigne of Israel when he consecrated Aaron the High Priest and his Sons did wash them with Water not Exorcized water put their Garments upon them and anointed them with Oyle and they were sanctified to minister unto the Lord in the Priests office which was a simple and decent cleansing and adorning them before hee presented them to God to be his servants When King Solomon the civill Soveraigne of Israel consecrated the Temple hee had built 2 Kings 8. he stood before all the â—…ongregation of Israel and having blessed them he gave thankes to God for putting into the heart of his father to build it and for giving to himselfe the grace to accomplish the same and then prayed unto him first to accept that House though it were not sutable to his infinite Greatnesse and to hear the prayers of his Servants that should pray therein or if they were absent towards it and lastly he offered a sacrifice of Peace-offering and the House was dedicated Here was no Procession the King stood still in his first place no Exorcised Water no Asperges me nor other impertinent application of words spoken upon another occasion but a decent and rationall speech and such as in making to God a present of his new built House was most conformable to the occasion We read not that St. John did Exorcize the Water of Jordan nor Philip the Water of the river wherein he baptized the Eunuch nor that any Pastor in the time of the Apostles did take his spittle and put it to the nose of the person to be Baptized and say In odorem suavitatis that is for a sweet savour unto the Lord wherein neither the Ceremony of Spittle for the uncleannesse nor the application of that Scripture for the levity can by any authority of man be justified To prove that the Soule separated from the Body liveth eternally not onely the Soules of the Elect by especiall grace and restauration of the Eternall Life which Adam lost by Sinne and our Saviour restored by the Sacrifice of himself to the Faithfull but also the Soules of Reprobates as a property naturally consequent to the essence of mankind without other grace of God but that which is universally given to all mankind there are divers places which at the first sight seem sufficiently to serve the turn but such as when I compare them with that which I have before Chapter 38. alledged out of the 14 of Iob seem to mee much more subject to a divers interpretation than the words of Iob. And first there are the words of Solomon Ecclesiastes 12. 7. Then shall the Dust return to Dust as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Which may bear well enough if there be no other text directly against it this interpretation that God onely knows but Man not what becomes of a mans spirit when he expireth and the same Solomon in the same Book Chap. 3. ver 20 21. delivereth the same sentence in the sense I have given it His words are All goe man and beast to the same place all are of the dust and all turn to dust again who knoweth that the spirit of Man goeth upward and that the spirit of the Beast goeth downward to the earth That is none knows but God Nor is it an unusuall phrase to say of things we understand not God Knows what and God Knows where That of Gen. 5. 24. Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him which is expounded Heb. 13. 5. He was translated that he should not die and was not found because God had translated him For before his Translation he had this testimony 〈◊〉 he pleased God making as much for the Immortality of the Body as of the Soule proveth that this his translation was peculiar to them that please God not common to them with the wicked and depending on Grace not on Nature But