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A42520
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Exochē tou Christou, Christ's preeminence in a question propounded, discussed, & resolved, that Christ was the first, that with flesh and blood entred into the kingdome of heaven / by Nicholas Gawen.
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Gawen, Nicholas.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing G395; ESTC R23944
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29,971
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56
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covenant was the very voice it selfe of the Gospel it being a true Testimony of Jesus Christ as the Apostle beareth witness saying Gal 3. The Scripture foreseeing that God would Justifie the Gentiles through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham saying In thee or in thy seed shall all nations be blessed That this promised seed was meant of Christ and of him alone the Apostle puts us out of all doubt Gal 3.16 Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ Now this Covenant thus made and confirmed with Abraham was renewed with Isaak Gen 26.4 and made knowne unto Jacob by Jesus Christ himself for that man which wrastled with Jacob was none other but the man Christ Jesus for himself said That Jacob should be called Israel a wrestler and prevailer with God and Jacob called the name of the place Peniel because he had seen God face to face Gen 32.28 30. Anon upon the death of these holy Patriarchs God raised up his faithfull servant Moses who by God's command committed that to writing which was derived by tradition and word of mouth from Adam to Seth Henoch and the other Patriarches successively to his owne time to wit the creation of the world the fall of man the promise of a Redeemer the Genealogie of Christ from Adam the propagation progress and protection of the Church the fearfull destruction and confusion of God's enemies the which Moses receiving from God a forme of ecclesiasticall government upon the top of mount Sinai consisting in divers and sundry sacrifices of beasts and other religious rites and ceremonies shaddowed out unto the people the sole expiatorie and propitiatory sacrifice of that true Pascal Lamb the Lord Jesus Christ which was to come the same Moses also being himself a Type and Figure of Christ yeelded forth and uttered a most excellent and perspicuous Phophesie of Christ Deut 18.15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto mee unto him yee shall hearken and it shall come to passe that â—hosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name I will require it of him v. 19. The which glorious prophesie of Moses the Apostle St Peter in that excellent Sermon of his which he had to the people at the beautifull gate of the Temple concerning the lame man restored to his feet applieth home to our Lord Jesus Christ and to him only Act 3.12 13. After Moses succeeded Joshua the Captain and Leader of the Lord's people into the Land of Canaan who likewise was a Type of Christ the true Michael Prince and Captain of the Hosts of the Lord. Joshua 5.14 After Joshua followed the Judges whose rescue and deliverance of the Lord's people from the tyranny of their temporal enemies was the undoubted type and figure of the eternal redemption of the Church by Christ Jesus the Judge both of quick and dead from the Captivitie of their spiritual and everlasting enemies sin satan and condemnation Yea and all the Prophets from Samuel and those that followed after as many as have spoken have likewise foretold of these daies Act 3.24 For David a man chosen of God after his own heart being both a wise King and a great Prophet foresaw the coming of Christ in the flesh foretold that he should be borne of his own loynes 132.11 The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David he will not turn from it of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy Throne which words though litterally meant of Solomon yet typically and mystically are they fulfilled in Christ as may be gathered and concluded easily by applying and comparing them with what he saith all along thorough out the 72. Psalm moreover he foresaw and foretold both the natures of Christ First his humane nature Psal 45.2 Thou art fairer then the children of men Secondly his Divine v. 8. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdome is a right Scepter thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oile of gladness above thy fellows Likewise he foresaw and foretold both the states and conditions of Christ both his state of disgrace and his state of glory his state of humiliation and his state of exaltation his state of humiliation he intimates in those words of his Psal 22.6 I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the people His false accusation crucifixion bitter death and blooddy passion with the concomitant circumstances thereof He intimates in those words of his Psal 22.16 17 18. For dogs have compassed mee the assemblies of the wicked have enclosed mee they pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon mee they part my garments and cast lots upon my vesture Math 27.34 That bitter potion that they offered him either in pitty and compassion to stupifie him that he might become sensless or at leastwise lesse sensible of his tortures as say some or else in scorne and derision as say others David intimates in those words of his Psal 69.21 They gave mee also gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave mee vineger to drinke His death buriall and resurrection he intimates in those words Psal 16.8 9 10. I have set the Lord alwayes before mee because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soule in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption All which words of the Prophet David the Apostle Saint Peter applies to Christ and to him alone Act 2.25 26 27. verses His ascention he intimates in these words Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivitie captive His glorious evection and exaltation to the right hand of his holy and heavenly Father He pointeth at in these words Psal 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstoole which words of David our Saviour applies to himself Math 22.44 and what should I more say but that from the first issuing forth of the promise from God in the garden of Eden that a Messias should come God never ceased in all ages and generations of his Church either by visions or express Revelations and Types to the Fathers before the Law and Types and Figures under the Law and plain and manifest predictions by Moses David and other succeeding Prophets to point out unto the world the promised Messias and to give his people assurance of his coming who prophesied the time place and manner of his birth the affliction of his life the kind of his death the glory of his resurrection the deliverance of his people the
holy mount in their Humane bodies from Heaven therefore Christ was not the first that entred into heaven with humane body because if the two former brought their bodies along with them from heaven it is likely they carried the same bodies along with them to heaven sol Answ That this Argument hath contain'd in it three Articles or petty questions First whether Moses and Elias appeared unto our Saviour with true real and substantial humane bodies 2ly whether they were the very self same Humane bodies and earthly tabernacles wherewith they were invested and cloathed during their peregrination and pilgrimage here on earth Thirdly whether brought these their bodies from Heaven Though I may easily grant that they appeared to our Saviour in true real and substantial Humane bodies as may easily be concluded and confirmed from those bodily and corporal actions that they performed on the mount speaking and discoursing with our Saviour face to face concerning his death and departure that he was to accomplish at Jerusalem And though I easily grant in a second place that those true and real bodies were the same bodies wherewith their soules were cloathed whiles they were on earth for had their bodies bin others they could not properly have been said to be Moses and Elias yet cannot I so easily grant in the third place that they brought their bodies along with them from Heaven Full well I know that it was an opinion embraced by many yea very many of the Ancient Fathers that the bodies of Henoch and Elias are reserved and kept alive in a third mansion house distinct and separate both from Heaven and earth which they call Paradise and that they shall returne and bodily appear on the earth before the day of Judgment yea and John the Divine and the Prophet Jeremie too whose death is not read of saith Hyppolitus If this opinion be true then doubtlesse Moses and Elias brought not their bodies from Heaven along with them to the holy mount But leaving that opinion as we found it concerning Moses the Scripture plainly concludeth concerning him that his body went not to Heaven together with his soul Deut 34.5 6. there we read So Moses the servant of the Lord died in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord and he that is either God himself or an Angel of God buried him in a valley in the land of Moab over against Beth Peor but no man knoweth of his Sepulcre unto this day And this as I conceive accasioned that grave and solemne dispute and controversie according to St Judes Ecclesiastical tradition and relation v. 9. of his Epistle betwixt Michael the Archangel the devil about the body of Moses The devil urging as I conceive the necessity of the revelation of the place of sepulture thereof that by that meanes he might yeeld the Jewes a copious and abundant occasion of committing Idolatry who he well knew were apt enough by nature to honour God's faithfull servant too much and to neglect his Lord. Contrariwise the Arch-Angel pressing home the expediencie and necessitie of the concealment of it's place of burial for the prevention and disappointing of the occasion and introduction of Superstition and Idolatry Wherefore if the body of Moses went not together with his soul to heaven but as the Scripture teacheth remained on earth then surely could he not bring it along with him from heaven when he appeared on the holy mount and why may not the same be said of Elias that his body by the hand of God's omnipotencie had as sudden a restitution at his soul's descent from Heaven the very case of the soules of God's elect at the resurrection as it had dissolution at it's evection and transportation thither Sure I am whatsoever other men thinke the conceipt and opinion of the sons of the Prophets was that his body was not carried up into heaven but rather that the spirit of the Lord had taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley which made them so earnestly to sue unto Elisha That fifty strong and able men might goe and make search and inquisition after him 2 King 2.16 And these sons of the Prophets as I conceive were no plain or simple men but even Prophets themselves as man and son of man are all one in Hebrew phrase belonging and appertaining to the Schole or Colledge of Elias and Elisha whom a great Antiquary and Chronologer from prophane writers calleth by the name of Elulaeus Armagh Chron One objection remaineth that may be made that seems somewhat weighty and ponderous it is this Arg 4 Christ had his messengers and fore-runners his servants the Prophets going before his face to prepare his way before himself bodily and personally oppeared in flesh and blood here on earth to gather his Church and enter upon his Kingdome of grace what hurt then if we suppose some Saints and holy men of God corporally went before him as his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fore-runners and messengers before he himself personally and in his Humane body entred and actually took possession of his Kingdome of glory Answ Be it granted that Christ had his messengers and fore-runners before he came personally himself to plant his Church to gather his Saints together and to enter upon his Kingdome of grace yet hence it follows not that he had any that did fore-run him bodily before himself bodily and personally entred into his Kingdome of glory A necessity there was of the Antecedent but no necessity at all of the Consequent For the better and clearer Demonstration of my sense and meaning in this Answer we must observe and mark that the whole my stery of man's redemption is grounded and established on a threefold foundation First on God's eternal purpose before all time Secondy on his free promise at the beginning of time Thirdly on his mercifull performance in the fulness of time The first is God's eternal purpose before all time of this we must conceive thus that God to whose eternall knowledge all things are present and nothing past or to come foreseeing man's fall before all time purposed to send his Son Jesus Christ into the world to redeem him Ephes 1.9 Act 2.23 The second is God's free promise at the beginning of time when immediately upon the fall of Adam God promised Christ unto him saying unto the serpent I will put emnity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed He that is to say Christ the seed of the woman shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise is heel This promise of Christ the woman's seed was the Gospel and the only comfort of Adam Abel Henoch Methuselah Noah and the rest of the godly Fathers till the time of Abraham At the time of Abraham this promise was turned into a covenant with Abraham and his seed and oft times repeated That in his seed all Nations should be blessed Gen 12.3 and 18.18 and 22.18 which promise and