herein The meaning of Prayers at the rehearsing of the ten Commandments How the Law may be written in our hearts and how it is performable by men TErtullian in that Book which he wrote against the Jews affirmeth That the Law which God imposed upon our first Parents in Paradise was obligatory both to them and also to all the world in their succeeding generations which Law if they had obeyed had been a Law large enough He saith again a Tert. Advers Iudaeos In hac lege Adae datâ omnia praecepta condita recognoscimus quae posteâ— pullul averunt data per Mosem In that Law which God gave to Adam all the Laws of Moses were secretly couched And again b id lib. Primordialis lex est data Adae Evae quasi matrix omnium praeceptorum Dei i. e. That first Law given to Adam and Eve was as the womb of all the Laws of the Decalogue Then he reckoneth up all the Moral Laws first generally as Christ doth Mat. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God wiâ—h all thy heart And Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Then he particularly mentioneth the Laws of the second Table Thou shalt not kill Not commit adultery Not steal Not bear false witness Honour thy Father and Mother Thou shalt not covet Now the Law given to Adam was only in these few words Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat Yet in them all the Laws of the Decalogue saith he are implied His reason is If they had so loved God They would not have disobeyed his Command If they had loved their neighbour that is one another themselves and their posterity they would not have killed them by bringing in Mortality and Original corruption of Lust Nor would they have stolen the fruit which belonged not to them Nor hâ—ve complied with the Serpent's false witnessing concerning the fruit Nor have dishonoured their Father and Creator by that Transgression Thus he From this passage we may observe that in the judgement of this Learned Father the whole Decalogue having been thus imposed upon our first Parents therefore the Law of Sabbath keeping amongst the rest must needs be put upon them We observe again That it being confessed by this Father in the same Book and immediatly after the words before alledged That neither Adam nor Abel nor Enoch nor Noah nor Melchisdeck nor Abraham did ever Sabbatize although the whole Decalogue was imposed on them also so as is said and although the laws of the Decalogue be every one of them the law of Nature and therefore written in mans heart and also that all those Patriarks must be obliged to keep this Sabbath law as well as any of the other Nine This being granted how shall we quit this learned Father from contradicting himself in these two propositions first The Patriarks were bound to keep the Sabbath second The Patriarks neither did nor were bound to keep the Sabbath This Riddle is easily unfolded by distinguishing the Sabbath Moral from the Sabbath Ceremonial that is The true Real Natural and Substantial Sabbath from the Figurative Typical and Umbratical Sabbath Or. the Body from the Shadow We affirm therefore that the Jewish Hebdomarie seaventh-day or Saturday-Sabbath was but the shadow or type and that the Messiah even Jesus Christ our Lord Emmanuel was and is the true substantial Sabbath and the true Spirit and meaning of that Sabbatical law and is the Lord of the Hebdomarie or Typical Sabbath We also affirm that neither Adam nor any of those forenamed Patriarks did ever keep or sanctify any seaventh-day or Saturday-Sabbath and also that such a Sabbath day was never known or imposed on Gods people before the dayes of Moses And for this we have the confession of a learned Jew even Philo more than once a Philo. de vita Mos lib. 1. Israelitae ignorabant mundi nat alem prinsquam ex Manna didicissent i. e. The Israelites knew not the first day of the world until the Manna fell therefore not the seaventh day Again he saith b idem lib. Ante Mosem Sabbati diem ignor abant homines Before the time of Moses men were ignorant of the Sabbath day This he affirmeth although with a Judaical excuse as if the former knowledg thereof had bin obliterated by Calamities But we also confess and firmly believe that all those holy Patriarks were bound and therefore did certainly keep and sanctify the true substantial Sabbath before Moses was born for their Sabbath was the Son of God even their true and onely Lord God who in due time was to take our humane nature on him So to be the Emmanuel in our nature to perform the whole Law which the Godhead imposeth on man in our steed and this not only by an actual keeping and performing the Commandments but also by a passive obedience in suffring the punishment of our transgressions to quit his faithful ones from the sentence of condemnation and thereby to give comfort ease tranquillity and so a Rest or Sabbath to our otherwise wearied and trembling souls For Christ only is that promised Seed of the woman which should bruise the Serpents head the birth manifestation of him in the flesh is that day which our father Abraham rejoyced to see and he is that well beloved Son in whom alone the Godhead is well pleased and resteth satisfied and at peace with us If those holy Patriarks had not kept this Sabbath they could not enter into the eternal Sabbath of heaven That Christ only is the Sabbath Moral to the sanctification whereof we all are perpetually obliged was the Doctrin of the Ancient Church as may appear by many expressions of the Fathers Origen saith a Orig. in Math. Tract 29. Qui vivit in Christo semper Sabbatizat He that liveth in Christ liveth in a continual Sabbath The holy man Macarius calleth the weekly Sabbath b Marcar Hom 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but a Typical Sabbath and saith It was onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. That it was but a branch in the shadowie or Ceremonial Law But Hoc est verâ—m Sabbatum vera requies animae quae conquiescit in verâ quiete laetitià Domini The true Sabbath is the quiet of our souls resting in tranquillity and joy of our Lord. Thus he After him Epiphanius most evidently declareth the same Doctrin more than once for thus he writeth c Epiph Haer. 8. In lege figurae erant in Evangeâ—io veritas illic Circumctsio inservit usque ad magnam Circumcisionem id est Baptismum illic Sabbatum detinens in maâ—num Sabbatum id est Reqâ—iém in Christ Under the law were figures but the truth of them was shewed in the Gospel in the Law carnal Circumcision was used until the great Circumcision by Baptism came in There was a Sabbath also which lasted until the great Sabbath came which is our
the same God which made Man and said these words so that the meaning is That Man should be made in the same Image and Similitude which in after-times the same God himself would assume in the person of the Son And this was fulfilled when the Son of God became the Son of Man This is the exposition of Tertullian upon these words b Tertul. advers Prax. p. 387. Ad Imaginem Dei i. e. Ad Imaginem Filii qui homo futurus erat And again upon the same words c Idem de Resurr p. 39. Christus cogitabatur homo futurus i. e. The Image of God signifieth the humane nature and shape which God in the Person of the Son would one day take upon himself Just so doth d Orig. in Gen Hom. 1. Origen expound this Image of God and so doth the above mentioned e Theod. in Gen. quaest 19. Isa 7. 14. 9. 6. Ioh. 1. 14 1 Tim. 3. 16 Rom. 8. 3 Theodoret. The performance whereof was prophesied by Isaiah when he called the Mighty God Emanuel and fulfilled also when The Word was made flesh and when God was manifested in the flesh and the Son of God was sent in the likenesse of sinfull flesh This surely is the Image of God there meant which continued in Man after the fall and so doth untill this day This Exposition is made more credible by another passage from the mouth of God uttered after the fall of Man when he said Behold the Man is become as one of us to Gen. 3. 12. know good and evil Some Expositors have thought this to be spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an Ironie or scoffe on proud Man I dare not say or think so for fear of Blasphemie doubtless the merciful Godhead did not flout but pitty and also comfort the now-wretched Man by this saying which I firmly believe did intimate and point at a Redeemer even Jesus Christ to be a Redeemer of him from deserved misery and so to be a solace ease and rest to his troubled Conscience The Reader may observe that whereas before there was mention of Our Image and likenesse that is the likeness of the whole Trinity it is now otherwise said Like one of Us so that Man who before was made like all is now become but like one of the Divine Persons This one doth surely signifie Christ who was then intended to be that Seed of the Woman before promised to be Incarnate to be Mortal to be made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. to be a man of sorrows to be wounded for our transgressions Isai 53. 3 5. To know good for he was Goodness it self And to know evil of sorrow and affliction and this in order to the Rest Sabbath and Salvation of Man for this reason only it is said The Man is become like One of us 3. It is greatly to be considered that the creation of the Woman was unlike the creation of the Man for Adam was made of Earth immediately Gen. 2. 19. but the Woman was not so made but of the Man she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone yea and Soul of his Soul for we find not that God breathed a Soul into Eve because she was to receive it from the Man By this we may understand that the Redeemer was then intended together with the whole race of Mankind to be derived from that one root of Adam for otherwise Christ could not have been qualified so fitly as to be our Redeemer But because the Redeemer and the Redeemed must needs be united in one humane nature therefore the wise and merciful Godhead as the Apostle observeth hath Acts 17 26 made of one blood all Nations of men Christ and all And hence it is that the same Apostle tels us That we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones And this because Christ and We and all Mankind the Woman and all took our nature from one and the same Lump of Adam for therefore was the Son of God Incarnate became Emmanuel that he might fulfill the Law of God in the same flesh or nature upon which the said Law was imposeâ— All this was done in order and preparation of an everlasting Sabbath or Rest for Man by thus producing fitly the most holy Jesus to be a Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind in whom alone the Just Godhead might be well pleased and acquiesce For except Christ and Mankind be united in one humane nature and so be as one Man or as one Person neither Christ's fulfilling the Law nor his Death can serve for us because the obedience of one cannot serve for another nor doth the Just Godhead punish one for another but as the Prophet tels us Every Ier. 31 30 Eze. 18. 4 one shall die for his own iniquity And The Soul that sinneth it shall die Neither could the Godhead justly punish the righteous Son for us unrighteous Men nor justifie us and condemn him except we were one and the same So the Wise man saith He that justifieth Pro. 17. 15 the wicked and he that condemneth the just both are abomination to the Lord. Therefore Eve must needs be made of Adam and not of another piece of Clay that she and all her posterity may in that one lump be united with Christ For this reason it is said of Christ Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body Heb. 10 5 7 Psa 40 7 hast thou prepared for me And In the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God That is The Son was to perform the Law of the Godhead in the behalf of Mankind which that he might do for us God prepared him a body derived from the same flesh from which all the bodies of Mankind came and were originally united therein That he might be a fit and an identical Person for that great Work as the Apostle speaketh of Reconciling us to God in the body of his fleâ—h through death Col. 1. 21 22 Upon the same reason it is that Redemption by the death of Christ extendeth only to Adamiâ—es or Mankind whose nature Christ hath assumed with them in Adam So that the benefit and merit of his obedience cannot reach unto the apostate-Angels because he took Heb. 2 16 not on him the nature of Angels who are therefore left in their apostacie and perdition without any remedy for as they did not fall by the first Adam so neither shall they be restoâ—â—d by the last Adam and although our â—â—â—aking in the same flesh with Christ be â—ot the only means and aptitude of our Redemption by him yet it is a part thereof and necessary thereunto for our capacity thereof and such a kind of cause as Schoolmen call â—â—ne qua non Hence it is also that Christ himself said Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his bloud ye have no life in you This Ioh 6
the name of the thing signified so the thing signified hath the name of the sign for Christ is not only here called the Sabbath day because he is the thing signified by that day but he is also called by the names of other typical festivals as the Passover as is 1 Cor. 5. before said and by the name of the great festival Sabbath of Propitiation or Atonement described Levit. 16. And this because he only is that Lamb of God that causeth the destroying Angel to Passover us untouched and he only is as the Apostle cals him 2 Joh. 2. 2. The Propitiation for our sins It was full four and twenty hundred yeares by our English account after the Creation when God first appointed any Seventh day to be celebrated as a Sabbath or Rest yet the very first seventh day of the world is so described by Moses Gen. 2. 2. as to signifie Christ as may reasonably be conceived for that day is there set down without any mention of its Evening or Morning And this is the observation of St. Austin on the 92. a Aug. in Psal 92. 7 In Sabbato non invenitur vesper c. 1. In that Sabbath day described Gen 2. where the first mention is of Gods Rest the Reader shall not find any limitation of it by Evening or Morning although in every other of the former six dayes it is expresly said The Evening and the Morning were the 1 2 3 4 5 6th day b Pbilo lib de festis Philo the Jew and his fellow Jews called the Sabbath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. without Mother I know not what this Jew's meaning was to call this day so more then other dayes possibly God might extort a truth from him without this Jew 's right understanding thereof Christ our true Sabbath was indeed without Mother in respect of his Divine Nature as also without an earthly father in respect of his humane Generation and therefore Melchisedech being the figure of Christ is for the same reason described without father and without mother Heb. 7. 3. Yet as we are well assured that Melchisedech had both a father and a mother so are we as certain that the first Seventh day had both an evening and a morning But as Melchisedech is said to be without father and mother for this reason only because there is no mention of his parents in holy Writ and this also was that thereby he might be a fit representative of Christ So the first Seventh day is set down without any mention of Evening and Morning that so it might be a fit figure of Christ who had no beginning in respect of his Godhead nor ending in respect of his Manhood and Godhead also The Prophet saith of Christ Mich. 5. 2. His goings forth have been from everlasting So the Gospel saith of him Heb. 1. 8 out of Psalm 45. 6. Thy throne O God is for ever and ever The very Jews confessed John 12. 34 We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever Christ therefore is not only a Sabbath but a day also and an everlasting day without any evening or morning The holy Priest Zacharias Luke 1. 78. cals Christ The Day-spring from on high And the Prophet Zechariah cals him Orientem i. e. the East which is all one with Day-spring Zech. 3. 8. Adducam servum meum Orientem And Chap. 6. 12. Ecce vir Oriens nomen ejus i. e. Beheld I will bring forth my servant the East And Behold the man whose name is East Our late Translators have for East rendred Branch I know not why except they were out-voted by some that are faln out with the East but how unfitly hath been lately unanswerably shewed by that learned Writer Mr. J. Gregorie of Oxford Christ calleth himself John 8. 12. The light of the Joh. 8. 12. world Old Simeon cals him Luke 2. 32. A light to lighten the Gentiles Christ is so much a Day that the Prophet styles him Dan. 7. 9. The Ancient of Dayes which the Hebrews affirm to be said of Ben-David that is of Christ the Son of David as Mr. Broughton hath told us for he indeed is the Creator of all dayes because he is our only God as the very Heathens God is by them called a Horace Diespiter i. e. the Father of Dayes Whether the Psalmist meant Christ when he said Psal 118 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made Or whether Christ meant himself and his own humane nativity when he said Joh. 8. 56. Your father Abraham rejoyced to see my day and he saw it Let those that list examine But St. Austin upon these and such like passages in Scripture doubteth not to affirm b Aug. in Psal 54. Christus est dies aeternus i. e. Christ is an everlasting day This I trust is enough to shew that Christ is called both our Sabbath and also a Day and therefore he only is this Sabbath day which we are required to keep holy or sanctifie which is next to be considered CHAP. IX Of Sanctifying the Sabbath How the Godhead is said to be sanctified How the humane nature of Christ is Sanctified Of the name of God and that it signifies God himself That the name of Jesus signifies the Person of Jesus How God sanctifieth us and how we sanctify God How Christ is to be kept holy THere is yet another scruple in the words of this Moral part of the fourth Commandement to be examined and that is How we can truly affirm that the Sabbath-day there mentioned doth signifie Christ seeing that whatsoever is meant by those words the same is required also to be Sanctified or kept holy Ex. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy And Deut. 5. 12. Keep the Sabbath-day to sanctifie it It may therefore be demanded how Christ can be said to be Sanctified or kept holy for the word sanctifie seemeth to signifie to be made holy no man will say that Christ can be by us made holy especially more holy than he is already for both the Godhead Manhood of Christ are called Holy As Holy Holy Holy is said of all the Divine persons And Holy is his name And Thy holy Child Jesus And the Holy one of Israel And Be ye holy as I am holy To this our Answer is that it needs not to seeme strange or uncouth that our Lord Jesus Christ is required to be by us sanctified or kept holy especially in respect of his assumed humanity by which onely he is our Sabbath and not otherwise seeing the pure Godhead considered without Incarnation is also required to be Sanctified as the great Prophet tels us Isa 5. 16. God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness and Christ so teacheth us to pray Hallowed or sanctified be thy name Let it not be thought that this word Name doth signifie no more but an appellation of God as if the only meaning were That whensoever we
from one particular Work viz. from making any new species or kinds of Creatures Secondly It is confessed that this Rest of God may consist together with his working for indeed the working or operation of God is as vigorous and stirring now and ever since the Creation as it was then God did never intermit or lay aside his working St. Austin saith of himself a Aug Epist 110. Meum ocium magnum habet negotium It is most true of God whose Rest here meant is not without great working Christ saith My Fatheâ— Ioh. 5. 1 â—oh 15 worketh hitherto and I work And again Mâ— Father is the Husbandman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so his Work is without any intermission as the Georgick-works are circular as one saith Redit Agricolis labor actus in orbem Virg. Georg. lib. 2. God doth work unto this day as he did also on that first 7th day wherein he is said to rest so he hath done on every 7th day ever since so he will do till the end of the World And moreover although it should please God still to make new Creatures of new kinds such as were not created at first yet such a new Creation would not in the least hinder or disturb this blessed Rest Therefore this Answer will in no wise satisfie us Besides all this Those Writers that tell us Gods Resting signifieth only his finishing or ending the Creation yet themselves affirm that God doth yet daily create new Souls and this because they do not believe that our Souls are propagated from our Progenitors as our Bodies are so that even by their own confession the Creation did not end on the first sixth or seventh day Now although I do not assent to their opinion of the daily creation of humane Souls because I do not understand how that doctrine can consist with the doctrine of Redemption if our Souls and Christs Soul be not derived from Adam yet it is evident that their opinion maketh against them whether it be true or false for by saying that our Souls are daily created they must confess that the Creation is not yet ended To that which they say That God doth not create any new kinds of Creatures such as in Schools are called Genera and Species and Universals although he doth still make particular Creatures as Men Beasts Fishes Fowles and Plants We answer That God doth make Creatures now so as he did before and not otherwise except only the manner of making immediately by himself and by way of creation As he then made particulars only Adam and Eve so now he makes Man and Woman God did not otherwise make Universals or Species then than he doth now for then he made only particular Creaâ—ures and not universals but only by creating particulars The universal is but the common nature of each particular and these universals are no where to be found but only in particulars though we should seek them in Plato's Region of Idea's or in that a Tull. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1. Diog. Laert. in Epic. Intermundum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Epicurus dreamed of for who can shew me Man except he shew me some particular person For although it be granted that these universals are realities having an essence or being yet they have no existence or subsistence nor are any where to be found but only in particulars and we know that our Acutest Schoolmen have much contended about these universals some said they are realities others that they are but words and others that they are but meer notions and conceptions of mans brain and therefore those dissenting Sects are severally called Reales Nominales Conceptuales In a word as God made Man and Woman at first so he doth still his Resting is not to be understood of ceasing from making his Creatures for he doth it to this day and thereby declareth his Omnipotencie now as much as at the first The Psalmist saith It is God that Ps 100. 3. made us and not we our selves And again I am fearfully and wonderfully made in the Psal 139. 14. lowest parts of the earth that is in the Womb In our vulgar Catechisms the first Question is Who made you 'T is answered God and the Answer is true It is all one with God to make Man of Earth or in the VVomb or of a Rib or of Nothing for all these wayes of making are Acts of his Almightinesse Finally If it may appear unto us That God hath indeed made new Creatures and such as were not created in the six or seven first dayes of the World but since then I trust the Reader will perceive that this Mysterious Rest of the Godhead implieth a farre greater matter then only a cessation from making new sorts or kinds of Creatures For manifestation whereof I offer these considerations following to the learned Reader 1. That after the fall of Man God inflicted sorrow upon Eve and all other Women in Child-bearing Gen. 3. 16. which Sorrow was not at first made yet that sorrow is something as our good Matrons know it is not nothing 2. The Earth was cursed for Mans sin Thorns and Thistles are ordained Adam is condemned to sorrow and sweating labour vers 16 17 18. All which are Realties yet not made at first 3. We are assured by our Divines That b Buc. p. 56. 58. Mors Morbi ordinata sunt a Deo i. e. Mortality and Sicknesses were ordained by God and also that hurtful Creatures such as Vipers Toads Spiders Hornets Waspes Caterpillers Gnats such like Non pertinent ad opera primae Creationis i. e. that these were no part of the first Creation therefore they must be ordained since If it be said that these and other hurtful Creatures such as Lions Beares Wolves were at first but yet without their noxious malignity and hurtful qualities this Answer will not satisfie us because even those qualities are realties So Earthquakes Famines Pestilences were not at first created nor any Sicknesses or Diseases which came into the World later as the Heathens acknowledged Post ignem Aetheriâ domo Subductum Macies Nova febrium Hor. Cor. 1. Od. 3. Terris incubuit cohors 4. What can be said against the newness of the Egyptian Plagues The burning of Sodom The last Destruction of Jerusalem and the tribulation brought upon that People of which Christ said That it should be such as was not from the beginning of the world to Matth. 24 21. that time Now that God is the Author of such kinds of evils viz. evils of punishment the Prophet hath taught us Amos 3. 6. Shall there be evil in the City and the Lord hath not done it And Moses declareth that all those evils which are threatened Deut. 28. and are now come to passe to be from the Lord which yet are but new in respect of the Creation 5. What can be said against the newness of those Wonders or Miracles wrought by
Epitaph Bononiens p. 173. Hermaphroditus The truth is that the woman was then in Adam though but rough-cast as we use to say and not taken out of the mould not finished or polished For it is as easie to apprehend Eve to be then in the side of Adam as it is for us to believe and acknowledg that all we which now live were even then in the loines of Adam for which we have a strong Apostolical evidence Heb. 7. 10. Where it is said of Levi before he was born that he was in the loins of Abraham And so upon the same reason we were certainly with Levi and Ahraham in the loines of Adam So our Answer to this second Querie for present shall be only this That therefore God is not said to Rest until the seventh-day Because that until then the principal work was not finished in which alone the Rest of God consisted And what that is will now soon appear In the mean time I will lay this for my conclusion and for a Truth which I firmly beleive that the seventh-day or Ceremonial-Sabbath was not ordained by God for a memorial of the Creation of the world and all the meer Creatures thereof or for his ceasing from the work of Creation But for an Evangelical memorial of the Rest of God Of which we are next to enquire CHAP. XII Why the Rest of God is not mentioned until the seventh-day Why it is fixed on the Creation of Mankind rather than of any other of the creatures Answers to certain enquiries That the consideration of Christ to be propagated from the man and the woman was the only cause of this Rest of God IT may justly seem strange and wonderful that the most blessed most glorious and Almighty God who is Blessedness and Happiness it self and that so infinitely and incomprehensibly that it is impossible that any addition of happiness or rest can be added to him so as to make him more happy or more at Rest than he was from Eternity And yet so it is that God is here and now said to Rest and also to Rest so now as not before this seventh day Certainly this Rest must be occasioned by something that is External and Extra-essential to God And therefore it must be such a Rest or complacencie or acquiescence as the Godhead assumed and took in some special creature and yet not only in that creature considered singly and meerly in it self for it must be derived from some work of God unto which God intended some excellent beneficial addition of worth goodness by which consideration the Godhead was inclined to express a delight and chearfullness contentedness in it and for it in all the other creatures This as to me seemeth Moses darkly implyeth for he is yet vailed in these words Gen. 2. 2. He rested on the seventh day from al his work which he had made This Rest then seemeth to be occasioned from his work for it is not said that he rested in his work but occasionally from his work It followeth vers 3. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created to make This sudden repetition of the Rest of God doth intimate something of greater moment and consideration than ordinary Good reader observe with me that in this later expression of God's resting there is much more implied than in the former for in the first it is said He rested from all his work which he had made But in the later it is said He rested from all his work which God created to make These words created to make signifie more than only a creation Our last English Translation reades this text created and made yet in the margin it is there confessed that according to the Hebrew it is to be read created to make which is indeed the true and farr better reading so both St. Hierome and our other masters in the holy tongue read it so doth the Latine of Sixtus and Clemens Quod creavit ut faceret i. e. which he created to make By which expression I humbly conceive that the holy Spirit doth secretly and mysteriously imply that this Rest of God consisteth in some creature newly made upon which the Godhead purposed to conferr some preferment and honour greater than the bare creation of it because it is said he created it to make so saith the Expositor upon those words creavit ut faceret a Martin Borrhaius in loc Ut ad certum usum pararet ac destinaret i. e. God rested from that work which he created that he might prepare and appoint it to a certain use So that To make must signifie that God intended to make some further and greater and more excellent use of that creature than it had of it self in it's own single and created nature and that he would effect some more glorious and gracious work by it which that creature of it self and by it's own power would never be able to perform Now what creaturâ— this is And what further use God intended to make of it And what prerogative of honour he would add to it we are diligently to enquire 1. We can not with reason and judgment fasten the occasion of this Rest of God upon any one particular creature but only upon the creation of Man for from the creation of Adam God did first take occasion to express a complacency and acquiescence or Rest 2. We may not think that this Rest of Goâ— was occasioned only by the creation of the first Adam considered singly by himself and as a 〈◊〉 creature without any further reach or consideration But it was indeed occasioned by a pre-consideration of the second Adam which is Christ who is stiled by St. Paul 1. Cor. 15. 45. The last Adam because whâ—â— Adam was made Christ also was made Christ as a creature in respect of his humane nature for as Eve was then Originally and Substantially in Adam's side as is before said So was Christ seminally in his Loines so that the consideration of Christ now wrapped up in this Root of Adam was that which occasioned the first hint of an expression of complacencie in the Godhead upon the Creation of the Man for thereupon that was said by God which was not said before upon the Creation of any one or of all his other Creatures and it is said with a note of Remarkableness Gen. 1. 31. Behold it was very good Indeed his other Creatures are said to be good but not any nor all said to be very good till now 3. Though Adam was now made and in him Christ was seminally couched yet it is not presently said that God Rested nor untill some other Act was performed by the Godhead For God is not said to Rest until Eve was taken and formed and finished out of Adam's side and this was not done until the Seventh day as is before shewed This was because Christ the Saviour of
53 was spoken before the holy Supper was instituted and must stand firm and true although that Sacrament had never been ordained To eat his flesh signifieth to be united with his flesh as our meat is with us which groweth into one intire body with us And to drink his blood signifieth to be united with the Soul of Christ for without an union of our flesh and soul with his flesh and soul Christ cannot profit us Therefore our Mother Evâ— and we with Christ also in her must have taken both our flesh and soul from Adam else Eve must perish and so must we The Roman and also our Anglican Divines do greatly mistake the meaning of the Sacramental Cup in teaching that the Wine signifieth only the blood of Christ whereas indeed it presenteth not the blood but the Soul or Life of Christ It was not the shedding of his Blood literally taken that redeemed us for that might have been done without his death and he was dead on the Crosse before either his vital blood or Joh 19 34 water issued out of his body But the principal Act of our Redemption consisted in the giving up his Ghost or pouring out his precious Soul for us as himself had before professed The good Shepherd giveth his life for the Ioh 10 11 Sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is his Soul for us and this fully correspondeth with the words of the Covenant first made with man In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die And we know that blood in the old Testament did signifie the life or soul of Creatures as a visible sign thereof because the Life or Soul it self is invisible So we read Deut. 12. 23. The blood is the life and so St. Austin expounds those words both there and Levit. 17. 14. a Cont Adimant cap 12 Cont Advers legis l 2 c 6 Anima Sanguis viz. in signo Non quia hoc erat sed quia significabat sicut dicitur Petraest Christus i. e. The blood is the life Not as if blood were our soul but because blood signifies the soul just so as it is said That Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. Even the Heathen Poet calleth blood the soul of Man b Virg Aen 9 Purpuream vomit ille animam Verily if the Sacramental Wine represented nothing else but blood literally and not the Soul of Christ Romanists would be more excusable for with-holding the Cup from the People upon their own excuse which is indeed true That the body of Christ doth also include the blood But blood signifies more than so which they either know not or will not acknowledge although the same doctrine was formerly taught by their own Master of the Sentences even Peter Lombard about the year 1150. in these words c Lomb Sent. 4 dist 11 Panis ad carnem refertur Vinum ad animam ut animae carnis susceptio in Christo utriusque liberatio in nobis significetur The Sacramental Bread relateth to the Flesh and the Wine to the Soul that hereby the assuming of a soul and body by Christ and the deliverance of both in us might be signified Thus he which is also observed by Mr. Perkins Perk. Probl. p. 146 Mat. 26. 26 When Christ ordained the Mysterious Eucharist he said of the Bread Take eat This is my body he did not say here is my body not hic est but hoc est his meaning was my body to you is such a thing as this bread is to be to you it will be united with you and be one body with you so must you with me be united in one body that so by this union my obedience both Active and Passive may become your obedience Hereupon St. Paul saith The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Communion 1 Cor. 10 16 we know is all one with Co-unio or unio-cum i. e. Communion signifies the mutual union or conjunction of Christ and his Members so not his Natural but his Mysticall body is here to be understood In like manner Christ himself said of the Wine This is my blood of the new Testament Mat. 26. 28 for the blood of the old typical or ceremonial Testament was only the life or soul of sacrifical Beasts which were killed and were but only a figure of Christ But the blood of the New Testament was the Life and Soul of Christ poured out for us Just so the Apostle saith The Cup of blessing s 1 Cor. 10 16 it not the communion of the blood of Chrâ—st that is The Wine received into us mysteriously signifieth the communion or co-union of Christ with us in one Soul And Christ had said before Drink ye all of this that he might thereby shew that all who can have benefit by Christ must needs communicate or be united with Christ as well in soul as in body For the Passion of Christ is not to be looked on as the passion of one private or single person for he was an universal man in whom all Men were comprehended so that in his Passion Death and Resurrection the Death Burial and Resurrection of all his Members is included as the Apostle saith a Rom. 6. 8 If ye be dead with Christ And b Col. 2 12 buried with him And c Col. 3. 1 If ye be risen with Christ by this union that saying of the Prophet before mentioned is performed d Ier. 31 30 Every oâ—e shall die for his own iniquity because all Men with Christ also were one in Adam as Austin saith against the Pelagians e Lib. 3. c. 7. Tom. â— In ejus natura nostra insita fuit omnes ille unus fuerunt that is Our nature was planted in Adam so that all we were that one Man for there is no man in the World whose nature was not assumed by Christ whereof this reason is rendred by f Prosp de Providentia fo 216 Prosper in his Poem though in a faulty verse in my Edition thus ut semine ab ipso Idem homo in Christi corpus nascendo venireâ— This is that weighty reason why Eve the Mother of us all must needs be taken out of that one Lump of the first Man That she and all her posterity having been therein united with Christ both in body and soul might by that Union be capable of Redemption by the same Christ of which Redemption none can be partakers but the Sons or Progeny of Adam This was the method of our merciful Creator in producing the Redeemer in this manner that so the benefit of his Incarnation might be tendered to all Which Doctrine being admitted for truth is well worthy the serious consideration of our Contra-Remonstrants to shew cause why we should not acknowledge the benefit of his Death as well as of his Birth to be offered universally to mankind seeing that both his flesh and his soul and his whole humane nature were with