he hath a more peculiar right of Dominion over us over all that pertain unto his Church then by right of Creation he hath as God then by right of Redemption or Attonement he hath as God and Man For That part of our nature that flesh and blood which he took of his Mother was his by a more peculiar Title and real property then it was God the Fathers or the Holie Ghosts and we by mystical and spiritual union with that part of the humane nature which he assum'd into the Unitie of his Divine Person are His at least He by this union is our Head and Lord by a more strict and proper Title then God the Father or God the Holie Ghost is By the former Title of Redemption or satisfaction made for us he is our Lord and we his servants By this Title of mystical Union with him he is the Bridegroom or Head the Church is his Spouse and being Head of the Church every member of it is bound as God by the Psalmist exhorts the Spouse Psal 45. to worship him as our Lord and God for the husband is Lord of the wife He bought all our souls being in the state of Aliens or bond-servants and after cleansed and purified them that they might be espoused to him and finally presented to his Father He hath purchased the Church of God saith St. Paul with his own blood Acts 20. 28. And again Eph. 5. Christ gave himself for the Church that he might Sanctifie it and cleanse it by the washing of water through the word That he might make it unto himself a glorious Church c. ver 25 26 27. CHAP. VIII What our Confession of Christ to be The Lord importeth and how it redounds to the Glory of God the Father 1. EVery tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord Our Lord by a peculiar real Title To this Confession every Son of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue is bound de Iure but many sons of Adam to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do not confess so much de Facto The Jews with their tongues flatly deny him to be the Lord or their promised Messias The Turks and Mahumetans confess him to be a Lord of Christians but deny him to be The Lord The chief Lord under God the Father This title of Chief Lord they ascribe to Mahomet and under his right they pretend a title of dominion over Christendom The Heathens which know not God do not so much as question whether he be a Lord or whether He or Mahomet be under God the chief Lord. But as for us Christians we all to whom God hath given the use of the tongue do confess him to be The Lord As for those to whom the use of the tongue is by the course of nature and Gods ordinarie providence denyed others for them do ingage themselves at Sacred Baptisme that they when God shall grant them a heart to understand and a tongue to speak shall confess him to be the Lord and to be unto them their Lord. And in case they dye before they come to possesse the use of their hearts or of their tongues the Church or parish wherein this profession of faith was made on their behalfs are bound to profess thus much for them And as God no doubt accepts the prayers of the Church wherein they are baptized for them which cannot so much as speak to men much less pray to God or to Christ That they may be admitted into his visible Church and be reputed as members of his mystical bodie so doubtless he will accept the prayers of the Church and of every faithfull member of the Church wherein they live and dye that they may be accepted into the Church Triumphant and to us invisible albeit they never attained unto the use of the tongue or when as the Lord which gave others this blessing hath taken it from them For even of the tongue or of the use of the tongue that of Iob is most true and to be resumed by all as well by the dying as by the living by him for his owne part and by the living on his behalfe the Lord hath given and the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord Job 1. 21. 2. Thus every tongue is bound de Jure to confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord that Lord whom Job so long before did confess But though every tongue of men throughout the world every tongue of Christians of Jewes of Mahumetans or Infidels should from their birth confess thus much would this be enough for that acknowledment which here is required that Jesus Christ is the Lord or would such acknowledgement of every tongue be sufficient to pay that tribute which is due unto the Glorie of God the Father from this Confession which is here required that Jesus Christ is the Lord No it is not the Confession of every tongue that will suffice albeit the acknowledgment or Confession of every tongue be de jure required In this speech Every tongue must confess c. there is a Twofold Universalitie included The One of the Parties thus confessing or aknowledging The Other of the Duties or services to be performed by everie party thus acknowledging Christ to be the Lord. To begin with the Former when the Apostle saith That every tongue must Confesse that Jesus Christ is THE LORD You must take this Universal note to be equivalent to that phrase so often used in the Book of the Revelation by the Evangelist and Apostle all nations and Kindreds all people and Tongues every one of all Sorts of the Sons of Adam are bound de Jure to confesse That Jesus Christ the son of God and the son of man conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the virgin Marie is THE LORD of the Dying and of the Living of the Quick and of the Dead As for all such as do not either in heart or tongue or in both either by themselves or by others for them truly acknowledge Him in this life to be such a Lord they shall acknowledge Him to be such A Lord after their Resurrection from death of which likewise He is Lord. 3. But the acknowledgment of Every Tongue or of every one to whom God hath vouchsafed either a tongue or the use of the tongue will not suffice to find him a Gracious Lord at the resurrection from the dead and at the day of finall Judgment There must be as is said an Universalitie as well of duties and services to be performed by every particular person to whom God hath given an heart to understand as an universalitie of tongues or lips which are to make this confession The real language of every heart will be sufficient for every one in particular whom God hath deprived or denied the use of the tongue But unto him to whom God hath given an understanding heart and the use of the tongue also the hearty prayers and
weighing this place alone For so far hath the misapprehended Doctrine of Predestination and Certaintie of their own Estate in Salvation misswaded some as they have not been affraid to affirm That the Angels are in some sort inferiour to themselves because They minister to them as they are Heires of Salvation Ministers they are indeed yet not to us but to God or Christ though for our good So is every Magistrate so is every Pastor in his place yet God forbid that inferiours should hence collect That their Magistrates and Pastors should be Inferiour to all them for whose good they are Ministers 3. The next Point to be examined is the Extent of this our High Priests Exaltation about the Bounds or limits whereof the Controversies are more then any difficulties in the Rule of Faith do minister but not so many as men of rash or audacious understandings make and the most of them prosecuted with greater vehemencie of contention then the spirit of sobrietie which should be in every good Christian will approve The Questions of more profitable Use are generally Two The First concerns the Logical Subject of Christs Exaltation comprehended in this Title of Sitting at the Right-hand of God and the like And the Issue is this Whether Christ be exalted only as he is the Son of David or as he is the Son of God or according to both his natures as well Divine as humane The second Quaerie is about the Extent or Limits of the Exaltation of his humane Nature The one Question as Logicians speak is about the Extent or limit of the Subject The other about the Extent or limit of the Attribute That Christ was exalted according to his Humane Nature or as he was the Son of David all Christians agree But that he should be exalted as God or according to his Divine Nature which is absolutely Infinite may well seem impossible for the matter and for the Phrase very harsh Howbeit this is avouched by many Orthodoxal and worthy Divines And if Christ be as most Protestants avouch our Mediator Secundum utr amque naturam according to Both Natures why may he not be said to be Exalted according to Both Natures Yet a Difference there is which will disjoynt this Consequence For to be a Mediator betwixt two doth not necessarily include any Defect or inequalitie in the partie mediating in respect of the parties between whom he is a Mediator Whereas to be Exalted doth necessarily include or presuppose some Lower degree from which he is Exalted to an higher And if Christ according to his Divine Nature be alwayes equal to God the Father he was and is and shall be Absolutely Infinite And Absolute Infinitie cannot admit of any Degrees specially of Exaltation This necessarily argues that Christs Divine Nature could in it self receive no Degree of Diminution or Exaltation If then according to his Divine Nature he was exalted this Exaltation was not by any Real Addition of Dignitie to his Nature but only quoad nos in respect of us And it is perhaps one thing to say that Christ was Exalted according to his Divine Nature Another to say That Christ was Exalted as he was the Son of God However thus much we are bound to believe and thus much we may safely say That Christ as God was exalted in the same Sense and manner that he was Humbled as God Now that the Son of God who was as truly God as God the Father truly equal to God the Father did truly humble himself unto death even to the death of the Cross was in the first Chapter of our Eighth Book deduced out of the second to the Philippians Nor did he humble himself only according to his Humane Nature for he humbled himself not only by his life and death here on earth but by taking the Humane Nature in which he was humbled The Humane Nature could not be humbled by being united to his Divine Nature but rather Exalted So that the first and Prime Subject of his humiliation was if not his Divine Nature yet his Divine Person The Person of the Son of God was humbled by his Incarnation or Conception by his Birth by his Life by his Death and Passion And for every degree of his humiliation there is a correspondent degree of his Exaltation by his Resurrection by his Ascension into heaven and by his Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father In what Sense our Apostle saith He was humbled according to his Divine Person hath been discussed at large before The sum was this If he that thought it no robberie to be equal with God had been at any time pleased to have assumed a body or created substance into the unitie of his Infinite Person such Glorie and honour was unto that his bodie or created substance due as exceeds the Glorie and honour of all other bodies or created substances infinitely more then any creature can possibly exceed another And yet we know that the Son of God who was from Eternitie equal to his Father did in the Fulnesse of Time assume into the unitie of his Divine Person a Bodie and Soul subject to all the infirmites sin only excepted that humane nature is capable of And by assuming such a bodie and by exposing it to all the miseries of mortalitie the Son of God was truly said to be humbled and the Degrees of his humiliation were as many and large as are the Degrees by which his immortal glorified Bodie doth exceed his mortal Bodie as many and large as are the Degrees of Honour and Excellencie betwixt that Royal Priesthood which now he exerciseth and the Form of a Servant wherein he appeared So that not only the Humane Nature of the Son of God but the Son of God in his Humane Nature is truly exalted according to all the Degrees of his former Humiliation But is this all that we are bound to believe or may safely acknowledge concerning the Exaltation of Christ both as he was the Son of God and as he was the Son of David 4. If this were all then his Exaltation as the Son of God should meerly consist in the Abdication or putting off the Form of a Servant It could not include or presuppose any positive Ground of any new and Real Attribute but only a Relation to his former humiliation Some good Divines as well Ancient as modern suppose that albeit man had never sinned yet should the Son of God have been incarnate that is have taken our nature upon him yet our nature not humbled or obnoxious to death but alwaies clothed with glorie and immortalitie For Illustration or Example sake Suppose the Son of God had taken an humane bodie altogether as glorious as now it is from the very first moment of its assumption into the unitie of his Divine Glorious Person Could the assumption of such a bodie how glorious soever or how perpetual soever its glorie had been have added any least degree of Exaltation unto the Son of
the other to be more Prophane and then taking occasion by the increase of their prophanenesse to be more irregularly Precise Both parties being by their daily Bandyings far worse then being sundred they would have been Whilest in the mean time true Religion and sober Devotion suffers on both hands betwixt them Thus upon the Lutherans Hyperbolical manner of expressing the Exaltation of Christs Man-hood the Helvetian Churches took occasion to grant a lesse measure of Dignitie then was fitting and the lesse They granted the more the Lutherans still added to the advancement of his Humanitie or the miraculous manner of his Bodily Presence in the Sacrament as if they had thought themselves bound in conscience to make a Super-allowance for the others Arrears or detractions as they at least conceiv'd And thus the missed Truth oft times lies betwixt disagreeing Parties as it were offering it self to be surveyed by unpartial by-standers or sorrowful Spectators of causelesse ruful broyses betwixt brethren To add any Excellencie to Christs Divine Nature by derogating from his Humanitie we cannot for being Infinite It cannot admit of any addition And to derogate any thing from his Humanitie whereof it is or for ought we know may be Capable from That Special Union which it hath with the Divine Nature we dare not For this were to derogate from or deny the Power of God But doth he derogate any thing from Christs Humane Nature that denyes it to be Infinitely Exalted It may be he doth that doth deny the Exaltation of his Humane Nature since his Ascension and Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father to be in Any sort Infinite The diverse acceptions of Infinitie or diverse branches of it to mans apprehension are almost infinite more by many then are fit to be displayed or mentioned in this place It shall therefore suffice First to shew In what Sense we must denie Christs Humane Nature to be infinitely Exalted And this must quash the Lavish Hyperboles of some modern Lutherans Secondly In what Sense Christs Humane Nature may be said to be or at least may not be denyed to be infinitely Exalted 4. Christs Bodie may be conceived to be Absolutely Infinite or to be Actually Infinite only but not absolutely or to be Potentially Infinite only To be Absolutely Infinite or to be Infinite Simply in Being is proper to God who is Very Being it self and as he hath no Cause of Being so he can have no limits or bounds of Being either for number of several sorts of Being or for degrees of several Perfections What kind of Perfection soever we can conceive to be in any created Substance that we must acknowledge to be Infinitely greater in him Again we may conceive an Actual Infinitie of Being only in One or Two Kinds as in respect of Place of Strength or Power And though God be not Infinite only in respect of these Two Branches of Being yet he Only is Actually Infinite according to these Two Branches of Infinitie The One we call his Immensitie the other his Omnipotencie No created substance can actually be every where at once No creature can be Omnipotent or actually Infinite in strength for so it should be as strong as God though not so wise or eternal as God Now upon these Two Branches of Divine Infinitie that is upon his Immensitie and Omnipotencie the modern Lutherans make the Humane Nature of Christ to incroach as a Real Participant or equal sharer with the Divine Nature or Blessed Trinitie if we may judge of their meaning by their words or of their intended Conclusions by their Premisses expresly avouched and stiffly maintained After their Doctrine of Christs Real presence in the Sacrament by Consubstantiation began to be impugned and shaken the later Lutherans sought to support it by A new Butteresse or pillar which the Ancienter did not rely upon in this Argument and that was the Ubiquitie of Christs Bodie or Humane Nature Indeed if Christs Bodie were every-where present it should be Consubstantially present in the Sacrament But so it should be present in many other places where none of the Ancients did ever imagine it to be where no good Christian is bound to seek it 5. But to hunt out their Meaning at least the Truth concerning which their Meaning I hope is better then their Expression When they say Christs Glorified Bodie is Every-where they grant it to be in Heaven They should then in the First place tell us whether in heaven it be not as visible and conspicuous to Angels and Saints as it shall be to all men at his coming to Judgement Secondly Whether this Visibilitie of it doth not include a visible or comprehensible Distinction of parts in it as of his Head from his Feet or his Right-hand from his Left This I presume they will not deny for Christ shall only visibly change the place of his Residence not the substance form or fashion of his Bodie when he shall come from the Right-hand of God to Judge the quick and the dead This being granted when they say Christs Bodie is every where they should in the Third place tell us Whether it be Every-where according to this Distinction of Parts or no. Si di Christi If that of Christ which they hold as somewhat of Christ besides his Divine Nature they hold to be Every where have no Distinction of parts Let them call it what they list it is not in any Language besides their own and the Modern Romish Churches a Bodie as having no Properties of a Bodie If they will be content to deny all Distinction of parts in That of Christ which they make to be the Subiect of this Ubiquitarie presence we shall be content to take this their Real denyal for an approach to a Comprimise or agreement If they will call that A Bodie which we would call A Spiritual Influence or a Virtual presence so we may know what they really mean by this Word Bodie let them enjoy their Dialect If they admit a Distinction of Parts in that which they call Christs Bodie and which they make the Subject of this Ubiquitarie presence they should tell us whether it be Every where present according to every part or whether it be Every where present according to all its parts respectively As whether the Hands of Christ be Every where his Heart Every where his Head Every where or whether there be no place in the world wherein some Part of Christs Bodie or Humane Nature is not yet so that they will have his Head to be in one part his Feet in another his Right-hand in a third and his Left-hand in a fourth place or dimension of this visible world If they say Christs bodie is in this Latter sort present Every where they make him a Gyant not such a Man as we conceive him to be they do not Exalt but rather Extend him according to his Humane Nature the intire frame of whose bodie no man shall see no not at the day
God It could not There had been indeed an Exaltation of the bodie so assumed but none of the Nature or Person assuming it How then is the Son of God said now to be Exalted by his bodily Ascension into Heaven or by his Sitting at the Right-hand of the Father in our Nature wherein he was formerly humbled Take the Resolution plainely thus God the Father had remained as glorious as now he is although he had never created the world For the creation gave much even all they had to things created it gave nothing unto God who was in Being infinite yet if God had created nothing the Attribute of Creator could have had no real Ground it had been no real Attribute In like manner Suppose the Son of God had never condescended to take our nature upon him he had remained as Glorious in his Nature and Person as now he is yet not glorified for or by this Title or Attribute of Incarnation Or suppose he had not humbled himself unto death by taking the Form of a Servant upon him he had remained as glorious in his Nature and Person and in the Attribute of Incarnation as now he is but without these glorious Attributes of being our Lord and Redeemer and of being the Fountain of Grace and Salvation unto us All these are Real Attributes and suppose a Real Ground or foundation and that was his humbling himself unto death even unto the death of the Cross Nor are these Attributes only Real but more Glorious both in respect of God the Father who was pleased to give his Only Son for us and in respect of God the Son who was pleased to pay our ransome by his humiliation then the Attribute of Creation is The Son of God then not the Son of David only hath been Exalted since his death to be our Lord by a new and Real Title by the Title of Redemption and Salvation This is the Sum of our Apostles Inference concerning our Saviours Exaltation Phil. 2. 11. That every tongue should confesse that Jesus Christ is The Lord unto the Glorie of God the Father To shut up this Point Though Christ Jesus be both our High-Priest and Lord not only as he is the Son of David but as he is the only begotten Son of God and so begotten from all Eternitie yet was he neither begotten a Priest nor Lord from all Eternitie but made a Priest and made a Lord in time The Word of the Oath saith the Apostle Heb. 7. 28. which was since the Law maketh the Son a Priest who was consecrated for evermore And in the very same Charter wherein this Word of the Oath or uncontrollable Fiat for making the Eternal Word an Everlasting Priest is contained this Peculiar Title of Lord is first inferred For so that 110 th Psalm begins Jehovah said to my Lord Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine Enemies thy foot-stool Not that Adonai importeth lesse Honour or Majestie then Jehovah doth as the Jews and Arians ignorantly and impiously collect but with purpose to notifie that this Title of Lord or Adonai was to become as peculiar to Jehovah the Son of God as the Title of Cohen or Priest But this Title of Lord as peculiar to Christ will require and doth well deserve a peculiar discourse and the place allotted it is in the beginning of the second Section 5. Now for Use or Application These insuing Meditations and Considerations offer themselves What branch of sorrow of bodily affliction or anguish of soul or Spirit can we imagin incident to any degree condition or sort of men to any son of man at any time unto which the waters of Comfort may not plentifully be derived from this inexhaustible Fountain of Comfort comprised in This Article of Christs Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father Almighty No man can be of so low dejected or forlorn estate for means or friends re or spe either by birth or by misfortune but may raise his heart with this Consideration that it is no servitude or beggerie but freedom or riches to be truly entitled A Servant to the Lord of Lords and King of Kings to whom Angels and Principalities as Saint Peter speaks even those Angels and Principalities to whom not Kings and Monarchs but even Kingdoms and Monarchies are Pupils are subject and his fellow servants Or in case any poor dejected soul should be surprized with distrust or jealousie lest his Lord in such infinite height of Exaltation and distance should not from heaven take notice of him thrown down to earth let him to his comfort consider That the Son of God and Lord of Glorie to the end he might assure us that he was not a Lord more Great in himself then Gracious and loving unto us was pleased for a long time to become a Servant before he would be made a Lord and a Servant subject to multitudes of publick despights disgraces and contempts from which ordinarie servants or men of forlorn hopes are freed If he willingly became such a Servant for thee to whom he owed nothing wilt not thou resolve to make a vertue of necessitie by patient bearing thy meannesse or misfortunes for his sake to whom even Kings owe themselves their Scepters and all their worldly glorie But though it be a contemplation full of comfort to have him for our Supreme Lord and Protector who sometimes was a Servant cruelly oppressed by the greatest Powers on earth without any power of man to defend or protect him yet the sweet streams of joy and comfort flow more plentifully to all sorts and conditions of men from the Attribute of his Royal Priesthood To be a Priest implies as much as to be a Mediator or Intercessor for averting Gods wrath or an Advocate for procuring his Favours and blessings * And what could Comfort her self wish more for her children suppose she had been our mother then to have Him for our perpetual Advocate and Intercessor at the Right-hand of God who is equal to God in Glorie in Power and Immortalitie and yet was sometimes more then equal unto us in all manner of anguish of grievances and afflictions that either our nature state or casual condition of life can be charged with * Albeit he knew no sin yet never was the heart of any the most grievovs sinner no not whilest it melted with penitent tears and sorrow for misdoings past so deeply touched with the fellow-feeling of his brothers miseries of such miseries as were the proper effects or fruits of sin as the heart of this our High-Priest was touched with every mans miserie and affliction that presented himself with prayers unto him his heart was as fit a Receptacle for others sorrows of all sorts as the eye is of colours Who was weak and he was not weak who was grieved and he burned not who was afflicted and he not tormented 6. There be Two more special and remarkable Maxims of our Apostles for our comfort The One Heb.
Omnipotent because the glorie of God wherewith he is glorified is every where or because the Power or Right-hand by which he is strengthned is a Power Omnipotent Omnipotencie it self Thus much of that Absolute Infinitie or Infinitie in Act unto which Christs Humane Nature was not Exalted and yet it was Exalted in some sort Infinitly above all other created substances and so Exalted or at least declared to be so Exalted specially by the Ascension of it into heaven and by its Sitting at the Right-hand of God the Father 8. That is Infinitum actu or actually Infinite Extra quod nihil est which is so perfect and compleat that nothing in the same kind can be added unto it That is Infinitum potentia or potentially Infinite unto which somewhat may successively be added without end or ceasing Thus Philosophers have taught that In continuâ quantitate non datur minimum in discretâ non datur maximum There is not the least quantitie but is divisible into infinite parts There is no member so great but may still be made greater by Addition and albeit Addition were made every moment unto the worlds end yet the Product could not be actually infinite some number might be added unto it which as yet is not contained in it In this manner the participated Power or Glorie of God or the participation of this Power or Glorie may be infinite The participation of this Power or Being may every moment whilest the world lasteth or whilest immortall creatures continue in being be greater then other and yet never come to be so great but that it may be augmented or bettered and that which may be augmented or bettered cannot be actually Infinite The least parcel of earth could not subsist without the participation of Gods Power or Being and the least or dullest part of the earth which participates of his Being doth in a sort infinitly exceed Nothing or that which is not Nothing could have any Being but by participating of his Being who is infinite No power besides Infinite Power could out of Nothing produce Something Trees and plants and other workes of the 4 th and 5 th dayes creation excell the earth Beasts of the field excell them Man excelleth the beasts of the field and the Angels excell man in nobilitie and dignitie of being And yet the most excellent amongst the Angels is but a participation of Gods Power or Excellencie and as Divines collect God hath not made any creature so excellent but he may make it more excellent every day then other yet this supposed should not the Excellencie of it be Actually infinite because it may be still bettered Yet may that which is not actually infinite in any one kind or according to any one branch of Infinitie actually contein greater Excellencie or perfection in it then the addition of perfection unto some other creature though by succession infinite can attain unto And thus Christs Humane Nature by reason of the Personall Union which it hath with the Godhead or with the Son of God containes greater Excellencie in it of diverse kinds then any other created substance not so united though the faculties or perfections of it were continually bettered could reach unto 9. But omitting the Dignitie of Christs humane Nature in the general it will be a more profitable search to examin the particular Effects or Efficacie which his Humane Nature now Exalted hath in respect of us These may not be measured much lesse limited by other mens most noble Faculties or perfections The most dull sight on earth may see as far as the Sun or Starrs and the most quick sight cannot see beyond them No mans eye-sight can pierce through the thickest clouds much lesse through the heavens above or through the rockes here on earth Though thus to do were absolurely impossible to man or any other creature endued with sight we might not hence thus collect Christs glorified eyes are humane eyes as ours are created eyes as ours are Therefore He cannot with these bodily eyes look down from heaven and behold what is done or lyes hid in the most secret corners of the earth or that his facultie of hearing because a created facultie cannot apprehend all the blasphemies or oathes even the most secret murmurings of his enemies either against him or his Church Or admitting any Saints eyes already glorified in bodie in heaven could by vision of the Divine Nature see all things that are done in earth or that his eares could hear all the Conference that passeth in this Kingdom for some one day yet this excellencie of his outward senses being supposed his internal or intellective faculties were not able to distinguish betwixt every thing so heard or seen or to censure every word or deed as it deserves Nor could his memorie perhaps perfectly retain what for the present the apprehends or conceives Yet may we not hence argue Christs intellective Faculties are but Humane not divine Ergo he cannot distinctly and infallibly Judge or censure every thing he sees or hears or infallibly retayne the Records of his Judgment or censure inviolate and entire unto the day of Judgment Bound we are rather to beleive that Christ as Man or with his Humane eyes sees all our wrongs and as Man hears all our prayers and takes notice of all our doings Or that he who as Man shall bee our Judge is in the mean time an Eye-witnesse of all our misdeedes or well doings an Eare-witness of all our speeches good or bad Nor may we again by broken Inductions gathered from the effects or efficacie of natural bodies or created substances upon other bodies take upon us to limit or bound the Efficacie of Christs Bodie upon the bodies or soules which he hath taken to his protection We may not collect that Christs bodie because comprehended within the heavens can exercise no reall Operation upon our bodies or soules here on earth or that the live Influence of his glorified Human Nature may not be diffused through the world as he shall be pleased to dispense it or to sow the seeds of life issuing from it sometimes here sometimes there 10. This Real though Virtual Influence of Christs Humane Nature is haply that which the Lutherans call the Real Ubiquitarie presence of Christ Bodie Luther himself never denyed Christs very bodie or Humane Nature to be comprehended within the heavens and yet he affirmed it to be present with us in such a manner as the sound is present with us which is really made or caused a great way from us And we may not deny This Real Influence or Virtual Presence of Christ to be in a manner Infinite or at least to extend it self to all created substances that are capable of it in what created distance soever they be from his bodie whose Residence we beleive to be in the highest heavens at the Right hand of God This kind of Infinitie of his Presence can seem no Paradox or improbable Imagination to
any good Christian that will but raise his thoughts above the earth by this or the like Experiment of nature Albeit this bodily Sun which we dayly see were much further distant from the earth then now it is yet could we easily conceive it to be of force and efficacie enough to enlighten the earth whereon we dwell and those coelestial Spheres which are or might be as farre above it as it is above the Center And in the greatest distance we can imagin it is or might be distant from the earth it would give life and vigour to things vegetable or capable of vital heat It were a silly Argument to infer that because the hottest fire on earth cannot impart his heat to bodies 10 miles distant from it therefore the Sun cannot communicate vital heat and Comfort to vegetables more then ten-hundred-thousand miles distant from it This Inference notwithstanding is not so foolish in Philosophie as This following is in Divinitie The Sun cannot quicken trees or herbs which have lost their root and sap Ergo the Sun of righteousnes or Christs Humane Nature in which the Godhead dwelleth Bodily cannot quicken the dead or raise up our mortal bodies to immortalitie The only sure Anchor of all our hopes for a joyfull Resurrection unto the life of Glorie is the Mystical Union which must be wrought here on earth betwixt Christs Humane Nature glorified and our mortal or dissoluble nature The Divine Nature indeed is the Prime Fountain of Life to all but though inexhaustible in it self yet a fountain whereof we cannot drink save as it is derived unto us through the Humane Nature of Christ 11. Although it be most true which Tertullian in the 17 Chapter of his Apologie hath observed That even those Heathens which adored Jupiter Capitolinus and multiplied their Gods according to the number of the places wherein they worshiped them when they were throughly stung with any grievous affliction or calamitie were wont to lift up their eyes and hands not to the Roman Capitol but to heaven it self as knowing that by instinct of nature to be the seat or throne of Divine Majestie And the Hill from whence came their help Yet notwithstanding the truth of this Observation and the profitable use which that Father there makes of it it was an extraordinary Favour of God unto the Israelites that they were permitted and instructed to worship God in his Sanctuarie and to present their devotions towards the Ark of the Covenant or the Mercy-seat before which they might adore him in such manner and sort as they might not in any other place or before any other creature They knew much better then the heathen that Gods Throne of Majestie was in heaven and yet were to tender their devotions unto him as extraordinarily present in his Temple or Sanctuarie here on earth For as our bodily sight doth scatter or dazle without some sensible Object to gather and terminate it So our cogitations though of heaven and heavenly things do float or vanish without some determinate and comprehensible Object whereon to fasten them Now albeit the Temple of Jerusalem wherein Gods People only were to worship were long since demolished yet the Sanctuarie wherein they were to worship God is rather translated or advanced from earth to heaven then destroyed For it was Gods Presence that made the Temple and That is more extraordinary in Christs Body which the Jewes destroyed but which he raised again in three dayes then ever it had been in Solomons Temple in the Glorie of whose goodly structure and manifestation of Gods Glorie in it the true Israelites did much rejoyce and the later Iewes too much boast and glorie But this Prerogative we have in respect of the ancientest and truest Israelites that since the vail of the Temple was rent we may at all times reflecting upon that modell the Scripture hath imprinted in our mindes look within the vail and behold the Ark or Mercy-seat and use the most holy Sanctuarie or inner place made with hands as a Perspective Glasse or instrument for surveying the heavenly Sanctuarie which God hath pitched and not man This hope have we saith S t Paul Heb. 6. 19. as an anchor of the soul both sure and stedfast and which entreth into that within the vail whither the fore-runner is for us entred even Jesus made an high Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek He is gone before us into the Sanctuarie to make perpetual intercession who before had made an everlasting attonement for us here on earth He is now become to us the Temple of God the Ark of the Covenant the Propitiatorie or Mercie-seat the fulfilling of all things and unto him now placed in his Sanctuarie at the Right-hand of God we are not only to direct our Cogitations or devotions but to transmit our affections to the Divine Nature by him The Son of God after he had suffered in Our flesh and made a full sufficient satisfaction for all our sins did in our nature rise again did in our nature ascend into heaven and in our nature sitteth at the Right-hand of God not only to gather our scatered contemplations and broken notions of the Godhead but withall to draw and unite our affections unto him which otherwise would flagg droop or miscarry if we should direct them to heaven at large or to the incomprehensible Majestie of the Godhead without a known Advocate or Intercessor to present them and to return their effects or issues Hence saith our Apostle Colos 3. 1. If ye be risen with Christ that is if you sted fastly believe that Christ who was the Son of God and as incomprehensible for his Divine Nature as God the Father to whom he was equal did dye in your flesh and comprehensible nature and in the same nature did rise againe from the dead then seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right-hand of God Set or settle or fasten your affections on things above not on things on the earth And as we are to settle our dearest affections on him so are we to direct our prayers unto him in his heavenly Sanctuarie 12. That we may direct our prayers unto the Blessed Trinitie according to the Rule of Faith which is the first Degree of praying in Faith take for the present these short Directions The First and Fundamental Object of Belief as Christian is the acknowledgement of the Blessed Trinitie And by this Belief we acknowledge such a Distinction of Persons or Parties between God the Father God the Son and God the Holy-Ghost that God the Father doth Personally and in proprietie of Person exact Satisfaction for all the offences committed against the God-head or Blessed Trinitie and that the Son of God doth by like Personal Proprietie undertake to make Satisfaction and Reconciliation for us He it is that doth avert the wrath of God from us and inhibit the proceedings of Divine Justice against us We are then in the First