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A50253
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The figures or types of the Old Testament by which Christ and the heavenly things of the Gospel were preached and shadowed to the people of God of old : explained and improved in sundry sermons / by Mr. Samuel Mather ...
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Mather, Samuel, 1626-1671.; Mather, Nathanael, 1631-1697.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing M1279; ESTC R7563
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489,095
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683
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out in a new dress given forth in a new manner The Lord adorns his Truths with new Ornaments as it were that men may be excited to Inquiries and Affections suitable Hence in every Age there be in one respect or other new Discoveries or new Dispensations and Dealings of God with his People Or if men be taken with Antiquity 1 Joh. 2.7 I write no new Commandment but an old Commandment for the substance of things The good old way of Faith and Holiness remains which all the Saints of God have gone to Heaven in Heb. 11. he shews the same Race which he sets before them had been run by all the Saints from Abel cap. 12.1 being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses let us run our race that is set before us as if he should say I exhort you to nothing but what all those Saints of old have done before you and yet ver 40. he professeth God hath better things for them an higher and better Dispensation and cap. 12.18 Ye are not come to Mount Sinai but ye are come to Mount Sion ver 22. here he fetches an argument from this variety of Dispensation and from the preheminence of that which they wore under above former times Reas 2. For his own greater Glory And under this head many things come in to be considered This various and gradual Dispensation tends to his greater Glory divers ways 1. That there may be an harmony between this and the other Works of God 2. To shew the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom 4. His absolute Liberty And 5. His peculiar Goodness 1. That there might be an harmony between this and the other Works of God It is so in other works of God as well as in his speaking and revealing of his Mind As in the Creation of the World he could have made it all at once but he chose rather to make it in six days and he made various and several kinds of Creatures Therefore this variety of Administration in the Discoveries of himself and his Gospel is suitable to all the rest of his Works wherein he ever delights with Unity to mix Variety with Identity Diversity and Disagreement in some respects with Consent in other So we see in the outward Lineaments of mens Faces so in the inward abilities and dispositions of their Minds both in the common and saving in natural and spiritual endowments what a wonderful Composition there is and how great variety and so indeed in every Creature and Work of God Though in conclusion Omnia fiunt ab uno ad unum God is the Author and the End of all So in the Church 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. there are diversities of Gifts differences of Administrations diversities of Operations but from the same Author Calv. in loc Symmetria Ecclesiae multiplici ut ita loquar unitate constat the Symmetry of the Church consists as I may so say in a manifold Unity 2. To manifest the inestimable Worth and Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel of his Son which appears in this in that it is attended with such a multitude of means of divers kinds for the Dispensation of it That so many ordinances Providences Persons and things in several ages of the World should all be subservient to the Exhibition of this one Mystery of Christ and Redemption by him This shews the Glory of it Col. 1.27 3. To manifest the variety of his Wisdom that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variegata sapientia It is like a party coloured Garment Ephes 3.10 As in the works of Creation and Providence so it is in the Dispensations of his Grace the Wisdom of God cannot be sufficiently manifested in any one or in a few things or in one manner of working And therefore it refracts it self into many parcels and scatters its Beams every manner of way that all put together may argue unto Man the inexhaustible depth and infinite largeness thereof Hence he hath found out many ways and means to convey the same Grace and every several manner hath some peculiar Beam of Wisdom and Worth in it This great variety and change of his Dispensations was not because in process of time God found out a better way and so relinquish'd the old as in the work of Creation he did not profit by Experience though he made Man last the most perfect Creature last For the Inequalities and Degrees of things came from the Wisdom of God as well as the divers kinds of them and every thing is best in its place and kind and proportion to the whole though not simply and in it self It is best that in a body there should be a Foot as well as an Head though simply and in it self the Head be more excellent The Wisdom of God appears not only in the individual natures of things but in their references and proportions to other things and to the whole whereof they are parts so it is better and the Wisdom of God appears more in that there was both a Legal and a Gospel Dispensation of Christ and his Benefits though the Gospel Dispensation be in it self far the more excellent Therefore this is a third Beam of his Glory that shines forth herein viz. his manifold Wisdom As there is infinite Wisdom in every thing God doth so he would have us see it 4. This variety of Dispensation manifests the Lords absolute Freedom and Liberty and Soveraignty in the use of Means and Instruments that he is not tyed to any of them He can work by little or by great means by few or many He can dispense the same Grace to his Church either in a Family-way or in a Nation or in all Nations For the Church of God was first a Family then in populo Israelitico and now in populo Catholico He can reveal himself either by ordinary or extraordinary persons either in a more immediate way or in a mediate way He hath not limited himself to one way or time or manner of speaking lest we should ascribe the Glory to the Means to the Tools rather than the blessed Workman and Author Therefore he is pleased ever and anon to change the Means to break his Tools as it were and throw them away and make new ones Hence if men begin to think that a Temple at Jerusalem hath any Salvation in it he will burn it up and be worshipped in spirit and truth in every Cottage as Joh. 4. pure Incense every where Mal. 1.11 5. The fifth Beam of Divine Glory that shines forth in this variety of Administration is this the Glory of peculiar Goodness which the Lord will receive by this means from every Saint of his according to his peculiar dealing with him Some will bless him for Multitude and Excellency of Means others will admire his Power and Grace in working by small and weak means some will praise him for one kind of
Dispensation others for another kind As for instance A New-Testament Saint will praise God that he caused him to live in the Noon-day and under the highest Meridian of Gospel-Light when the Earth was full of the Knowledg of the Lord. Oh what should I have been if my lot had fallen under former times of Ignorance and Darkness But another in those former darker times as for instance Abraham he will admire and wonder at Gods Mercy that when Darkness was round about him yet the Lord opened his eyes to spy the Sun of Righteousness peeping up and caused him then to rejoyce to see Christs Day that his Fleece was wet when the rest of the Earth was dry his Heart drawn after God and Christ when the means were so scant and small One Believer will bless God that the Lord was known to him by his Name Jehovah Another will admire that he did enable him to believe on God Almighty Some will bless him that they have seen the Accomplishment of his Promises and Predictions and not one thing hath failed of all the Good that God hath spoken as Josh 23.14 Another under former Dispensations will admire that his Heart was wrought to embrace the Promises afar off and that the Lord made Faith to him to be the substance of things not seen Beloved the Lord makes his Goodness special and peculiar by variety of Dispensations even to Believers living in the same age and in the same place that though in general they be all alike made partakers of the same common Salvation yet such variety there is in the Lords dealings with them in regard of Circumstances that in one respect or other in regard of one circumstance or other every one hath experience of peculiar loving Kindness singular strains of Mercy that he can say with Paul never such a pattern of Mercy I have more to bless God for than any other in all the world beside It is so much more in several ages so that look as that variety of Wisdom in so many several things before noted did declare the infiniteness of Gods Wisdom so in like manner these various kinds and ways of Goodness being all laid together will yield the lustre of infinite Goodness so far as finite Creatures can contain or conceive it I say when all the particulars are computed and put together in one sum total as they shall be when that general Assembly of all the Saints and Angels shall meet together at the great Day when they shall all compare Notes as it were It will then appear that there is no channel wherein Mercy hath not run no expression of loving Kindness that hath been omitted so manifold have his Dispensations been that every Age and every Person shall be able to bring in their several and peculiar portions into the common Treasury of Gods Mercies and Praises and they shall all say and sing together that Song of Praises in Psal 40.5 Many O Lord my God are thy wonderful Works which thou hast done and thy Thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee if I would declare and speak of them they are more than can be numbred I shall conclude for the present with three words of Use both from what hath beeen said to day and in the last Discourse upon this Subject 1. We may gather some Chronological Light 2. We may see the rise of all the old Heathenish Superstitions And 3. See the Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel Vse 1. Here is some Instruction and Light may be gathered as to that Question which may easily arise in your thoughts namely how long this Old-Testament Administration lasted The Answer may be gathered from all that hath been said upon this Subject that it lasted precisely four thousand years This will appear if you compute and put those seven Old-Testament Dispensations together which were formerly spoken to The first Dispensation from Adam to Noah was sixteen hundred fifty six years The second from Noah to the Promise made to Abraham was four hundred twenty seven years The third from Abraham to the coming out of Egypt was four hundred and thirty years The fourth from the coming out of Egypt to the Dedication of the Temple was four hundred eighty seven years The fifth from the Temple to the Captivity was four hundred years The sixth namely from the Captivity to the Return was seventy years The last Old-Testament Dispensation from the Return to the Messiahs Death was four hundred and ninety years And from the Death of Christ to the Destruction of the Temple and City and Nation whereby the Lord did put all that old Dispensation to a full end was forty years All which Sums put together amounts exactly to four thousand years so long did that old Testament Dispensation last Vse 2. We may here see the rise of all the old Heathenish Superstitions They were the Corruption of Old-Testament Dispensations As Popery is nothing else but Christianity corrupted by a cursed mixture of Paganism and Judaism with it so in like manner Turcism is Vse 3. We may learn from hence to see the Glory of the Mystery yea the Riches of the Glory of the Mystery of the Gospel in that it was so long and with so great variety of Dispensation held forth to the Church of God of old Surely it was no small matter which the Lord made use of such various Providences and Dispensations to reveal for they did all tend to and aim at this Col. 1.26 The Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and from Generations ver 27. the Riches of the Glory of this Mystery Therefore learn to prize the Gospel according to this worth and this value that God hath put upon it To slight it is to slight all the Glory and glorious Dispensations of God from the beginning of the World to this day For this they did all look at A man acknowledges the Glory of the Mystery in two things 1. When he believes it for himself with application to himself in particular 2. When he walks worthy of it But to disbelieve the Promises and to disobey the Commands of it is to despise the Gospel 2 Thess 1.8 And to do so under such a clear Dispensation of it as in New Testament times certainly the deepest place in Hell will be their Portion Wo unto thee Chorazin wo unto thee Bethsaida For if the mighty Works that have been done in thee had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented in dust and ashes May we not say wo unto thee O London wo unto thee O Dublin For if the Preaching that hath been in thee had been in Rome they would have been convinced they would have repented before this day Vse 4. Let me repeat a little and reinculcate these things upon you which have been delivered as Reasons but might have been handled as Uses of the Point I beseech you give unto God the Glory due unto his Name in all his