The persons The Persons that were to eat it were all the congregation of Israel even every one that was circumcised of whom such a number was to meet together in one house as might suffice to eat a whole Lambe at one meal No foreyner or hired servant nor slave might eat of it but yet if they were first circumcised they might come unto this Sacrament neither was any difference at all to be made betwixt them Exo. 12.49 and the native circumcised seed 3ly The ceremonies The Ceremonies were stated that they must choose a Lambe it must be taken out from the Sheepe or from the Goats This choice must be made upon the tenth day upon the fourteenth day in the evening they must kill it they must take the blood in a Bason they must take a bunch of Hysop and dip it in that blood and strike the lintell and the two side-posts of the doore of the house where it was eaten neither must they go forth untill the morning The Lambe it selfe must not be eaten raw nor sodden but rosted it must be all rosted whole with the head the legs and purtenance It must be eaten with bitter herbs and with unleavened bread it must be all eaten nothing of it must remaine until the morning and if any part of it should remaine untill the morning it must be burnt with fire It must be all eaten in one house none of it must be carried out neither must a bone of it be broken All the while that they did eat it they must stand upon their feet for they must eat it with their loyns girded their shooes on their feet and their staffe in their hand and they must eat it in haste And all this is luculently prescribed Exod. 12. By all this God would perpetuate the memorial of that great deliverance wrought for his people The Meaning when he brought them out of the land of Egypt and from the cruelty and oppression of Pharoah and of the Egyptians It was not enough that such a deliverance should be preached but he will have it to be visibly represented in his Church by the anniversarie celebration of a solemne Sacrament of which the parents must carefully teach the meaning unto their Children And it shall come to passe when your children shall say unto you what meane you by this service That ye shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lords passover Exo. 12.26 who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses 27. But by all this a further and greater mysterie The Mysterie was meant and intended For their deliverance out of the land of Egypt was a type of that deliverance which all the Israel of God hath by the redemption of Iesus Christ That was a deliverance out of a temporall bondage this is a deliverance out of an eternall bondage that was a deliverance of the body this is a deliverance of body and soule that was a deliverance from Egypt and from the heavy burthens of it this a deliverance from hell it selfe and from the eternall torments of it By that deliverance the carnall seed were brought into the land of Canaan by this deliverance the spirituall seed are brought into the kingdome of heaven That lamb was Christ it was Christ in mysterie and signification for Saint Paul affirmeth it in plain termes 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our passeover is sacrificed or slaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for us That lamb was without blemish and a male of the first year or of a year old to signifie Christ conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a pure Virgin in whom there was not the least blemish or spot of sin either originall or actuall and to signifie Christ sacrificed in the full perfection of the human nature That lamb was taken out from the sheep or from the goats to signifie Christ according to the flesh descended both of righteous and unrighteous parentage as is to be seen in his genealogy St. Mat. 1. St. Luc. 3. That blood of the lamb which was shed and was with a bunch of hysope stricken upon the lintell and upon the two side-postes which God looked upon to the end that he might not suffer the destroyer to destroy them did signifie the blood of Christ who like as the hysope which is a low and contemptible herbe should come in a low and contemptible condition that he would look upon his blood and for that blood-sake spare his whole Church by delivering it from the destruction of the wicked world That lamb is eaten for sustentation of the body when Christ crucified is believed for the nutriment of the soul for S. Joh. 6.51 to eat Christ is a work of faith That lamb rosted whole upon the spit did signifie whole Christ made a sacrifice upon the crosse That lamb wholly eaten did signifie Christ wholly to be believed the divinity the humanity the hypostaticall union A bone of that lamb was not to be broken and that St John saith plainly to be meant of Christ S. Joh. 19.36 that not a bone of him should be broken wherein also is to be observed that although this lamb of God did suffer according to all that wherein it was possible for him to suffer in the flesh and was broken yet his Divinity could not suffer That lamb was to be eaten in haste because it was the Lords passover to signifie that all they who eat the true passeover which is Christ the Lord by faith must use no procrastination or delay but must make all the haste they can to come to a full fruition of him That lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread and with bitter herbes to signifie that they who eat the true passeover must purge out the old leaven of malice and wickednesse and keep the feast with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth nothing abhorring poverty and all manner of afflictions which attend them in this present world for that lamb's sake That lamb was eaten standing with their loines girt their shooes on their feet and their staves in their hands to signifie that in this world we are pilgrims and strangers here we have no abiding place we must go forth to seek another and a better Country whose builder and founder is God Finally the use The use of this Sacrament was to admonish them of repentance and â—o teach them to amend their lives therefore the beginning of the year was changed to teach them to live no more after the old year in their former conversation but to become new creatures in Christ No uncircumcised person was to eat of it for this was a Sacrament of the â—â—â—â—visible Church and served to congregate the members of the same into communion and into one and the same visible profession of the true Religion and was therefore a distinctive signe whereby the professors of the true Religion might be knowne
unto the end The brazen Altar The brazen Altar which was the Altar of burnt-offerings with the vessels thereof is sufficiently described Exod. 28. It did signifie Christ For like as that Altar was but one and was for all the burnt-offerings of all the people offered upon all occasions even so Christ is that sole singular catholick generall and universall Altar in and upon whom all the sacrifices of the Church which are spirituall are by faith to be offered up unto God the Father This Altar was placed in the court without to signifie Christ as old Simeon saith in his Song prepared before the face of all people S. Luk. 2.31 and tendred unto all the world by the ministry of the Gospel I might here say that the Brass did signifie the fortitude and patience of Christ Heb. 12 2. who endured the cross despising the shame And whereas all the Vessels thereof were to be of Brass it was to give them to understand that all his servants must be of the like fortitude and patience An appendix to this Altar was the brazen laver The brazen Laver. described Exod. 30. It was for the Priests to wash their hands and their feet when they went into the Tabernacle and when they approached the Altar to offer sacrifice they were to wash their hands and their feet lest they should dye It was to give them to understand that all they who will minister to the Lord in holy things must cleanse their hands from every evill work and their feet from every evill way they must be holy by the sanctification of his spirit for he that is not so washed is obnoxious or subject unto death eternall every moment The Mysterie of which ordinance extendeth to that holy priesthood which now in the time of the Gospell doth offer up spiritual sacrifices 1 Pet. 2.5 acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And such was the Tabernacle and the sacred utensils of the same all which were to be found in the Temple which Solomon built but with greater splendor meaning thereby that when Christ the true Solomon should establish the Church which is now in the New Testament then should all the mysteries of Christian Religion appear in far greater beauty and glory But here before we proceed further our sacred History bids us to enquire what became of that Tabernacle and Ark which Moses made after that God had his fixed Temple built by Solomon At first the Tabernacle and Arke during the peregrination of the people of Israel in the wilderness The History of the Tabernacle and of the Arke were carried from place to place at length they passed through the River Jordan being alwaies born by the Priests and Levites whose office was to take down the Tabernacle that so it might be born and to set it up again when there should be occasion When they had passed over Jordan they were of them brought to the camp at Gilgal Josh 4.19 which was nigh to Jericho in the East border and there they abode together for a certain space till the people whom Joshua had circumcised were whole Josh 5.8.10 and till they had kept the passeover And then the Ark was taken by the Priests and carried about Jericho seven dayes together but was every night brought back againe into the campe Josh 6.11 where it lodged The City being taken and destroyed after the walls thereof were fallen downe both the Tabernacle and the Ark were brought to Shiloh Josh 18.1 a towne in the tribe of Ephraim and set up there of which tribe Joshua was Jud. 2.9 There was the land divided by lot for an inheritance unto the severall tribes by Eleazar the Priest and Joshua the Son of Nun at the door of the Tabernacle which was there then And thus the house of God Josh 19.51 and the seat of Religion the Tabernacle and the Ark were placed in Shiloh and thither the tribes went up at the three solemn Feasts Exod. 34.23 Jud. 18.31 1 Sam. 1.9 1 Sam. 3.2 as unto the place which the Lord had chosen to put his name there according as it was provided in the Law In that place the Tabernacle and Ark remained during all the government of the Iudges untill the time and government of Eli the high Priest and untill a little before his death At what time there was War between the Israelites and the Philistines and the Israelites were over-come by the Philistines at Eben Ezer wherefore to find protection from the Ark they went to Shiloh and took it out of the Tabernacle and brought it into the field and so were the Tabernacle and the Ark separated The Tabernacle and Ark separated the one from the other But the battel being joyned the Israelites were defeated thirty thousand of their footmen slain upon the turfe the Ark of God was taken and Hophni and Phinehas the sonnes of Eli were both slain At the newes whereof and when he heard that the Ark of God was taken old Eli fainted fell off from his seat and brake his neck The Philistines the Ark of God being thus gotten into their possession brought it from Eben Ezer where the battel was fought 1 Sam. 4.18 unto Ashdod or Azotus where was the Temple of Dagon their god and set it up by Dagon but it was he that was figured by the Arke and whose divine presence was there that would by his comming into the world overthrow all the false gods of the Gentiles and destroy and abolish their idolatrous worship and service and therefore Dagon could not stand before the Ark of the Lord but fell flat upon his face to the earth which when the men of Ashdod saw they set him up in his place again 1 Sam. 5.3 4. But Dagon was thrown down again and his head and both the palms of his hands were cut off thereby shewing that the Devill whose idol Dagon was and all his power and wicked workes should be overthrown and cut off by that true Arke who is the power and strength of God The hand of the Lord also saith the Text was heavy upon them of Ashdod and he destroyed them and smote them with Emrods even Ashdod and the coasts thereof Therefore they convened all the Lords of the Philistines 1 Sam. 5.6 to consult and determine what should be done with it for they were not insensible that the plague which was come upon them was because of the Ark who ordered it to be sent to Gath. But they also being destroyed 8. and plagued with Emrods as the men of Ashdod had been they sent it away to Ekron so loath and unwilling are men to render back unto God his rights having once seized on them with sacrilegious hands 10. Notwithstanding the Ekronites were grievously plagued also as those of Ashdod and Gath had been their destruction was great and mortal and the hand of God was heavy upon them They therefore being sensible
figuratively set forth the Evangelicall priesthood that although they have a true and a reall priesthood convenient to the new testament yet inferiour and of a second order to the priesthood of Christ That by their office and function they descend and derive a spirituall and evangelicall pedigree from Christ the first and the great high priest The conditions of their capability to wit of the priests of the second order did mystically shew what manner of men the evangelicall priests ought to be that they must be without all blemish not in respect of sin as Christ was for that is impossible but of scandall for that is requisite Therefore some things were permitted to the priests of the second order which were absolutely forbidden to the high priest The office of the priests of the second order to whom it was appointed that they should conserve the oyle oversee the vessells offer incense and sacrifices yet might they not go within the vail nor make the expiation did mean that although the evangelicall priests should be ordained to preach the gospell to offer up spirituall sacrifices and to intercede for the people as priests or ministers yet that it is Christ alone who by his own blood should enter once into the holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us To his superiority therefore belonged all that which was meant and intended by the peculiar robes and ornaments of the high priest and to their ministrie all that which was meant and intended by the other vestes The feminalls or linnen breeches and the strait linnen coat that they must be expedite and diligent to do the duties of their calling the girdle of needle work that they must be bound about with verity and truth the cap or mitre of fine linnen that they must in all things save and preserve their head which is Christ and the linnen Ephod that they must be of a pure and unspotted conversation That whereas the priests of the second order were distinguished into their classes and appointed to their offices by lot it gave them to understand that the priesthood of the new testament should be of divine providence and allotted unto his Church by Christ The Levites the Nethinims the Singers and the Porters did signifie the inferiour clergie of the new testament and all others employed in the Church to glorifie God to promote and set forth religion with decency and order And whereas the officers and judges were of the tribe of Levi it gave them to understand that in the Church of Christ the scriptures must be expounded and questions and controversies of religion decided by those onely who in respect of their office and function do properly pertain to the Leviticall tribe By the distinct orders and offices of the high priest the priests of the second order the levites the singers the porters the officers and judges was signified that Christ in his Church would have distinct orders and officers to attend severally upon their severall offices and not to clash or interfere one with another Let the layicks or lay-officers be subject to the Deacons the Deacons to the Priests the Priests to the Bishop the Bishop to Christ as Christ himselfe is subject to the Father saith Saint Ignatius Epist ad Smyrnens There were yet others who by their office and function did give their attendance upon holy things Concerning the Prophets and were organs or instruments in or by whom the word came in whom God was by his most holy and most blessed spirit and did regulate their mouths and pens so that look what they delivered to the Church either by preaching or by writing it was none of their word but the word of God in and by them delivered For God spake unto the fathers of old time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.1 in or by the Prophets as the Apostle saith And these Prophets whether they obtained to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prophets from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to predict because they did predict and foretell things to come especially concerning Christ and his kingdome Or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to shew because they did shew forth future events but more especially because they did shew Christ to come and were themselves typicall persons of Christ Or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they did interpret obscure oracles and declare deep and profound mysteries especially such as lay hidden in the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law Certain it is that they were more anciently by the Hebrewes called Seers because they had their prophecies and predictions by divine visions and revelation from God and because by them men did enquire of God 1 Sam. 9.9 Definition of Prophets These Prophets therefore must be defined to be holy men who being inspired by Gods most holy and most blessed Spirit did see and had divine visions and revelations from God and did interpret obscure oracles and declare great mysteries and did prophesy and foretell things to come specially concerning Christ and his kingdome seeking only the glory of God and the good of his Church Of these Prophets there was no continued succession neither did the son succeed the father in the office of a Prophet as the Priests did yet we finde them almost from the beginning of the world For although I shall make no doubt but that Adam himselfe had the gift of prophecie and was able to prophesy and predict things to come especially concerning that blessed seed whom God had promised to break the serpents head and that his sons also had the same gift Jud. v. 14 15. Yet Enoch the seventh from Adam is expresly noted a prophet and that he did see and did prophesy and predict things to come concerning Christ so far off as his second comming Neither were these Prophets all of the Jewes but there were prophets also of other nations as Balaam Job and the Sibylls whose fatidick verses are well known and remembered by the Fathers in their learned Writings But our definition holdeth good specially of those Prophets in and by whom the word of God came unto his people the Jewes and which were raised up among them and of their own nation although they were not all of them of the tribe of Levi. Of these some were before the law as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph whose prophecies are extant in the Scripture Gen. 20.7 and Abraham is affirmed to be a Prophet by God himselfe Some of them were under the law first and principally Moses to whom God spake not in visions and dreams as to other prophets but mouth to mouth apparently and not in dark speeches and to whom it was given to behold the similitude of the Lord. Then the seventy Elders Num. 12.7 8. who had the same spirit of prophecy put upon them though not to the same measure that Moses had In the time of the Judges there was Deborah a prophetesse
them the Gospell by bringing unto them good tidings of great joy which should be to all people for that which they had long expected was that day brought to passe Unto you said he speaking with a lively and audible voyce is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord And this shall be a signe unto you ye shall finde the babe wrapped in swadling clothes lying in a manger Then immediately appear in the like glory and brightnesse and with the divine glory of him that was born shining round about them a multude of other Angels not seen to the shepheards at the first by the like lively and audible voice pronouncing the doxologie and declaring the fruits of the Gospell That God would by this wonderfull incarnation procure his owne glory and give peace to the earth making by that Saviour so born peace between heaven and earth peace betwixt God and man peace betwixt men and angells peace betwixt man and man peace betwixt men and the creatures and peace of men with themselves And finally that from hence is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that good pleasure of the will of God that good will towards men whereby the Father is well pleased with them in Christ his son For so saith the Evangelist Saint Luke S. Luc. 2.8 9 And there were in the same country shepheards abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night And lo the Angell of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them 10 and they were sore afraid And the Angel said unto them Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people 11 12 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a signe unto you ye shall finde the babe wrapped in swadling clothes lying in a manger And suddenly there was with the Angell a multitude of the heavenly hoste 13 14. praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good-will towards men He that was born was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shepheard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good shepheard Why the Gospel first preached to the shepheards 1 Pet. 5.4 St Joh. 10.14 he was the great shepheard of the sheep Heb. 13.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe shepheard it was he who had honoured the shepheards life in the persons of the righteous Abel of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and especially of David himself the head of his family who had fed kept the sheep of Jesse his father in the same place The pastoritial life was simple innocent and harmlesse such were the shepheards usually therefore the shepheards according to the divine wisdome which reacheth from one end to another mightily and doth order all things sweetly were the fittest persons to be brought first of all to the chiefe shepheard Wisd 8.1 by the preaching of the Gospell But this is not all for he had promised to his Church pastours according to his own heart which should feed them with knowledge and understanding Now he shewes what he will do with those pastours or shepheards and what the shepheards themselves must do Jer. 3.15 For it was not without great mystery The mystery that the shepheards were Evangelized by an angell from heaven to teach us to know that the divine revelations are first made manifest to the shepheards of the Church It was not without great mystery that the shepheards so soon as the Angells were gone up into heaven consulted what was best to be done and then went unanimously to Bethlehem to teach us to know that the affairs of the Church and of religion must be managed by the shepheards of the Church who being led by one and the same spirit must go hand in hand for the preservation of truth peace and unity It was not without great mystery that they went thither with haste for this was to teach the shepheards of the Church to use no delay when there shall be cause to enquire about matters of religion It was not without great mystery that the shepheards made known abroad every where the things wherewith they were Evangelized for this was to teach the shepheards of the Church to hide nothing from the people which shall be necessary for them to know that they may be saved and to teach the people also in matters of religion to hearken to the shepheards of the Church Therefore the blessed Virgin who had read the Scriptures diligently and was not ignorant of what was figured in the law and foretold by the prophets concerning Christ conferred and compared the things which she had seen and heard to be done and said concerning that blessed Babe with those things which she had learned out of the law and the prophets and pondered them in her heart for the confirmation of her faith upon every respect S. Luc. 2.15 And it came to passe as the Angells were gone away from them into heaven the shepheards said one to another Let us now go even unto Beth-lehem and see this thing which is come to passe which the Lord hath made known unto us And they came with haste and found Mary 16.17 and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger And when they had seen it they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this childe And all they that heard it 18 19. wondered at those things which were told them by the shepheards But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart as the text saith Christ was factus sub lege made under the law as Saint Paul saith therefore was it necessary for him to receive the signe or mark of Circumcision in the flesh of his fore-skin Gal. 4.4 Christ circumcised and why S. Joh. 7.22 For although that circumcision according to the primary institution of it was not of Moses but of the Fathers as Christ saith in the Gospell yet the law required circumcision that so the circumcised party might become a debtor to do the whole law Levit. 12.3 Gal. 5.3 What hath been already declared in the former book of this our Sacred History concerning circumcision the mystery and the use of it may suffice for that matter the question now is concerning Christ his obedience to the law whereunto he was obliged by his circumcision wherein I suppose the reader will desire to be satisfied in two things viz. 1st Why he was made under the law subject or obedient to the law and therefore a debtor to it by his circumcision 2ly In what manner he became obedient to it and was therefore circumcised Great and weighty are the reasons of Christ his subjection and obedience to the Law Why Christ was made subject or obedient to the Law For first He was obedient to the Law that so he might give approbation thereunto For