them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost where that Phrase in the Name plainly imports as it generally doth in other places of Scripture by the Authority So that by this Commission Christ's Ministers are authorized and constituted the legal Proxies of the holy Trinity in the stead of those blessed Persons to seal the New Covenant with the Baptismal sign to those whom they baptize and thereby legally to oblige the Father Son and Holy Ghost to perform the Promises of it to all those Baptized persons who perform the conditions of it For that the Baptismal sign is a legal ingagement upon God as well as us to perform the New Covenant is evident from Mark 16.16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved where it is evident that Baptism as well as Faith doth confer a right to Salvation and therefore since Faith confers it only as it is the Condition of the Covenant Baptism must confer it as it is the Seal of the Covenant And accordingly S. Peter exhorts his Converts to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost from whence it is evident that Baptism as well as Repentance has a great influence on our remission of sins and our communication of the Holy Ghost Since therefore Faith and Repentance are the whole condition of the promise of remission and of the Holy Ghost it necessarily follows that Baptism doth not influence it as it is the Condition but as it is the Seal of the Promise And so also in Baptism we are said to wash away our sins i. e. the guilt of them Acts 22.16 because the sign of Baptism seals to us on God's part the Promise of Forgiveness By all which it is evident that Baptism is a federal Rite in which God and we do seal and ratifie to one another each others part of the New Covenant and it is this sealing that makes the Covenant obliging to both Parties and gives to each a legal Claim and Title to each others promise and engagement to God it gives a legal Title to all that duty which we promise and to us it gives a legal Title to all those blessings which God promises So that till such time as we are Baptized the New Covenant is not struck between God and us nor have we any right or title to any of the blessings promised in it And though we should perform all that duty which the Covenant requires yet this will not at all intitle us to the blessings it promises For he who engages to walk a Mile for me upon my promise to give him a thousand pounds hath upon his performance a just claim and title to the whole Sum whereas he that walks ten Miles for me without any such promise hath a right to no more than what in strict justice he deserves And therefore since what God promises in the New Covenant infinitely exceeds the merit of what he requires our performance of what he requires doth not at all oblige him to bestow the blessings of his promise on us unless we perform it upon a Covenant-engagement and therefore till this engagement is made and sealed in our Baptism we can have no promise to rely upon and though we should nevâ—r so heartily endeavour to repent we canâ—â—t claim the divine grace and assistance and though we should actually repent we can plead â—o title to remission of sins and though we should pâ—rsevere in well-doing to the end we cannot challenge eternal life And since our endeavours do not merit God's grace nor our repentance his Pardon nor our perseverance eternal life he is no more obliged to bestow these blessings on us by his Iustice than he is by his Promise So that in this state all we have to rely upon is the hope of an extraordinary mercy that God will do for us that which he never promised and bestow upon us that which he is not obliged to But when once we have struck Covenant with him in Baptism we have him fast obliged to us to perform his part of the Covenant whenever we perform ours and our being thus tied together as one party in one and the same Covenant by this federal Rite of Baptism is that which makes us one Catholick Church or Community For our admission into this New Covenant which is the Churches Charter is our admission into the Church it self and it is by being intituled to all the blessings that belong to Christians in common by vertue of the New Covenant that we become Members of the Christian Community And hence we are said to be Baptized into the body or Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 because Baptism which is our admission into the Christian Covenant is only in other words our admission into the Christian Church which is nothing but the Body of Christian People joyned and confederated by the New Covenant Fourthly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism under Iesus Christ its supreme head And it is this also that makes all Christian People one Body and Society because they are all united under one and the same supreme head and Governour For as several neighbouring Congregations are called in Scripture one Church as I shall shew hereafter because they were all under the Government of one and the same Bishop so all the Churches under all the Bishops in the World are in Scripture called one Church because they are all under one Governour even Iesus Christ the supreme Bishop of our souls And accordingly the Apostle tells us that as there is but one body i. e. one Church so there is but one Lord or supreme Governour of that Church Eph. 4.4 5. and in Col. 1.18 he tells us that Christ is the head of this body the Church and again Eph. 5.23 that the Husband is the head of the Wife even as Christ is the head of the Church For Christ being Mediator of the Covenant by which we are incorporated into a Religious Society it must be under him as our immediate head and Governour that we are incorporate by it because as he is Mediator of it for God his Office is to govern us for and under God according to the terms and conditions of it Fifthly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches which distribution is made for the convenience of divine Worship For the Catholick Church being a vast Body composed of infinite parts which are separated from each other by vast distances of place it is impossible for it to celebrate the Offices of Divine Worship in any one Assembly or Congregation At first indeed the whole Catholick Church was only a single Congregation but this in a little time encreased and multiplied so fast that they could no longer exercise the Publick Worship of God together in one place or Assembly
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
Ghost they stile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most divine Psyche 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whom we may truly say is God and not a Demon Plotin Enn. 3. l 5. c. 2. and the same Author tells us of this Psyche that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it is the word of the Mind or Son as proceeding from him and the energy or active power by which he operates all which exactly accords with the Catholick Doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost Page 51. Line 3. e For so the above cited Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. when God accompanied with his two highest powers viz. Empire and Goodness the middle being one he impressed threâ—â—hantasms on the sensitive or visive Soul viz. of Abraham each 〈◊〉 which exceed all measure for these his Powers are all immense but themselves measure all things De Sacrif Abel Cain Now that by these Powers he means the second and third Person in the Triune Godhead is apparent because he afterwards calls God and these his Powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the three measures and tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that the supreme God is Superior to these Powers of his and is to be seen without them and appears in them which plainly shews that by these two Powers he means some things that were really distinct from that God whose Powers they were and therefore since before he had told us that they were both immense what else can he mean by them but those two divine Persons the Son and the Spirit of God To the same purpose he discourses lib. de Cherub where after he had given some uncertain guesses at the mystical sense of those Cherubs that guarded Paradise he thus concludes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but I remember I have heard something more learned from my own Soul which being often seised with a divine Enthusiasm prophesies of things which it understands not which so far as I can remember I will here deliver By which solemn Preface he gives us notice that some very great mystery is to follow and then he goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. My soul said to me with that only true God there are two supreme and first powers viz. Goodness and Power and that by the first all things were made and by the second all things that are made are governed Since therefore as I have shewn before he frequently asserts that all things were made by the Son of God it is evident that by Goodness here he means the same Son and if so what else can he mean by Power but Psyche or the Holy Ghost And these three divine Persons he elsewhere stiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Being the Ruling and the Benefick power l. 2. de Agric. Nâ—â—e Thus far this learned Jew whose Writings being originally in the Greek Language have been delivered down to us without any considerable alterations but it is not to be expected that those Writings of the ancient Jews which are written and preserved in their own Language should be so express in this Article of the Trinity as those of the Gentiles because for several Ages they were solely in the possession of the Modern Jews by whom this Article hath all along been obstinately rejected and therefore may reasonably be supposed to be castrated by them in all those places where they more openly countenanced the Christian veriâ—y against them but yet after all there are sundry passages remaining in them which do very much favour this Article thus Voisin in Prooem Pug. fig. quotes this passage from the Book Reschit Chocmah c. 3. Tres sunt Dii ut explicatur in Zohar his verbis Quis est sensus inquit R Iose horum verborum Deut. 4.7 Cui sunt Dii propinqui dicendum erat cui est Deus propinquus Sed est Deus superior est Deus timoris Isaac est Deus inferior ita dicuntur esse Dii propinqui i. e. there are three Gods as it is explained in the words of the Book Zohar R. Iose said what is the meaning of those words Deut. 4.7 to whom the Gods are near whereas it should have been said to whom Gods are near but there is the superiour God there is the God of the Fear of Isaac and there is the inferiour God and so they are said to be Gods that are near And Martin Raimund Pug. fid p. 396. quoâ—es a passage out of Misdrasch Tillim in which there is mention made trium proprietatum quibus creatus est mundus i. e. of three Proprieties or Persons by whom the World was made And to the same purpose Rittangelius in his Notes upon the Book Iezirah quotes two passages out of Imre Binah Tria sunt primaria primordialia capita coaeterna idque testatur splendor eorum numerationesque intellectuales in aeternam testantur Trinitatem Regis There are three prime and primordial Heads and Coeternal and this their own light testifies and the intellectual numerations do eternally testifie the Trinity of the King p. 3. 36. So also Ainsworth on the first of Genesis quotes another passage from R. Simeon Ben Iocai in Zâ—ar to the same purpose which is this Come and see the Mystery of the word Elohim there are three degrees and every degree by its self alone and yet notwithstanding they all are one and joyned together in one and are not divided one from another But to name no more Grotius makes mention of some ancient Câ—bâ—lists quoted in a Book called Additamenta ad Lexicon Hebraicum Schindleri who distinguish God in Tria Lumina quidem nonâ—ulli iisdem quibus Christiani nominibus Patris Filii sive Verbi Spiritus Sancti i. e. into three Lights which some of them call by the same names we Christians do viz. Father Son or Word and Holy Ghost and indeed as their most ancient Writings do frequently make mention of the Word under the notion of a divine Person as hath been shewed before so they do also the Ruach Hakkodesh or Holy Spirit to whom their most ancient Writers attribute all Prophesie or Revelation for so as I find them quoted by learned men in Pirche R. Eliezer c. 39. R. Phineas inquit requievit Spiritus Sanctus super Iosephum ab ipsius Iuventute usque ad diem obitus ejus i. e. the holy Spirit rested upon Ioseph from his youth till the day of his death And c. 33. R. Phineas ait postquam omnes illi interfecti fuerant viginti annis in Babel requievit Spiritus Sanctus super Ezekielem eduxit eum in convalle Dora ostendit ei multa ossa c. i. e. R. Phineas said after they were all slain the holy Spirit rested twenty years upon Ezekiel in Babylon and led him forth into the Valley of Dora and shewed him a great number of bones and indeed it was a Proverbial speech of the Jewish Masters as Maimonides tells us More Nev. Part. 2. c. 45. Majestas divina habitat super eum loquitur per Spiritum Sanctum i. e. the divine Majesty dwells upon such a one and he speaks by the Holy Ghost and that by this holy Spirit they anciently meant a real Person is evident for so Ionathans Paraphrase on Gen. 1.2 Spiritu misericordiarum qui est ab ante Dominum stante super faciem aquarum i. e. the Spirit of mercies who is from before the Lord standing upon the face of the Waters and Bereschit Rabba speaking of the Spirit that moved upon the face of the Water Gen. 1.2 expresly affirms Hic est Spiritus Regis Messiae this is the Spirit of Messias the King. So Ead. Hal. c. 12. Tempore Regis Messiae quando constabilitum erit regnum ejus omnis populus ad ipsum collectus recensebuntur singuli ex ore Spiritus Sancti In the time of Messias the King when his Kingdom shall be established every one shall be called over by the mouth of the Holy Ghost in which places there are things and actions expresly attributed to the Holy Ghost which are proper only to a Person and since by him they understoodâ— a Person they must necessarily suppose him a divine Person since by what follows it evidently appears that in their own Scriptures divine perfections were ascribed to him and by what hath been said that they believed three divine Persons in the Godhead and accordingly Eusebius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. all the Hebrew Divines do acknowledge after the most High God and after his first-born Wisdom a third holy Power whom they call the Holy Ghost affirming him to be God by whom the Prophets were inspired Praep. Evang. p. 327. FINIS a Vide Note ad finem b Vide Note ad finem c Vide Note ad finem Vide Note d ad finem Vide Note e ad finem a Ezek. 39.28 29. Isa. 32.13 14 15. Isa. 59.20 21. compared with Rom. 11 26 27. b Isa. 66.8 Zach. 3.9 c Zach. 12.10 d Jer. 32 37 to 41. Ezek. 36.24 25. Chap. 37.21 22.25 Amos 9.14 15. Isa. 11.11 12. e Joel 3.1 2.9.14 Mich. 4.11 12. Isa. 24.21 22. Zeph. 3.8 Isa. 63.1.6 Isa. 34.1 Isa. 59.16 17. Zech. 14.13 Hag. 2.22 Zech. 12.2 3 4. f Isa. 66.16.18 19 20. Isa. 60.1.6 Jer. 14.33 Isa. 7.61 Ezek 38.16.21 22 23. Rom. 11.12 g Psal. 72.7 Isa. 66.12 and Chap. 23.4 Mich 4.3 Jer. 32.39 Zeph 3.8 9. Ezek. 19.21 22. Isa. 9.7 and Chap. 2.20 Hab. 2.14 h Rev. 13.7 i Dan. 7.21 22. k Rev. 17.16 17. l Isai 60.1 2 3 4 5. m Rev. 20.1 2 3 4 5 6. n Rev. 20.7 8 9 o Rev. 20.10 11 12 13 14 15.
no sorts of objects do so vigorously impress and affect him as those which strike immediately on his senses and hence it is that he so greedily prefers carnal before rational and sensitive before spiritual goods notwithstanding the later are in themselves infinitely greater and more eligible and that in his conceptions of spiritual objects he is so prone to blend and intermix them with carnal and Corporeal Phantasms because his mind is so estranged from spiritual objects by its continual intimacy and familiarity with sensual ones that it can hardly frame any Idea of them without disguising them into some bodily semblance God therefore being a spiritual and invisible Essence and upon this account far removed out of the Ken and Prospect of our sense our sensual and depraved minds must either be naturally indisposed to think seriously of and consequently to be duly affected by him which renders us prone to Irreligion or to sophisticate our conceptions of him with corporeal Images and Phantasms which renders us prone to Idolatry to prevent both which God in great condescension to this deplorable weakness of humane minds hath always thought meet to converse with us under some sensible appearance or visible Symbol of his Divine Presence Thus when God conducted his Chosen People through the Red Sea and Wilderness he went before them in a Pillar of Cloud by day and in a Pillar of Fire by night and when afterwards he gave them his Law he descended upon Mount Sinai in a bright and glorious flame overcast with thick and solemn clouds in which illustrious appearance he afterwards made his entrance into the Tabernacle where he made his constant abode and from whence he frequently exhibited himself to the Peoples eyes and senses in a body of visible light and glory which visible light is in holy Scripture very often called the Glory of the Lord. And since God in condescension to the weakness of humane minds thought it meet to present himself to the senses of men in some visible appearance there is the same reason why the Mediator should assume some visible substance to his invisible Godhead that therein he might exhibit himself to our sense and thereby at once affect our minds with a great love and dread of his divine Majesty and by vouchsafing us a visible presence prevent our framing Idols and false Images and Representations of him in our own minds Now of all sensible substance there was none so proper for this end as Humane Nature which is that above all others that we are most intimately acquainted with and most accustomed to love and reverence and obey It is true had his design been to Govern us by terrors and affrightments as he did the Iews it would have been more proper for him to assume that dreadful appearance of a consuming fire in which he was wont to converse with them but his design being to erect his Empire in mens Souls and to captivate their Wills into a free and generous obedience he could not have appeared to us in any visible substance so proper for this end so apt to oblige and aw to indear and terrifie us together as Humane Nature And accordingly as God dwelt of old in the Iewish Tabernacle and thence displayed himself before the Eyes of that People in a visible Glory so the Word as St. Iohn tells was made flesh and tabernacled among us for so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies i. e. as in condescension to the weakness of the Iews he pitched his Tabernacle among them and thence frequently appeared in a visible Glory to their sense so in condescension to ours he pitched his Tabernacle in our flesh or nature from whence as he proceeds we behold his Glory i. e. at his Baptism and Transfiguration as the glory of the only begotten Son or in which the only begotten Son was wont to display himself from between the Cherubins Iohn 1.14 In short therefore since in Mediating for God with us it was very needful that in compliance with our weakness he should address to our sense in some visible appearance and since there was no visible appearance in which he could so advantagiously address to us as that of Humane Nature it hence evidently appears how requisite it was that he should assume our Nature to his Deity and be Man as well as God. And as it was requisite he should be God-man in order to his Mediating for God with us so was it also no less requisite in order to his Mediating for us with God because as I shall shew hereafter to Mediate for us with God implies first his making an atonement for our sins with his Bloud Secondly his appearing for us as our Advocate in Heaven Now as for the first it was highly requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer for us his Divinity being wholly impassible and this reason the Apostle himself assigns Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself speaking of Christ took part of the same that through death he might destroy him who hath the power of death and seeing he was to assume another Nature to his Divinity that so he might suffer for us it was most fit and proper that he should assume ours rather than any other For since God in mercy had consented to accept of another person's suffering for our sins it was very requisite that what he suffered for us should come as near to our own personal suffering as it was possible that so it might be more exemplary to us and more nearly affect us with dread and horrour for our sins and next to our own personal suffering is the suffering of our Nature and therefore since the punishment of our sins was to be transferred from our Persons it was highly fit it should be inflicted on our Nature which it could not have been had not he been Man who endured it And as it was requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer and that so the Nature at least that had sinned might suffer so it was no less requisite that he should be God-man in one and the same person to render his sufferings a valuable Consideration for all that Punishment that was due to God upon the score of the infinite sins of an infinite number of sinners For how could the bloud of one man though never so innocent or excellent have amounted to a valuable commutation for the forfeited lives and souls of a world of guilty sinners Or what less than the bloud of God-man could have been any way equivalent to that Eternal Punishment that was due to God from the whole Race of Mankind And yet that it should be in some measure equivalent was highly requisite as I shall shew hereafter both to satisfie the divine Iustice for what is past and to secure the divine Authority for the future and accordingly we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God Acts
20.28 not that the Divine Essence can suffer or bleed but being united into one Person with the Humane Nature the Properties of this Nature and also the Actions and Passions thence proceeding may be truly attributed to it and therefore since in the Person of Christ God was united to Man whatsoever his Humanity suffered may be truly called the suffering of God and being so it was a suffering every way equivalent to the Eternal damnation of the whole world of sinners Lastly As he was to appear as our Advocate at the right hand of God it was very fit he should be Man that so as the Apostle discourses having an High Priest that was in all points tempted like as we are as having been placed in our Nature and Circumstances he might be the more affectionately touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 i. e. that so our nature being a part of himself and that himself having experienced its weakness and infirmity he might be the more nearly concerned for it and be touched with a more tender compassion towards it consequently solicite its cause and interest at the right hand of God with greater zeal and importunity For so the same Author reasons Heb. 3.17 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the People for in that himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted And that he should be God as well as Man is no less requisite to create in us the greater confidence of the success of his Advocation For what Reason or Argument could be great enough to satisfie our guilty and therefore anxious minds that ever a meer man who had nothing beyond our selves to recommend him to God but only his Innocence and Vertue should be able to obtain such a prevailing interest in Heaven as not only to reconcile the Almighty Father of all things to a world of sinful men against whom he was so justly and so highly incensed but also to obtain of him to imbrace them with infinite Love and crown them with eternal Favours which is such a stupendous success as we could scarce have modestly hoped for from the most importunate intercession not only of the best man that ever was upon earth but of the highest Angel in Heaven For unless we could reasonably suppose God to be more pleased with one innocent man or Angel than he is displeased with a world of guilty sinners which is hardly supposable we could have no just ground to hope that the cries of the ones intercessions should be more prevalent with him than the cries of the others guilts But when we consider that he who hath undertaken our cause is the Son of God the Son of his natural Generation that from all Eternity was begotten of his Essence God of God Light of Light very God of very God what may we not expect from the Prayers of one so near and dear to the Eternal Father that is fit either for him to ask or for the Eternal Father to bestow For this we may be confident of that he can never be so highly displeased with us as he is pleased with his own Son who is the stamp of his very Essence and express Character of his Person and that therefore his pleasure in him will be far more prevalent than all his displeasure against us and while it is so we have all the security in the world that he will succeed in his Advocation and prevail in our behalf Thus that Christ should be God-man was in it self highly expedient to qualifie him for all the Parts and Offices of his Mediation and accordingly the holy Scripture expresly declares him to be so For first That he is God is as plainly asserted as any Proposition in the Bible For thus not to instance in the Old Testament where he is frequently stiled Iehovah the incommunicable name of God and the Mighty or Almighty God and Immanuel that is God with us In the New Testament he is not only called God Acts 20.28 where the Pastors are exhorted to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud which can be applied to none but Christ and Iohn 20.28 where Thomas calls him my Lord and my God which Confession of his our Saviour himself approves Verse 29. but moreover he is called the true God 1 John 5.20 And we are in him that is true even in his Son Iesus Christ he is the true God and eternal life and God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and accordingly the Father himself is brought in thus bespeaking him Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever Heb. 1.8 where his design is to shew the excellency of Christ above the Angels for saith he in Verse 7. Of the Angels he saith who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of fire but unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God c. which stile O God here must necessarily import something greater than was ever attributed to Angels and consequently something greater than a Nominal or Titular Deity which our Adversaries in this Article allow was frequently given to the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament If therefore that Angel of the Lord were a meer created Angel as they affirm he had as much attributed to him as our Saviour unless we suppose this stile O God to import real and essential Deity and not meerly nominal So also Iohn 1.1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. For the clearing of which noble Text which our Adversaries with a world of Art have indeavoured to perplex and intangle it is to be considered that this Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word was a term of Art by which in that very Age when this Gospel was written and long before and after it both the Iewish and Heathen Writers were wont to express and signifie a divine Person by whom the Ancient Jews understood the Messias who is that very Person the Apostle here treats of Since therefore by this Phrase the Word both Jews and Gentiles when S. Iohn wrote this Gospel understood a divine Person and since by this divine Person the Jews understood the Messias there is no reason to imagine that S. Iohn here meant it in any other signification since in so doing he could not but foresee he should impose upon the World and take an effectual course to make us believe he meant what he never intended For he is so far from explaining this Phrase into any different sence from that of the Jewish and Gentile Writers that he all along explains himself in the very same Now it is hardly to be imagined by any one whose mind is not deeply tinctured with Heretical Pravity but that had the Apostle
Spirit or Holy Ghost whom Christ hath substituted to carry on his Mediation for God with men in his absence is no other than the third divine Person subsisting in the eternal Godhead And indeed considering the mighty part he was to act viz. to Mediate under Christ for God with men the same reason which rendered it necessary for Christ to be God to qualifie him for this Office vide Page 24. do render it altogether as necessary for the Holy Ghost to be so And indeed how is it possible he should operate upon so many men together at such remote distances as he is obliged to do by his Office and at once move every member of that vast Body of Christ the Catholick Church dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth unless like an Omnipresâ—nt soul he be diffused through the whole and co-exists with every part and if he be Omnipresâ—nt â—e must be God. And now having given an account of the Person and Quality of this Divine Spirit I proceed Secondly To explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediatorship for God with men In order to which it is to be considered that this subordination of the sacred Persons in the holy Trinity proceeds not from any inequality of Essence but from the inequality of their personal Properties For as to their Essence they are all of them God i. e. infinite in being and perfections and being infinite they must all be equal there being no such thing as more or less in infinity and then being equal in Essence they must necessarily be equal in essential Power and Dominion and consequently as such are no way subject or subordinate to one another But as to their personal Properties it cannot be denied but they are unequal for the Father who begot must in that respect be superiour to the Son who was begotten and the Holy Ghost who proceeded must in that respect be inferiour to the Father and Son from whom he proceeded and upon this inequality their subordination is founded For as there is a stated Number in the Trinity by which the sacred Persons are determined to Three so there is also a stated Order by which they are ranked into a First a Second and a Third which Order is not made by mutual consent or arbitrary constitution but founded in the nature of those personal properties by which they are distinguished from one another For as the Father being the Fountain of Godhead to the Son must be first in order of nature and as the Son together with the Father was the Fountain of Godhead to the Holy Ghost and therefore must be second to the Father and in order of nature before the Holy Ghost so the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son must of the Three be in order of nature the Third For so the Scripture expresly asserts that he proceeded from the Father John 15.26 and also that he is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4.6 and the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 and the Spirit of Iesus Christ Phil. 1.19 And being the Spirit both of the Father and the Son he must be supposed to proceed from both And where-ever the Holy Ghost is in the Old Testament called the Spirit of God it is in the Hebrew Ruach Elohim in the Plural which seems to intimate that he proceeded not from one but from two divine Persons i. e. not from the Father alone but from the Son also So that though as to their Godhead they are all equal yet in order of nature and in respect of their personal properties the third is inferiour the second superiour and the first supreme and being unequal in those personal Properties by which they stand related to each other it is very reasonable that according to these their personal inequalities they should be subordinate to one another and consequently that the Father who is the Fountain of the Divinity should be supreme in the Divine Monarchy and that the Son who was begotten of him should minister to him and that the Holy Ghost who proceeded from the Father and the Son should minister to both And accordingly in all its external actions and administrations this hath ever been the Oeconomy of the Holy Trinity for the Father to act by the Ministry of the Son and the Son by the Ministry of the Holy Ghost For so before the Fall of man and consequently before this Mediation of the Son commenced it is evident that even in creating the World the Father acted by the Son and therefore is said to have made the World by him Heb. 1.2 and the Son acted by the Spirit who is said to have moved upon the face of the Chaos Gen. 1.2 for that by the Spirit of God there is meant the third Person in the Holy Trinity we have reason to believe because he is elsewhere said to have made man and to have garnished the Heavens as hath been already shewn And in the same Method of subordination the Godhead hath always proceeded in its transactions with the world and that more especially and remarkably in this great affair of Mediating with mankind wherein the Father hath always used the Ministry of the Son and the Son the Ministry of the Holy Ghost but in the matter of the Mediation it is evident that this subordination of these sacred persons was founded not only in these their personal inequalities but also in a mutual agreement between them in which the Son agreed with the Father that in case he would be so far reconciled to Rebellious Mankind as to grant them a Covenant of mercy and therein among other blessings to promise them his Holy Spirit he himself would assume our natures and therein not only treat with us personally in order to the reducing us to our bounden Allegiance but also die a Sacrifice for our sins upon which agreement the Father long before the Son had actually performed his part of it even from our first Apostasie granted his Spirit to mankind which Spirit was granted to this end that under the Son he should Mediate with men in order to the reducing them to their due subjection to the Father For all that heavenly influence which the Holy Ghost sheds forth upon the minds of men is wholly Mediatorial in God's behalf and in order to the reconciling men's minds unto him and therefore in this his Mediation he must be supposed to act in subordination to the Son who is supreme Mediator and accordingly as the Son hath been and will be always Mediating with men by this blessed Spirit even from his Ascension to the end of the World so I make no doubt but he always Mediated with them by the same Spirit even from the Fall of man to his Incarnation For so in the time of the Old World we read of the Spirit 's striving with men i. e. in order to the subduing their stubborn Wills to a due subjection to the Will of the Father Gen.
that unless we do thus concur with him we shall for ever remain and perish in our sin notwithstanding all that grace which he affords us But as for the particular manner of the Holy Ghost's operation on our mind it is not to be expected that we who know so little of the nature and intercourse of Spirits should be able to render a clear and distinct account of it only thus much may be said that our Soul being a thinking Spirit whose very Essence consists in a power or principle of cogitation seems naturally incapable of any other passion from any external Agent but only the impression of Thoughts For how can a Spirit whose very Essence is thinking be any otherwise affected by any thing without it but only by being made to think or by having such thoughts and considerations impressed on it And by the same reason that bodies which are material substances are impressible only by matter Souls which are thinking substances must be impressible only by Thought And hence we find by experience that there is no Object we converse with can any otherwise affect our Mind than by suggesting such thoughts and cogitations to it and that all the pleasure and torment of our minds consists in joyful and tormenting thoughts which are plain Arguments that our mind is a sort of Being which nothing but thought can strike or touch and which hath no sense or feeling of any thing but only of dreadful or hopeful pleasant or painful Cogitations And if this be so then the way of the Holy Spirits working upon our minds supposing that he works sutably to their natures must be by inspiring or impressing them with thoughts For as he is an infinite Spirit he is always and every where present with our Spirits and hath an immediate access to them by vertue of which he can speak to our minds whenever and whatever he pleases and also urge what he speaks with that life and power as to excite our most serious consideration and attention and by this it is that he ordinarily works upon us in order to the reducing us to God viz. by inspiring such good thoughts into our minds as are most apt to move and perswade us to believe and obey the Gospel and by a continued repetition of them urging and pressing them upon us in order to the reducing our vain and roving minds to a fixed and serious attention to them For it is very apparent that our Faith and all our good Resolutions are the immediate effects of deep and serious consideration I considered my ways saith David and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies So that in reducing us to God the great work of the Spirit is to reduce us to a fix'd and steady consideration which being once effected there naturally follows a good resolution unless the Will be invincibly obstinate and to this as naturally succeeds the actual return of the Soul to God. Now to reduce us to this fix'd consideration the Holy Ghost in the first place suggests good thoughts to our minds and then to keep our minds fix'd and intent on them that so our worldly cares or pleasures may not divert us from them he most importunately urges and repeats the same thoughts or seconds them with a train and succession of new ones to the same purpose so that unless we are incorrigibly obstinate against all good motions we cannot avoid admitting them into our most serious consideration and when they are there they cannot fail of raising in us good desires and affections which if we carefully cherish will soon determine in holy purposes and resolutions In all which things you see it is only by impression of thoughts that the Holy Spirit operates on our minds But this will more plainly appear by considering those particular operations on our minds which the Scripture attributes to the Holy Ghost all which may be ranked under these five Heads 1. Illumination 2. Sanctification 3. Quickening or excitation 4. Comforting or supporting 5. Intercession First Illumination or informing our minds with the light of heavenly truth thus Eph. 1.17 18. the Apostle prays that the God of our Lord Iesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of Christ's calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and 1 Cor. 2.12 we are told that it is by receiving the Spirit of God that we know the things that are freely given us of God. Now this illumination of the Spirit is two-fold first External by that revelation which he hath given us of God's Mind and Will in the holy Scripture and that miraculous evidence by which he sealed and attested it for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God 2 Tim. 3.16 or as it is elsewhere expressed was delivered by holy men as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 And all those miraculous testimonies we have to the Truth and Divinity of Scripture are as hath been already proved from the Holy Ghost and upon that account are called the demonstration of the Spirit So that all that light we receive from Scripture and all the evidence we have that that light is divine we derive originally from the Holy Spirit But besides this external illumination of the Spirit there is also an internal one which consists in impressing that external light and evidence of Scripture upon our understandings whereby we are enabled more clearly to apprehend and more effectually to believe it For though the divine Spirit doth not at least in the ordinary course of his operation illuminate our minds with any new truths or new evidences of truth but only presents to our minds those old and Primitive truths and evidences which he at first revealed and gave to the World yet there is no doubt but he still continues not only to suggest them both to our minds but to urge and repeat them with that importunity and thereby to imprint them with that clearness and efficacy as that if we do not through a wicked prejudice against them wilfully divert our minds from them to vain or sinful objects we must unavoidably apprehend them far more distinctly and assent to them far more cordially and effectually than otherwise we should or could have done For alas our minds are naturally so vain and stupid so giddy listless and inadvertent especially in spiritual things which are abstract from common sence as that did not the Holy Spirit frequently present importunately urge and thereby fix them on our minds our knowledge of them would be so confused and our belief so wavering and unstable as that they would never have any prevailing influence on our Wills and Affections So that our knowledge and belief of divine things so far forth as they are saving and effectual to our renovation are the fruits and products of this internal
obscure and burthensom and narrow it hence follows that that Remnant of Jews who received and embraced it were so far from renouncing their old Religion that they still admitted and professed and adhered to it under its greatest advantages and improvements that they renounced nothing of it but only its comparative defects and did only admit of these new reformations of it by which our Saviour advanced it to its utmost lustre and perfection and rendered it infinitely more clear and easie and extensive and since it was their old Religion thus reformed and improved that they still embraced and continued in upon their turning Christians it necessarily follows that they did not become a new distinct Church but were only a continued succession of the Old one And hence it is that Christians in the New Testament are sometimes called Iews Rev. 2.9 i. e. reformed Jews or which is the same true Christians and sometimes the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and sometimes the Children of Abraham Gal. 3.7 and sometimes a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people which is the proper Character of the Iews because by their Faith and Religion which is nothing but the true spiritual and mystick Judaism they were Iews and Israelites and the Children of Abraham though they were not all so according to the Flesh as the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 10.18 and hence also it is that the Christian Church is called the new Ierusalem Rev. 3.12 because it is nothing but the Old Ierusalem or Jewish Church renewed and enlarged Eighthly and lastly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity When the main body of the Jews had rejected our Saviour his Kingdom was reduced to a very narrow compass and consisted only of one single Congregation of Christians in Ierusalem which through the blessing of God upon the indefatigable industry of his Apostles and Disciples was by degrees spread and dilated over all the World. For this single Congregation was the Primitive root out of which the vast stock of the Catholick Church sprung which hath since branch'd forth it self into particular Churches to all the ends of the Earth for it is of this Church that the Apostle speaks Acts 2.47 when he tells us that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved So that all that were converted to the faith of Christ were but so many additions to this Primitive Church so many living stones incorporated into this spiritual building which by the industry of its builders did soon encrease and multiply into several other Congregations and these Congregations though they were several yet were not separate or independent but continued all of them united to the first as Homogeneous parts growing out of the same body or distinct Apartments superadded to the same building So that the Christian Church began in one Congregation and by degrees enlarged it self like a fruitful stock by branching forth it self into other Congregations in a continued unity with its own body which for the convenience of Worship and Discipline were afterwards formed into several though not separate particular Churches under the conduct of their particular Pastors and Governours And thus all the particular Churches that are now in the World are only so many Lines drawn from this Primitive Centre and united in it and it is upon this account particularly that they all of them constitute but one Catholick Church because they all grew out of one and so are but comparts of the same body and branches of the same root and are only that one Primitive Church multiplied into several Churches living in the same Catholick Communion and Vnity And accordingly the Gentile Converts are said to be grafted into the Jewish Church which the Apostle calls the good Olive tree in Rom. 11.17 18 For if some of the branches that is the unbelieving Jews be broken off i. e. rejected from being any more the Church and People of God and thou being a wild Olive Tree growing in the wild common of the World without the Pale and Inclosure of God's Church wert grafted in among them i. e. incorporated with the believing Jews and made a member of the body of their Church and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree i. e. communicatest with them in all the blessings of God's Promise to Abraham which is the foundation of their Church boast not against the branches but if thou boast consider thou bearest not the root but the root thee i. e. the Jewish Church grew not out of thee but thou out of that she is no branch of thee but thou of her as being ingrafted into her Stock and added to her Communion By which it is evident that the converted Gentiles were all but so many superadditions to that Primitive Church of Ierusalem which was the only remainder of the ancient Jewish Church and which from one single Congregation did by degrees increase and multiply it self into an infinite number of particular Churches in Vnion with it self from one end of the World to the other And this in short is the Progress of Christ's Kingdom which from Adam to Abraham consisted of all such as were true Worshippers of God of whatsoever Kindred or Nation from Abraham to Jesus Christ principally of the Iewish Nation and when the greatest part of that Nation had revolted from Christ and renounced their relation to him his Kingdom extended no farther than to the small Remnant of the Jews that adhered to him who made up but one single Congregation which Congregation by the diligence of its Ministers and the blessing of God increased and propagated from it self vast numbers of other Congregations and these were formed into particular Churches which like so many conquered Provinces were still united to that Primitive Kingdom till at last by a continued accession of new Conquests it was spread and enlarged into an universal Empire SECT VIII Of the Nature and Constitution of Christ's Kingdom THE Kingdom of Christ and the Church of Christ are phrases of a promiscuous use in holy Scripture and do import the same thing Thus Matth. 16.18 19. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same thing And thus to be translated into the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 and called to the Kingdom of Christ 1 Thess. 2.12 imports no more than to be made a member of the Church of Christ. And thus also by the Kingdom Matt. 13.38 by the Kingdom of God Matth. 21.31 by the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 11.12 and by the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 11.15 no other thing can be intended but only the Church of Christ. I confess the Kingdom of Christ taken in the largest sence extends a great deal farther than the
hath wholly deposited it in the hands of the Temporal Powers who are now his sole Ministers and Revengers to execute wrath upon those that do evil But yet still upon occasion he so far makes use of the Ministry of the Devils in correcting us as to permit them to excite wicked men and especially wicked Princes and Governours to plague and persecute us When he sees his Church or any particular part of it degenerating from the purity of his Religion or waxing cold and remiss in their love and duty to him he many times gives a loose to these malignant Spirits who always burn with inveterate rancour against it and permits them to provoke and stimulate its Enemies to exert and imploy their power against it So that whatsoever mischiefs wicked Princes or men do to the Church of Christ or to any part of it they do it only as the Instruments of these evil Angels and by their mischievous suggestions and instigations for so Christ tells the Church of Symrna in Rev. 2.10 The Devil shall cast some of you into prison that is the wicked Governours there shall do it by the instigation of the Devil to whom I will certainly give permission to instigate them thereunto for so Christ is said to have the Keys of the bottomless Pit Rev. 1.18 that is power to confine or let loose those evil Spirits that inhabit it at his pleasure and when he thinks fit to confine them we find the Church enjoys peace and rest and prosperity Rev. 20.1.2 3 4. but no sooner doth he let them loose again but they are immediately instigating the wicked powers of the Earth to fight against it and persecute it Ibid. ver 7 8 9. from whence it is evident that the power of these evil Spirits to excite evil Princes or men to persecute his Church is under the restraint and determination of our Saviour that they can proceed no farther in this their mischievous design than he thinks meet to permit them and consequently that in all those persecutions to which they excite their Instruments they are but the Ministers and Executioners of Christ even as the Dog is the Shepherds in worrying the straying sheep into the fold III. Another instance of the Ministry of evil Spirits to Christ is their hardening and confirming incorrigible and obstinate sinners in their wicked purposes For when notwithstanding all those powerful Methods which in the administration of his Government Christ uses to reduce and reclaim men they still persist in their Rebellion when they have conquered his Grace quenched his Spirit broke through all his persuasions and baffled all his Arts of saving them he many times withdraws from them those powerful aids of his Spirit and of his holy Angels which they have wilfully neglected and utterly abandons them to the powers of Darkness whom from thenceforth he freely permits to tempt and seduce them and to â—oul them on at their pleasure from sin to sin and from one degree of sin to another till they have filled up the measure of their iniquities and this without doubt is the severest punishment that Christ inflicts upon sinners on this side Hell for this is a kind of Damnation above ground to be delivered up alive to those restless Furies who having free leave to back and ride us at their pleasure to be sure will never cease stimulating and spurring us on from wickedness to wickedness till they have leapt us headlong into the everlasting burnings And this I conceive is the meaning of Gods hardening sinners so often mentioned in the holy Scripture which doth not at all imply that God by any positive act of his own infuses any sinful quality into mens Wills to excite or stimulate them to sin as some men have blasphemously enough asserted for God cannot be tempted with evil neither tempteth he any man but when men have a long while hardned themselves against all the powerful impressions of his Grace and in the pursuit of their wicked courses have turned a deaf ear to all his persuasions to the contrary then as a just punishment of their incorrigible obstinacy he many times withdraws from them the influences of his Grace and delivers them up to Satan or which is the same thing permits him to seize them as his own and to take possession of them and as a wicked soul to animate and act them in all their wickedness for so the Devil is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to work in the Children of disobedience so that these Children of disobedience are a sort of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of persons that are possessed and acted by the Devil And too many deplorable instances there are of wicked men that sin on at that rate as if they were really acted by some Diabolical Genius that are hurried into such monstrous extravagancies of wickedness as are neither pleasant nor profitable nor reputable so that they gratifie no passion or appetite in humane nature by committing them but do seem to sin merely for the sake of sinning out of a kind of preternatural malice when they can scarce give any other reason to themselves why they do such an action but only this because it is wicked so truly Diabolical is their love of wickedness so abstract from all those motives which are wont to affect the passions and appetites of men that it is hardly resolvable into any other reason but that they are delivered up by God to be informed and acted by the Devil who having once obtained the possession of them continually plies them with Temptation and never ceases urging and pressing them forward from one degree of wickedness to another till at length he hath seared and hardened them into final and incurable Impenitence And this in particular was the case of Iudas who having long persisted in his Thievery and Sacriledge notwithstanding all those warnings and admonitions our Saviour had given him to the contrary was at length abandoned to that Devil to whose Temptations he had been so obsequious upon which it is said that the Devil entered into him Luke 22.3 and the Devil being in possession of him immediatly provokes and irritates him to the foulest and most horrible villany that ever any mortal Creature was guilty of for so Iohn 13.2 we are told that the Devil put it into the heart of Iudas to betray Christ. But as yet it seems he was not totally abandoned to the Devil who had only permission to make that black and dire proposal to him after which our Saviour attempts by the most Pathetick persuasions to prevent his compliance Mark 14.21 notwithstanding which the Wretch being still enticed by his own covetousness to listen to that horrid suggestion our Saviour having marked him out for a Traytor by giving him the Sop it is said again that Satan entred into him and upon this second entrance our Saviour gives him up for desperate for that thou dost saith he do quickly John 13.27 as much as if he had
their visible profession of Christianity have actually submitted themselves to the Scepter of Christ have yet together with Christianity espoused the Interest of sundry Antichristian Principles in pursuance of which they have been as inveterate Enemies and Persecutors of the truth as it is in Iesus as any of the Heathen Kings or Emperors yet these also notwithstanding their male-administration are the Subjects and Ministers of our Saviour and it is by his Authority and Commission that they Reign and by his Omnipotent Providence that all their wicked designs and actions are over-ruled to gracious ends and purposes so that all the Sovereign Powers of the Earth are subjected by God to the Dominion of our Saviour and in their respective Kingdoms and Empires are only his Substitutes and Vicegerents for so we are told not only that all judgment is committed to him and that all power is committed to him in heaven and earth and that he is Heir of all things and hath power over all flesh but also that he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords the only Potentate the head of all Principality and Power and the Prince of all the Kings of the Earth vid. P. 810. and so the Fathers of the Council of Ariminum tell Constantius the Arrian Emperor that it was by Christs Donation that he held his Empire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by him i. e. Christ thou art appointed to Reign over all the World upon which account Liberius advises him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do not fight against Christ who hath bestowed this Empire upon thee do not render him Impiety instead of Gratitude and to the same purpose Athanasius tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that Christ having received the Throne hath translated it from Heathen to holy Christian Kings to return them back to the House of Iacob So that both from Scripture and the current Doctrine of the Primitive Church it is evident that all the Sovereign Powers upon Earth are subjected to our Saviour and are only the Ministers and Viceroys of his universal Kingdom But for the farther prosecution of this Argument I shall shew in the first place that by this their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty and secondly that they are obliged by it to certain Ministries in the Kingdom of Christ. First That by their subjection they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty for when our Saviour pronounced the Sentence Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars he thereby renewed the Patent of Sovereign Powers and reinvested them in all the natural Rights of their Sovereignty which doubtless are included in the things that are Cesars for upon the Pharisees asking him that captious question Is it lawful to pay Tribute to Cesar He doth not answer yes it is lawful which yet had been a sufficient reply to their Question but calls for a Tribute Peny and having asked them whose Image and Superscription that was upon it and being answered Cesars he returns them an Answer much larger than their Question Give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars i. e. it is certain that you are obliged not only to pay Tribute to Cesar but also to render him whatever else is due to him by vertue of his Sovereign Power for Sovereign Power being immediatly founded on the Dominion of God hath from thence these two unalienable Rights derived to it to which all the essential Rights of Sovereignty are Reducible First to Command in all things as it judges most convenient for the publick good where God hath not Countermanded for the Power of Sovereigns descending from God can only be limited by God or themselves for if they are limitable by any other Power they are Subjects to that Power and so can no longer be Sovereigns and if they are limitable only by God or themselves then where they are not limited either by God or themselves they must necessarily have a right to command Secondly The other unalienable Right that is derived to them from God is to be accountable only to God for by deriving to them Sovereign Power God hath exalted them above all Powers but his own and therefore since no Power can be accountable but to a superiour Power and since Sovereigns have no Superiour Power but God it is to God only from whom they received their Power that they are accountable for the administration of it These therefore are the natural Rights of Sovereign Powers and these Rights remain intire and inviolate in them notwithstanding their subjection to the Mediatorial Scepter of our Saviour as I shall endeavour to shew in the particulars First Therefore by this their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of their natural Right of Commanding in all cases as they shall judge most convenient for the publick Good where God hath not countermanded them For the Christian Religion is so far from any way retrenching the power of Princes that it abundantly confirms and enforces it by requiring us to submit to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake to be subject to the higher Powers and that not only for wrath but for conscience sake to submit to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates to render Tribute to whom Tribute is due Custom to whom Custom Fear to whom Fear Honour to whom Honour i. e. to submit to all the lawful impositions of our Princes whether it be of Taxes or of any other matter whatsoever and in all the New Testament there is only one limitation made of our obedience which is a natural and eternal one and that is that we ought to obey God rather than Man that is when Mans Command and Gods do apparently clash and interfere with each other for in this case the Magistrate hath no Right to be obeyed because his Will is countermanded by a Superiour Authority by which Exception this general Rule is confirmed that in all cases whatsoever whether Temporal or Spiritual Civil or Ecclesiastical Sovereign Powers have an unalienable right to be obeyed For if their Right to be obeyed in the Kingdom of Christ extended only to Civil and Temporal causes their Authority would be very much lessened and Retrenched by their subjection to our Saviour since before their subjection to him it undoubtedly extended to all causes whatsoever because being Sovereign under God it could have no other bounds or limits but what God had set to it and therefore since before their subjection to Christ God had bounded their Authority by no other Law but that of Nature it must either be made appear that the Law of Nature did then limit their Authority only to Civil causes which I am sure is impossible or it will necessarily follow that it extended also to Spiritual and Ecclesiastical and if it did so then it must do so still unless it be made appear that Christianity hath retrenched and lessened it It is true Christ hath erected a standing form of
of the Earth For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered slaughtered and oppressed and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth to shew his mighty power in them and once more render them what they have always been the Subjects of his miraculous conduct For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them such as that was on the day of Pentecost though far more extensive he will all of a sudden and in a most surprizing manner open the eyes of this blinded Nation and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour which like an Heir-loom hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another for thus Rom. 11.25 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer c. From whence it is plain that that blindness which then hapned to Israel and which continues on them to this day shall one day be removed viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated and that then all Israel and not a small remnant of them as at first shall be saved so also 2 Cor. 3.14 16. But their minds are blinded meaning the People of Israel for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away where he first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded and that till now remains so should turn unto the Lord and then asserts that then the vail of ignorance which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land and repossessed of their ancient native Country whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph The fame of which miraculous events spreading far and wide even to the utmost ends of the Earth shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth Truth and Peace Charity and Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth Now all the World shall be Christendom and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry Schism and Heresie Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered and the true Faith the sincere Piety the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles or convinced of their errors by the powerful impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction whose Cause they have hitherto espoused and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth which being effected the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all Thus partly by destroying and partly by converting its Enemies our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment at which time the Devil who had been hitherto chained up will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties when all of a sudden and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death the last Enemy by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead which being one of the great Articles of our Creed I shall insist more largely upon it and endeavour First To prove the certainty of the Fact and Secondly To explain the manner how it will be performed I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it for so 2 Cor. 4.14 we are assured that God will
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after
and of our own form and shape which of all others is most familiar to and most beloved and reverenced by us and consequently of all others is most familiar to and most beloved and reverenced by us and consequently of all others is most apt to encourage our prayers and inflame our zeal and raise our admiration For in what sensible appearance could God have more powerfully affected our sense than in that which we are most inclined to love most prone to trust to and most accustomed to reverence and obey and than that in which alone we discern the Image of God and the reflections of those divine Attributes of Wisdom and Goodness and Truth and Justice for which we reverence and adore him There being therefore no visible substance in which God could more advantageously exhibit himself to us in order to the exciting our worship to him and determining it upon him than that of a humane form he thought meet to assume our natures into a personal union with his Divinity and therein to rule and govern us So that now the Humanity of our Saviour is the Tabernacle and Shechinah of God wherein the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth bodily and these two natures united in Person and Glory are the immediate object of our worship wherefore as the ancient Iews fell upon their faces and worshipped when they beheld the Shechinah or glory of the Lord their imagination being thereby assisted and their affections excited Levit. 9.24 So when we by our internal sense or imagination look up to the Glorified Humanity of our Saviour in Heaven it is our duty to raise up our affections to Heaven by that sensible Shechinah of God and thereupon to fall down and worship But as the Iews when they fell down before their Shechinah did not worship the visible light or glory separately from God but as it was united to and assumed into conjunction with him so neither ought we to worship our Shechinah viz. the humanity of our Saviour separately from his Divinity but in Union and Conjunction with it and in short as it was utterly unlawful for the Iews to worship God in any other Shechinah or sensible appearance either unshapen or shaped than in that Glorious one which he himself vouchsafed to them that being sufficient to affect their sense and thereby to raise up their minds and affections to him so is it utterly unlawful for us Christians to worship God in any other Shechinah Image similitude or visible appearance than that of the glorified humanity of our Saviour that being sufficient to assist our imaginations and elevate our hearts and devotions to him For though we cannot behold his glorified Humanity with our bodily Eyes now he is removed into Heaven yet so neither did the Iews the Glory of the Lord at least but very rarely after the Ark whereupon it sat was removed into the Holy of Holies which was a figure of Heaven yet as they being assured it was there could easily view it in their imaginations and thereby assist their devotion so we being assured from Scripture that Christs humanity is in Heaven can look up thither in our imagination and by beholding its glory there lift up our heavy minds and affections to the eternal Divinity that inhabits it so that if we Christians make any other Shechinah or Image to worship God in besides his own humanity which he himself made and wherein he now dwells above in the Heavens we are of all false worshippers the most inexcusable because by assuming our humanity God hath vouchsafed to us such an Image and Shechinah of himself as is of all others the most proper and effectual to excite and determine our Devotions III. God hath chosen to Govern us by his own eternal Son in our natures that he might thereby the more powerfully incourage us to obedience for now we have all the assurance in the World that the great design of his Government is to do us good and to advance our happiness and that under his blessed Empire we shall be sure to enjoy all the graces and favours that can be wisely indulged on his part or modestly expected on ours Had he Governed us immediately by himself we could not have been so secure of our interest in him as we have reason to be of our interest in his Son hypostatically united to our nature because the divine Nature considered purely as such is infinitly distant from ours and has no other relation to it than as it is the common cause of all things and being so distant in nature from us it would have been hard for us to imagine how he could be touched with the same tender and compassionate regard for us as he would be if he were nearer allied to us especially when we reflected upon our own demerit and considered that by our sins we had set our selves at a wider distance from him than we were by our natures this together with that anxiety which naturally arises in guilty minds could not but have rendered us very suspicious of Gods intentions towards us had he governed us immediately by himself but now that he governs us by his own Son cloathed in our own nature at his hands we may with full confidence expect a most gracious and merciful treatment For now we are assured we have a close and most intimate interest in him by reason of his kindred and Alliance to us in the same common nature which makes him every mans another self under different accidents and circumstances and his nature being perfectly happy and perfectly pure from all irregular passions and appetites cannot but be affected with a most tender regard to all the individuals of its own kind because being compleatly happy himself he can have nothing farther to desire for himself but that his kindred by nature who are all his own substance dilated and multiplied may be happy too and being intirely good he can have nothing of that sordid selfishness in him which doth too often contract and narrow our benevolence and cause us like Serpents to infold our selves within our selves and to turn out our stings to all the World besides Upon both these accounts therefore as he is a perfectly happy and perfectly good man he cannot but bear a hearty and universal good will to mankind and that he doth so he hath given us too many dear experiments to make the least doubt of it for while he was among us he all along prefer'd our interest before his own he made himself poor to inrich us exposed himself to contempt to raise us to glory took upon him our guilt to release us from punishment and willingly underwent a most miserable death that we might live happily for ever In all which he gave us the most Glorious demonstrations how infinitely dear the humane nature of which he participated was to him in all those numberless individuals into which it hath been multiplied The consideration of which is exceedingly pregnant with
Females and Proselytes and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles as not being at all offensive to them as Circumcision was it being one of their own Religious Ceremonies and much less painful in its own nature But though this was of a quite different nature from Circumcision yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room and to serve its religious ends and purposes viz. to transact and seal and ratifie the new Covenant between God and us For in Baptism the Party Baptized makes a solemn Vow and Profession by himself or his Sponsor of fidelity and Allegiance to God through Jesus Christ and hence Baptism is called the answer or promise of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 For in the Apostolick Age as Origâ—n tells us in Num. Homil. 5. there were certain questions proposed by the Minister to the Person to be Baptized which St. Cyprian calls Interrogatio Baptismi the Interrogation of Baptism Now the questions proposed were first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou renounce the Devil To which the Party answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do renounce then he was asked again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dost thou consent to resign thy self to Christ To which he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do consent and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention was that in all Probability which the Apostle here calls the answer of a good Conscience and if so it is certain that these words do imply our formal Covenanting with God in Baptism Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection where it is plain that those Phrases buried with Christ and risen with Christ are only the sense and signification of that Eastern custom in Baptism viz. of Plunging the Baptized person under water and raising him up again which being Sacramental actions must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy and the significancy of them the Apostle here plainly tells us wholly refers to the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's Death and Burial and the raising up again to his Resurrection The true import therefore of these Baptismal actions must be First a solemn profession of our belief that as we are buried under water and raised up again so Christ died and was buried and raised up from the dead which being the principal Articles of Christianity do include all the rest Secondly They also import a solemn engagement of the Party baptized to die to and endeavour utterly to extinguish all his sinful lusts and affections even as Christ died and was buried and to rise from the spiritual death of sin into newness of life even as Christ rose from his natural death to live for ever Since therefore in their Baptism they did by the same actions signifie their belief of the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with their own resolution of dying to sin and rising to righteousness they might very well be said to dye with Christ in those actions to be buried with Christ and to rise with Christ since what is represented as done together is representatively done together and it is usual in Sacraments to call the representing signs by the names of the things which they represent For so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover and the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper the Body and Bloud of Christ and for the same reason the plunging under water and raising up again in Baptism is here called dying with Christ and rising with Christ because in the same actions Christ's natural Death and Resurrection and our spiritual Death and Resurrection are represented together The meaning therefore of the above cited passage is plainly this You cannot be ignorant that when you were baptized into Jesus Christ you made a solemn Profession that you would conform your selves to his Death in dying to sin even as he died for it so that in your Baptismal immersion you were representatively buried with him that so as Christ was raised from the dead so you in conformity thereto might live a new regenerate life for if we conform to his Death in dying to sin as we promised to do in our immersion we shall be sure to conform to his Resurrection also in living to Righteousness as we promised to do in our rising out of the water again By which it is evident that Baptism is on our part a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the conditions of the New Covenant And indeed the very phrase Baptized into Iesus Christ can import no less than a solemn resignation of our selves to Christ in Baptism For so the phrase Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 plainly denotes the Jews giving up themselves to him to be governed by him as the Minister of God. And accordingly the Apostle tells us that so many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and putting on Christ is opposed by the Apostle to making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 and therefore must necessarily denote an ingagement of our selves to a strict observance of the Laws of Christian purity or which is the same thing a promise or stipulation on our part of universal obedience to his Laws By all which it is evident that in this solemnity of Baptism we put our selves under Christ as our Head and Covenant with him to be ruled by him in our Faith and Manners And as in this Ceremony of Initiation we strike Covenant with him so doth he with us For in this sacred Action the Minister is the authorized Proxy of Jesus Christ and therefore his giving the holy Sign is Christ's own action and doth to all intents and purposes as much oblige him as if he did it in his own Person For since Christ is not upon Earth and so cannot transact the New Covenant with us in his own Person it is necessary he should do it by Authorized Proxies impowered by himself to do it in his Name which Proxies being thus Authorized by him do as effectually oblige him by those federal Rites which they perform in his Name as if he himself had performed them in his own Person For he doth what they do by his Authority and is as effectually obliged by what he doth by them mediately as by what he doth by himself immediately For thus his Commission runs by which he Authorized them and their Successors to the end of the World Go teach all Nations baptizing