Because he covered himself with a Serpent when he first stung and deceived mankind 2. He is more subtle than any Serpent crafty to insinuate and deceive 2 Cor. 11. 3. 14. 3. As a Serpent dwels and lies among thornes bushes bryars and feeds upon dust so the devill reigns in the thickets and bushes of worldly cares and lusts and feeds upon worldings exercising his chief power against them 4. As a Serpent casts out of his mouth venome and poyson so the devill casts out nothing but virulent words against God and his Saints and spewes out after the Church a flood of poyson to drown her How he blasphemed Job how he is the accuser of the brethren how of the head Christ himself the Scripture declares 5. As a Serpent is cursed above all beasts so is the devill The first cursed creature in the world was this Serpent and hath ever since remained the cursed head of all cursed rebels and wicked ones to whose custody and condemnation they shall all be gathered in the last day Mat. 25. 41. goe yee cursed c. 2. Why called fiery Serpents Answ. 1. From their colour Through abundance of poyson they had a shining and glistering skinne and they seemed as if they had been made of fire A resemblance we have in our Snakes that seem to shine and sparkle against the Sun 2. From their effect For with their sting they infused such poyson into the bodies of the Israelites as stirred up in them an outragious heat and fire Now these diseases are most painful and so tormentful as if a wild-fire were in the bowels feeding upon the bones marrow and members 3. From their end 1. Because they were appointed by God and after a sort inflamed and kindled with desire of revenge of the Lords wrongs and they so fiercely assaulted the Israelites as if a raging and devouring fire had seised upon them which no way they could avoid 2. That in their punishment they might be admonished both what a fearful fire of Gods wrath they had kindled by their sin against themselves as also that they had deserved a more fearful fire in hell to seize upon their whole man everlastingly 3. Why stinging Serpents Answ. To imply unto us 1. That sin is the sting of this old Serpent even a poysoned sting that he hath thrust into all mankind But with this difference in that this poyson is far more general and the wounds infinitely more mischievous than were those of the fiery Serpents For 1. They stung a few Israelites but not all but this Serpent hath stung all mankind none excepted 2. They stung the bodies onely but these souls and bodies also 3. They stung one part of the body this Serpent all parts and whole man 4. They to a temporal death this to an eternal 2. To imply that sin is the sting of a fiery Serpent 1. Set on fire with wrath and cruelty and desire to poyson and destroy us Rev. 12. 17. 2. Setting on us with fiery darts For so his temptations are called Ephes. 6. 16. for three reasons 1. From the manner and custome of souldiers in times past which cast poysoned darts the poyson of which inflamed the wounded bodies and made the wounds incurable As now many out of desperate malice poyson their weapons and bullets to make sure with their enemy So doth Satan by all meanes poyson his darts to speed the Christians soul. 2. Because as fiery darts they inflame and kindle in the heart all manner of burning lusts and sinnes one of them being but as a spark or firebrand to kindle another 3. Because they leave for most part a cauterized and seared conscience behind them as if they were burnt with an hot iron which makes the sinner stung senslesse of his wound Whence is another miserable difference between the stung Israelite and the stung sinner The former was alwayes felt with grief and pain but this often not felt and so more desperate 3. The effect of this stinging was death in many And so the effect of sin is death in all The stung Israelite had death in his bosome and no other could be expected so the guilty sinner is stung to death In his nature is every man the son of death and can expect nothing but death every moment And as the stung person in the wildernesse had no meanes in himself nor from others to avoid either the Serpent or death from it till God appointed them the brazen Serpent So the poor sinner was destitute of all help in himself and others till the Lord appointed Jesus Christ the promised seed to break the Serpents head There is given no name else whereby we must be saved Act. 4. 12. First Note hence how deceitful are the pleasures of sin It is as a sweet poyson Job 20. 12. sweet in the mouth but poyson in the bowels What wise man would drink a draught of poyson for the sweet taste of it Wicked men hold sin as a sweet morsel but sour sauce follows it Secondly What little cause we have to love our sinnes for that is to love our own bane Prov. 8. 35. He that sinneth against me hurteth his own soul and all that hate me love death No sin but the more pleasing the more poysoning the more delicate the more deadly Sin never so much disguised never the lesse deadly Thirdly That sinners are but dead men while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. An Israelite stung was but a dead man So although the reasonable soul in a sinner makes him a man yet the want of the Spirit of grace makes him a dead man Death waits upon sin as the wages on the work and hell upon death that comes before repentance Fourthly A fool he is that makes a mock of sin Who would play with a deadly Serpent or make a jest of his own death or drink up the poyson of a Serpent in merriment or cast darts and fire-brands about him to burn himself and others and say Am I not in sport See Prov. 26. 18. and 10. 23. and 14. 9. Oh that we could discern our wounds as sensibly as we are certainly stung It would make us run to God and get Moses to goe to God for us and pray that these Serpemts and painful wounds might be removed If we saw death as present and as ghastly in our sins as Israel did in their stinging we would hasten our repentance and seek after meanes of cure Sect. II. The Remedy is First prescribed Numb 21. 8. Secondly applied vers 9. Thirdly in the same verse is the effect they recovered and lived So then in the Remedy are 1. Ordination 2. Application 3. Sanation or Cure I. The appointing hath First the person appointing which was God himself who devised it and prescribed it to Moses for God will save onely in his own meanes So God himself so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son c. Joh. 3. 16.
this is the third day IV. Jonah was a manifest type of Christ in his resurrection For 1. As Jonah was taken into the belly of the Whale whole passed through the ranges armies of teeth as sharpe as speares without breaking or crushing one bone of him or the least limb of his body So Jesus Christ passed through the straight gate of death but as one bone of him was not broken the special and extraordinary providence of God in both of them watching the whole businesse 2. As the Lord spake unto the fish and the fish against his will must cast up Jonah on dry ground So the belly of the earth can keep Christ no longer than the third day no more than the belly of the Whale could keep Jonah his blessed body must see no corruption 3. As Jonah returned from his grave with a song of praise and thanksgâ—ving Chap. 2. So Jesus Christ returned to life from his grave with a song of triumph and victory fore-prophecyed Hos. 13. 14. and accomplished 1 Cor 15. 55. O death where 〈◊〉 thy sting O grave where is thy victory 4. As Jonah an Hebrew goes not to preach to the Ninivites being Gentiles till after his resurrection out of the belly of the Whale So Jesus Christ an Hebrew not till after his resurrection leaves the obstinate Jewes and by his Apostles Ministery and preaching turnes himselfe to the Gentiles Act. 13. 46. 5. As Jonah after his delivery went and preached the doctrine of repentance with great fruit and successe to the conversion of all Niniveh and preventing the fearfull wrath denounced to come within forty dayes So our Lord Jesus after his resurrection and ascension sending out his Apostles to preach repentance and remission of sinnes mightily prevailed and suddenly converted many nations of the heathen and brought them to faith and repentance For Application I. Let us acknowledge a greater than Jonah here Matth. 12. 41. Least as the Ninivites shall rise up against the Jewes they rise also against us if we convert not nor repentat Christs doctrine as they did at Jonahs For 1. Who are they to us They barbarous Heathens and Gentiles never instructed before we have been trained in the Scriptures from childhood 2. What were their meanes to ours Jonah preached but three dayes to them Christ hath preached not three days as he nor three yeares as to the Jewes but above threescore yeares He preached one Sermon Christ a thousand 3. What was this Preacher to ours 1. Jonah was a weak man Christ is God and man 2. Jonah a sinfull man cast into the sea for his own sinne Christ an innocent man cast into the sea for our sinne 3. Jonah a Prophet a servant Christ the Lord of all the holy Prophets therefore of Jonah 4. Jonah a stranger to them Christ of our own kindred and family 5. Jonah preached unwillingly Christ preached freely and spent himself for us 6. Jonah preached nothing but destruction of them and their City Christ a sweet doctrine of grace salvation and the promise of a kingdome of heaven 7. Jonah came indeed out of the belly of the Whale but did no miracle for confirmation of his doctrine Christ came both from the bosome of the Father and from the heart of the earth and did innumerable signes and miracles in which we see his glory 8. Jonah a most angry impatient man would faine die because he Ninivits did not Christ a mirrour of patience will die least his hearers should 9. To Jonah no prophet gave witnesse or foretold of him To Christ all the Prophets gave witnesse Act. 10 43. and spake before of him Shall now Niniveh repent in sackcloth and ashes by Jonahs Ministery of three days and shall not we by Christs constant Ministery of threescore yeares Shall Niniveh condemne Judea for not acknowledging a greater than Jonah and shall it not condemne us not repenting whose sinne shall be farre greater than that of the Jewes who rejected Christ in his abasement and humiliation but we reject the Lord of glory now exalted II. In the type and truth the freedome of Gods favour in the calling of the Gentiles Jonah was a preacher of grace to the Gentiles and Christ was a preacher of grace not to Jewes onely but the Gentiles also being given for a light to the Gentiles that he might be the salvation of Gentiles to the farthest parts of the earth For 1. God is not the God of Jewes onely but of Gentiles also Rom. 3. 29. 2. Christ was the promised seed in whom all nations must be blessed Gen. 22. 18 Hence comes in our title to grace and not from any desert of ours For what is amiable in the wilde olive It is onely Gods free calling who calls her that was not beloved to be beloved Object If we be grafted into Christ and received into grace all is well we are in state good enough Sol. Some are grafted into the Church by profession of mouth onely as all were not Israel that were of Israel and some planted into it by the faith of the heart The former are not altered from their wilde nature the other are renewed to the Image of Christ. Therefore let none content themselves with externall profession joyning in the word sacraments and prayer but labour for soundnesse of faith and grace by which onely we become branches of the true Olive whereas to be hanged as a scien by a thred of profession will not keep it from withering III. In both we have a certaine Emblem and proofe of our resurrection Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jonah and Jesus be in us he shall also quicken our mortall bodies and if the head be risen the members must rise also For as God spake to the Fish and the fish gave up Jonah as from the dead so shall God speak to the earth and Sea and all creatures and they shall give up their dead Isai. 26. 19. he shall say to the earth give and to the sea restore my sonns and daughters and they that are as seed under clods shall awake and sing And these dry bones shall be againe covered with sinewes flesh and skin aâ— Ezek. 37. 6. For as it was impossible for Christ to be held ever under death Act. 2 24. as impossible is it for his members Let us comfort our selves in the approach of death to our selves or our friends and by rising before hand from the grave of our sinnes provided for a blessed and joyfull resurrection 2. King 13. 21. a dead body cast into Elisha's grave quickned so our soules and bodies IV. The wonderful power and wisdome of God that can draw light out of darknesse Jonahs casting over board into the sea was the occasion of converting the Marriners Even so Christs death converted many of them that were causes and authors of it Act. 2. 36 41. And as the Marriners lives were saved by casting Jonah into
humanity then to his divinity and so are knit to his whole person and by him we come to the father 3. The Priest must let the live bird go into the broad field vers 7. Signifying 1. Christs escape and deliverance from death and the power of the grave 2. His exaltation after he was once consecrated his ascending on high and being made higher than the heavens Heb. 7. 26. 3. The publication and manifestation of righteousnesse purchased by the death of Christ in the broad and open field of the Church and this in the daily ministery of the Gospel Thirdly concerning the party to whom this cure must be applied The Priest must sprinkle on him that is to be cleansed this bloud seven times Signifying 1. That onely Christ Jesus doth sprinkle his bloud on penitent soules from whom onely they must expect pardon and purging from sinnes 2. That Christs bloud must be particularly applyed to every believer to every thing that is to be cleansed partly by Gods imputation of Christ and his merits to the penitent sinner Partly by his Ministers in the publishing and speciall applying the particular promises to every soule that is weary 3. Seven times sprinkling noteth 1. Perfect justification by the bloud of Christ the number of seven times perfect sprinkling he is able perfectly to save Heb. 7. 23. all that come unto him and needeth no other seeking of other merits to satisfie or justifie 2. To put the unclean person in mind how hardly he parts from his foulenesse and us that it is no easie thing to be rid of sinne 3. How weak and imperfectly our selves apply the bloud of Christ that have need of so many sprinklings to humble us for our weaknesse of faith and slow progresse in sanctification Sect. IX I. All these ordinances and ceremonies in discerning and curing this disease in generall teach us two things I. That it is no small businesse to be rid of the leprosie of the soule and the infection of sinne which was but shadowed in that as that was occasioned by this For whence is bodily leprosie but from leprosie of the soule Or what is it that strikes the body with such contagious sickness but the infection and sicknesse of the soule As in Gehezi Miriam Uzziah Whose bodies were so fouly infected and deformed by the leprosie of the soule and corruption of heart And who sees not how the Lord would lead them and us to take speciall notice hereby of the souls leprosie by sinne in that he committeth the knowledge and discerning of this disease of leprosie to the Priests sending them to the Physitians of their souls and not to the Physitians of their bodies whom one would think it more specially and properly concerned This should admonish us all that if there be so much adoe to get clean bodies clean faces clean skins how great our care and businesse should be to get clean souls the soile of which cleaves not to the skin onely but sticks closer to us than our skin or bones and yet we think every slight sigh or Lord have mercy or three words at our death sufficient to rid us of our sinnes and soules leprosie II. How careful the Lord is to sever the clean from the unclean for fear of generall infection Teaching 1. The Magistrate that as the Lord puts difference between him that sweareth and him that feareth an oath so should they to incourage and countenance the clean person that is the godly and faithfull David set his eyes on the godly in the land not to maligne or wrong them but to cherish their persons and help up religion and the fear of God in them As also to discountenance and terrifie the foule blasphemer the drunkard Sabbath breaker idle persons and gamesters that thrust themselves out of their calling all the week long But if a man by his course shuffle clean and unclean together nay run with the unclean countenance gamesters swearers bibbers how doth he execute the judgements of God 2. A good Minister then stands in the counsell of God when he severs the precious from the vile Jer. 15. 19. The Priest in the Law must pronounce him clean that is so indeed He durst not pronounce a foule person to be clean nor a clean person foule Then how dares a man that stands to judge between the Lord and his people scandalize or scorn such as endeavour most to be clean How comes it that we do not hear drunkards adulterers theeves swearers blasphemers so rated and disgraced as them Or how dare men sell praises of religion to foule Atheists swearers haters and despisers of goodnesse as if men should gild rotten posts or wash dead bricks making them at their death seem as white as lawne who all their life were white as Lepers Well let not the despised members of Christ be discouraged we know that the judgement of Christ shall passe righteously between the cleane and uncleane If thy heart be upright let all men cast the foule brand of an hypocrite on thee Jesus Christ shall pronounce thee clean 3. Every good man must and will be glad of this separation rejoyce in that arbitrement that differenceth cleane and uncleane as most savoury Wicked men can abide nothing lesse than this shedding and differencing of men Whence are so many tumults Oh you are more holy than all other you are the pure ones you are all clean c. but because they have learned a trick to deceive themselves and to hide their foulenesse as they think by crowding all into one confusion Now is that doctrine onely intolerable that fetcheth them out of their holes and casts them out among their uncleane fellowes for whose company they be a great deale fitter than for the society of Saints and beleevers II. Note in speciall 1. In that the Leper must bee sent to the Priest to have his leprosie discerned we see that our Lord Jesus who was typified by the high Priest can discerne our leprosie Thou maist hide thy sinne from man but thou canst not deceive him no idle excuse or fig-leaf can cover thee If he see thee an adulterer a swearer an unjust person a covetous or proud person if he see thee an enemy a prophane person he will judge thee a Leper Thou canst not sin though never so secretly but thou art sure to be discerned and tried by him whose eyes are as a flame of fire And if he judge thee a Leper he will pronounce thee a Leper and thou canst not apeale from but must stand to his judgement What if a man applaud and commend thee for an honest man a good neighbour a just man if He judge thee a Leper What had it been better if all the congregation had taken part with a Leper if the Priest pronounced him uncleane And if he pronounce thee uncleane he will shut thee out of the campe out of the society of God and his Saints till thou beest seasonably cleansed Men may
brazen Serpent though he had no reason for it And the people having a word of commandement and promise shut the eye of their reason and open the eyes of their faith and by beholding this shape of a Serpent were cured and found life restored not by a thing having life but by a dead thing Learn how the eye of faith must shut up the eye of our reason and having a word of God look confidently upon it be it never so unreasonable or improbable There be four things which a man shall never attain till the eye of his faith close up the eye of his reason 1. He shall never attain the true knowledge of divine things Gods wisdome hath no greater enemy than humane wisdome not sanctified No men hardlier nor seldomer converted than worldly wise men as the Scriptures which say not many wise and experience shews daily What wiser men in the world than the Philosophers and Stoicks of Athens but when Paul came to dispute among them of doctrine of religion he was called a babler Act. 17. 18. What will this babler fay and reasoning among them of the resurrection he was derided and mocked verse 32. Was not Festus a wise man and a prudent Governour and yet when Paul preached to him no other things than Moses and the Prophets had foretold of those sufferings death and resurrection Festus tells him too much learning had made him mad Acts 26. 24. John 9. 6. Christ to cure a blind man tempered clay and spittle together and applyed it to his eyes and bids him goe to Siloe A remedy likelier to put out a mans eyes than to recover sight There was no reason in the earth of the remedy but onely to try whether the blind man did constantly believe Yet if the blind man had not wholly resigned himself to Christ and shut up his own reason had not he acknowledged Christ able to doe what he would by what he would and to be the same God who at first put all sences into a piece of clay and now by a piece of clay would recover his sence he had never seen but remained blind still So every naturall man born as blind as he in spiritual things till he wholly submit himself and subdue his reason to the meanes appointed shall never see any thing to salvation but a bide in natural blindnesse still What hope hath he to be taught by the Spirit that must give lawes to the Spirit of God or what a short â—et-wand is natural reason to measure divine things by 1 Cor. 1. 21. and 1 Cor. 2. 14. Why else did these Jews esteem the doctrine of the Gospel scandal but that reason of flesh would not nor could behold life and glory in such a base life and ignominious death as Christs was nor could hold him the Messiah who was made a curse upon the Crosse as if he had been crucified through infirmity and this vail as to them remaineth at this day unremoved And why was Christ foolishnesse to the Grecian but that reason would not yeild that life should be fetched out of death or salvation to be sought in curse and malediction 2. He that shuts not the eye of reason can never attain faith There be six things which a man cannot believe so long aâ— he sticks to natural reason First He cannot believe the Word of God nor depend upon but scorn the Ordinances of God in the Word preached and Sacraments administred which is the visible word Reason unrenewed cares not for this foolishnesse of preaching 1 Cor. 1. 21. And to a carnal man the threatnings of God are like Lots warning to his kinsmen he was as one that mocked or jested A promise to a carnal heart is as tastelesse as the white of an egge The wiser men are the further off they are from believing in a crucified God or conceiving that by the foolishnesse of preaching God will save such as believe Flesh and bloud revealeth nothing Secondly He cannot believe the main promises of God which cannot be comprehended but by the eye of faith and not by that till the eye of reason be shut up God hath promised his presence favour and love with his children how can reason conceive the truth of this promise seeing them in hunger thirst wants hearing them reviled slandered disgraced observing them cast out of companies and societies as refuse and out-sweeping that were their hopes here onely they were of all men most miserable Reason will not be perswaded that God can send us by hell to heaven yet that is his promise Humane reason will never pray My God my God why hast thou forsaken me How could Abraham have believed the promise of a son by Sarah had he looked to natural reason Thirdly He cannot believe the main Articles of faith that hath not resigned up his reason Example Reason will not believe an happy resurrection seeing the body raked up in dust and corruption but denies this Article Reason cannot conceive or believe an eternal life because it sees it not given but to dead men It cannot apprehend how the Son of God should become the son of man or that this Son of man was born of a Virgin without man And so of the rest Fourthly He cannot believe the miracles of Scripture for confirmation of Gods truth and our faith Natural reason cannot believe that the Sun ever stood still as in Gibeah much lesse went back ten degrees as in Hezekiahs time 2 King 20. 11. Or that fire should descend which naturally ascendeth and feed upon water contrary to nature as at Elias prayer 1 King 18. 39. Or that fire should rain down as on Sodome which is proper to water Or that fire should not burn the three children Or that water should stand as a wall as in the Red sea and in the river Jordan whose property is to be fluid Fiftly He cannot believe the work of creation if he will believe reason the universal consent of which is That of nothing nothing can be made and not anything much lesse all things out of nothing To reason therefore it will be incredible that there should be light before the Sun or fruits before any rain as in the Creation Heb. 11. 3 By faith we know not by reason that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which doe appear Sixtly He cannot believe the great work of Redemption For natural reason thinks it unreasonable that the life of the Church can be fetched out of the death of Christ. That a man can be justified by the imputed righteousnesse of another and yet there dwell so many sinnes in him Reason will not believe that one man can recover life by anothers death no more than one man can live by anothers soul or be wise by anothers learning or be cured and brought to health by anothers disease 3. So long as the eye of reason is open a
habit but considered relatively with his object which is Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousnesse for faith is the eye of the soul. But as it was not the eye of the Israelite but the eye set upon the brazen Serpent that cured him so here faith upon his object cureth because onely faith draweth vertue from Christ as in the Syrophoenician who touched Christ and was cured but not by touching but by believing More plainly in this comparison As a Jewel included in a Ring enricheth a man or healeth him it is not the Ring doth it but the Jewel and yet none have the Jewel without the Ring So Jesus Christ is the onely Jewel and antidote against the deadly poyson of sin This Jewel is included in the Ring of faith Now it is apparently Christ the Jewel that justifieth enricheth cureth but we cannot have him without the Ring of faith which includeth him So as faith saveth and justifieth us onely as a meanes suppose the hand of the soul to convey Christ to us for justification which no other grace can doe So not faith but Christ applied by faith that saveth and cureth us 3. As no Israelite could be cured but by his own sight of the Serpent and no man could be cured by another mans looking or seeing it So must every just man live by his own faith Hab. 2 4 No maâ— can be saved by anothers faith or the faith of the Church but by his own special faith believing in particular upon assured grounds the remission of his own sinnes II. By what marks may I know that I have looked on this brazen Serpent for cure Answ. By four marks 1. If thine eye have been rightly affected which will appear in four particulars First If it be a discerning eye cleared to see in Jesus Christ two things the first his power the second his will to cure That he is able to help being the mighty God and that he is willing to cure being a compassionate Saviour who himself was stung to death that he might have compassion on them that are stung Heb. 2. 18. Secondly If it be a mountfull eye He that had seen the Israelites â—…ing about the braâ—en Serpent should have seen many a 〈◊〉 falling and heard many a deep grâ—an and pittiful complaints of their deadly pain and poyson Hast thou come to Jesus Christ with sorow in thy heart with teares in thy eyes with lamentable groans and complaints of thy misery by sin this is to look upon him for cure Zach. 12. 10. the members of the Church shall behold him and mourn as a man for his onely son Such lookers on him he looketh upon and easeth Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Thirdly If it be a wishing and oraving eye for there is affection as well as vision in the eye As the lame man that lay in Solomons potch Act. 3. 5. wistly looked on Peter and John expecting to receive something from them so no doubt did the Israelites on the Serpent And so must thou hold on waiting and expecting sound cure from Christ and take no denial till thou be fully cured for so did the Canaanitish woman prevail Fourthly If it be a faithfull stedfast eye a believing eye carries cure from Christ. Christ was wont to ask some of his Patients that came for cure if they did believe he could help and in the cure According to thy faith be it unto thee and after the cure go thy way thy faith hath made thee whole and much more works he the cure of soules by meanes of the parties faith and not without it 2. If the sting were gone and the poyson of the Serpent abated this was an infallible sign that the Israelite was cured Consider if the power and rage of sin be removed the guilt of it gone by justification if the poyson and stain of it be abated and daily abolished now art thou in the way of cure But if the poyson remain that sin lives in thee prevailes and raignes in thee and commands thee as formerly thou hast not yet looked on the Serpent for cure Justification and Sanctification are inseparable 3. A ceasing of pain and ease and comfort restored which when the Israelite felt it was a sign he was cured So if after sense of pain and grief of spirit thou hast received sound peace of conscience joy of the holy Ghost and comfort of a good estate in Christ that thou art able upon good grounds to challenge thy righteousnesse in Christ and maintain thy self sted fastly assured and cheared in Gods mercy and the goodnesse of an excusing conscience thou hast now looked upon Christ and Christ upon thee for perfect cure 4. When the sting with the pain was gone the Israelite could goe as strongly and chearfully about his businesse as ever before he had new life new strength new motions by which he might be sure he had looked upon the Serpent So if thou canst find so happy a change in thy soul as new life new motions new actions new affections and in a word the whole renewed nature all these are the fruits and effects of thy faith and faithful beholding of Christ and of his looking upon thee Of this new obedience and renewed strength of a Christian having lately spoken I passe it over more briefly III. Motives to stirre us up to this looking upon our Serpent are 1. Nothing else can cure us but Christ. The Israelites had Gold Silver Manna from heaven Water out of the Rock yea the Ark the Oracle but none of all these can help them onely the Serpent must cure them no sight else can cure Thou mayest see Gold Silver Lands Friends Playes Pleasures nay couldst thou see Heaven it self without Christ there were no help or cure in it In respect of this sight the Apostle counted all things losse and dung and desired to see and know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and lifted on the wood 2. No not Christ himself can cure without this looking and faithful beholding him as the brazen Serpent not looked on healed not The want of the eye or sight disabled the Israelites from cure though the Serpent were by them so the want of faith disableth God after a sort and Christ himself from doing a man any good Mark 6. Christ could doe no great cure in Capernaum because of their unbelief Neither can any ordinance of God doe him good that wants faith no more than this Serpent ordained by God could doe a blind Israelite good If we should send a man to the Word it must be a word of faith must doe him good that is not onely because it is a begetter of faith but because it must be mingled with faith else it proves unprofitable Heb. 4. 2. If to the Sacraments if he bring not faith they are not to him the seales of faith but as seales set to blanks If to Prayer it must
2. For undertaking his office 1. In his incarnation he was the first-born of his Mother Matth. 1. 25. till she had broughtforth her first-born Son not in respect of any that his mother had after him but because she had none before 2. For the stranger manner He was the first-born of a virgin and so never had brother 3. He was the first born without sinne 3. For accomplishing his office in his resurrection He is called the first-begotten or first born of the dead two wayes 1. In respect of his Father who first begot him from the dead Whence his resurrection is called a begetting Acts 13. 33. thou art my sonne this day have I begotten thee the Apostle applying it to the resurrection of Christ. And had not the Father thus begotten his sonne from the dead we had never been raised from death 2. In regard of himselfe whose priviledge it was to raise up himselfe from the dead by his owne power Rom. 1. 4. As himselfe said I have power to take up my life againe And being risen he was the first that ascended in body and soul into heaven Thus consider Christ as God as Mediator as incarnate as raised and ascended he is the Lords first-born and the birth-right belongs to no other II. The first borne of Israel was the second and next to the father of the family yea after the father instead of the father So is Christ to his family the Church performes all offices of a careful tender father and takes on him not the affection onely of a father but even 1. the name of a father Isa. 9. 6. Father of eternity 2. the office of a father 1. He supplies the meanes of spirituall life as they of naturall 2 He nurtures and teacheth his Church 3. He provides for the present and bestowes the inheritance of eternall life III. The first-born had the preheminence among the brethren and were chiefe in office and authority rulers in the house after their fathers and Priests in the family before the Leviticall order was established Gen. 27. 29. when Isaac blessed Jacob for Esau supposing him the first-born one part of it was Be Lord over thy brethren and let all thy mothers children honour thee So all the sheaves must bow to Josephs And Gen. 49. 8. when Jacob blessed Judah this is added as his right Thy fathers sonnes shall bow down unto thee Herein they were speciall types of Christ who in all things must have the preheminence as first in time in order in precedency first in the excellency and dignity of his person Of whom comming into the world was said Let all the Angels of God worship him And for glory and authority he sits on his fathers throne the onely King of Kings who hath a name above all names Phil. 2. 9. And Heb. 2. 9. we see Jesus crowned with glory and honour the head of the mysticall body the Prince and head of all his brethren And besides he is the high Priest of our profession by offering up himselfe a sacrifice for us Thus Christ is first in order in glory in Priesthood IV. The first-born had a double portion in goods Deut. 21. 17. Signifying 1. The plenitude of the spirit and grace in Christ who was anointed with oyle of gladnesse above all his fellowes 2. The preheminency of Christ in his glorious inheritance advanced in glory and majesty incomprehensible by all creatures I. Out of the occasion of the Law of the first-born learn that the more God doth for any man the more he ought to conceive himselfe to be the Lords and the more right and interest the Lord chalengeth in him For therefore the first-born were his by a speciall right because he had not onely delivered them out of Egypt as others but from the speciall plague of Egypts first-borne Speciall mercies call for speciall service More mercies are more bonds of obedience And new mercies are so many new cords to draw and fasten us to God and duty Is it not reason that the more it pleaseth the Lord to become ours the more we should become his Ought not great benefits become great binders And should not great love be a great load-stone of love Should not strong cords of Gods love draw us strongly to love our God Examine the encrease of Gods mercies on thee in all kindes and whether they have had this fruit to make thee more dutyfull Hath God multiplied blessing on thy head that thou shouldest blesse thy self in wickednesse Hath God continued mercy that thou shouldst continue sinne Art thou the Lords by Creation providence redemption stored with all personall kindnesses pertaining to life and godlinesse to continue a slave to sinne and Satan Remember good Josephs conclusion Gen. 39. 8 9. My master hath dealt thus and thus with me advanced me from nothing to this estate committed all to my trust kept nothing from me but thee How then can I do this great wickednesse and sinne against God II. If Christ be the true first-born of whom all they are but types we must give him the honour of his birth-right The whole Church and all the sonnes of that mother must honour him all the sheaves of the brethren must vaile and bow to his sheave Let not the basenesse of his birth the humility of his life the ignominy of his death the shame of his crosse the poverty of his professors the weaknesse and frailty of his followers draw our eyes aside from him as the Jewes at this day but acknowledge him the first-born esteeming him as doth the Church the chiefe of ten thousand and with the Apostle esteem to know nothing but Christ and him crucified Question How shall we honour Christ as the first-born Sol. 1. If we honour him with the same honour that is due to the Father Job 5. 23. 2. Advance his estate above our own or other mens confesse and professe his name though with losse and disfavour 3. Depend upon him and make him our chiefe refuge for all the family depended on the first-borne for protection so doe members on the head 4. Grieve to offend him by sinne How pitifully can men women grieve for the death of their first-born So much more should we that our sinns have pierced Gods first-born Zach. 12. 10. III. Here is a ground of much consolation 1. In that Christ being the truth of the first-born from him the birth-right is derived unto us believers as it was from Reuben unto Judah and we partake of the same birth-right with our head For here is a difference between the type and truth of the first-born They had all their priviledges for themselves but Christ not for himselfe but for us Whence his elect members are called the Congregation of the first-born written in heaven that is whose names are written in the book of life And farther the more those first-born had the lesse had the other brethren but the more Christ hath
saving waters of grace flowing from the true Rock Jesus Christ. We read what strife and contention was among the Jewes for wells of spring water and now no man will lose a dishful of well water but he will know to whom and shall we onely not care for the water of saving grace which cost Christ so dear before he could open the well of it for us 3. When the woman of Sumaria heard Christ say that he that drank of this water should thirst no more Lord saith she give me this water that I may no more thirst nor come hither to draw Joh. 4. 15. So let it stir up our desires after it also that we may get within the well that springeth up to eternal life 3. What means may we use for the attaining of water out of this Rock Answ. 1. Be an Israelite That Rock was smitten onely for them This Rock is laid in Sion not in AEgypt No AEgyptian no Canaanite no Romish AEgyptian that drinkes of that Popish puddle no profane worldlings taste of these waters swill and draffe is good enough for such swine 2. Come to the place Israel must goe out of them houses as well to fetch water out of the Rock as to gather Manna The place whence the Rock sends water is the threshold of the Sanctuary Ezeck 47. If we will not stir out of our dores we may justly starve 3. Avoid letts and hinderances that dam up these waters As 1. Ignorance of their worth and of thy own need Joh. 4. 10. If thou knewest the gift of God thou wouldst have asked c. Good reason thou want it who thinkest it a thing thou mayst best want Many among us like Tantalus in the midst of water die for thirst 2. Hardnesse of heart which keeps the soul dry and barren and abiding in the natural hardnesse of a Rock all the waters of this spiritual Rock are lost upon it 3. A quenching and grieving of the spirit this turns the stream another way that it finds another chanell Grieve not the spirit but grieve rather that thy self art so strait-necked a vessel 4. Secure neglect of meanes A man that will be rich follows the meanes so he that meaneth to be rich in grace whereas he that meaneth to die a begger casts up all and makes holy-day at his pleasure 4. Provide 1. The bucket of faith to draw for the well is deep and without this bucket thou gettest none John 4. 11. 2. Find a fit vessel to put these waters in As 1. A clean vessel of a pure heart Who would put Aqua vitae or Balm water in a fusty and stinking bottle 2. A whole vessell that it leak not out again This whole vessell is a whole and sincere heart but broken all to pieces No vessell here can hold but a broken and contrite heart God fills the humble the haughty and proud are sent away empty CHAP. XXIV The Brazen Serpent a type THe History of the Brazen Serpent is in Numb 21. 6 7 8. where are two things I. The Disease II. The Remedy The Disease is set down 1. In the occasion ver 5. 2. In the kind by fiery Serpents sent by God to sting them 3. In the effect many dyed In all which Story we must not stick in the letter or bark but break through to the kernel and truth The rather because our Lord Jesus an interpreter beyond all exception brings us hereby to himself and to the consideration both of our disease and of the remedy and the application of it Joh. 3. 14. 15. As Moses lift up the Serpent in the wildernesse so must the Son of man be lift up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternall life It will be now both pleasant and profitable to look a little while upon the apt resemblance of the type with the truth both in the disease and remedy and first of the occasion of the disease Sect. I. I. The occasion of the disease was the peccant humour of ingratitude and murmuring against the grace of God miraculously manifested in the wildernesse Never had any people upon the face of the earth the like mercies from God the like experience of God Never any fed and feasted with so many miracles as it were in ordinary They have water following them every where out of a Rock They have bread from heaven delicate even to a miracle but this Angels food is too light and no bread will serve them but from earth God gave them abundance of it for the gathering he rained it most bountifully round about their tents but their unthankful souls loath it and tread it under foot And therefore rising up against God and tempting him they were destroyed of Serpents 1 Cor. 10. 9. Note here by the way 1. The Justice of God He that brought Manna from heaven to feed them for contempt of his grace now brings Serpents out of the earth to revenge and destroy them Rom. 2. 4 5. The despising of Gods bountifulnesse treasureth up wrath See the same Justice on our selves How lightly did we in our first parents regard that upheaped measure of bounty and grace conferred by God in our Creation and innocency And how justly were we stung to death by the old Serpent for it The unthankfull person is the greatest robber that is 2. See the equity of this Justice on the Israelites They not contented to murmur against the Lord set also upon Moses and Aaron his servants Why have yee brought us into the wildernesse to die Now their punishment is answerable to their sin They transgresse in hot and fiery tongues and are punished by hot and fiery stings Venomous words against God and his servants are revenged by the mouthes of poysoned and venomous Serpents Doe thou at thy perill sting God and his servants with bitter words God will have some Serpent or other to sting thee I am out of doubt that many great plagues have lingred and doe amongst us in this land for the poysoned and reviling speeches cast against God and his servants every where We sting his holy profession and servants incessantly and he stings us with the Scorpions of his Judgements 3. Beware of being weary of Manna Never did man complain of plenty of Manna but was justly stung with want of it Doe thou complain without cause and thou shalt have cause to complain Israel that complains of too much Manna shall shortly change their note and cry out of too many Serpents II. The kind of the disease The Lord sent fiery Serpents to sting them Where 1. Why Serpents 2. Why fiery 3. Why stinging 1. This disease by Serpents lively resembles our disease of soul which is no other than the fiery sting of the old Serpent which is the devill Rev. 12. 9. Our spiritual disease is hence noted to come from that old Serpent at first Now Satan is aptly compared to a Serpent in five respects 1.
them as despised as himself is Alas that the wisdome of God shall be a rule onely for our judgements but reason must guide our practise 2. Ordinary hearers think they have reason to professe religion so farre as they may thrive by it and prosper in the world whose godlinesse is gain To trust God so farre as they see him in some sort else not To favour religion and religious persons when times doe else not To avoid pernicious and dangerous sinnes which law revengeth as murther adultery theft but not covetousnesse not usury not swearing not unclean lusts Herod will not part with his Herodias Ahab hath no reason to respect Micah when he prophecies evil to him 3. Tradesmen oppresse cosen lye deceive c. because they have reason to make the best of their own What reason but they may serve a Customer upon the Sabbath so they come to Church They have reason to slip all opportunities of grace all the week because they must walk diligently in their callings the six dayes Thus reason steps in and thrusts aside the practise of that which men in judgement hold not for good and necessary and like Evah still longing after forbidden fruit Thus of the second observation Sect. VI. III. Seeing all of us in this wildernesse are stung with the old Serpent what are we to doe to be cured Answ. We are to doe five things 1. We must feel our selves stung with our sinnes and confesse our selves stung for so must the Israelite before he could be cured We must feel the poyson and pain of sin and First That this poyson hath not seated it self in one place but hath crept and diffused it self through all our parts For therefore it is called venenum quod per venas eat And as the veines and bloud run through every part of the body so sin through every part of the man Secondly As poyson never rests till it come to the heart and there strikes and corrupts the fountain of life So our sin hath mortally wounded our very hearts and strikes at the life of grace in the soul. Thirdly As poyson inflames the party with an incredible thirst having overcome natural moisture and eaten up the spirits so sin in the soul workes an utter defect and dries up all waters of grace and makes the sinner insatiable in drinking up iniquity like water Fourthly As poyson not prevented brings speedy and certain death but not without extream pain and intolerable torture so the poyson of sin unconquered brings certain and eternal death attended with horrour of conscience desperate feares and torments most exquisite Thus must we labour to feel the sting of our sin in all parts farre more mortal than the most venomous stings of most direful Serpents 2. When this people felt themselves stung so deadly they come to Moses for counsel so must thou depend upon the Minister for direction as they upon Moses Never was man sensible of this sting but he would run to the Ministers Acts 2. 37. when they were pricked in their hearts they said to Peter and the rest Men and brethren what shall we doe Acts 16. 30. the poor Jaylor being stung and being sensible of his pain came trembling and humbling himself to Paul and Silas prisoners saying Sirs what must I doe te be saved A conscience truly wounded will seek to God to his Word and Ministers for it knowes that God woundeth and healeth The feet of him that brings good tidings are beautiful to an humbled heart even as an experienced Physitian to a sick party who else were sure to be lost for want of meanes What marvel if a soul truly sensible of his sting and pain can run to Gods Ministers when a counterfeit humiliation can make as hard hearted a King as Pharaoh run to Moses and Aaron and beg prayers of them A marvellous thing then that of so many thousands stung so deadly so few are sensible that so few trouble Moses or the Ministers with questions concerning their estates Some stung and guilty consciences not supported by faith in touch of sin and sence of pain like a Doe shot with an arrow run every way but the right for ease Some with Asa send to the Physitian to purge away melancholy Some with Saul send for musick esteeming soules sicknesse but a sottish lumpishnesse Some run into the house of laughter and wicked play-houses to see and hear the Lords Sampsons and Worthies derided not without haynous blasphemy Others fall a buildding with Cain or set upon other imployments perhaps it is but an idle fancy Some run perhaps to the Witch of End or in the mean time send away Paul as Felix or run against Moses and his Ministers But comfort can they have none but from God and his Word had not thy Word saith David been my comfort I had perished in my trouble All the Physitians in the world all the Musitians and Magicians put together nor any other meanes could help a stung Israelite he must come to Moses when he had done all he could All other by-comforts are worm-eaten and as cold-water to cure a dropsie or as a cold draught to cure a poyson Some few there are that come unto us who we are sure had never sought to us more than others had they had so little sence of their sting as others have as the Israelites had never come at Moses had they not been stung Let them be comforted in that they have gone the right way to fetch their comforts which is from God and his Word and not from carnal men or councels The Lord in mercy hath brought them light out of darknesse for pitty had it been they had wanted the sting of affliction that hath driven them to God and to his Word and Servants 3. Coming to Moses wherein doe they imploy them what questions move they to him Numb 21. 7. Oh their sinne troubles them which they confesse in general we have sinned and in particular we have spoken against the Lord and against thee and then pray him to help them in removing the Serpents So thou being stung when thou comest to Gods Ministers must be conversant in fruitful and edifiable questions thou must be free in confession of such sins as are the likely cause of thy trouble and intent and busie how to be rid of the Serpents and the sting and poyson of thy sins Thou will be careful to know how to get ease of heart and quietnesse of conscience from the pain and sting of sin So the converts Act. 2. and so the Jaylor What shall I doe to be saved The fault of many is when they have meanes of counsel and comfort present with them to waste their time in trifling and curious questions and impertinent to the cure of the sting of the Serpent Questions which are like Crafishes in which is more picking than meat Questions meerly idle the resolution of which helps them no whit to ease or to heaven An
humbled heart will not so lose his time nor dwell in toyes and unnecessaries to thrust out things more profitable A wise heart will not for a shadow forgoe the substance but will be much in that question of the young man Master what may I doe to inherit eternall life what may I doe to be saved what may I doe to be rid of this Serpent and of that of this sin and of that How may I doe to get mastery of my corruptions In going to Gods Ministers let thy errand be the same with the Israelites in their going to Moses how to be rid of the Serpents 4. Moses directs them to the brâ—zen Serpent erected for their cure for Moses himself cannot help them Moses law cannot cure them that rather sharpens the sting and thrusts it deeper into the flesh and spirit He directs them to no merits or works of their own to cure them for their merits brought in those poysoned stings among them but he sends them quite out of themselves to Gods ordinance which was the brazen Serpent Thou art never in the way of cure till thou art sent out of thy self out of the Law and works of it which now cannot justifie till thou comest to the Evangelical brazen Serpent there is no hope of cure As the Israelite could never be cured till he acknowledged the brazen Serpent the onely meanes so no more canst thou till thou acknowledge Jesus Christ the onely healing God and that there is no other name in heaven or earth to be saved by but the name Jesus Onely Christ onely Christ said that Martyr for he onely can give a perfect righteousnesse he onely can cover our imperfections he onely being no sinner could conquer sin he onely by dying could conquer death he onely by entring into the grave could sweeten it he onely by sustaining the sorrows of hell could shut hell for all believers Had Moses sent the Israelites any whither but to the brazen Serpent he had deluded them and they had lost all their labour Who now is so void of judgement that cannot discern whether our Religion or the Roman be the antient and true Religion of Moses and the people of God If a man stung with the Serpent come to us for counsel and cure as they to Moses we send him as Moses out of himself to Christ onely the true brazen Serpent Our doctrine leads him out of himself out of his own merits out of external works and ceremonies unto Christ who is our peace and left his peace unto believers and by this meanes through Gods blessing the Patient attaines true tranquility of mind and inward peace of conscience and rejoyceth with an unspeakable and glorious joy for his recovery as the Israelites did in theirs But let a man stung in conscience goe to a Roman teacher he leads him any way but the right any whither so not to Christ. Instead of Gods certain direction in the words of the Prophets and Apostles which testifie of Christ the onely brazen Serpent they send him to unsound and uncertain speculations fables traditions equal say they to Scripture and some of them say far better Instead of Christs satisfaction and merit they send him home to his own merits and satisfactions by which say they he may apply the satisfaction and merit of Christ. But in case he be so bad as he have no merits of his own the Church hath a Treasury of other mens merits to dispense by taile so he will come to the price So he may buy oyle enough to fill his lamp out of the Popes Exchequer or Burse filled to the top with works of supererogation But if he make some scruple of this least the wise Virgins have not enough for themselves and others then they may have the sacrifice of the Masse not to fail but never apply that one and onely sacrifice upon the Crosse it self Now whether of us agree with Moses 5. As the Israelite must look up to the Serpent lifted up so must thou look up and behold Christ lifted up This must thou doe two wayes First on the wood of the Crosse Secondly on the Throne of the Kingdome both of grace and glory Behold Christ lifted up not in his abasement onely but in his advancement First in the Kingdome of grace as he is lifted up in the Word and Sacraments In which Christ is mightily declared the Son of God and preached the Saviour of the world Gal. 3. 1. among whom Christ was crucified Secondly in his Kingdome of glory raised from the dead ascended into heaven and exalted at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers Phil. 2. 9. God hath given him a Name which is above every name Now the looking on Christ thus lifted up is the act of faith not a bare intuition sight or vision as to believe that Christ was thus exalted on the Crosse and in his Kingdome but it is apprehensive and applicatory and to believe in Christ crucified and glorified This looking hath three things in it 1. To believe that he was the Son of God and son of man our Immanuel 2. That he being so was lift up for the salvation of believers 3. That my self assuredly trust and depend on him alone as the onely author meritour and bestower of salvation This is Evangelical looking on the Serpent Now because this looking is the principal thing in the cure we will consider 1. How this looking cures us 2. How we know we are cured by our looking 3. Motives to stir us up still to look on our Serpent Sect. VII I. When the Israelite comes to Moses and asketh Oh what shall I doe to be saved from death being so deadly stung A full answer to this question was goe look upon the brazen Serpent thou shalt be whole So if an humble soul suppose the Jaylor shall come to the Minister as Paul or Silas Sirs what may I doe to be saved the direct answer to this question is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Act. 16. 31. and yee are saved by faith and Thy faith hath made the whole Quest. But how doth faith save us Answ. Not as it is an excellent grace nor as any work of ours We are not saved and cured for believing but by believing 1. Because faith is the condition of the Covenant and of our cure as looking was the condition of the cure of the Israelite For it was not the having of a Brazen Serpent nor the lifting it up could cure but the Israelites looking upon it so it is not the hearing of Christ nor the lifting of him up in the Ministery nor knowledge of his merits can save unlesse they be received by faith A potion never so vertuous is fruitlesse if not taken As meat uneaten so is Christ not digested and applyed by faith 2. Faith cannot cure considered simply in it self as a quality or vertue or gift or