are often ignorant and so his Writings seems to us the more difficult and obscure Thus we have taken a brief view of the Apostle's Comparison of the Law with the Gospel in this short Epitome of both and seen the wonderful preference the Gospel has to the Law and the great and eminent Advantages and Priviledges of the one above the the other and the glorious Inhabitants of this Spiritual Mount Sion and the Heavenly Jerusalem not only all the true Saints upon Earth the Church of the first-born written in Heaven but even God himself Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant all the Blessed Angels and the Spirits of just Men made perfect nothing could be more destructive and ruinous to the true Interest of the believing Hebrews than to turn their backs upon such a Communion to go back to the Old Covenant that God upon Man's account found fault with and again put on that Legal Yoke that neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear the Jews much boasted of and rested in those literal Typical Advantages they had above the rest of the World upon which they might with very good reason value themselves and therefore the Apostle's business is to manifest to them how much by embracing the Gospel they changed for the better that instead of a Legal Temporary Temple built upon Mount Sion and an Earthly Jerusalem they are come to the true signified Mount Sion to the Spiritual and Heavenly Temple which is Christ Mystical where God dwells for ever and the Heavenly Jerusalem the name of which is Jehovah Shammai that is the glorious spiritual worship of the Gospel and the state of the Catholick Church in all its parts those on Earth and those in Heaven and thereby to all that was signified by and all that was any where promised unto Jerusalem and Mount Sion instead of that Dreadful Appearance of the Angels upon Mount Sinai with which they were so terrified and from which they were kept at so great a distance they are now come to an innumerable Company of Angels that is to a sweet Fellowship Brotherhood and Communion with them all which is implyed in their being said to be come to them under the Law 't was firmly believed whoever should see an Angel so great the distance was thought between Mankind and them should certainly die we are now Men and Angels all of the same Family and Houshold and the Saints on Earth have the whole Ministry and Service of the Angels employed on their behalf they are now always ascending and descending about their Affairs and there is a most endeared and intimate Relation and Affection between all the Myriads of Angels above and the Saints below instead of the National Church of the Jews assembled at Jerusalem they are come to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born whose Names are written in Heaven To the general Assembling of the true Catholick Church who Assemble and Worship all the World over in Spirit and Truth without any confinement to any place whatever they are come to them so as to be of the same Body and Society with them to be fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God and so as to partake of all their Spiritual and Heavenly Advantages and they are come to all the parts of this Catholick Communion as well those in Heaven as those on Earth even to God himself which is as far as they can come the judge of all under the Law they were not suffered so much as to approach the outward signs of his Presence but under the Gospel they have free access to himself and to his very Throne which is now become a Throne of Grace and nothing appears now from thence but a Scepter of Mercy held forth they are come to the Spirits of just men made perfect not only to the Fellowship and Fraternity of all the Saints living from the Fraternity of an outward Typical and only National Church but to those in the Heavenly state all those mentioned in the 11th Chap. before and all the Apostles and those Blessed Saints they had conversed with in the first times of the Gospel who were then removed and gone to their rest even to them by the Gospel-state they were come with them they are embodyed as Members of the same Society and with them in a short time they are sure to be resident And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant a Saviour as well as a Mediator and a Mediator not of the Sinai but of the Sion Covenant a Covenant bringing grace life and peace a Mediator not like Moses a meer Man a Servant a Sinner himself trembling in his Office and weary of his Burden and whose Ministry was like his Person decaying vanishing and dying But to the Son himself in his own House able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him in that he liveth for ever to make Intercession for them and to the Blood of sprinkling infinitely exceeding all the Blood that was sprinkled under the Law for that brought sin yearly and daily into remembrance but those that are sprinkled with this are for ever perfected and to them there remains no more Sacrifice for sin and this Blood they are come to speaks a better Language quite than the Blood of Abel did although the Blood of both was most unjustly shed and they were both wickedly murdered and slain yet they speak two different Languages Abel's Blood called and cried unto God for vengeance upon Cain but this pleads and cries aloud for pardon and forgiveness even for those very Persons that were most guilty of it and deepliest concerned in it so that none are excluded from the benefit of it The Apostle winds up all with deep and solemn Admonitions and Cautions to the Believing Jews not to play fast and lose with the Gospel 't is of such Jews St. James writes in his Epistle directed to the Twelve Tribes when he tells them A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways and let not such a man think says he to obtain any thing from the Lord for he halts between two Opinions and is unresolved whether he shall be a Jew or a Christian the Apostle conjures them upon their utmost peril not to refuse him that speaks from Heaven which is no other than God himself speaking by his Son and declaring by a solemn voice from Heaven even from the excellent Glory that he was his Beloved Son in whom he was well pleased which beloved and blessed Son of God might well be said to speak from Heaven because we are expresly told he was also in Heaven when he spake here upon Earth he proceeds to mind them that the Legal state was like an old House ready to fall upon their heads for he that once by his voice shook the Earth at Mount Sinai and made the Mount to tremble will now once more shake both Heaven and Earth and dissolve the Apostle tells them their whole Religious Constitution and Fabrick and this taking away of things that are shaken is in order to this that things that cannot be shaken which are the blessings and glories and sure mercies of the Gospel may remain the Gospel is the last and only remedy that God has provided for sinful Man 't is a fearful thing to fall into his hands and not have this to plead to fall into the hands of the living God without an interest in Jesus the Mediator of this New Covenant and the Blood of sprinkling appurtenant thereunto he that has once embraced the Gospel and then out of choice refuseth it and turns his back upon it refuseth his remedy and thereby renders his Cure desperate and impossible and to such a man nothing can possibly remain but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment The Consideration of this Glorious and Honourable state to which by the Gospel we are come this Celestial Mount of Spirits should always inflame our minds with holy and thankful Contemplations and also with fervent and devout adoration of that infinite goodness that has made such provision for the happiness recovery and welfare of rebellious and apostate Man that has opened the flood-gates of Heaven and showr'd down all the blessings and glories thereof upon the World by the descent of the second person into Human Nature how happy were it if instead of mean low and perishing satisfactions Men would solace themselves with this heart-satisfying and everlasting Salvation let us follow the example of Moses who when God proclaimed his Name unto him and caused all his goodness to pass before him the Text says Moses made haste and bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped he only heard the report of what we possess and enjoy our whole business therefore should be to exalt the Praises of so Gracious a Benefactor and to Magnifie that Glorious being that has all possible Perfection to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be taken away and to whom all Blessing and Honour and Praise and all Worship and Service and Adoration will be due throughout all Generations from time to time till time ceaseth and is dissolved in Eternity and thence Eternally FINIS
every Man comes naturally to speak and understand this heavenly Language when he is born of the Spirit and brought up in the Nurture and Instruction of the Holy Ghost The prophane part of the World are ever deriding this and making it a constant part of their diversion Now what a profound solid part of Discretion do such Men act who have in contempt the Result and Effects of Infinite Wisdom The Papists have a Saying That never any Dog barked at a Crucifix but he run mad The Moral of that Fable is very good and may serve to instruct a prophane Protestant God himself gives a very solemn and withal dreadful Caution and Premonition to all prophane Scoffers by the Prophet Esaias Be not Mockers saith he lest your Bands be made strong that is lest I chuse your Delusion and give you irrecoverably up to your own prophane sence which will be found at last to be the worst sort of Madness I will not believe any will be so unnecessary critical and nice as to blame the Title of this small Tract in regard the Catholick Church under the Gospel is so very often in Scripture denominated by Mount Sion called the Mountain of the Lord's House which is to be set up upon the top of the Mountains And to this Mount Sion that is to the Gospel-Catholick Church are some way or other related all the blessed and glorious Spirits that are extant the fallen Angels are only excluded for by coming to this Mount the Apostle tells us we are come to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect A great part of a true Christian's Life and I am sure the best part of it is a Converse with Spirits the best and noblest part of Man is a Spirit and he must shortly for some time exist only in that part and when the Body is reunited to it that second Coalition and Constitution will be altogether Spiritual for a Soul and a Spiritual Body conjoyned will render a Man not less Spiritual than he was while he existed singly in his Soul but will make him perfectly like to an Angel so we are told by our Saviour That in the Resurrection the Saints shall be like to the Angels of God Upon this account God is training us up and gradually fitting and preparing of us for this state he is acquainting us as much as our present condition will allow with himself and other Spirits here that so we may joyfully resign up our earthly state to become of their number and at last abide in that condition that will be purely Spiritual without any sort of Terrene Allay and such who live without any Communion with Spirits here and have no sort of foretaste nor any preparative relish of that state must needs if they any way make use of the thinking faculty leave their Bodies with very great Amusements The Mount of Spirits Hebrews 12.18 For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest Verse 19. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Ver. 20. For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart Ver. 21. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Ver. 22. But we are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels Ver. 23. To the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Ver. 24. And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel THis Epistle is a Funeral Sermon preached at the Interment of the Law the material Body of Moses God himself buried long before and no man ever knew the place of his Sepulture and now his mystical Body his Doctrine growing old and ready to vanish away ripe for abolition or rather dissolution not so much by being repealed or rescinded but its use ceasing the end and substance of it appearing and its glory being naturally and of course swallowed up and dissolved into a greater glory that excels The Holy Ghost himself by this Epistle lays it honourably in the grave and so we have the Sepulchre of this mystical Body of Moses abiding with us at this day And happy had it been for the whole Nation of the Jews if this Sermon had had its due effect upon them God in his wise and gracious Providence gave them this Warning this Holy Instruction and Admonition to prevent their obstinate adhaesion to the Mosaical Rites and violent opposition of the Gospel thereby which ended in a very few years after the writing of this Epistle in the sad and utter Ruine of their Temple their City and themselves The Penman of this Epistle by such Probabilities as come very near to a Certainty appears to be St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and that Person whom it pleased God so eminently to make use of in the glorious Fulfilling of that early prophetick Prediction God shall perswade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Sem. The exact Time when this Epistle was written is very uncertain Antiquity affords us little or no Information about it what Knowledge we can have of it must be by consulting the Scripture and comparing it with it self It seems reasonable to suppose that St. Paul wrote it after his Release at Rome from two Years Imprisonment there with which the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends wherein is contained an Ecclesiastical History of the Church for about 28 Years after our Saviour's Resurrection unto the 7th Year of Nere that he wrote it after his Release appears from hence that Chap. 13. v. 23. he intends and promiseth a Journey with Timothy which had he been a Prisoner and not in his own power is not reasonable to think he would have done 'T is likewise very probable to be written before the sharpest and most violent Persecutions fell upon the believing Jews before the slaughter Herod made at the instance of the Jews of St. James and those at Jerusalem because he tells them in this Epistle they had not yet resisted unto Blood and 't is very evident to be writ and to be well known to the Jews before St. Peter wrote his second Epistle for therein he seems very plainly to refer to this Epistle and if so then 't is plain also beyond denial the Author of it was St. Paul And Account says he that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
and super-exceeding Excellency of the Doctrine published and delivered the Gospel in the very kind and constitution of it utterly exceeding all the Dispensations of God that ever preceded it being the very natural genuine and proper Issue and Product of them all Divine Revelations since the World began tended to Christ and the Gospel as their ultimate End and Center Although God had by sundry Ways and by divers Persons both Angels and Men at several times distinctly declared his Mind to the World yet he never before spake by his Son this is the Memorial of the Gospel throughout all Generations that it was first published by the Lord and after confirmed by those that heard him it came first from the Oracle of his Sacred Mouth and was sanctified by his most Blessed Lips and upon that account well may it be called as it is in the 1st of Timothy The glorious Gospel of the blessed God 'T is true that all former Divine Revelations brought to us either by the Ministry of Angels or Men were the Voice of God and had him for their Author but herein lyes the peculiarity of the Gospel Glory above them all that now he speaks to us without any intermediate Instrument personally Himself in his Son he comes Himself from Heaven Tabernacles in Humane Flesh becomes Emanuel converseth with us and speaks Face to Face with us in our own Nature Let us with an Holy Astonishment as Moses said in another case turn aside and view this great Sight and cry out with the Psalmist in Holy Admiration Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldest so visit him and consider deeply what infinite condescention was this that when nothing else would serve to recover the lost World God comes from Heaven himself to treat with us about our recovery so that no man can now reasonably say who shall ascend into Heaven to instruct us from thence or who shall fetch Divine Knowledge beneath from the Deeps for all that we need to know and all that we can know is brought home to our Dores is put into our Hearts and into our Mouths by God himself in the fashion of a Man and like to us in all things sin only excepted Two things the Apostle seems to insinuate in his very first entrance and the beginning of this Epistle God who at sundry times and divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son First That it was the same God that spake now that spake before by Moses and the Prophets and so prevents their taking prejudice against the Gospel as if it came from any other hand than the God of Israel or were built upon any other Foundation than Moses and the Prophets And Secondly That God speaking now by his Son we may reasonably expect to hear more than ever was yet known and all that we are like ever to know by way of Revelation from above such a Person as He may well be supposed to bring down all God's Errand to the World at once he has none greater to send by and upon that account it is that the Gospel times are called in Scripture the last times because no more Revelation is to be expected If we consider Christ as he is God he is exalted far above all Heavens and beyond all reach of Comparisons if we consider him in that conjunction as he was Man even in that state he is Heir of all things he is the First-born of every creature and in all things has the pre-eminence he exceeds the noblest of creatures the Angels those glorious Spirits who in their very make and constitution were nearest of kin of all others to their Creator and are called Elohim a sort of Gods for God never said unto any of them thou art my Son this day speaking both of Christ's Incarnation and Resurrection have I begotten thee but at the Son 's first arrival in the World to give an eternal Instance of his Divinity he commands all the Angels of God to worship him and to worship him with the greatest Prostration and Adoration imaginable for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used upon this occasion intimates That the Apostle should treat so much when he is dealing with the Jews of the Preference of Christ above the Angels we may well conceive when we consider that he himself in this Epistle declares that the Law was the Word spoken by the Angels and Gal. 3. says that it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator not as if this were to be taken as Grotius and some learned men have conceived that the Law upon Mount Sinai was originally given forth by a created Angel there for it was most certainly published authoritatively by God himself there present nor is it any where said to be originally given forth by Angels but to be spoken by them and given forth by their Manage and Ministry In the 68th Psalm we are told The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of thousands the Lord is among them as in Sinai by which 't is evident enough the glorious and eternal Jehovah was there personally present after a very peculiar and eminent manner And in Stephen's last Sermon he tells the Jews in that Historical Recapitulation of their whole Affairs that they had received the Law by the disposition of Angels and had not kept it So that the meaning is the delivery of the Law was by the Ministration of Angels and their ordering of things upon Mount Sinai though it was uttered by God himself but the delivery of the Gospel is singly by the Ministry of the Son of God in person And when we are told the Law was the Word spoken by Angels and that it was ordained by Angels it is in this sense and no other to be understood and well may it be so stiled if we reflect upon these several things 1st The whole heavenly Hoast of Angels those glorious Guards of Spirits that attend the Eternal Jehovah were all there present in a solemn and particular manner such as we no where else read of in their courses and order to execute what their Supream Lord came about and beholding with wonder and admiration the Wisdom of the Supream Legislator in giving forth those wise Laws to the World upon which the legal Dispensation was chiefly founded which was the reason perhaps made them so earnest afterwards to look down into the Gospel Dispensation having seen so much of the legal and been such Actors in it and behold the glory of that for by it the Apostle tells us expresly the manifold wisdom of God is made known unto them and by beholding the second Person incarnate they saw somewhat more of Heaven upon Earth then they could see in Heaven it self 2dly It was by the Ministry of Angels that those prodigious Terrors were effected by which the People were so
aw'd and taught to reverence the Law God raised by them the Smoak and the Fire at Mount Sinai 3dly It was they that shook and rent the Rock 4thly It was they that sounded the Trumpet And 5thly from the consideration of which the great Emphasis of the Apostle's Speech chiefly ariseth 't was they framed and effected the articulate Voices and Words from God by which he spake to the People and by which the Law was conveyed to their Ears that is the Angels received the Law from God's Mouth and uttered it by Sounds and Expressions to the People and thereby became so the publishers of the Law as that it is truly and very properly called the word spoken by Angels and may be very significantly said to be ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator 'T will be a thing in its nature most instructing and full of the greatest spiritual delight and satisfaction to consider over the Apostles first Point those glorious Excellencies of Christ that are appertainant unto him by which he hath the preference of all that went before him and by which he is infinitely exalted beyond what ever can possibly succeed him and therefore a Revelation made and a Religion setled by him must needs with the supreamest Authority command our utmost obedience First he informs us of two transcendent supereminent and unparalled Qualifications of this glorious Person by whom God now speaks first that he hath appointed him Heir of all things and secondly that by him he made the Worlds The first of these relates chiefly to his Assumption of the Humanity and as he is Man this is an eternal statute of the Trinity that the second Person humbling himself to become Man and assuming the Humane Nature to the Divine as he was Man should be Heir of the whole Creation and inherit as a Prince and a Saviour all created Supremacy and Glory and therefore he himself often affirms in St. John that all authority and judgment is given unto him upon this very account because he is the Son of Man a Title only given to him in Scripture by himself and by no other and another expression of the Seed of the Woman that very Humane Nature that look'd so meanly and was such a stumbling-block to the Faith of the Jews and the Philosophy of the Gentils had annexed unto it the Lordship and Dominion of all this could not simply belong to the Humane Nature in it self but was by Divine Ordination of the Father by him of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named and therefore the Apostle saith that God has appointed him heir of all things and by this insinuates to the Jews that if he were Heir of all things then has he power in the Church to alter and settle what Religion he pleaseth dispose of their Ecclesiastick Fabrick as he thought good and that if they did intend to keep those eminent and peculiar Priviledges they had above the rest of the World they must own him and enjoy all from him and under him because God has ordained him Heir of all things But the second is that I shall chiefly insist on by which the Apostle inculcates his Divinity that by him God made the worlds this is a discovery that at first view seems rather to stupifie and amuse the Object so far exceeding the Faculty than any way to encourage us to contemplate or enquire or farther to think over this matter nor can any one Meditation about it be drawn from any other Topick than pure Revelation this is a great Oracle let fall from Heaven for the instruction of the Church and we must with all humble and thankful adoration enquire how far the Holy Ghost has inform'd us in this matter and not farther gaze lest we lose our selves in vain fruitless and unbecoming Speculations By whom also he made the worlds By the Worlds is not meant as some have conceived several Successions of the same World but 't is meant in the sense the Jews took the word to whom the Apostle accommodates himself and they reckoned upon three Worlds that above of Angels and Spirits that beneath them of Sun Moon and Stars and this inferior World in which we converse the Apostles drift is to shew that what was any where created was created and made by him and that according to St. John without him was nothing made that was made and this appears to be his meaning from Col. 1.16 For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible By whom not as a created instrument any way inferior to himself so it cannot be taken for we are told by Sr. John that the word by which all things were made was in the beginning with God and was God but by him as his own eternal Word Wisdom and Power that is to say the making of the World was an act peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity and the whole Deity in making the World acted by the second Person for 't is not said absolutely that Christ made the World but God by him which notifies to us the order of working in the Trinity and the distinct subsistence and operations of the persons and not bare instrumentality True it is that the act of each Person in the Trinity is in some sense the act of all the three yet by the Trinity a threefold Record is said to be born in Heaven and distinct acts are applied to each of the three and God does appear to us under distinct actings in the same eternal and blessed Essence by that threefold Record To make this deep and important Point as plain and overt as we can the best way is to view over those Scriptures where the Holy Ghost treats most expresly touching this matter St. John begins his Gospel with a great discovery of it In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made The Apostle's design in this Gospel is evidently to begin it with the Divinity and Godhead of Christ as the rest had begun theirs with the Original and History of his Humanity and Incarnation and this Declaration of his Divinity must needs be very short for no man can write a History of God or make any Narrative of his Eternal Existence the Apostle therefore in a few words tells us all that was needful and proper to be told about his Divinity and all that could be known about the Man Christ Jesus as he was God In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God In the beginning 't is an allusion to what Moses says about the Creation In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth that is before any thing created was extant and so here St. John says In the beginning was the word
Petition of Mordecai and Esther he altered his purpose and had a mind to have all the Jews saved the first Law could not be altered nor reversed by their fundamental Constitution and therefore Abasuerus had no other way but he makes another Law after the same form and manner that he made the former wherein 't is thus decreed The king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together and to stand for their lives to destroy to slay and cause to perish all the power of the people and province that should assault them both little ones and women and take the spoil of them for a prey By which he downright settles a Civil War by two unalterable Laws in the Bowels of his Dominions and in all his Territories commands his Subjects to massacre and destroy each other nay even in his own Palace for upon this second Edict the Jews slew 500 Men in Shusan the King's Palace The last Monarchy of Rome had so far advanced Idolatry and carried on Satan's concerns that they ransack'd the whole Creation for Deities and arrived to Thirty thousand Gods and the Emperors came to such a degree of impudent Pride and Impiety as downright to deifie themselves the Kingdoms and Powers of the World have lain from the beginning in his hands and therefore 't is said upon the full recovery of the World The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ the Kingdom of the Mediator has consisted but of a few it pleasing God in his infinite Wisdom to declare the glory of that rather in quality than quantity This Kingdom of the fallen Angels is sometimes called in Scripture the Kingdom of Darkness and sometimes the Kingdom of Satan and he is himself sometimes called the Prince of this World and the Prince of the Power of the Air that old Serpent the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the World the original of it was Apostasie and Rebellion against the Supreme Soveraign and an endeavour to set up a Counter-Soveraignty in the creature against him and 't is carried on and will be till the end of his Reign with all possible counter-working to the Kingdom of the Mediator and all the gracious and glorious Designs and Purposes of God therein The chief of the fallen Angels is reckon'd the Prince of this Kingdom and all the fallen Angels and fallen Men unrecovered are embodied in it as his Subjects 't is carried on and supported by these two things First A malignant Opposition to God for his manage of the whole Affairs of the Creation by the second Person incarnate And Secondly By an insatiable appetite to throw off all Bonds and Ties of Obedience to their Supreme Soveraign and Maker and enjoy the uninterrupted possession of a lawless Life sutable to their degenerate and apostate Inclinations The woful state they arrive at by this to let us know no Man can oppose God and prosper is First Ever to labour and endeavour with a certainty of disappointment for the fallen Angels know very well their purposes and designs shall never be accomplished And Secondly To lye under a constant sense of ill doing and under guilt and terror in what ever they act And Thirdly To stand bound over to the dreadful Justice of God and be sentenced at the Judgment-Seat by that Man whom he hath appointed to the endless and utmost Misery and Horror of all which the fallen Angels and many of their adherents are sufficiently informed From the beginning God has not been pleased to set himself at any time against this Kingdom of his confederate Enemies and Rebbels by the Thunder of his Power and as it were most easie for him to do in a moment to grind them to Powder but in the profound depths of his Wisdom who is wonderful in councel and excellent in working suffers the continuance of it for great and holy ends and purposes and opposeth it and will at last utterly ruine it by a still small voice in those Methods by which the Mediator's Kingdom is to be erected that is the Laws of his Grace and the mighty Influences of his Spirit and hence it is that in every Generation we find a continued contest and opposition between the renewed and recovered part of the World and all apostate Angels and Men God contesting by his Grace and Spirit in the Hearts of his Servants all the violent Assaults that the Powers of Darkness the whole Race of degenerate Angels or Men could bring upon them and upon that account has had some faithful Servants in all Ages upon whose Fidelity and Ability in this way of Combate he has stak'd down his Interest and with whom he has trusted his Glory nor can he by this Method ever fail of the Glory due to him or by such an Adventure ever come short of it for 't is trusting his Glory with his Grace and the one stands upon as sure a foundation as the other and both in their nature immoveable Instances of this kind the Scriptures abound withal but that which in a particular case seems the most eminent of them all and most remarkable is the Case of Job and the Tryal he went through Whoever will nicely consider his Case shall find it a Story of wonderful distinction and circumstance the whole Business of Religion being by consent put upon tryal in him Job was declared by God himself and Satan deny'd it not to be the best Man then living one that had not his like in all the Earth but Satan objects unto God against him and affirms that though he was so eminent and had the priority of all the Religious Party then extant yet all his Religion was but Hypocrisie built upon a secular bottom and that if God brought him once to tryal it would appear so to be and himself manifested thereby to be a most notorious Hypocrite and Dissembler Had this in reality proved true Satan had carried his point for it had been an undeniable evidence that God had had no faithful Servants nor had there been any such thing as true and sincere Piety and Religion in the World for if the very best of all Men proved upon tryal but a rotten false-hearted Hypocrite the consequence had been very plain that all the rest of the same profession must needs have been much more so The tryal proceeds with all the possible advantage Satan could wish to obtain his end and he is permitted to go to the utmost extent of all the Artifices he had in order to stir up and provoke in Job all the exorbitant Passions unruly Ferments and irreligious profane Workings that belong to Humane Nature and usually appear upon such occasions in order to bring him to calumniatè Providence and even reproach God himself 1st By Afflicting his Body 2ly By Ruining his Estate And 3ly By laying him as to his present state and condition under the sharpest Judgments and severest Censures of his best and most
and that in several things 1st In the continuance and time of its duration 1260 Years being near about the time that the Babylonian Monarchy lasted 2dly In respect that all the holy and sanctified Utensils of the Temple were captived in Babylon and there prophaned as all the Sacred Institutions of the Gospel are captived and prophaned in this Mystical Babylon how shamefully have the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper and the other Holy Institutions and Ordinances of the New Testament been prophan'd and abus'd under the Papal Reign 3dly This Ecclesiastical Mornarchy is set forth and described by that of the Babylonian after a very peculiar manner in respect of the sore Persecutions the Church meets with under both the Holy Ghost makes the one typical and representative of the other 4thly The Babylonian Monarchy was not ruined by a common Providence but by peculiar and extraordinary Judgments they are three times in one Chapter called the Vengeance of his Temple And so shall this Papal Babylonian State be ruined after a peculiar manner by the brightness of Christ's coming and by the glory of his Power 5thly And that which I think the principal Reason why the Holy Ghost brands this Ecclesiastical Monarchy with the Name of Babylon though it arose out of the Ruins of the Roman Monarchy and have its situation at Rome is this to keep up and maintain the Harmony and due decorum of the Visions set forth in the Revelation and the Representations and Expressions thereof Now it is plain that in the Revelation the true Church is represented under the Gospel by Jewish Similitudes and Expressions and the Enemies of it are represented in the Names of those great Enemies the Jews had to their Church and State The three most remarkable Calamities that befel the Jews was first in Egypt secondly in Babylon and thirdly from the Outrages of Antiochus and upon that account we find Egypt often mentioned in the Revelations and the sore Bondage and Persecutions of the Church reckoned from thence and in regard the Jewish Church and State with their City and Temple were totally ruined and themselves captivated by the Monarchy of Babylon their constant and avowed Enemy therefore the grand Enemy of Christ and the Gospel the Antichristian State is called Babylon and perhaps the Persecutions and Desolations of Antiochus are represented by God and Magog when Satan shall be let loose This Ecclesiastical Structure is also in Scripture stiled Antichristian and the Monarchy of it Antichrist and that not only for the general opposition it makes and the tendency it has against Christ and his Interest but for this peculiar reason because there is a Vice Head and a Vice Christ and so a False Christ set up in the Church Christ's Place is by this Monarchy notoriously usurped it being enthroned by its Head the Man of Sin in the Temple of God as God and most impiously and impudently personating Christ in all his mediatory Authority Satan and the rest of his Associates having thus from the beginning declared their enmity to God and peculiarly to the Seed of the Woman and the Interest and Kingdom of Christ as Mediator and pursued it in all Ages with the greatest Rage and Malice imaginable and having in the Antichristian Reign for 1260 Years which began at the fall of the Roman Empire for the Beast and the ten Kings which are the shivers of that Empire are expresly said to take their Power in one hour and St. Paul tells us he that does let will let till he be taken out of the way which is to tell us in other words that till the Temporal Monarchy of Rome fell the Spiritual Monarchy could not be erected I say having brought their Apostate Practices and Principles to the utmost culmen and heighth they could arrive at they will then grow ripe for destruction the Judge will appear to stand at the door Christ will bring these lapsed Angels and their Associates to their final doom and destroy them and all their contrivances by the spirit of his mouth and the brightness of his coming he will at last come to judgment with all his Holy Angels and according to that ancient Prophesie of Enoch with all his Saints he will come first in his Father's glory to manifest before all that he and the Father are one and that the essential glory of God is his 2dly In his own glory the glory of his mediatory Kingdom having by his Humiliation Suffering Death and Resurrection conquered the Grave Death Hell Sin and all the Effects of it and acquited a peculiar glory to himself thereby And 3dly In the glory of the Angels who are all his Attendants not only in the glory they received from him in their first creation but the glory they have acquired through him in keeping their first state and the glory of all their faithful service and conformity to him and his Kingdom to the end and this honor will all the Saints then have not only to appear with him in glory but to sit in judgment with him as his mystical body and as part of the reward of their works that follow them and joyn in the Sentence pronounced by him The first Sentence he pronounceth will probably be upon these apostate Spirits who were the first created Rebels and them he will doom to eternal darkness and misery and so these Angels that could not content themselves with the glory they had in their first creation from the second Person as God come to be fatally sentenced by him for their aspiring Impieties as he is Man as they were made by him so were they made for him to come under his mediatory Authority and be finally disposed by him and with this tormenting aggravation that he is accompanied and glorified therein by the blessed Angels whose company they forsook and in opposition to whom they have all along carried on a distinct interest and by all the Saints the whole body of the Church which they have so malign'd and persecuted since the World began So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord then will it be said the Mystery of God is finished the Spirits Influences compleated the Mediator's Kingdom perfected and delivered up the Wicked are gone to their own place the Saints are all come safe home to their Father's House and rest for ever God is all in all Amen Hallelujah Touching the other part of the Angels those that kept their first state of whom the Scripture makes such honourable mention as sometimes to call them Morning stars sometimes Sons of God Angels of Light Chariots of God his Hoasts his Ministers the Elect Angels who with respect to their Nature are called Spirits with respect to their Dignity Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers and with respect to their Office and Employment Angels and ministring Spirits for Angel is a word relates to their Employment and not to their Nature and we find Men sometimes in Scripture by vertue of their Offices
them they are come to is to Mount Sion of which for the clearer comprehension of the Apostles meaning by it some things may be particularly considered of that Mount as it stood circumstanced under the Law and this in especial that the great Honour that is put upon it in Scripture is principally with respect to the Temple that then stood upon the top of it and which was meant and signified by it this was the place whither all the Males were to come three times a Year and the solemn part of all the Jewish Worship could be no where else performed and their private Worship where ever they were at home or abroad upon Solomon's request to God at the first dedication of it was generally directed towards this place This we may see in the case of Jonah who in the Whale's Belly thought of directing his Prayer towards this Holy Temple and the Prophet Daniel when it was pulled down and lay in Rubbish prayed even then towards it three times a day as we see in the 6th of Daniel This Temple placed upon Mount Sion was the only sanctified House where the mighty God was pleased to take up his dwelling since the World began the Tabernacle was small and ambulatory and but preparative to this glorious sanctified solemn Fabrick the City of Jerusalem and the Land of Canaan were only holy relatively and upon collateral accounts the City with reference to the Temple the place of God's residence but the Temple was inherently Holy made so by God's own dedication and descent into it at the first this was the place where day and night God was served without ceasing according to his own ordination and therefore he is said to love it above all the dwelling places of Jacob. Here the long expected Messiah the Son of God Christ himself was brought and all that the Law required performed about â—im in this Sacred House But sure we are the Apostle intended nothing literal about this Mount his drift is wholly spiritual and therefore having premised thus much of the literal typical State of this Mount we must now examine what it means in this place and as it lyes in the comparison and the sense intended seems very obvious by Mount Sion the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God the same thing is intended and this is the meaning ye are come to all that was typified by them and all that was promised on the Churches behalf to them to every Promise made to the Church under those denominations which is no other but the Gospel-state and the blessed Priviledges and Administrations thereof in its fulness and glory the Apostle declares the meaning of these places to be spiritual and neither of private interpretation nor literal signification that the Jews might cease doting upon them in that low and mean sense and might be convinced that the Gospel vertually contains all that was excellent in them Mount Sion as was before said had its value from the Temple that stood upon it and therefore when the Gospel is prophesied of by it 't is said the mountain of the Lord's house shall be exalted on the top of the mountains Now instead of this material Temple every Christian under the Gospel is himself a living Temple of the Holy Ghost a Temple wherein God dwells and all spiritual Worship and Service is continually offered up and the whole Church is one intire living Temple wherein God is always spiritually served so 't is expressed in the 2d of Ephes Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord And he that is arrived at this true Gospel-state and all the glorious Enjoyments of it to have access to the Father through the Son by that one Spirit he is come to the true Mount Sion and the real Temple where God will dwell for ever he abides in the nearest access to God he is capable of and in all those holy and sanctified Qualifications which the Temple signified as it was then the Seat and Center of all the true Worship of God The second thing the Apostle tells the Jews they are come to is the heavenly Jerusalem the City of the living God and although the signification of this is the same with Mount Sion yet it is greatly farthering to the Apostle's design the mention of it that so the Jews might think nothing valuable amongst them was lost but all to be found with great advantage in the profession of the Gospel the whole Religion of that National Church of the Jews being contained in this City and therein vertually comprised the whole state of the Gospel The Catholick Church with great reason and signification under the Gospel every where spread and under no confinement is stiled a City and is called Jerusalem a vast difference there was between coming to that dreadful barren Mount Sinai in the Wilderness of Horeb and the City of the living God Several things are considerable in this City to heighten the comparison taking it to be made either with Mount Sinai or Jerusalem literal 1st The Noble and Honourable Government of this City 'T is governed by the great Charter of the Gospel none have any Rule but the living God himself no Laws are in force here but what come from Christ's own Mouth the Gospel Church is built up and managed as the Temple was which was the soul and glory of this City in every particular by God's own punctual direction and there is his delight there his Soul rests where he is served by Laws of his own composing and enacting 2dly This City is a place of invincible strength and security the Jews knew to their cost the earthly Jerusalem was not so here 's the Mount Sion that cannot be moved the Gates of Hell can never prevail against it 't is sure to remain against all opposition till it be safely taken up into Heaven from whence it came 3dly The Inhabitants of it are all united 't is a City compact together not with carnal and earthly but spiritual Ligaments there is such an union in it as God has chosen and takes pleasure in amidst great variety they have but one Head they all minister under him as fellow-citizens for the good of each other they are all guided and animated by one Spirit and they all tend to one and the same end 4thly 'T is a City of wonderful Beauty the City of the great King the Palace of the living and eternal God as the Psalmist says comprehensively and prophetically of it under the name of Sion Beautiful for scituation is mount Sion the joy of the whole earth this Beauty lyes in the Presence of God and in its Sanctity and in that Image and Superscription of God that it
to accuse calumniate and misrepresent before God so these blessed Angels are constant Spectators and publick Notaries of all the Proceedings of the Church and all the Actings and Sufferings of every Member thereof in order to bear a faithful Witness before God and be a punctual Record thereof at the Day of Judgment And in this sense we are come unto them they are not only present in publick Assemblies but conversant in the Closet of every Saint and take an exact view of all their devout and fervent Addresses unto God upon this account it is that St. Paul tells us that the Apostles by their Preaching and Suffering were a Spectacle to Angels the holy Angels beheld their Spiritual Courage and Conquest with wonderful satisfaction and upon this account it is that St. Paul chargeth Timothy before the Elect Angels to look well to the discharge of his Work and Office because they are Witnesses appointed of God to take punctual notice of his Behaviour therein and the Presence of the Angels is made an Argument by the Holy Ghost for the well-ordering our selves and all our Actions in Church-Assemblies 5thly The Angels as they are God's Officers employed for the guard and security of the Church so they are also for the revenging of his Wrath upon their Enemies so it often was under the Old Testament and so it is under the New and will continue till the end that wretched prophane Herod who added to all his former wickedness to shut up John in Prison and after added to that addition to cut off his Head to please a Dalilah and at last came to make himself his own Idol by taking to himself that glory that should have been ascribed to God at last an Angel smote him and dispatch'd him to his own place by a woful and miserable Catastrophey the Angels stood all ready when our blessed Saviour was led to the Cross to have rescued him upon the least Command this our Saviour himself told the Jews when he was encompass'd with a Roman Guard he could upon request to his Father have more then twelve legions of angels to rescue and assist him which exceeded the number of Men the Romans then had in their whole Army for their Army at that time did not consist of twelve Legions and in the Revelations we find the Angels constantly employed by God as the great Executioners of his Wrath upon the Churches Enemies to the end of the World 6thly We are come to this innumerable company of Angels as to our truest Friends and most faithful Companions for they never leave us till they have brought us home 1st To the rest of our Souls in Heaven for they wait upon every dying Believer to comfort and chear his spirit so soon as ever it hath left the Body and safely to convey it into that Blessed fellowship above and into that glorious place and state of rest called Abraham's Bosom And 2dly They will be assisting and instrumental though it be effected by the mighty Power of God to call and raise the Bodies of the Saints out of their Graves at last when Christ comes to effect the first Resurrection he will be attended with all his Glorious Angels and by their Ministry the Dead in Christ shall rise first the Trumpet that will sound to summon them out of their ashes will be an Angelical sound probably the Voice of the Arch-Angel and when they arise out of the Earth they will together with all the Saints then living be caught up by the Angels and conveyed by them to meet the Lord in the Air the last office the Angels will have to perform and so will ever abide with him Whose heart would not burn within him upon the contemplation of these things that God should be such a lover of Men that the Eternal Son should by his death redeem them his own spirit by his influences come down and dwell in them and all the Angels in Heaven made their Guardians and their whole Ministry and Service employed on their behalf How blessed a condition does the Gospel instate us in above the Law in reference to this particular When Man first fell by sin the Angels became his most avowed Enemies and Executioners of Wrath that went out against him for the Cherubims stood with a flaming Sword to keep the Tree of Life and to shut Man out of Paradise he made his Angels Spirits and at that time his ministers a flame of fire When the Law was given upon Mount Sinai and Man considered only in his natural state the Angels were most dreadful and terrible in their appearance but now under the Gospel Angels and Men by the Blood of the Cross are embodyed into one Fellowship and Society united in and under one head engaged in the same Worship and Service and enjoy a sweet and most endeared communion each with other all which is fully insinuated and intimated by the Apostle in telling the Believing Jews they were come to this innumerable company of angels 4thly The Apostle tells them they are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in Heaven This is an expression of that part of the Catholick Church here upon Earth to which by the Gospel all Believers come and with which they are incorporated and imbodyed two things are intended hereby to shew the preference of the Gospel-state before that of the Legal 1st That instead of the Assembly of all the Males three times a Year at Jerusalem which is called in Scripture the great congregation they are come now to the great Assembly of all the Members of the true Catholick Church amongst Mankind to all the true servants of God both of Jews and Gentiles that any where call upon God in Spirit and Truth and that God would have such a general Assembly and such an universal Church of the first-born throughout all Nations without any farther respect to the Jews or their Church was a secret undiscovered till the Gospel Revelation came 2dly That this assembly consists only of real and true Saints such as have the right of the first born the great inheritance that men are born capable of in this World is the possession of Heaven at last those that obtain that are the eldest sons of this lower World and the first-born amongst Mankind in the Scripture sense and none obtain this inheritance but such as are eternally elected in Christ to it and therefore the Apostle when he names the Church of the first-born adds as explanatory of it whose names are inrolled in Heaven that is in the Lamb's Book of Life in the Roll of God's eternal purposes and councels there they are Registred and not in an Earthly Register as the Jews were this Church of the first-born is called in Scripture the first fruits of the whole Creation unto God and the Lamb they are said to be Heirs to God and Joynt-heirs with Christ they are made Kings and Priests unto God and so have