of understanding and every way accomplished for his fulfilling the will of God in the exercise of the aforesaid Offices He is in Scripture called the Messiah Dan. 9.25 John 1.41 And which is the same by interpretation the Christ. Both those words the Messiah which is an Hebrew and the Christ which is a Greek word signifying in English The Anointed one And so what the Psalm hath The Lord and his Anointed Psal 2.2 The Apostles in Greek in Acts. 4.26 Calls The Lord and his Christ. And because the anointing was a consequent and declaration of Gods choice of such a person to be King or Priest or Prophet therefore the Rulers of the Jews add as an Epethite to the Christ The chosen one of God Luk. 23.35 And all this honour and office was to be put upon him of necessity That he this Son of Man might be Gods Salvation to the ends of the Earth Isa 42.1 6. 49.6 The Saviour of the world John 4.42 The Saviour of all men but especially of them that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 Not only or not so much from temporal and bodily evils and bondages as from Spiritual and Eternal from Sins Matt. 1.21 And from the Wrath of God and curse of the Law and power of Sathan Gal. 3.13 1 Thes 1.10 Heb. 2.14 1 John 3.5 8. As afterward may be more fully considered when we if God grant us to come at it consider the end of this his Exaltation As also That in all this God might be glorified As it is said God hath given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee might bowe of things in Heaven and things on Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue might confess that he is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.10 11. Yea and further so it was behoveful and needful that he should be lifted up to fulfil the Scriptures in which it was fore-prophesied of him that thus he should be Exalted for there he is called The mighty God Isa 9.6 The Immanuel God with us Isa 7.14 And that he should be called forth to the satisfying Gods Justice for us by his death and sufferings is largely shewed Psal 22. Isa 53. And in other places And so it 's said He dyed for our Sins according to the Scriptures And that he was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.3 4. And therefore when he opened the Scriptures to the Disciples and their understandings to understand them He said unto them So it behoved that Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead and that repentance and remission of Sins should be preached in his name Luk. 24.46 47. And so for his Ascention to Gods right hand and sitting there till all his foes be made his foot-stool Psal 110.1 With Act. 2.33 34 35 36. Yea both his sufferings and the glory that followed was fore-signified by his Spirit to the Prophets 1 Pet. 1.10 11. But yet we may not think that it was the Prophets fore-seeing and foreshewing these things that was the proper cause of their being ordered of God to be done no but they therefore fore-saw and fore-shewed them because God had ordered them to be so done and they were so ordered of God 1. Because he loved us and was loth that we should perish As the next verse informs us Where it is said God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son rendring that as the reason why he must be so lifted up Because God so loved us as to give him to be our Saviour therefore accordingly he must be lifted up as God in his love to us had designed him And Gods love led him so to design 2. Because our needs required it we were so fallen and lost by our sins and iniquities that no other way could be sufficient for us to succour and save us But these things being included in the end of his being lifted up viz. That whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life I shall God willing further consider them there Only adding that 3. He must be lifted up as to his glorious Resurrection and Exaltation in Heaven which is most properly the lifting of him up in this sense here spoken of because as God had promised to him that he would uphold him and his right hand should be with him and help and strengthen him and he would give him for a Covenant to the People for a light to the Gentiles And to such glory as is fore-spoken of as foreshewed in the Scriptures of the Prophets So he also deserved all this glory and it would have been unrighteousness to him had he not been lifted up in that manner He was worthy for his being slain for us to receive of God Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing Rev. 5.11 12. And God is a just God and without iniquity He can do no unrighteousness and therefore to be sure none to his only Son whom he called in Righteousness both to his work and service and to this honour and glory in the reward and recompence of it Isa 42.5 6. 53.12 Phil. 2.9 10 11. And thus he was to be and is lifted up really and personally in himself by God his Father acting upon him which was the first way The second follows CHAP. VII Of the second way of lifting him up Viz. By demonstration of him and his glory unto men â—y whom that was and is to be performed and wherein SEcondly he was to be lifted up and must be so in the demonstration of him to men in order to the lifting him up in their hearts and esteems and that was to be and was done 1. Principally of God both Father Son and Holy Spirit 2. Of God his Father and so he was lifted up by him in his bearing testimony to him by commending him unto men as his only begotten Son peculiarly owned and approved of him and this he did diversly as 1. In his audibly witnessing to him from Heaven that he is his well-beloved Son in whom he is well-pleased and whom he would have men to hear And this he did both to the Baptist with visible Testimony also accompanying it as the opening of the Heavens and descent of the holy Ghost upon him in a visible appearance like a Dove As God when he sent John to Baptize had foretold him he should see as a demonstration of the Person of the Son of God and the Saviour of the World Matt. 3.17 John 1.32 33 34. As also to the three Disciples who went up into the holy Mount with him and see him Trans-figured before them as is mentioned in Matt. 17.1 5. Mark 9.2 7. Luk. 9.28 35. And by the Apostle Peter 2 Pet. 1.16 17 18. As also he did bear witness to him when by an audible voice from heaven he said He had both glorified his name and would glorifie
Palaces wherewith they have made him glad Psal 45.8 And we find his Spouse clothed and adorned by him and for him too in Ezek. 10 11 12 13. and in Rev. 19.7 8. But of these things I shall not speak more largely III. We have seen the perfections of man Let us a little as we may view also those of the Angels He is also called the Angel of the Covenant Angel is in English a Messenger and therefore so translated in our later Editions of the Bible in Mal. 3.1 The Angel of Gods presence that saved Israel Isa 63.9 And that redeemed Jacob out of all evil and had power of blessing Gen. 48.16 And surely He is the highest and best Messenger or Angel that was ever sent of God being his only Son Nor can we find any excellency in the Angels in which he doth not out-strip them They are said to excel in strength doing Gods commandments Psal 107.20 but they excel not nor equalize him in either They cannot uphold all things by the Word of their Power as He doth Heb. 1.3 Nor could they stand under the weight of our sins as He did 1 Pet. 2.24 Therefore they give him the preheminence and judge him only Worthy to receive the Power Riches Wisdom and Strength Honour Glory and Blessing Rev. 5.12 Nor do they Gods Commandments like or equally to him who obeyed to the death the Death of the Cross laying down his life at his Fathers commandement and delighting to do his will therein so as to bear and take away our sins by the sacrifice of himself Philip. 2.8 Joh. 10.18 Heb. 9.26 and 10.5 6. Psal 40.48 Joh. 14.31 They are also intelligent and understanding spirits great in knowledge and excellent in speech 1 Cor. 13.1 yet far short of him for God hath found folly in them saith Job 4.18 but Christ is the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 knowing his Father whom none else so knows Matth. 11.27 and grace is poured into his lips so as God hath blessed him for ever Psal 45.2 They are also great in power especially such of them as are called Principalities and Powers Eph. 1.20 21. but not equal with Christ to whom all of them are commanded to give worship He hath obtained a far more excellent name by inheritance then they as may be seen Heb. 1.5 6. to the end They are indeed Spirits but ministring Spirits to him He is the Lord that Spirit the quickning Spirit so as none of them are 2 Cor. 3.16 17. 1 Cor. 15.45 So that in him are all the perfections and more then all the perfections of Creatures Yea CHAP. XXII Secondly That in Christ are all things Answering the Needs of Fallen man all things that pertain both to Life and Godliness AGain he is and in him are all things answering the Needs of his fallen Creatures of Mankind All things pertaining to Life and Godliness and they are given us in the knowledg of him 2 Pet. 1.3 Let us view that in either Branch First All things pertaining to Life he is and are in him for us And that both as 1. Necessary to the Being and Upholding of it not only as by his Death and Sacrifice we are and this Old World for us is upholden so as that we may subsist and Live as it were from Death or the state thereof which we were Obnoxious to under a comfortable Injoyment of a natural Life and Being and have therein opportunities of seeking the Lord Psal 73.3 Acts 17.26 27. But also in reference to a Spiritual life and happy being in and from him And so whereas First It 's necessary to our so Living that we be Begotten from the Dead to live to God he is the Begetter of men thereto the everlasting Father Isa 9.6 Who Begets in his own likenes as Adam did in his but far better Children because Adam Begat none till he was fallen into Sin and Misery whereas Christ Begets as one acquit of sin and raised from Death in and unto Righteousness and Life an holy Seed a blessed off-spring Children of Light and heirs of Life everlasting Yea he is the very Seed of Regeneration as held forth in his Testimony by the holy Spirit the Immortal Seed whereof the Sons of God are Begotten the Word preached in the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.23 24 25. And as he himself is the first Begotten from the Dead so by his Resurrection from the Dead he Begets from Death and quickens to a Lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 with Ephes 2.1 Col. 2.12 John 5.21 25. And this as to the Soul here as he will also by his powerful Voice quicken the Dead in Body to Life again at his Coming being the quickning Spirit John 5.28 29. 1 Cor. 15.45 And in both respects the Resurrection and the Life John 11.25 Yea and he gives Power to others and makes them Instruments to Beget Children to God and to bring them forth for him too as in 1 Cor. 4.15 The Apostle tells the Corinthians he was their Father for in the Gospel he had Begot them yet so as in Christ Jesus there is none can Beget Children to God but in him and his Virtue And as they are the Fruit of the travail of his Soul Isa 53.10 So in and from him others are instrumental Mothers to Travail in Birth with them also Gal. 4.19 2. The Children Born must be Nursed up and he is the prime in Nursing what he Begets and brings forth for he can no more forget them then no nor so much as a Mother her sucking Child Isa 49.14 15. He nourishes them principally though he makes his Servants Instruments of Nursing them up too with the sincere Milk of his Word which he also primarily is as more understandibly discovered to the weak in his heavenly Doctrin 1 Pet. 2.2 Isa 55.13 Heb. 5.13 Yea and he comforts his Children as one whom his Mother comforts Isa 66.13 And surely its by manifesting himself to them that he gives them comfort John 14.16 17 21. And in this Nursing up and causing to live as the living Child must have So 1. He is the Bread and Water of Life John 6.35 and 4.10.14 his Flesh meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed And as the living Child needs clothing So 2. He is the Clothing and Apparrel For he as our Righteousness put on by us in believing on him and his Virtues as adorning us is our Raiment and Ornament too Whence that So many of us as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 And he bids us Buy of him white Raiment that our Nakedness may be covered and that our shame may not appear Rev. 3.18 3. It must have harbour and Lodging And he is the Dwelling-place for his Children in all Generations Psal 90.1 Where is sweet Peace Rest and Safety Psal 4.8 and 91.1 He being a house of Stone a strong habitation to defend and save us from our Enemies Psal 31.4
from henceforth and for ever That he should be Gods first-born higher then the Kings of the Earth Having an everlasting Throne and Kingdom Preaching peace to the Heathen bringing forth Judgment to them and affording glorious rest and blessing to all that trust in him Psal 2.6 12. 89.3 4 19 20 25 26 27. 132.11 17 18. Isa 6.9 10. 11.1 10. 42.1 4. Zech. 9.9.10 That he should be a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck Psal 110.3 And many such excellent and high commendations as may be seen in what he fore-signified to and by the Prophets of his Sufferings and of the Glory that should follow in all the Scriptures 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. With Luk. 24.27 And so the Apostle saith speaking of the perfection of the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ Whereof the holy Ghost is a Witness to us for after he had said before This is the Covenant that I will make with them After those days saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their hearts and in 〈◊〉 minds will I write them He adds And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 10.15 16 17. As it is also said that in ordering the Sanctuary or holy place with the Ordinances of it The holy Ghost this signified that the way into the holy of holies was not yet made manifest while the first Tabernacle was standing Heb. 9.8 In a word Whatever things the holy men of God did foreshew of the coming of the Just One and the things to be found and effected by him they spake not of themselves but as they were moâ—ed thereto by the holy Ghost Whence they who resisted them in their Testimony resisted the holy Ghost 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. 2 Pet. 1.19 20 21. Act. 7.51 52. 2. In preparing and Sanctifying that blessed Body taken by him in which he was made the Son of Man Luk. 1.35 And appearing visibly to Descend and rest upon him in it in the likeness of a Dove as a Sign and signification of his being the Christ Mat. 3.17 John 1.31 32 33. In his anointing filling and working in and by him in all his Doctrine and Miracles assisting and strengthening him in all his temptations sufferings and services Matt. 4.1 Luk. 4.1.14.18 21. Mark 3.29 30. And in his raising and carrying up his body into Heaven For in the Eternal Spirit he offered up himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 Rom. 6.4 But these things were evident some of them but to few Therefore I add that he witnessed to him more openly 3. In his gifting and furnishing the Apostles and Prophets and Servants of God for their work and service in the Gospel and for that purpose miraculously descending upon and working in many of them strengthning and helping them yea doing great Miracles and Signs by them and through their Doctrine and Miracles working upon the World to convince them of sin for not believing on him c. As our Saviour said When the Comforter shall come even the holy Ghost he shall bear witness of me and he shall convince or reprove the World of Sin of Righteousness and of Judgment c. And in that he did Baptise or Wash and Sanctifie the Apostles so preparing and fitting them for their holy Work and Service lead them into all truth glorifie Christ taking of his things and shewing them John 15.26 27. 16.8 9 13 14 15. Act. 1.5 8. 2.2 3 4 17 18. 4.31 And that the holy Ghost that God gave to them that believed on or obeyed Christ was a witness to him and to his glory is said Act. 5 32. And this also was a Testimony from God the Father as it is said God bare them witness by Signs and Wonders and divers Miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost Heb. 2.4 As also the holy Ghost bears witness to the hearts and consciences of men concerning him Rom. 8.15 16. 2 Cor. 3.3 6 8 18. Causing the believing heart to see his glory as in a glass with open face to the changing it into his likeness from glory to glory But this he doth chiefly 4. In his Doctrine and teaching in and by the Gospel in his Revelation of him to and by the Apostles and to the World and Churches gathered out thereof As to them also the Spirit hath said Great and Glorious things as may be seen in those Epistles to the Seven Churches Rev. 2. 3. And thus the Three in Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost bare witness of and to and therein lifted up the Son of Man and so is he lifted up of God and must be fully lifted up at his glorious coming and Kingdom when he shall appear in his own glory and in the glory of his Father and of his holy Angels Luk. 9.26 For the Great God the blessed and holy Potentate who only hath immortality dwelling in the Light which no man can approach unto and which no man hath seen nor can see to whom be honour and power for ever and ever Amen will in his time shew him When he shall come and appear sitting on the right hand of God with Power and great Glory and pâ—ssâ—ss the great and glorious Kingdom which God hath promised to possess him of and to Admâ—nister by him but â—â—sâ—e ms to be beyond what this Text speaks of which speaks of his being lifted up that men might in believing on him not perish but have eternal Life And so of that which is in order of Nature if not also of time before mens believing on him And these particulars chiefly of the Spirits witnessing to him and lifting him up were and are needful and such as must be 1. That he might receive the Glory promised For God said that he would glorifie him Isa 49.7 55.5 And God cannot lye Yea he hath sworn by his holiness that he will not lye unto David his Seed shall endure for ever and his Throne as the Sun which is all glorious bright and lightsome before him Psal 89.35 36. Yea and 2. That men might run unto him and believe on him As it is said Kings shall see and arise Princes shall also worship him because of the Lord that is faithful and he shall chuse thee Isa 49.7 And thou shalt call a Nation whom thou knewest not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel for he hath glorified thee Isa 55 5. But unto this it was and is needful also that he be lifted up 2. Subordinately by Creatures and here we might consider 1. The holy Angels they have lifted him up in their honourable Testimony of him as the Son of Man The Word made Flesh They having also seen this Mystery and peeped down curiously to pry into it 1. Tim. 3.16 1 Pet. 1.12 And they have brought down honourable messages and discoveries concerning him He being as the Son of Man the Ladder
all sins and trespasses through the virtue of his most precious Blood Acts 3.19 Mat. 25.35 36 46. And thus being preserved and saved by him they shall not perish from the way nor in the end but shall have Eternal Life of which we have nextly to consider CHAP XIV Of the second Branch of the fifth observation what Eternal Life is and how the believer on Christ shall have it Qu. 3 THe third Query to be considered under this Observation is what that Eternal Life is which the believer on the Son of man shall have To which I answer briefly that 1. It 's not this natural life for that with all its enjoyments must and will have an end and its good to mind that and the shortness and hiddenness of the time of it and the hiddenness and oft times suddenness of the coming of death that we may not trust to this life or rest in any of its enjoyments but be moved more diligently to seek after and lay hold of that which is indeed Eternal life concerning which I may add that 2. It 's more and hath more in it then can be now either fully expressed or conceived only some hints of it we have in the Scriptures and according to them we may understand something thereof and so we find that it is variously set forth and spoken of in the Scriptures as sometimes 1. By the causes of it or that from whence it springs and issues and so 1. Jesus Christ himself is called Eternal Life the life of the believer when Christ who is our life shall appear Col. 3.4 I am the Way the Truth and the life Joh. 14.6 The bread of life that he that eats shall live by and shall live for ever Joh. 6 51. The resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 Yea expresly that Eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us 1 Joh. 1.2 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding heart to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus christ this is the true God and Eternal life 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And its true to say That he that believeth on the Son of man shall have him as in Heb. 3.14 Now are we partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our Confidence stedfast to the end we have and shall have him here with us and for us I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 6.3 And he saith I will be with thee I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Deut. 31.6 8. Josh 1.5 with Heb. 13.5 And we shall have him for ever with us and be ever with him in the new Heavens and new Earth and new Jerusalem in the world to come Rev. 21.3 4. with 1 Thes 4.16 17. 2. The favour of God in Christ is life In thy favour is life Psal 30.5 And this he shall have that believeth on Christ the Son of man He that finds him who is the wisdom of God finds life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Prov. 8.34 And this is such a life as nothing can happen to the believer on him that can extinguish it or prevail against it I am perswaded neither Life nor Death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.38 39. That we believing on him should not be failed by him or deprived of his favour to us that 's without all peradventure included in it 3. The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is Eternal life This is life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 And this they who believe on the Son of man shall have for they shall receive the holy Spirit the Spirit of the Father and of the Son that shall teach them all things so as they shall not in the issue need to say one to another Know the Lord for they shall know him from the least to the greatest as is expresly promised in the Covenant or New Testament whereof Jesus Christ is the Mediator and which he hath undertaken to see performed to them that believe on him and depart not from him See Joh. 7.38 39 14.26 16.13 with Heb. 8.11 2. Sometime for the effect of Christ and of the knowledge and favour of God both as enjoyable here through faith and as enjoyable hereafter in the full fruition when those that see now darkly through a Glass stall see as they are seen and know as they are known 1 Cor. 13.12 And that effect is the living joyful happy state of the Soul and so of the whole man for ever as it is said He shall live for ever and he shall never die Joh. 6.51 58. and 11.25 26. Which is spoken of the Spiritual and Heavenly life or state of the Soul here and hereafter joyful and happy never to have end but especially of the state both of the body soul together hereafter and it includes and contains in it both 1. A continual living in a state of forgiveness and acceptance with God which is a truly joyful and happy state in which the Soul hath cause of real joy and gladness as it is said Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Psal 32.1 2. Blessed is the man who knows the joyful sound Psal 89.15 And happy is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his help c. Psal 146.5 6. A state in which the Soul is passed from death to life and shall not come into condemnation Joh. 5.24 2. A continual in dwelling of the the Spirit of Life as a Spring of Spiritual Life and motion toward God and for him even the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of life and the operation and efficacy of him in the Soul though not always sensibly felt here as it is said He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him it stall be in him a Spring of living waters springing up in him unto Etetnal life Joh 4.14 So as this Spring shall never fail him that believeth going on and continuing to believe on the Son of man 3. A continual state of safety from all evil so as to its being destructive or hurtful to the Soul or in due time affective and a state of Title to and Interest in yea and injoyment of all that is good in a first-fruits and by Spirit here and fully and actually and for ever hereafter there shall no evil happen to the just Prov. 12.21 All things are the believers 1 Cor 3.21 And all things shall work together for his good Rom. 8.28 Psal 25.10 The Lord God is a Son and a Shield and he will give grace and glory and
all the goodliness of man is like the Flower of the Grass the Grass withereth and the Flower fadeth but the Word of the Lord even that word that in the Gospel is Preached to us the Word made Flesh abideth for ever That we might only look to and believe on him Isa 41.29 with 42.1 2 3 4 8. and 40.6 7. Acts 4.10 11 12 1 Pet. 1.24 25. 11. With this Doctrine and Exaltation of the Son of man therein is also the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit whose Word it is and whose work and business it is to Lift up this Standard in and by all Means and Mediums for Working and Begetting Confirming and Strengthening Increasing and Giving growth to this Faith or Belief on the Son of man He I say is present in and with it to make it Powerful and Effectual to in and upon the Heart of the Hearer that in hearing he might believe and live That he in hearing opening the Mouth to take in this Word of Faith he might strengthen and cause the Soul to Eat and feed upon Christ held forth therein EZek. 3.1 2. Whence it is called The Ministration of the Spirit and the Words of Christ said to be Spirit and Life because of the Spirit Ministred therein and there-with which Spirit quickneth and giveth Life whence also it is a Ministration of Righteousness and Life 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. John 6.63 The Spirit is Ministred not in the works of the Law but by the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 In the lifting up of the Son of man or report given in the Gospel of and concerning him is the Arm of the Lord revealed Isa 53.1 And this Spirit being the Arm of the Lord must needs be powerful for all that it is given or put forth to either for begetting preserving strengthening or increasing this Faith or believing on the Son of man Whence it is also called the Spirit of Faith We having the same spirit of Faith we also believe and therefore we speak knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up by him 2 Cor. 4.13 14. And God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power and Love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 As implying that it is the Effect and Fruit of the holy Spirit working in and received by men that they believe and stand strongly and stedfastly in the Faith though under Temptations and Oppositions to the contrary Whence it also follows as a further Conclusion Conclusion 4. That the lifting up of the Son of man in the sense aforesaid viz. the Magnifying and Exalting him in the view of men is the proper and effectual means though not for putting any thing into Christ for us more then God hath put into him and upon him in his real Exalting and Lifting him up in his Person for in that respect he is compleat and perfect before the Preaching and Testifying of him The preparation for the poor was perfect before God gave the word and raised up the multitude of Preachers Psal 68.10 11. Even as the Serpent was perfect in it self as to what Moses was to make it before he set it up on the Pole Yet for the conveying Grace and Blessing to men and putting his Salvation and Life Eternal into them This in part was spoken to and its truth shewed in what was said above to the way of Christs saving the Believer from perishing from the way And in what we said of the Believers receiving and having Eternal life yet something we shall further here note And so I say this way of Exalting though it puts nothing into Christ but only ascribes and attributes to him what is in him yet it brings something into men even of Gods salvation to preserve them from perishing from the way of Life and Righteousness and so from the second Death in the Conclusion and of the Eternal life that is given us in him And this may be further Evidenced and Confirmed from the Titles given to the Gospel as that it s called the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 The Gospel of Peace Ephes 6.15 The Gospel of our Salvation Ephes 1.13 The Word of Life Phil. 2.16 The Word of Righteousness Heb. 5.13 Yea The Words of Eternal life John 6.68 Which Names are given to it not only because it declares what God hath done in Christ for Reconciling us to himself and making Peace Or what Peace and Peaceableness is in the Heart of God towards us or what salvation righteousness and life are given us in him but also because it is it self the way Medium or power of God for reconciling the hearts of men to himself and creating peace in them Isa 57.17 and of saving quickning and giving life Num. 1.16 James 1.21 1 Cor. 15.2 Psal 119.93 Isa 55.3 c. Let us view the effects and fruits produced thereby in Men. 1. Therein and thereby Christ gives forth his voice and divine light to declare and discover to Men where and what they are what case and state they are in and where their safety lies and which way they may attain it Yea what not that may be useful for Men to see and know for saving them from the powers of darkness and what ignorance and error expose them to Thus as Christ is called the Light of the World so his word that declares and lifts him up is a light too a light to our feet and a lanthorn to our steps Psal 119.105 Whatsoever makes manifest is light Eph. 5.13 and this word manifests God and Christ Sin and Righteousness Life and Death and all things and therein also is the voice of God and Christ calling to us to awaken and stand up from the dead that Christ may give us light that so our feet may be directed into the ways of peace Ephes 5.13 14. yea this makes the Preachers of and walkers in it Lights too to Men as the Baptist who bare witness to Christ as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World and lifted him up as the true light the Christ preferring him before him as one who was before him was therein a burning and a shining light Joh. 1.6 7 8 9 28 29. 5.32 33. And the Apostles whose work it was to witness to and preach forth Christ and his excellencies were called the light of the World and were sent forth to open mens eyes by their word and turn them from darkness to light Matth. 5.16 Act. 26.18 For with this voice and light in the exalting of Christ is given forth 2. A certain divine force power and operation of and by the spirit to inliven quicken and so indue the hearer and receiver thereof with a capacity 1. Of seeing and discerning the light and hearing the voice of the Lord discovering and directing into the way of peace and safety and so saving from the way of errour and deceit that leades to destruction thence the light of Christ which he gives
them who through the lifting up of him are begotten to believe on his name and therewith also the spirit of adoption framing it to child-like love reverence confidence and boldness to cry Abba Father Joh 1.12 13. Gal. 3.26 27 28 29. 4.4 5. Rom. 8.15 16. and his Children find a place of refuge in him Prov. 14.26 And in this also Christ is made to the Soul redemption and in a sense sanctification as to sanctify signifies to devote to God to be in a choice relation to him 1 Cor. 1.30 5. By begetting in the heart a lively hope of glory and of the glorious inheritance which he doth through the lifting up of Christ as one raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 5.2 3. 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Rom. 15.13 and we are saved by hope as by an anchor sure and stedfast keeping the Soul from being blown away and dasht upon and split against the Rocks Rom. 8.24 25. Heb. 6.19 20. from and with which hope also is effected joy in the Holy Ghost in which the heart is saved through this lifting up of the Son of Man from its fears and griefs also Rom. 52 3. We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we rejoyce also in tribulation yea we joy also in God through Jesus Christ our Lord by whom we have received the atonement Rom. 5.3 11. 6. Yea upon any loss or decay of these things the holy spirit in the lifting up of the Son of Man drawing the eye from its idols and iniquities to which it was wandered to behold and believe on him again restores the Soul and renews his pardoning and justifying acts with renewed peace and other gracious effects and so He I. Saves the Soul from perishing in a threefold way 1. In pulling it out and delivering it from its sinful fearful perishing estate at the first turning of it in to God and Christ to believe on him Tit. 3.4 5. 2. In keeping it from falling back again into Sin and Guilt and Disquiet in preserving it in believing As we shewed largely in Branch 2. Rom. 1.16 3. In recovering it from Falls and Lapses and Restoring it again as by this way he recalled the Angel of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.4 5. And the Angel of the Church of Sardis from his Spiritual deadness by remembring how he had Received and Heard Rev. 3.2 3 Yea and the Angel of the Church of Laodicea is called from his Lukewarm state by the proposal of Christ before him and the good things in him ver 14.15 16 17 18 20. Yea and herein also he II. Gives Eternal Life In that 1. He hereby imparts the Spirit of Life as is forenoted with the Fruits and Operations of it in newness of Life as Righteousness Peace Holiness Hope and Joy in the Holy Ghost Yea all the Fruits of the holy Spirit in which he manifests his presence and in which the virtues of the Divine and holy Nature are evidenced are effected or infused in and by his glorifying Christ and leading the Soul in to him as Love Joy Peace Patience Meekness Temperance c. Gal. 5.22 23. 2 Pet. 1 5 6 7. with John 16.13.14 15. Yea here-through 2. Christ who is Eternal Life it self liveth in the soul and dwells in it even by this Faith in which he the Son of man is lifted up Gal. 2.20 Ephes 3.16 17. And 3. Inasmuch as Eternal life stands in and springs from the knowledg of God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ as is said John 17.3 And God is not known clearly but by and in Jesus Christ the Image of his invisible Majesty and brightness of his Glory And he is known in and by his being Lifted up Discovered and Commended of God to us by his holy Spirit in his Testimony It follows that Eternal life is herein given also in a first Fruits of it here as the soul is also hereby Built up to the Inheritance Acts 20.32 4. Yea surely and the fulness of Eternal life it self as it is to be possessed in Soul and Body hereafter in the Kingdom to come what is it but the influence and effect of Christs being fully and perfectly Lifted up by way of discovery of him and his Glory in his personal appearing when he who is the only Potentate who dwells in the Light which no man hath seen or can see shall manifest him 1 Tim. 6.15 16. When he appears we shall be like him perfectly like him for we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 And that Lifting him up and Appearance in his Glory shall probably be accompanied with the greatest Conversions a Nation born in a day Isa 66.6 Zech. 12.10 11. and the perfectest Salvation But that is a distinct way of discovery of him from what is afforded in this day Of how great Necessity Excellency and Usefulness then is the Lifting up of the Son of man in this consideration also and so in both of them both as lifted up of God in himself and with God himself and as lifted up of God and his holy Spirit in and through the Ministration of the Gospel to and by men Both that they may believe and to them that do believe on him that they may still believe and be saved And so that the Son of man must be lifted up and how and why he must be so lifted up is sufficiently shewed Though who can sufficiently lift him up Let us now view what use we may make of this also CHAP. XX. The Application First by way of Instruction from the last Conclusions shewing the excellency and glory of the Gospel with divers inferences there-from ANd first with reference to the last Conclusions about the necessity behoof-fulness and fulness of the Son of Mans being lifted up by way of demonstration and commendation of him to Men forasmuch as the Gospel is that Doctrine in which He is of God and his Holy Spirit and Servants so lifted up it tends to commend greatly the Gospel and its ministry to us as a marvailous Doctrine and of exceeding worth and benefit worthy to be received with all acceptation 1 Tim. 1.15 Well might the Apostles call it the marvailous light of God as that phrase in 1 Pet. 2.9 may be applyed thereto and the glorious Gospel or Gospel of the glory of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 forasmuch as therein such glorious and excellent things are discovered no other Doctrine could or ever did discover the like seeing the glorious Son of God who is the glory even the brightness of the glory of God the King and Lord of glory is herein set forth and lifted up both as to his Person the glorious things undertook and performed by him in his Life and Death and Resurrection therefrom the glory given to and received by him as a reward of his said glorious undertakings and performances and the glory in which he shall appear again at his return And herein
they might none of them ascend upon the Cherubims and sit down upon the Throne of God no it would have been high Arrogance and Luciferian pride and presumption to have assumed that place which was proper and peculiar to God alone The Priests or high Priests under the Law might not fit at all in the Temple but always stood and Ministred Heb. 10.11 much less on that Seat of God Only the Antichrist under the Gospel-times the man of sin presumes to seâ— himself in the Temple of God and likes to be worshipped as if he were God and exalts hâ—mself above all that is called God or that is worshipped He only of all that we read of dares to assume that Power and Place 2 Thes 2.4 A Wickedness the worst of the High-priests under the Law durst not presume to commit for this Place was reserved peculiarly to Christ Gods High-Priest Who having offered one Sacrifice once for all is set down on the Right-hand of God or of Power even on the Throne of Majesty in the highest Heb. 10.12 13. 1.3 8.1 12.2 The Father fully possessing him and putting on him all his own Power and Glory so as he the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to him the Son that all men might honour the Son even as they honour the Father that hath sent him John 5.22 23. So as That he that believeth on the Son believeth not on him but on him that sent him and he that seeth him seeth him that sent him John 12.44 45. And so we have an Object to worship even the same to whom all the Gods or Angels of God are commanded to do honour Worship him all ye Gods Psal 97.7 Heb. 1.6 Him we may Worship without Idolatry against God nay it 's rebellion against God and a refusing to Worship God not to Worship him for God is in him and he is God And therefore 1. We are Baptized into his Name and therein stand ingaged to Believe Depend on and Worship him yea the Father Son and Holy Ghost have but one and the same Name Mat. 28.19 And are one 1 John 5.7 2. The Apostles therefore joyn the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father in saluting the Churches Grace and Peace or Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and to him also together with the Father and the holy Spirit they commend them 2 Cor. 1.2 and 13.14 2 Tim. 1.2 and 4.22 And well they may For First The Father and all his fulness is in him Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me saith he to Philip John 14.9 10. The Wisdom Holiness Grace and Glory yea and all the Power of the Father is in and on him And therefore also Secondly The Works of God are attributed to him As the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth whom he will so the Son quickneth whom he will And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself and he hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of man John 5.21.26 27. Yea he is the Creator and Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth Visible and Invisible Col. 1.16 And the Upholder of all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.3 For he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1.17 Is God the Repairer and Redeemer of his Creature He is so by Christ the great Repairer of the Breaches and Restorer of the Paths to dwell in the Ransome and Redeemer from Sin Death Hell Devil and Destruction 1 Tim. 2.6 Tit. 2.14 Gal. 1.4 and 3.13 and 4.4 5. The Father worketh hitherto in the works of Providence and he worketh also John 5.17 Yea what is said of Jehovah the Lord in that respect in Psal 146 6 10. is applicable to him as was above noted For he feeds the hungry with himself The Bread that he gives being bis flesh which he hath given for the Life of the World As he opened the eyes of the bodily Blind in the days of his flesh so he Preacheth the opening of the eyes to them that are spiritually blind Luke 4 18 19 And the Opening of the Prison to those that are bound raiseth up the bowed in Spirit loveth his Disciples as the Father loveth him John 15 9 Receiveth and Preserveth them that were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel and makes them fellow Citizens with the Saints Yea What things the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise John 5.19 Yea Thirdly He is what ever God is He and the Father is one one thing John 10.30 And he hath all that the Father hath For the Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hands John 16.15 Fourthly The attributes of God are ascribed to him as Eternity He is that Eternal life that was with the Father and is manifested unto us 1 John 1.1 2. And he in the beginning laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of his hands and when they perish yet he endures and his Years fail not nor have an end Immutability for he is the same and alters not yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 1.10 11 12. and 13.7 Omnipotency for he upholds all things by the word of his Power Heb 1.3 The Alpha and the Omega the first and the last he that was and is and is to come the Almighty Rev. 1.8 Omnisciency Now know we that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man ask thee any thing c. John 16.30 He knew all men and needed not that any man should testifie of what is in man for he knew what is in man John 2.24 25. All things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.12 13 Ubiquity or Omnipresence Where two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Yea Is God the Law-giver So is he Isa 42 4. The Isles shall wait for his Law Is God the Judg So is he Judg of Quick and Dead Acts 10.42 Is God the King So is he King of all the Earth Psal 47.2 3. Yea he is All and in all in the New Creature Col. 3.11 Again as for Spirit to Enlighten Quicken and Inable us to Worship acceptably The holy Spirit in the fulness thereof dwells in and rests upon him The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 And with him and by him he Inlightens Quickens Teaches and so fits for Worshipping God creates a clean Heart renews a right Spirit raises from spiritual death to spiritual life and so to Worship and serve God in the Spirit which Service he makes acceptable and he by that Spirit will raise the Body from the Dead and fashion it into the likeness of his
THE BRAZEN SERPENT OR GOD'S Grand Design VIZ. CHRIST'S Exaltation for MAN'S Salvation in his believing on Him OR The Right Way to Regeneration and therethrough to the Heavenly and Eternal Kingdom Discovered by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for our sure Direction therein Considered Opened and Applyed with a double Excursion touching the Glory and Excellency 1. Of the Gospel of Christ 2. Of Christ Himself By J. HORN an Unworthy Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ and sometimes Minister of Lin Allhallows in Norfolk Isa 52.13 Behold my Servant shall deal prudently or shall prosper He shall be exalted extolled and be very high As many were astonied at thee his visage was so marred more than any Man and his form more than the Sons of Men so shall He sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at Him c. Isa 55.5 Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel for He hath glorified thee Psal 99.10 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his Foot-stool for He is holy Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Respiciamus nos in faciem serpentis aenci elevati Christi si volumus à pravorum Daemonum suggestionibus serpentinis liberari respicere autem est fide in ipsum tendere Bern. de pass Dominica LONDON Printed for Benjamin Southwood at the Star near to Serjeants Inn in Chancery-Lane 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Gentle Reader LO Here I present thee with what as to the matter treated of is a most needful and excellent Subject worthy thy most serious consideration the Grand Design of the God of Glory the Devise that He in his Infinite wisdome and goodness devised for our recovery from sin and misery and for reducing and bringing us back to life and safety the product and birth of his eternal purposes and most deep counsels for our welfare and happiness A Subject never sufficiently looked upon never throughly enough seen into while we can see but with mortal eyes and imperfect understandings the great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen yea very intensively pryed into 1 Pet. 1.12 of Angels preached to us Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3.16 The great Catholicon the Soveraign and Vniversal Remedy for all our spiritual distempers and diseases the supply of all our wants the support of us in all our weaknesses temptations and troubles the instructer and helper of us in and unto all our services the stay of us in this life in and under all its various vicissitudes and changes the joy and comfort of our hearts in Death the Raiser and Resurrection both of our Souls to lively hope and comfort when oppressed with griefs and cast down with sadness and also of our Bodies to immortality and Eternal happiness in a word the spring original and fountain of all our felicity the great subject of the Doctrine both of the holy Prophets and of the holy Apostles the substance and body of all the types and shadows in the Law of Moses the accomplishment and fulfilling of Predictions and Prophecies and the ground and end of all our future hopes and expectations Such I say not is this Treatise but the subject treated of and directed to herein for it is no other than Christ himself and Him crucified and through sufferings and death raised up again and glorified Glorified of God for thee in his own glorious actings in and upon Him and glorified of God to thee by the spirit of God in his word and testimony glorified both ways to save and deliver thee from the stings of the old Serpent and to bring thee to glory A Subject which who can sufficiently treat of for who can shew forth all his marvailous acts who can set forth all his praises Psal 106.2 A Subject much too great for my imbecillity and stupidity too deep and high and large and long for my narrow head and heart to reach its dimensions so as to handle it and set it forth worthily A Subject in my reception of it into and conception of this Discourse about it in my mind and earnestness of my heart to draw it out and incorporate it in this body and give it these lines and lineaments so pleasing to me or perhaps rather my exercise therein that it drew me on with so eager an intention and rapid a motion as indangered my miscarrying of it before its perfection for I received in my self in a manner the sentence of Death before I had finished it till God renewing my strength beyond my expectation and confidence it attained to this Period God therein both shewing me my weakness and perhaps also chastening my unworthiness and unmeetness for such an undertaking and my darkning wisdome so much by words without knowledge and so slenderly and slovenly handling so excellent a subject both therein and since in its sticking so long and coming out at length with so many Errata's in its impression and yet also shewing his great power and goodness in what I received of him for my reviving I confess I had some eye in it upon a good and gracious Woman who had met with some exercise in the death of her only Son and intended she should have had one of the first rights of it as for comforting her also I put in some expressions respecting that her tryal in some part of its application but the Lord pleased to put an end to her days also before it could arrive at her and be perused by her He designing to comfort and satisfy her spirit I trust with another and far perfecter sight of the glory of this blessed Son of man here treated of then this so weak a discourse could have given her of him I trust its conception was not altogether without the Holy Ghost though as it was imbodyed in and by me I cannot but see and acknowledge its too great likeness to me in imperfection It is a rule in Philosophy that Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Whatsoever is received of another is received after the manner or measure of the receiver We cannot expect that a Bucket can contain the Ocean and the purest Wine received in a fusty Cask will somewhat tast of it The Eternal Word as conceived in the Virgins Womb was made partaker of her Flesh and as therein brought forth by her appeared a weak and little one not according to the Immensity and Infinity of the Word but in such small and finite dimensions as agreed to the humane nature and the narrowness of her Womb in which it was formed and therefore He was capable of being wrapt in swadling cloths and laid in a Manger and afterward of being taken up in old Simeon's armes and of growing in stature in wisdome and in favour both with God
and man Luc. 2.7 28 52. Yea and though through the operation of the Holy Ghost He was conceived and brought forth without any stain of sin in his Flesh yet He was born with a fore-skin thereon so as He was capable of receiving Circumcision as well in afterward He passed through Baptisme and that too not only of Water but also of fire or afflictions in manifold sorrows sufferings and Death not otherwise agreeable to the Divine and Almighty Word which yet was so made and manifest in that Flesh as to render those sufferings and that Death a full and all-sufficient Sacrifice and expiation for the sins of the World Yea that Heavenly Word in and through the Flesh so spake and so wrought as to procure and to produce the good of men not only in the instructing and healing them as there was need and He judged them meet or worthy thereof and they worthily complyed therewith but also so as to the Eternal salvation of all that duly entertain'd Him And me thinks there is a great analogy and resemblance between the conception and incarnation of that blessed Word and its manifestation in the Flesh and the Conception of Divine truth in the mind of man and its manifestation in word or writing though there is and may be much disagreement also therein Verily the truth of God cannot be comprehended in its fulness in and by the narrow finite mind of mortal man as well the truth of God as the peace of God doubtless passeth all understanding at least while mortal and till if that may be though a perfect union with it it 's advanced to its Divine and Inconceiveable largeness nor can what is there conceived and thence emitted or brought forth but he bounded by the model of the mind that receives and emits it and pertake in its expression of somewhat of its infirmities Yea oft-times it receives some mixtures of Sinfulness Ignorance and Mistakes or other Distempers from it in its being conceived worded or writ at least such coverings and superfluities as render a Circumcision by the Spirit of understanding or an understanding Spirit or a Baptism or Cleansing from the defilements mixed with it and a Remission of the sinfulness therein at the hands of God needful for it in which it differs from the word Incarnate of the Virgin for from her he received nothing of sin and therefore neither needed Circumcision nor Baptism for Remission of sins to admit him into Covenant and Acceptance with God Though both Circumcision and Baptism he received that he might fulfil all Righteousness But the Divine Testimony received into the sanctified Minds and expressed in the Preachings and Writings of the Holy Men of God the Apostles and Prophets bare and beareth a far fuller Analogy thereto then as in any other men it contracted nothing of sinfulness or uncleanness to it self as received and given forth by them from their receit of it or giving it forth And therefore in all the Prophecyings of other men though not to be despised we are to try all things and hold fast that that is good To try them not by comparing them with or bringing them to the Sayings Traditions reputedly Orthodox Doctrines Frames Systimes or Composure of other men of what ever party no though of the straitest Sect of Religion among a professed people of God but even their Sayings Traditions Doctrines Frames Systimes or Composures are all and every of them to be tried and judged of by the words and sayings of the holy Apostles and Prophets and wherein soever any of theirs or any mans Doctrine or Sayings disagree there-with they may and ought to be rejected of us But their Sayings are in all things to be Reverenced and Received without doubt or suspition as the Sayings of God as indeed they are though uttered and given forth by men And even as Christ though as Born of a Woman and as to his Flesh partaking of mans Infirmity yet had in him for all that even in that state the Power and Force of the Eternal Word so as that to them that received him he give heavenly Light Life Vnderstanding Strength and Freedom yea the Power and Priviledg to be the Sons of God even to them who believed on his Name And though his Flesh and Body might suffer Pain and be Abused and Crucified as indeed it was Yet his Deity or the blessed Word was not thereby impaired even so the Truth of God received and conceived in a pure Mind and good Conscience as in the holy Apostles and Prophets it most certainly and clearly was and thence brought forth to Light by Word or Writing with which it 's Clothed and as it were Imbodied though its form appearing according to the Model of the mind that conceives it and the Letter or Speech in which it is expressed may seem rude and plain as the Apostle Pauls Speech was by some said to be contemptible 2 Cor. 10.10 yea and may be exposed to diverse injuries or abuses Yet the Divine and Heavenly truth though in that Dress retains its Divine Nature and Worth True it is that its force towards others may by such Injuries be less apparent and they may therefore more slight and disregard it as Christ also by reason of his suffering Reproaches and Abuses was more slighted by many But yet where indeed minded and Imbraced it produceth singular and Divine effects in their Hearts and Lives by virtue of that Divine Nature and Spirit that is in and with it So as to Inlighten Instruct Reprove Convert Comfort Cleanse Sanctifie and Save them yea make them the Sons of God and in some measure like to God and in the end Blessed and Happy as on the other hand to those that Reject or Abuse it it occasions the greater Judgment and heavier Condemnation and so doth Christ also to them that stumble at and reject Him and his Government Wherefore the Heavenly Truth is not to be Judged by or Valued according to its outward Dress and Clothing nor according to the Man and his Meanness through whom it comes and in and by whom it is as it were Imbodied But it is to be received according to its Divine Original and to be made much of according to its excellent Virtues and Effects though no mans Saying or Writing is further the Truth of God and Divine then it is of God and is purely emitted from a pure Mind Thou must apply this Analogy fully and properly as is said to the Word and Preaching of the holy Apostles and Prophets and to other Mens only so far as one with and agreeable thereto and so far thou mayst apply it to this Discourse presented here to thee Christ lifted up as the Brazen Serpent was by Moses in the Wilderness is of only and unspeakable Vsefulness and Virtue for the saving the Souls of those that View and Believe on him from Sin and Destruction And for fitting them by Regeneration for and Advancing them by his Divine
he would be yet but Flesh weak sinful and corrupt and that is indeed the reason why its necessary that we be born again or from above of Water that may wash and cleanse away our filth and of Spirit that may infuse a spiritual life force or power into us namely because what is born of the Flesh is Flesh Whether we understand it of the first birth which is of the Flesh or of any change or alteration that we can work in and upon our selves by any wisdom will or strength of the Flesh in any observations of outward Ordinances of the law or much more in devised traditions or precepts of men all that is so begotten and born is but Flesh corrupt weak and sinful But that which is born of the Spirit the new man the renewed mind judgment and heart that is Spirit that is clean holy lasting c. Now whereas Nicodemus marvailed at this as being a Doctrine he had not been before instructed into our Lord therefore adds Marvail not that I said unto thee ye must be born again or from above The wind bloweth where it listeth or the Spirit breatheth where he pleaseth and thou hearest the sound of it but thou knowest not whence it cometh nor whither it So is every one that is born of the Spirit There are hidden and strange secrets in the works of God that fall under our senses which pass our skill how much more are there wonderful things in the spiritual effects and products of the grace and spirit of God which the natural man cannot comprehend As in Eccles 11.5 As thou knowest not the way of the Spirit or of the Wind nor how the bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with child so thou knowest not the works of God who is the maker of all things But in this every one that is begot or born of the Spirit and thereby is made spiritual is like to the Wind that the Natural man may hear his speech perceive a sound find a force and power in his confessing and breathing forth the truth but whence that virtue was received or whence he was born and brought to it and whether he and it tends What is his Original and End the natural man perceives not as is said 1 Cor. 2.14 Nicodemus still being lost in his understanding and not able to conceive those mysteries marvailes at them and replies How can these things be or be done To whom our Saviour answers by way of reproof to his dulness and ignorance Art thou a Master or a Teacher of Israel and knowest not these things as signifying that those that are teachers of others and chiefly in and of Israel the Church of God should be well taught and of good understanding in the mysteries of God themselves and especially of those things that pertain so to Gods Kingdom as to be necessary to their admission thereunto and enjoyment thereof and that for such to be ignorant of and unacquainted with such things is a matter of great shame and blame to them and thence he takes occasion to shew the difference between such masters in Israel and himself and his servants the Teachers sent of God Verily verily I say unto thee what we know we speak and testifie what we have seen and no man receiveth our testimony Wherein our Saviour also further intimates and inculcates upon Nicodemus the weightiness and certainty of the Doctrine he taught him about this Regeneration that he might not doubt of it though generally over-looked and not received by men men are apt to please themselves in other matters far short of this spending their time and strength in disputing debating pressing and entertaining discourses about more light and impertinent things about the out-side and form of Religion The Tithing mint cummin and annise neglecting the weighty things concerning Judgment Faith and the Love of God As our Saviour elsewhere faults the Pharisees Luk. 11.42 Mat. 23.23 Busying themselves in cutting and lopping off some superfluous branches of sin while they let the root the heart-blindness ignorance and unbelief of God and his Grace and the rejections of that alone and so under pretences and formes of religion and godliness about which they wrangle they let go or deny the Power life and heart of it Paint and gild over rotten Posts and Pictures and Images of Men destitute of the true Life and Power of God in them The Pharisees could contest about Purifications outward Washings Sacrificings observations of Sabbaths and other times and places of Worship and such like Ceremonies and great zeal they had to bring men to be of their mind and way in such things pretending to and perswading them that that way they should be fit for Gods Kingdom But our Saviour who knew all things perfectly is for the bottom and ground-work of all right and acceptable Religion He knew and taught and spake what he knew that it was in vain to endeavour to make the fruit good while the Tree that should produce it abides naught and corrupt He bids therefore first make the Tree good and then the fruit good because a good Tree cannot bring forth bad fruit nor a corrupt Tree good fruit Instead then of doting about questions and strifes of words and outside Ceremonies and shews or works of Righteousness of our own after the Law which can never make us good or fit us for the Kingdom of God he would have us look to the main to be made new Creatures That is so to know and mind the grace of God in Christ which he after unfolds in the verses I have pitched upon and some that follow them that our hearts may there-through be renewed to love and trust in him and worship God in and by him in Spirit and Truth otherwise let their birth be what it will their Circumcision never so exactly according to the Letter of the Law their Baptisms Washings and Purifications never so many or diligently made their Sacrifices never so costly their Fasts never so frequent their Prayers never so long or fervent their outward walkings among men never so blameless and circumspect yet without a new Heart and Spirit made so by the grace of God discerned and imbraced and his Spirit there-through in his operations and efficacies complied with all would avail nothing to the injoyment of Gods Kingdom And this is very needful to be minded by us and the truth and certainty hereof inculcated and Christ and his holy Servants to be listned to in it as Teachers that knew and were certain of what they taught and not the blind followed that grope at things as in the dark and who while they would be teachers of the Law know not what they say nor whereof they affirm Who as the Prophet Isaiah saith Lay out money for that which is not bread and their labour and strength for that which satisfieth not Isa 55.2 Doteing about questions and strifes of words of which come contentions and perverse disputes
lips shall be right things c. Prov. 8.1 2 6. And having said Her delights are with the Sons of men She adds Now therefore ye Children hearken unto me blessed are they that keep my words ver 31 32. Any of mans nature during the day of grace and patience may in listning to and obeying his Councels expect and hope for succour and blessing from this excellent person he being the Son of Man indefinitely considered yea and such a Son as hath also the relation of a Father Brother Friend to us and not of this or that man only That 's a Second Reason Reason 3. A Third may be this that he stiles himself not only a Son of Man For so any of us may do we being all of us Sons of Adam descended and sprung out of his Loyns as the holy Spirit stiles us when he saith O Sons of men how long will ye change my glory into shame how long will ye love vanity and follow after leasings Psa 4.2 But the Son of Man emphatically and in a choise and peculiar sense the most excellent Son of Man who is such a Son of Man as there is none other besides like to him The Son the Heir of Man He to whom all his Inheritance falls But what is that which man hath to leave or bequeath to him or that he could fall Heir to by being his Son Surely man is become so miserable poor that he can leave him or conveigh to him nothing of worth no riches or excellency by which he might be benefited by him as he had from God his Father Yet being the Son he is the heir of Man as well as of God If Sons then Heirs saith the Apostle Rom. 8.17 And so as Christ is the Son of God he is the Heir of God the Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 The inheritor of his Fathers Riches Power Glory c. And as he is the Son of Abraham he is Heir of his Covenant Heir of the World Rom. 4.13 And as the Son of David the Heir of his Throne and Kingdom which therefore God will give him Luk. 1.32 The Lord God will give him the Throne of his Father David So as the Son of Man generally and indefinitely what Inherits he but what Man Adam left as a natural Heritage so far as was derivable to him That is his great debt that he fell into even his sin as to the guilt of it he being sanctified and seperated from the filth and defilement of it in his Conception by the power of the holy Ghost therefore called That holy thing conceived in the Virgin Luk. 1.35 And so the Curse and punishment due to us This Christ was the Son and Heir of Man in For God made him that knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 And he Redeemed us from the Curse of the law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3.13 And therefore was made under the Law obnoxious to all our debts forfeitures and penalties That he might redeem us from under the law that we by him receiving and believing in him might receive the Adoption of Children even of the Children of God and so being Sons become Heirs of God in and through him Gal. 4.4 5. Rom. 8 17. So that this was for our great advantage also he hereby becoming the Son the most excellent redeeming infranchising inriching Son of Man upon whom all the hope and help of Man lyeth That 's a Third CHAP. IV. Two other reasons and they the Principal ones of Christs calling himself the Son of Man Reas 4 FOurthly He stiles himself the Son of Man to signifie as is implyed also in the two foregoing reasons That he was and is really Man and not only Man in appearance That he partook with us in Flesh and Blood Heb. 2.14 And had not only a shew and likeness of them He was indeed in the likeness and but in the likeness of sinful flesh his Flesh having no sinfulness in it but he had more then the likeness of Flesh even the stubstance or reality of Flesh in him We find that in former times the Angels appeared in the likeness of Men yea Christ himself might and doubtless did sometimes as to his Spiritual Being so appear also before he was Incarnate and made of a Woman as in Josh 5.13 14 15. And such appearances are often in the Scripture also called Men though they were really Angels and Spiritual Beings and not of the same species or kind with us of this we have instances in Gen. 18.1 2 3 and 19.1 2. Judg. 13.6 8 10. Mat. 28.2 5. With Mark 16.5 6. Luk. 24.4.23 Act. 1.10.11 But these were never born of a Woman nor reckoned their Genealogy from Men when they so appeared and therefore the Title of the Son of Man is never attributed to Angels so appearing That Title implying a discent from Adam or Man and so a real participation of Mans Nature Only I conceive God may also send any of the Spirits of the deceased Prophets or holy men if he pleaseth as Angels to Men to bring his messages to them the name of Angel being not a name of Nature but of Office signifying a Messenger a Title that may agree to any natural imploy'd and sent of God on his messuages as the Angels of the Seven Churches Rev. 1.20 As to me seems probably by that saying of the Angel Rev. 19.10 I am one of thy fellow Servants and of thy Brethren that have the Testimony of Jesus c. And more plainly that in Rev. 22.9 I am thy fellow Servant and of thy Brethren the Prophets and of those that observe the words of this Book c. But for those that were indeed Angels of a distinct kind of Creature from Man though they might appear as men yet they were not Sons of men born of Women as Christ was born of a Woman and so the Son of Man Now Christ implies the reality of his Manhood here to signifie to us or give us occasion to call to mind the greatness of his grace and of the grace of his Farher shewed to us in his being made and becoming a real man one of us even One chosen out of the People Psal 89.19 20. Grace and love worthy to be minded and remembred always by us for in that he is very Man the Son of Man therein is manifest 1. Gods great love and condescention to us in giving us the most excellent advantage of knowing him and his will concerning us in a more full satisfying and familiar way then by any other or former dispensation for revealing himself to us God in former times by sundry ways and in diverse manners spake to the Fathers by the Prophets to whom he made known himself by Dreams Visions Angels and such like appearances And especially by a more visible Demonstration of his presence and audible speaking of his voice to them out of the midst
as the Son of God without Being made the Son of Man had not therein been low or abased but had a bid in his proper height uncapable of higher exaltation in himself but it was the Son of God become the Son of Man that was abased and low and therefore as the Son of Man though also the Son of God in that form or state that was to be exalted or lifted up Which is worthy to be noted against those who make the humanity of Christ to be but a dispensation made use of for a time that is till the Spirit was sent forth to be the Comforter and then as Moses and his ministration passed away to give place to Christ and his Ministration when he came in the flesh So Christ his flesh or his being in it was to pass away and cease And mens minding his flesh humanity or dispensation therein to pass away in the coming of the Spirit Indeed his appearing in the flesh to Minister in it and as a man by personal acting preaching and working Miracles visibly among men was to cease not at the coming of the Spirit but before it and to make way for it to be powred forth upon the Disciples that they in and by it might be inabled and strengthned to minister in his stead But his Flesh or Body neither ceased to be in him nor to be useful to and for us and needful to be known understood and considered by us even after the Spirit was sent forth upon the Apostles for the Spirit when he came witnessed of him who was in the Flesh and confessed him not come in the Spirit but come in the Flesh Saith 1 Joh. 4.2 And every Spirit that confesseth not Christ come in the flesh but lays him aside in that consideration as no more needful to be eyed or known and so that speaks of him as gone out of the flesh except they thereby only mean out of his frail infirm state is not of God but is that Spirit of Antichrist that was to come into the World and now is in the World ver 3. It is the Son of Man which the Spirit cannot be said to be that is to be lifted up Let that be minded by us 3. I might also note that in saying the Son of Man must be lifted up there is implied some agent to lift him up for where there is a subject to be wrought upon there is also in what is wrought upon or about it something that acts or works as when any thing is heated there is something heats it When any thing is beaten there is something or person beats it So when any thing is exalted or lifted up there is some thing or person exalts it As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so there is some body some persons or person that must lift up the Son of Man which we shall inquire into and consider who or what it is in our speaking further to the act it self of lifting him up Which we come now to consider more fully as taken in the second sense of that expression as the lifting up signifies to Exalt or Magnifie CHAP. VI. A Twofold way of Exalting the Son of Man either by real Action upon his person namely Or by demonstration of him and his worth and excellency to others The former of these is here inlarged upon NOW Christ the Son of Man may be capable of lifting up or being exalted two ways suitable to the twofold way of his being low that is 1. As to real and Personal Exaltation by something acted upon himself Or 2. As to Demonstration and Manifestation of him to others for exalting him in their views and esteems Let us consider these Two ways distinctly And so 1. 1. As to the former He was exalted and lifted up of God even the Father He exalted lifted up and glorified him as was behoveful and needful for us in diverse Acts. As to say 1. In his taking the Humanity or Seed of David Abraham and so of the Woman The Son of Man into unity of Person with his Eternal Word or only begotten Son As was hinted by the way before And this was a great favour to and exaltation of that Seed As it is said I have laid help upon one that is mighty I have Exalted one chosen out of the People Psal 89.19 And that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God Luk. 1.35 Though indeed this was rather a lifting up that Nature then that Person 2. In his calling him forth to suffer for us or rather his accepting him and his sufferings for us as a valuable price of our Redemption a satisfaction to his Justice and Sacrifice or Atonement for our sins And so our Saviour himself may be understood to say when speaking of the hour of his sufferings he saith John 12.23 The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified And when Judas was gone out to betray him into the hands of sinners he said Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him John 13.31 And with that agrees the Apostle in Heb. 2.9 Where he saith That Jesus was Crowned with glory and honour for the suffering of Death that he by the Grace of God might cast Death for every man Not only that he was glorified through sufferings but that he might taste Death And indeed as the other so this also was a great glory and honour though a great abasement in the World and suffering in himself as he was the Son of God that the Father should account and value him at so high and great a rate as to judge him this Son of Man of sufficient value to answer for and expiate the sins of the World Whereas all other Sacrifices though all the Beasts of Lebanon could not be sufficient for a burnt sacrifice nor all the Wood in that mighty Forest sufficient to burn to kindle that fire that should consume that that should be pleasing to him for any mans sin Isa 40.16 Not thousands of Rams nor ten thousand rivers of Oyl no nor the fruit of the body even the first-born for the sin of the Soul Mic. 6.7 No nor the richest wealthiest man in the world how ever full of riches or high and mighty could by all his riches though he offer them all or lay them all out in Sacrifices to be offered up to God for any one man though his dearest brother could make an expiation of his sins so as to give thereby a sufficient price to God for him that he might live for ever and not see Corruption So precious is the Redemption of the Soul Psal 49.7 8. Yet God hath accepted the abasement sufferings and sacrifice of his Son the Son of Man as a valuable sufficient Ransome for all men so as through him to preach remission of their sins to them and justifie all that believe on him upon that account from all things from which they could not
Egypt and its Bondage and the Law-giver from God to whose Laws they were bound in all ages to yeild obedience till the Messiah should be revealed So also the Son of man was appointed and is made of God the Redeemer and Deliverer of us Mankind from the hands of our Spiritual Enemies and from all that hate us Luk. 1.70 72 73. Especially his followers and obeyers those that believe in him and are made the Seed or Israel of God in and by him He being also as Abraham and Israel was their Father The Everlasting Father of this Spiritual off-spring Isa 9.6 And he is the great Law-giver to the World for whose Laws the Iles or Gentiles are to wait and to them to yeild obedience to the end of the World For the Lord is our Law-giver Isa 33.22 42.1 4. 2. Again as Joshua was a Saviour and the bringer of them into the Inheritance which God had promised to their Fathers delivering them from the Inhabitants of that Land the Cananites utterly destroying them before them and dividing their Land to them by Lot So also Jesus the Son of Man was to be and is exalted and lifted up of God to be the expeller and driver out of Sathan and his Angels the powers of darkness out of their possession and the bringer in of his People the Israel of God that follow him into the heavenly Country and City of God which he hath promised to the spiritual Israel that are subject to him driving out all the power of Sin and Corruption from them Yea and in due time driving out all the Tyrants of the World with their Captains and Ring-leaders into Destruction he shall possess his People of the glorious Kingdom and divide to them their several portions and rewards in giving the Kingdom and Dominion and greatness of the Kingdom to the Saints of the most high God whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and his dominion that that shall have no end Dan. 7.27 3. As they had Judges also to be their helpers and Saviours from their enemies and to judge and avenge them of them and order their Affairs So Christ the Son of Man is raised up and appointed of God to be the great Judge the pleader of the Causes and avenger of Man-kind against Sathan and the Powers of Darkness And more especially of his Israel the Seed and Sons of God through the faith of him against all their Enemies Yea the great Judge of quick and dead who shall raise up all from their Graves and gather them together from all quarters of the World determining all Cases deciding all controversies and finally disposing to every man according to his Works everlasting rewards or punishments in Justice and Righteousness And seeing his Sentences put in execution with great and irresistible Power and Authority Act. 10.42 17.30 31. But perhaps we might as well have reduced these last mentioned offices or honours unto that that follows Viz. That 4. Whereas they had Kings set over them to go in and out before them to be their Captains and Leaders and to appoint Officers under them giving them Laws and Commands fighting their Battels and so to subdue their enemies protect them in peace and quietness in the peaceable possession of their Inheritances and enlarge their borders c. And so Moses also was said to be King in Jesurun So Christ this Son of Man is lifted up of God to that Authority and Sovereign dignity made his King by him set upon his holy hill of Sion Psal 2.1 2 6 7. And Maugre all opposition made by the Heathen and People the Kings and Rulers the Jews and Gentiles Herod and Pontius Pilate and all or any of their Successors that set themselves against him Act. 4.26 29. The King of Nations Jer. 10.7 Yea Of all the Earth Psal 47.7 And the King of Saints Rev. 15.4 5. A Great King above all Gods Psal 95.2 The Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our Judge The Lord is our King and he will save us Isa 33.20 Yea and further 5. Whereas their Priests and Kings and once we find a Prophet was anointed by Gods appointment to their several offices and so designed of God to them upon which also as we sometime find God gave his Spirit to fit them for the discharge of them as thereby also they were seperated from others to attend unto God to serve him and his People therein and receive his help and supplies for the same So also the Son of Man Christ Jesus was to be and is and was anointed of God with the holy Ghost and Power Act. 10.38 To design seperate and authorize him to and furnish him for all those Offices and undertakings to which God appointed and called him As for the discharge of his Prophetick Office and work it is said The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to Preach glad tidings to the poor to bind up the broken hearted c. Isa 61.1 2. With Luk. 4 18 19. for by his word and the Divine force and power of his holy Spirit breathing forth his grace therein He is as a great yea the great and only Phisician of the Soul and his words do good like a Medicine being words of grace words of eternal life pleasant words that are like a honey-comb pleasant to the taste and healing to the bones Prov. 15.14 16.24 Wholsome and sound and healing words are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine that is according to Godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 4 Again it is said Behold my Servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my holy Spirit upon him he shall bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles c. Isa 42.1 And as the great King the Great God and our Governour He is Gods Christ or Anointed whom he hath set upon his holy hill of Sion Psal 2.2 6. And anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his fellows Psal 45.6 7. And as the most holy even the most holy High Priest who is holy harmless undefiled seperated from Sinners He may be understood to be the Anointed or Messiah spoken of by Daniel Dan. 9.24 When he saith To Anoint the most holy And so that he was Consecrated that way also as well as by the word of the Oath Though the former was tipyfied in Aaron and his Sons Sanctified and Consecrated with the holy anointing Oyl powred upon and anointing them Exod. 30.29 30. Levit. 8.12 And the latter exceeded them Heb. 7.20 21 28 To Minister before the Lord for ever Sure it is that Through the Eternal Spirit he offered up himself as the spotless Sacrifice Heb. 9.14 And with reference to this anointing him and furnishing him with the fullness of the holy Ghost The Spirit of wisdom and of understanding the Spirit of counsel and of might the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord that rests and abides upon him and makes him quick
upon which they Ascend and Descend John 1.51 Rev. 19.10 And so we find the Angel Gabriel lifting up and commending the Messiah in his work and business Dan. 9.24 27. where he speaks both of the cutting off the Messiah and of the fruits and consequents thereof as the finishing transgression making an end of Sin making reconciliation for iniquity bringing in everlasting Righteousness c. The Angel Gabriel also brought down an honourable Testimony of him in which he lifted him up in Luk. 1.26.31 32 33. Where he said to the Virgin concerning him That He should be great and be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God should give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall Reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end c. As also an Angel lifted him up to the Shepheards at his Birth Saying to them Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you You men in distinction from us Angels is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Luk. 2.10 11. Yea A multitude of the heavenly Host then also immediately being with that Angel honoured and lifted him up at his Birth Praising God and saying Glory to God on the highest and on Earth peace and good will toward men Luk. 2.13 Angels also witnessed to his Resurrection Mat. 28.2 5 6 7. Luk. 24.4 5 6 7 23. And to his Ascending up to Heaven and return from thence Act. 1.10 11. Yea and of his Glory there received as is evident in those Doxologies or Glorifyings of him mentioned Rev. 5.11 12. 7.11 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was stain to receive Power Riches Wisdom Strength Honour Glory and Blessing 2. I might add also That all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and such are in the Seas do exalt and lift him up for so John tells us he heard them all saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Rev. 5.13 But I only briefly mention those and come to those Creatures that are most concerned in him and his praises even our selves Men. And so he hath been is and must be lifted up By 3. Holy men his holy Apostles and Prophets as also by all his Messengers Servants and Saints even his whole Church through the helpfulness and by the power and strength of the holy Ghost as instruments in his hands And so he was lifted up and exalted 1. By the holy Prophets which were before his coming For To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name all that believe in him shall receive the forgiveness of sins Act. 10.43 And the Apostle Peter speaking again of the Death Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ tells us That all the Prophets from Samuel and those that followed spoke of those days Aâ—â— 3.24 Namely those in which those things were done and accomplished And that they Prophesied of the grace brought now unto us 1 Pet. 1.10 Whence also the Apostle Paul saith That he testified to small and great saying no other things then those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass Viz. That Christ should suffer and be the first that should rise from the Dead and shew Light to the Gentiles and to the People Act. 26.22 23. 2. By John the Baptist who was the immediate forerunner of Christ a Prophet and more then a Prophet Being the Man sent of God to bear witness to Christ the Light That messenger sent before his face to prepare the way for him And his work and business was in bearing Witness of him to exalt and lift him up that all men through him might believe And he did highly lift him up and bare an honourable testimony of him as that he was before John and he himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of his Shoes That He is the Christ the true Light the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World the Baptizer with the holy Ghost the Bride-groom that hath the Bride c. John 1.6 7 8 9 15. 3. By the holy Apostles also whose office and business it was to be witnesses to him John 15.27 And to Preach and proclaim him so as to set him forth lift him up exalt and magnifie him in and unto all things And they by the holy Spirit and the holy Spirit in an by them and their Ministry according to the Doctrine of the Prophets fore-given forth by the holy Spirit concerning him Rom. 1.1 2 3 have highly extolled and lifted him up Preaching him 1. As to his person The Son of God Even the same that according to the Spirit and Divine Nature was in the beginning with God and God He by whom and for whom all things were made whether in Heaven or Earth visible or invisible Thrones Dominions Principallities or Powers all things were Created by him and for him and that by him all things consist he being before them That he is the Heir of all things the express character of the Fathers Person and the brightness of his glory The Wonderful the Councellor the Mighty or great God and our Saviour The Immanuel God with us John 1.1 2 3. Col. 1.15 16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 1 Tim. 3.16 Tit. 2.13 Isa 9.6 That he is the Christ the Messiah He that was prophesied before of and promised by all the Prophets of God from the beginning of the World The only excellent person designed of God and promised from the beginning to be the Author Procurer and Dispenser of all grace and blessing to us John 1.41 45. Mat. 1.21 22 23. 1 Pet. 1.20 21. The very Christ Act. 9.20 22. He that was in the form of God not thinking Robbery to be equal with God but was sent of God in the nature and fashion of a man to be the Saviour of the world Phil. 2.6 7. John 3.17 Gal. 4.4 5. 1 John 4.14 2. As to his work and business that it was totally for us and our good a work of exceeding advantage to us and necessity for us Not to Condemn the World but that the World might be saved by him John 3.17 Not to judge the World but to save it John 12.4 7. And that by taking away its Sin John 1.29 And that by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 1.3 9.26 Giving his flesh for the life of the World John 6.51 And so that he might by his death destroy him who had the power of Death the Devil and deliver those who by reason of the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage Heb. 2.14 15. That he might abolish or evacuate the destructive power and force of Death and bring life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 Taking away Sin and destroying the works of the Devil 1 John 3.5 8. That so he might bring us to God 1
and there-through even through those things done to him in his personal body we are healed As it is said Through his stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 1 Pet. 2.24 But as a remedy against what we meet with from Satan in our selves in our own personal despisings of Christ and Gods bounty and goodness towards us through him and provocations to anger against us was and is it needful that he be also further lifted up by way of demonstration both by God and his Spirit and servants for our helpfulness there against That whosoever believeth on him might not perish in a second Death 2. In the place of Moses lifting up the Serpent That was in the Wilderness So must the Son of Man be lifted up in the state of this world that is as a desolate forsaken wilderness void of all good order and fruitfulness full of briars thorns Wolves Tygers all that is evil and confused Through which while the Israel or followers of God walk they meet with and are exposed to many trials and temptations affections and troubles from the barrenness of goodness and good men that they find in it and from the many evil men and the unclean covetous oppressive and wicked carriages both among themselves and towards them Here in this day and state it 's behoveful that the Son of Man be lifted up for the comfort healing and helpfulness of his followers against the evil Spirits and Serpents and their venomous stings were Rom. 3.19 That we might receive the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4.4 5. That he hath made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That he hath delivered him up for our offences and raised him again for our Justification Rom. 4.25 Raised him from the dead and given him glory that our faith and hope might be in him 1 Pet. 1.21 And all this and what is contained in it done and perfected of God in Christ for us so as he therein hath prepared his dinner his Oxen and Fatlings are slain and all things are ready nothing for us to do but come to the Wedding and therein taking on the Wedding Garment sit down and eat and drink of this Provision and that will so heal us as we shall be fit to go or walk after him and serve him So that if thou confess with thy mouth Jesus the Lord and with thy heart believe that God hath raised him from the dead that is if thou believe this understandingly and affectionately thou shalt be saved This will put a man into a right mind to seek and hope for all grace and blessing from God and so in that faith to call upon him and it will make him to love and in love obey and serve him Rom. 10.8 9 10 12.1 John 4.19 There is nothing for the Ministers to do for the healing and saving men but to open and publish this grace and therein call invite and exhort them to look to and obey it and warn them of and reprove them for neglecting it c. Not to prepare any thing of their own nor put men upon preparing any thing for their own Salvation and healing Nor for any man to do but in the hearing this to look upon it and mind what it discovers and yeild up to what it requires and calls for which the Ministers are to help them to understand and discern for their healing Isa 45.22 Look unto me and be ye saved all the endâ— of the Earth Even as Moses did not put the people upon looking into their stings and seeking or preparing for themselves any Salves or Medicines but only lifted up the Serpent and directed them to look to it for healing 4. The Serpent as Moses lifted it up was not made of Gold or of Silver or of any more precious Mettals but only of Brass a more vulgar and contemptible Mettal and of less price And that formed through the fire and by other ways of cutting beating and framing of it into the form of a Serpent a way no way of it self likely or probable to heal them of their wounds And yet this he lifted up as the means and Medicine appointed of God and through his appointment and the conjunction of his Divine power and virtue with it it was effectual for healing those that being stung of the fiery Serpents looked upon it Even so Christ the Son of Man according to the Flesh was not a likely person and means to effect any mans Salvation and deliverance from Sin and Death he being not descended of high and honourable Parentage in the World or endued with worldly Grandeour or greatness or with worldly Authority Learning and such like ornaments as might commend him to us but born in Bethlehem Judah of a poor Virgin espoused to a mean man a Carpenter Springing up as a tender plant easily to appearance to be pluckt up or broken And as a root out of a dry ground likely to come to no great bulk or strength No form in him nor comeliness no beauty when looked upon to render him desirable Isa 53.2 3. A mean man Mark 6.3 Not Learned John 7.15 Nor attended with any worshipful and honourable persons openly as his Disciples John 7.47.48 Yea a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs Yet this man is he that being prepared for it and made perfect through sufferings and Death is both lifted up of God to be the Author of Eternal Salvation to all that obey him and is effectual thereto through the divine Ordination and presence of God in and with him The Deity fully possessing him even all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily in him And through this Man so prepared and perfected of God is and must be Preached unto men the forgiveness of Sins And through him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Act. 13.37 38 39. Nor is he therefore as the Son of Man to be laid by of the Builders Preachers Teachers and Masters in Israel as too many knowing him after the Flesh are therefore offended at him and do lay him by because he was and is the Son of Man and was partaker with us in flesh and blood in firm and tempted as we be yet without Sin or because he suffered such things in the Flesh and appeared weak and mortal therein Nor may any therefore refuse to look to him and expect salvation from him because a Man and the Son of Man made so low and weak as he was so despicable and unlikely to appearance as that the Preaching of him and his Cross is to the Jew a stumbling block and to the Grecian foolishness even to such as seem wise in this World But he is notwithstanding that yea because of that that he was so abased and crucified and humbled himself so low the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and so to be eyed hoped in
with-hold no good thing c. Psal 84.11 4 Nor shall this happy state be ever taken from him but though through workings of the flesh a man may not be always sensible of these things nor have always actual rejoycing while here yet his state is always such and shall hereafter appear and be most sensibly and perfectly such for this life here begun by Christ and by his Spirit never shall terminate or end but increase and be more full as to the injoyment and perception of it in the abiding believer on the Son of Man till it be most immutably perfect They that seek God shall Praise him their hearts shall live for ever Psal 22.26 Death shall not put an end to this life when the body dies the man even then shall be in a living state of the Spirit or inner man in a truly happy and joyful condition though it appear not upon the body of man or to the view of the natural man much less shall it terminate after death to the Spirit made perfect for it being with Christ shall be in a better state then while here Phil. 2.21 23. To be dissolvd and to be with Christ is far better then to be here much less shall this life cease fail or terminate in the state of the resurrection for that state is most properly and fully called Eternal Life Mark 10.30 In the world to come Eternal life because then neither Soul nor Body shall die any more but then 1. The body shall be in an eternally unchangeably happy and blessed state of life a glorious body like the glorious body of Christ. Phil. 3.20 Raised up in honour incorruptibility power and glory so as it shall never feel or be capable of feeling hunger thirst pain weariness weakness decay sickness old age or any other trouble any more forever For there shall be no more death nei-neither sorrow nor crying c. for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.3 with 7.16 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 The Soul and inward man shall be perfect in its knowledge of conformity to and joy in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord For then we shall see as we are seen know as we are known Then that which is perfect being come that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 12. Then we shall have fulness of joy in Gods presence and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16.12 1 Joh. 3.2 There shall then be no more ignorance or envy nor sorrow nor care nor whatever may render the Soul in the least defective in its happiness but the favour of God and of the Lamb as a clear River of pure waters pure and immixed and never failing shall fill it perpetually with all Heavenly and Spiritual fruitfulness in every good thing Rev. 21.4 11. and 22.1 Isa 11.9.13 Deut. 33.23 Yea 3. The whole state of the man both in Body and Soul and with respect both to God and Men a state of perfect freedom from all evil Nothing in themselves to treuble or disquiet and nothing from without themselves either of wrath and curse from God he shall neither inflict any evil upon or with-hold any good from them but as one perfectly well pleased with them perpetually fill and satisfie them with his favour and blessing afford them his fellowship and the fellowship of the Lamb and whatsoever so happy a Spring may pour forth to them and therefore neither shall any evil befall them either positively from any man or from any other Creature Angel Devil or any other thing to molest or annoy them the Devil and all his Instruments their Enemies and all evil things being for ever removed from out the Creation or what of it the Saints shall have to do with except so as they may look upon and behold their miseries Isa 66.24 And as the happiness of the Saints may be seen by their Enemies for aggravating their miseries Luke 13.28 16.23 and all other things and persons filled with good for and towards them and not with any thing that may in the least be evil and troublesom to them nor privatively for they shall be in no danger to loose any thing of the good they have or shall have none of those deprivations and losses that here afflict and exercise them shall they then be capable of being exercised and tried with no more Widdowhood or loss of Children or of Fathers Mothers Friends no loss of Riches Honours Pleasures Habitations Ornaments or any thing but what they here lost or were deprived of shall in a better manner and more to their comfort be restored if they were such as appertain to the Kingdom their Relations Husbands Parents Wives Children c. shall be restored then with Christ though not as such Relations or as having such dependance then on them as here but in a far more perfect satisfying and glorious manner Nor shall any one thing or person in the world with-hold from them or any of them any one thing that they may have any need of or good by so that their state then shall be a state of perfect life and that everlasting a spiritual and spiritually sensible and intelligent life an holy life an happy and Eternal life wherein the shall have full knowledge of God and his favour blessing righteousness in the full perfect and perpetual performance of all his blessed promises a full and perfect injoyment of the Lamb and of all the virtues and products of his Cross and sufferings and fellowship of his joys and glory and of and with one another even all the whole company of them in the most perfectly united peaceable satisfying way and manner for ever the fulness of the Spirit filling them all and every one with all Spiritual excellencies and satisfactions for ever and in that their fellowship with Christ and one another they shall have an everlasting full and perfect glory glorious Kingdom and Inheritance such as from the beginning of the world men have not heard of or perceived by the Ear or the Eye seen besides God himself being the glorious things which God hath prepared for them that wait for him Isa 64.5 A life worthy our most constant and earnest seeking after laying hold of and embracing But now Quest 4. How shall they that believe on Christ the Son of man have this Eternal Life Answ I may answer to this diversly with respect to 1. The way to their having it 2. The maner of their having it 1. In respect of their way they have and shall have it 1. Through sufferings and death even as our Lord Christ himself that way entred into his glory It is a faithful saying or the word is faithful for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him And if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him If we even we who at present believe in him deny him he will also deny us 2 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Through much
affliction we must enter into Gods Kingdom Acts 14.22 No partaking of this life but through death and that 1. Through a Spiritual Death or death in and of our Spirits to false life as to the life of or in sin life to the world and to the Law as thinking to have life thereby as in our own righteousness according thereunto No living to righteousness and to God but in dying to sin and to the world so as to cease to be slaves or servants to them Rom. 6.10 11. Gal. 6.14 1 Pet. 2.24 nor is there any living to Christ and so to God but through dying to the Law as to our hopes and rejoycings in our own righteousness according thereunto Gal. 2.19 And in these kinds of deaths there are pains in self-denials taking up our cross for Christs sake Mat. 16.24 2. Through the bodily Death for neither is there any entring into the joys and glories of Heaven and of the life to come so as to the actual full fruition of them but through bodily Death and Grave except of such as shall be found alive at his appearing 1 Thes 4.15 16. that so we may be made conformable to the death of Christ and be planted therethrough into the likeness of his Resurrection in our body also For the way to this life is also 2. Through the Resurrection from the dead otherwise if we should dye in our selves to false lives and never rise up in a true and divine life we could not have eternal life The life of Christ is a life from the dead whence he is called the first begotten or first-born from the dead Col. 1.18 Rev. 1.5 and so all that share with him therein are raised up to a life from the dead too First raised up in their spirits with him through the faith of the operation of God Col. 2.12 3.1 crucified with Christ to self and flesh and sin and all false life but yet so as they live yet not they but Christ liveth in them Gal. 2.20 And then also at the great day of Christs glorious appearing their dead bodies shall be raised up by him and be made like his Thence the Resurrection said to be to those that have done good a Resurrection to Life Joh. 5.28 29. and Christ in telling us that they who believe on him shall have everlasting life once and again adds And I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.40.44 as implying that they must pass through death and be raised up again thereunto 2. In respect of the manner of their having it they have it as they have Christ himself who is their life the ground foundation authour and the fountain of it Col. 3.3 4. and so only in receiving abiding in and enjoyment of him and so 1. They have it here in a sense not in the fulness and perfection of the fruition of it for we are not capable of having it so now and here while we have not Christ in Person with us but they have it now 1. In Christ the Heir of it and the root and spring of it that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us 1 Joh. 1.2 5.11 12 13. as they have him theirs and have union with and interest in him through whom also they have it 2. In a first fruits of the Spirit and of the Life that is in and by it and so in a begun life or happy state of forgiveness acceptance spiritual quickning c as before said 3. In the promise of the whole even of the full fruition of it to be had hereafter God and Christ have given it them in his Will and Testament so as in believing on the Son of Man they are made Heirs of it Tit 1.2 3.7 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 See also Gal. 3.29 And so they have it 4. In the hope of it Tit. 1.2 1 Pet. 1 3 4. 2. In the state to come they shall have it 1. Upon their dissolution and going to Christ in their spirits more fully resting in and with Christ and being blessed Phil. 1.21.23 Rev. 14.13 2. Upon their Resurrection in the full perfect and perpetual possession and fruition of it for ever Mark 10.30 A portion infinitely desirable and worthy the looking after and yet this is the portion of every one that believeth on the Son of Man without exception No respect of persons no difference of stronger or weaker believer as to the future enjoyment or present right to and interest in it by and through Jesus Christ There is neither Male nor Female Jew nor Greek Circumcision nor Uncircumcision bond or free but all are one in Christ Jesus and if Christs then Abrahams Seed and Heirs according to promise Gal. 3.28 29. And yet in the rewards to be received in the Davidical Kingdom or the thousand years reign at the coming of Christ and before he deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father and God be all in all there will doubtless be different degrees of Glory and Honour conferred according to mens different works services faithfulness and fruitfulness in their services and greatness of their sufferings for him as is hinted in those parabolical passages Be thou Ruler over ten Cities be thou Ruler over five Luc. 19.17 19. otherwise it would be all one to serve Christ little or much here to be abundant or sparing in the work of the Lord contrary to that of the Apostle He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally and he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9.6 Though yet a shorter work more singly done may have equal reward with a larger not so singly done as the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard Mat. 20. may seem to import Wherefore Let us be always stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the works of the Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord Rev. 20.6 with 5.10 1 Cor. 6.2 3. with 15 24 28.58 CHAP. XV. The application of the two former viz. the fourth and fifth Observations in part in exhortation to believe reproof for not believing incouragements to continue in believing on the Son of Man and some directions thereto THE consideration of the two last mentioned observations shewing the necessity and advantage of believing on the Son of Man as also the nature of this believing is and may be very useful upon diverse accounts As to Use 1. Exhort and press all men to believe on the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ as declared and set forth unto them in and by the discoveries teaching and operation of God and his Spirit vouchsafed to them And that they may believe on him to listen to mind and embrace and hold fast the Faith or Doctrine of him in which is the power spirit and hand of the Lord moving and enabling to believe yea begetting in the heart this faith that is so necessary and profitable for men For
saith is of hearing and hearing is of the word of God not of every hearing nor of every word but of hearing the word of God From which word hearing or the hearing Ear also is effected and proceeds Rom. 10.17 For no man can come unto Christ this Son of Man unless it be given to him of God unless he draws him and he draws by his teaching men the knowledge of him whence it is said every one that heareth and learneth of the Father comes unto him Joh. 6.44 45 65. It is of his own good will that he begets men through the word of truth to be of a contemptible vile worthless creature as man hath made himself by his sin a kind of first-fruits of his creatures a more noble and prime creature to him a new creature a first-fruits of his future new creation therefore it behooves men every one to be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath slow to murmur and be angry at the word of truth and the instructions reproofs and counsels of it because clashing with the wisdom and will of the flesh the principles thoughts and practices of the world and of the wise men thereof but with meekness to receive the ingraffed word the word as God puts and ingraffs it into the heart which is able to save the Soul being not only hearers of the word but doers of it as it is working and so God in and with it to will and to do of good pleasure Jam. 1.18 19 21. Phil. 2.12 13. turning at Gods reproofs therein given from whatsoever in conceit apprehension or opinion we hold or imagine that clashes with the truth discovered in the word and its instructions that we may so conceive judge and believe as that declares and informs us of all things and from whatsoever in affection desire purpose or practice we naturally or through evil principles or customs affect desire purpose or practice disagreeing with and reproved by the light and instruction of that blessed word that so we may obey its counsel and instruction and affect desire purpose and practice what it commends and leads us to seeking after that and so the wisdom of God will pour out his spirit to us and make known his words Prov. 1.22 23. and so hearing the Soul shall live Isa 55.3 there through attaining to know the name of the Lord the Son of Man we shall be strengthened framed and have the will set to trust in him Psal 9.10 in meditating in the law and doctrine of the Lord and exercising our selves in it day and night the heart will be fixed to trust in the Lord and to make him its hope Yea and therein to be rooted grounded and fixed like a Tree planted by the water side so as to abide in the blasts of temptations and be fruitful in every good work increasing in the knowledge of God strengthened with all might according to his glorious power to all patience and long suffering with joyfulness Psal 1.1 2 3. Jer. 17.7 8. Col. 1.10 11. for the Gospel of Christ the preaching of the cross is the power of God to salvation even from unbelief and all the power of darkness to every one that believes it Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.22 23. So as that in taking diligent heed thereto and yeilding up our selves to the power that worketh therein we shall be helped and framed to believe on the Son of God it s through his name that men receive power to believe on him Acts 10.43 and therefore it behooves all men as they would avoid the perishing from Gods way and the everlasting misery and destruction at the end and as they would obtain the everlasting life and happiness propounded and promised to give serious and diligent heed and obedience thereto who would willingly incur pain grief and affliction here or to perish by hunger cold prison gallows or the like and yet these things are infinitely short of the evil of perishing from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power for ever Yea who that is travelling to some remote place where if he go right on to it he shall find great riches honours or gain would be willing or through carefulness expose himself to loose and be lost out of the way and to wander in a Wilderness among bryers and thorns boggs and lakes yea among wild and savage creatures as serpents lyons tygers c. when in a diligent careful inquiry after and attendance to some faithful direction and guide he might go right and safe and attain the good proposed and miss that perishing by hunger cold the teeth of the wild beasts that he is otherwise in danger off and yet that perishing from the way and danger of finally perishing by the ways or means forementioned are little evils in comparison of perishing from Gods way and by what that perishing exposes to who again that hath proffer and opportunity of being made rich honourable living pleasantly and delightfully for a long time so long suppose as was the life of Methuselah would willingly refuse and loose such enjoyments and incur answerable miseries and yet this eternal life which God hath promised to give to them that believe on and follow after the Son of Man is infinitely more excellent then all the honours riches pleasures and most excellent enjoyments of this world though they might be enjoyed safely not only so long as the life of Methusalah but also so long as from the beginning of this world to the end thereof without interruption Oh therefore how concerns it all men to come and believe on the Son of Man and to that purpose to listen to and receive the teachings of God concerning him that such miseries may be missed and such mercies enjoyed that they may not perish in the way and from the end but may have everlasting life Vse 2. How doth this then reprove the vanity folly pride and wickedness of the world which rejects and puts from them and matter not to believe on this most excellent one whom God to such glorious ends hath raised up for us If it be folly and madness in men who may in hearing their Fathers and freinds good instructions in matters of this world live well and comfortably have and get yet more of the good things of this world to maintain them and preserve them from want and beggery and make them live in credit and repute to turn their backs upon such good counsels and thereby willingly and wilfully through their pride folly slothfulness love of bad company or the like bring themselves into debt poverty prisons and nothing but a Series of miseries How much more is it folly and madness for the world or any of us to neglect Gods word and Gods Son and that great Salvation wrought and preached and brought to us by so great and glorious a hand as that of this Son of Man being also the Son of God the mighty God and our Saviour and thereby to
deprive our selves of such unspeakable bliss and happiness as cannot be conceived and plunge our selves into such miseries as cannot be imagined And yet evident it is that such folly and madness the world is greatly guilty of For evident it is that it generally rejects and treads under foot the Lord Jesus and the doctrine that declares him and is left to us by him in which is included our salvation and happiness Deut. 32.46 47. Prov. 4.13 Joh. 12.49 50. That the world generally slights both him and his doctrine the bleatings of the sheep and the lowings of the Oxen testifie that is the general Atheism Prophaneness Disorder and Wickedness the false Religions and Worships generally practised commanded or countenanced do loudly proclaim it Use 3. It may also provoke such as do believe on the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ to hold fast the faith and so their believing on him and by no means to suffer themselves to be withdrawn therefrom For let us consider with our selves that Consideration 1. If we turn away and fall from our dependance on him we turn after vain things and things that cannot profit because vain 1 Sam. 12.19 20. and so we deprive our selves of all the good in him and plunge our selves into all the misery that can be incurred by us For this eternal life being in the Son of Man Christ Jesus in departing from him we depart from it and losing him we lose it and he being the Saviour and Salvation in withdrawing from him we withdraw from it and lie open to all the evil that the unbeliever may fall into Nay indeed better never to have known the way or word of truth or the holy commandement or to have had fellowship with him then to turn away again therefrom for the latter end in that case is worse than the beginning 2 Pet. 2.20 Luk. 11.26 27. For as all that are far from him do and shall perish So he doth and will destroy them who go a whoring from him Psal 73.27 The consideration then of the certain danger of loss and misery yea of the greatest loss because of the greatest and longest abiding good and of the greatest misery because of the greatest and longest continued evill may move us all with all earnestness to hold fast the profession of the faith and the exercise thereof And that is one consideration often urged by the Apostles So in Heb. 10.23 24 25 26 29 39. Let us hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering not forsaking the Assembling our selves together as the manner of some is For if we sin wilfully after the knowledge of the truth received there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearfull looking for of fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversary For if they that sinned against so as they despised Moses Law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace It is a fearfull or terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God And if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him As also the Consideration of Consid 2. The exceeding profit and benefit accruing from the holding fast the faith and believing on him and the great incouragements we have thereunto These may more powerfully move us to it What is there better than safety from destruction and the injoyment of Eternal life in which there is an everlasting injoyment of God and Christ and of all that is or can be good and desirable and what have we to incourage to it and assure us of it To that consider Encouragement 1. We have to encourage us to this believing and holding fast the faith all the Trinity for us God the Father gave his Son to that end that we might believe on him and be saved and live for ever Joh. 3.16 And he fills strengthens and upholds his Son in and unto all his undertakings for us in order to the bringing us to that safety and eternal life and happiness Isa 42.1 5 6. Psal 89.20 21 22. And gives his holy Spirit in and through him to strengthen and help us therein against all that would harm us or pull us from it The Son himself or Word is for us in all he hath done and suffered and in all he now doth in heaven or earth in his mediation and intercession with God for us and in his government of the World in the name and power of God about us and his ordering of his providences to us Joh. 14 2 3 18. and 16.33 and dispences his Word and Spirit to that purpose to animate and hearten us thereunto and therein is working in us the works of God for us even what he requires of us Joh. 14.16 17 26. and 16.13 14 15. And the holy spirit encourages us by his word and by his heavenly and powerful working in us therewith and gives us all motives and inducements that may be with exhortations counsells promises c. to perswade and strengthen us And what shall we say to these things If God be for us herein who is he that is against us Or what is there that can be presented to our view that may so much discourage us as the consideration that God both Father Son and Spirit are for us may encourage us and hearten us Rom. 8.31 32 33. 1 Joh 5.6 9. Encour 2. Having God for us we have his creatures the best of them and all that are on Gods side to encourage us too We have the holy Angels to protect and defend us therein Psal 34.7 and 91.11 12. Heb. 1.13 14. This they will do for us while we are here and when we go hence they will carry us up to Christ or into Abrahams bosome to be at rest with Christ and his holy ones Luk. 16.22 We have the holy Apostles and Prophets and so the Spirits of just men made perfect for us both to encourage us by their testimonies instructions provocations and all means used in their writings left on Record for us animating and heartning us in believing on the Son of man and by their own practice and examples in all ages we have in them a cloud of witnesses going before us as a guide to us all witnessing to this That the just shall live by faith and shewing us by their examples how to exercise it and live by it Heb. 10.38 with 11 throughout and 12.1 and we have the living Saints the holy men led by the spirit of God to encourage and hearten us on For whatsoever difference there may be among such in any by-opinions or apprehensions yet they all agree in this That he that believeth on the Son of man the Son of God is in a good and right way in the certain way to happiness and shall in holding
is also and confesseth himself a sinner and subject to like Passions with others and standing in need of Gods Salvation for himself as well as others much less from any man appearing and traduced and judged by others and they also Persons of great Repute with men for Wisdom and Piety to be not only an ordinary man but also a Worsman or greater Sinner than many other men And yet so was the case with our Lord Jesus the Son of Man in respect of these last Expressions for he in his appearance nothing differed from other men being born of a Woman growing up by degrees in Stature Wisdom and Favour as others and subject to like infirmities of Humane Nature as Hunger Thirst Weariness Sadness and therefore also Eating Drinking Sleeping Resting himself as others and so found in Fashion as a Man and in the Habit of Men of other ordinary Men nay below most men being poor as to his Parentage Education and Injoyments not having whereon to lay his Head Mat. 8.20 Yea though not confessing himself a sinner personally yet repreached and traduced as a sinner John 9.24 A Wine-bibber and a Glutton a Friend of Publicans and Sinners Mat. 11.19 A Sabbath-breaker a Samaritan and one that had a Devil and acted in his extraordinary Miracles by the power of the Devil John 5.16.18 and 8.48 and 9.16 Mat. 12.24 A Deceiver and Seducer of the People and a Blasphemer Joh. 7.12 10.33 Mat. 27.63 And therefore impossible it was that any man should come to him and believe on him for so great things as Salvation from Sin and Wrath and for Eternal life unless he was some way lifted up and commended as a Person far beyond and above that outward Appearance and Opinion of him Nor however he might be lifted up and commended to men by either Spirit or men yet unless those commendations of him should be true though they might beget a believing on him for even such as have been indeed Deceivers and false Christs have through some false Prophets commendations of them or their own pretensions and boastings of themselves been believed on by men as is implied also Mat. 24.5.23 24. John 5.43 yet the believing on him in such case could neither be Divine nor profitable to Salvation But here the commendations necessary to beget a right and Divine believing on him and to nourish it are and must be true and those effects are worthily expectable from him as we have seen in the former Proposition and Conclusion And it was necessary that such commendations should be given him by such as rightly knew him for none other could indeed rightly commend him and none knew him fully but God his Father as it is said No man knoweth the Son but the Father Mat. 11.27 And his holy Spirit which searcheth all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. And himself who knew whence and what he was John 8.14 And therefore it was necessary that these in the first place should exalt and lift him up by their Testimony and Witness of him unto men And so as we see before the Father bears Witness to him John 5.32.36 37. And he Testified of himself John 8.14.18 And the Spirit bears Witness of him both in the Scriptures John 5.39 and by and in his miraculous Gifts and Operations and the mouths of his Messengers and Instruments by whom he chose to speak John 15.26 27. and 16.13 14 15. Heb. 2.4 1 John 5.6 It was necessary I say that by these he should be Demonstrated and Lifted up above what he otherwise appeared to be above what men of themselves apprehended him to be and all that have apprehended or do apprehend of him aright are and have been begotten and brought to those right apprehensions of him by the Testimony of Gods divine Teaching Whence it is said to Peter confessing him to be The Christ the Son of the Living God Flesh and Blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father that is in Heaven Mat. 16.17 And to the Jews murmuring at him No man can come to me except the Father which hath set me draw him And to the Disciples No man can come to me except it be given him of my Father John 6.44.65 Which Gift is given in and by his Teaching and Demonstrating him Vers 45. And No man can say that is knowingly and heartily say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 But forasmuch as God is pleased ordinarily to Speak by men his immediate and audible speaking after the manner of God being unbearable to men to which purpose he hath Revealed himself to men by Dreams Visions Angels and by his Word ordered by such ways to men whereby he made them Wise men and Prophets and last of all by his only Son made the Son of man hath given forth his Word and the knowledg of it and the Holy Spirit with it to open it to them and fit them to declare it to others therefore as such ways of giving forth his Word and the knowledg of Christ to men was needful and necessary for Lifting him the Son of man up that they might believe on him So also the Witnessings and Declarations of such men that by Christ and his Spirit and by such other Ways and Means as God formerly made use of were fitted for it were necessary for the holding him forth Commending and Lifting him up to other men among whom they are and to whom God sent them and so it was necessary there should be the Ministery of men even of the Prophets and Apostles to Commend and Lift him up to men And they being Dead and gone though their Words as to the main and substance of them be left still with us in which they have Lifted up Praised and Commended him in their faithful Declarations and Expressions of what by Divine Inspirations and Teachings concerning him they knew and those their Declarations are needful to be minded by us Yet forasmuch as all cannot Read their Writings left to Posterity nor all that do Read them do know or understand them or what is said or signified in them therefore needful it is not only that some men should be helped to Read but also that some by the help of Gods Spirit which is the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding or Revelation in the knowledg of Christ and opens his Words and gives understanding Job 32.8 Ephes 1.18 19. Prov. 1.23 in such means as he is pleased to make use of and breath in should be helped to understand them and be gifted to declare their understanding of them and the knowledg of him according to them to other men that they also may hear and believe on him through the help of the same holy Spirit going along with the Instructions given them And so he being ascended on high gave Gifts to men and he hath given as some Apostles some Prophets so also some Evangelists or Gospel Preachers some Pastors and
Teachers for perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the Edifying the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and acknowledgment of the Son of God to a perfect man c. Ephes 4.7 8.11 12. And it was needful he should give such Gifts to men to the end that he might be Lifted up by men in the Exercise of them Yea and that they be faithful to men therein making it the great Business Work and end of all their exercise of their Gifts and so of all their Ministry and Conversation to Lift up and Magnifie the Son of Man to glorifie Jesus Christ our Lord by and from whom they have all their said Gifts and all their Mercies and Injoyments bestowed upon them Heb. 13.7 8. 2 Thes 1.12 Yea and of all that know and believe in him to confess him with their Mouth and magnifie him both in Word and Work calling in others to him And so it 's said The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come Rev. 22.17 And this Witnessing to him and Lifting him up as the Son of God the Christ the Saviour of the World the Lord the Ransom of our Souls who hath given himself the Ransom or Price of Redemption for all the Testimony in due time the Reconciliation and Reconciler the Propitiatory or Mercy Seat through whom God doth cover the Sins of men through Faith in his Blood and the Propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole World The Peace-maker and Peace between God and man and between men and men The great Prophet and Apostle Light and Leader of men into the Truth true Knowledg Faith and Worship of Cod the great High Priest over the House of God the Mediator of God and man that makes Intercession for Transgressors and for all that come to God by him the great King of Saints and Nations the Procurer and Giver of Remission of sins and of the Holy Ghost and of all Spiritual Grace and Blessing the great God and our Saviour who hath the Fulness of God yea all the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling in him Bodily and hath the Government of all things committed to him so as he hath all Power and Authority over all things in Heaven and Earth and hath the dispose of all Mercies for this Life and that to come Spiritual and Corporal the only Way to the Father to be worshipped by us and from the Father to Convey all Grace and Blessing to us the Resurrection and the Life yea the All I say the lifting him up as such a one is exceeding useful and behoveful yea necessary for begetting in mens hearts an exceeding high apprehension of him so as to render him precious to them more precious then the fine Gold of Ophir or the Mountains of Prey and to lead them to account all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledg of him and so to come to and believe on him And though in all Ages nor in all Places there hath not been given forth a like Express and full Testimony of and to him as there is given in these Ages and these Places wherein we live having the Testimony of the Apostles and of the holy Spirit by them nor where we have that is there in every one the same fulness of understanding firmness of belief and clearness of declaration of what is said and contained therein Yet this in the fulness of it and all that is in it is very needful and behoveful for bringing men in to believe on him explicitly and firmly against and because of all the oppositions of the Devil and evil Spirits and of the reason and wisdom and stubbornness of the Flesh and carnal Heart and the course and principles of the world tending to keep men therefrom as to mens more distinct full and comfortable exercise of Faith in him Indeed as it is not of absolute necessity to Salvation and Eternal life that every one have the same fulness and comfortable exercise of believing so also neither is it of absolute necessity that they have every one the same clearness and fulness of understanding and perswasion of the commendations pertaining to him Yea as to Gods power to save men through him I cannot assert a necessity of a distinct knowledg of the Name and particular Acts of Christ at all for doubtless many who died before his Incarnation and had no distinct knowledg of his Person and personal Acts in the flesh were saved as well as many Infants and others since But yet generally needful it is that he be so far Lifted up and made known and there-through that the heart be so far perswaded of his Being Fulness Power Excellency Sufficiency as that the heart see him the only excellent and sufficient Object of Faith and Confidence the only powerful One to be looked to and hoped in by us or else he cannot be distinctly believed on to Salvation and Life everlasting Where there is no Vision the people perish but where there is so much as that people may see the Law and Doctrine of Christ or the Mind of God concerning them through him he that keeps the Law is happy Even that of the Law that concerning him or by and through him is made known Prov. 29.18 with Rom. 2.26 Acts 10.34 And where men have the clear knowledg of him to declare to others for their helpfulness in believing on him and they conceal it from men woe to them for so doing 1 Cor. 9.16 Br. 2. As the Exalting and Lifting up of Christ by way of Declaration of him as aforesaid is necessary for mens believing on him for Life and Salvation at the first and further then he is made known in his Being and Excellency no man can have any Faith in or belief on him So this is necessary also to the abiding and growth in him and recovery of the Back-sliders to Faith in him again that he be still and always Lifted up and Magnified in the Eyes of men even of those that have begun to believe or have formerly believed on him For if by any means the Lifting of him up and the Preaching and praises of him being with-held or neglected the Serpent foist in high thoughts of some other thing or things as better and fuller then he or as necessary besides him and the Grace in and by him for our Life and Salvation or for our Welfare and Happiness either here or hereafter so as the thoughts or mind be corrupted from the simplicity in him And he begin to appear or be looked upon as less Full Precious and Desirable the soul is in present danger to be withdrawn from him and be gone ceasing to believe and depend on him or to do so singly and rightly for the Salvation and Life that is in and by him which occasioned the Apostles godly jealousie of the Corinthians least by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve their minds should
or Turned away from but it is to be accepted willingly and discharged faithfully and diligently in Eye to and confidence in Gods Greatness and Goodness to uphold and bless in it and reward for it 2. But much more are they faulty who abuse the Gospel And so they do who 1. Corrupt or Pervert it as the Apostle speaks Gal. 1.7 Making it another thing then what it is in it self and from God like Wine mixed with Water Or Silver become dross Isa 1.22 Or Meat mixed with Poyson while the Name of God and the Son of man is neglected waved or laid by and Dreams and Fancies instead thereof Preached The Grace of God in its Freeness Fulness and Extent not held forth but a Mingle-mangle or Hotch-potch of Grace and Works Christ and Moses or some other Name or Doctrine in stead thereof declared such as puts men upon waiting for and expecting some Almighty and irresistable Operation and Force of Spirit to Convert and Assure them But in the mean time the Gospel of Christ which is the Power of God to Salvation to them that believe Waved and Rejected by them and Preached against even the Love of God to the World and so the Discovery of the Son of man and the Grace in him for sinners and for all men in which the Power and Spirit of God breaths and the Saving and Enlivening force is offered Men are taught to neglect that and the Power and Force working in it to look for another greater til by Stifling and Crucifying that they perish Like the Jews that rejected Jesus and the Grace discovered in and by him to look for another Messias of far more Pomp and Splendour then he Or as if some should have Taught the Wounded Israelites to have looked for some immediate Power beside the Serpent instead of looking to the Serpent through which God puts forth his Almighty Power for their Healing They who so do are to be avoided as poysoners of Souls in stead of good and skilful Physicians Or as the Corrupters of the Fountains and Springs of all true Piety and acceptable Devotion to God Tit. 3.3 4. Yea such as bring not this Doctrine of Christ we are not to receive to House or bid God-speed to for they are evil and deceitful Workers Messengers of Satan and Instruments or Authours rather of Perdition bringing in Heresies of Damnation Especially such as deny the Person and personal Works of Christ and turn them into Allegories their Doctrine is the Poyson of Dragons and the cruel Poyson of Asps quite contrary to the Doctrine of Christ Crucified the sincere Lifting up of the Son of man and therefore they that bid such God-speed or shew them any countenance and wish them success are therein partakers of their evil works Against these we may see what Woes are thundred in 2 Pet. 2. and Jude 4.19 And that For them and those after to be mentioned under this Head is reserved the blackness of Darkness for ever That is the saddest portion in Hell and Misery For these are like the evil fallen Angels especially if having known the Way of Truths they turn aside to be of these fallen from Heaven and become Seducers of men from the Way of Truth and Righteousness Causers and Provokers of others mens destructions the Instruments or Messengers of Satan to keep or delude men from Christ Jesus the Son of man that they by neglecting or putting away from them him his Salvation set forth in the Gospel and by looking to or for other false Medicines might die of their Wounds Yea by these Satan insinuates his strong delusions that men might believe Lies and be damned so that they are most Diametrically or Point-blanck opposite to Gods Grand design and mens great Good and Happiness And therefore as Christ and his Apostles were earnest and frequent in warning of such as these so there are none that the holy Prophets and Apostles speak more terribly against as shewing them to be men of swifter and greater destruction then others as may appear in Jer. 23.9 c. And in those Chapters of Peter and Jude above mentioned Oh what care therefore should be taken of falling into this number And of hearing and being perverted or subverted by them Take heed what ye hear Beware of false Prophets look to your selves for many Deceivers and Antichrists are gone out into the World that turn men from Christ and his Truth his true Church and People and lead them to destruction 2. Such as Preach the Truth but walk contrary to it in Pride Wantonness Fraud Uncleanness Covetousness Voluptuous Riotous Courses or the like causing men to stumble at the Gospel and speak evil of it These therefore are Enemies to the Cross of Christ too as the former are in their Doctrine and so much the greater as they are the more specious in theit Conversation as the Pharisees were to Christ so these also under pretence of Friendship betray it like Judas and expose it to its open Enemies to be Decried and Crucified Rejected and put away even those that Preaching it Phil. 3.18 19. yet have their Bellies their Gods and mind Earthly things whose end therefore is destruction too among the forementioned both occasionally to others and finally to themselves 3. They that do hinder the Gospel and Gospel-preachers forbidding them that would and are fitted for it and sent forth with it to speak it to others that they might be saved against such wrath hath come and will come to the utmost 1 Thes 2.14 15 16. For these men are herein such as please not God but are contrary to all men or at least to the good of those men from whom through their cause it is withheld filling up the measure of their sins Whether they be 1. Such false Teachers that like the Pharisees and Lawyers of old take away the Key of Knowledg the Vision of all the Preaching of the Grace of God that brings Salvation to all men the Preaching of the Cross of Christ as seen and testified to by all the Prophets of God and by all his holy Apostles and that gives Light to all other matters of Doctrine and Practice and concerns all men as laying a good Foundation for their Faith and Repentance and all right Obedience unto God neither entring the Kingdom themselves nor suffering those that would to enter it in so Receiving and Believing the Grace of God in Christ toward them as to be renewed into a Conformity to him and Submission to his Government by it Yea shut the Kingdom of God against men while they will not have that Preached to them that should let them see their way into it and perswade them to walk in it and enter by it Mat. 23.13 Luke 11.52 Or 2. Such as exercising some power amiss do by violent and compulsive courses hinder the Preaching and Preachers thereof whether that power misexercised be Ecclesiastical or Civil and so whether they that abuse their power to
Gentiles Act. 13.47 and 28.28 Surely it 's every way a heavy judgment and to be much cryed and prayed against as Psal 12.1 2. Well might the Prophet Amos from the mouth of the Lord signifie that the Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord is a worse Famine then that of bread and water Amos 8.11 12. For this is but of sustenance for the body and bodily life and that 's but a momentany and uncertain life which must however dye and depart that is indangered thereby in a bodily death out of which there will be a Resurrection again and in the state of which the Soul mean time may be blessed Rev. 14.13 but the other is of the sustenance and salvation of the Soul and the removal thereof lays open to the loss of Eternal Life and indangers the inevitably falling into everlasting destruction out of which is no recovery or redemption Oh how greatly behoves it us then to pray and pray earnestly for our selves and for our Nation that however God may please to correct and chasten us yet he would be pleased to continue with us his glorious Gospel and not take that from us and that he would vouchsafe to give or restore it to the Places or Nations that are without it or have it not so clearly with them as we have it blessed be God for it And let this suffice for the first Use the Discovery of the Excellency of the Gospel-Doctrine and the Inferences therefrom CHAP. XXI A Second Vse The Excellencies of Christ hence inferred and that is viewed First As the Excellencies of the choice Creatures are ascribed unto Him and so He the first-born of every Creature Use 2 THe Second Thing I shall note is for further Information of us from all said upon God's Grand Design of exalting and lifting up Christ the Son of Man and of the necessity and fulness of Him and his Exaltation both as exalted in Himself and as glorified by the Spirit in the Gospel for effecting Faith in us and there-through preserving us from perishing and giving us Eternal Life to inform us of the exceeding preciousness excellency and glory of the Lord Jesus this Son of Man himself from whom and whose excellency all the Glory of the Gospel and its beneficialness and advantagiousness floweth Surely He that renders the Gospel so glorious must needs excell in glory and excellency himself it s nothing but He in it that makes it rich and full and efficacious Let Men speak as gallant words as they can imagine and use all the skill that Art and Industry can suggest yea that the most wise and subtle spirit can teach them Speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels use the most powerful demonstrations Logick can make and the most perswasive arguments Oratory can invent and make use of yet if there be nothing of the Son of Man in it nothing of Christ and him crucified it avails nothing to our Salvation and enjoyment of Eternal Life But He alone discovered and the better the more nakedly and with the less artifice and use of those Sciences is able to effect all in us for God hath made void the wisdom of this world the wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World are with him mere ciphers 1 Cor. 1.18 19 20. Deceive men they may and therefore the Apostle cautions us to beware least any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit Coll. 2.8 but save men from perishing they cannot much less advance them to Eternal Life No it s this Object held forth in the Gospel that is the life and vertue of it which is the Son of man Christ Jesus Rom. 1.3 and 16.25 and therefore seeing the Gospel is so excellent by his being the matter of it how excellent is He himself who is its matter He must needs be more precious than the Gold of Ophir more glorious and excellent than the Mountains of prey Isa 13.12 Psal 76.4 That hath in him not only the excellencies of all the Creatures but all the excellencies of God also Gods great glory and mans utmost happiness all meeting in him If when Ahasuerus proposed the Question What shall be done to the man whom the King will honour Haman reasonably thought it would be no small matter which would be done to him How much more may it be thought and believed that He whom God not only will honour but honour above all must needs excell in all things that may commend him Yea He honours him with his own with all his own honour and glory which he will not give to any other besides him either thing or person Surely he must needs be infinitely and inexpressibly honourable and glorious seeing God is infinitely honourable and glorious himself and honours him not according to the dictates of the wisest and highest Creatures with whom he takes no counsel in this or any other matter but according to his own wisdom understanding and goodness which are all infinite and boundless unless then we could by searching find out God yea and find him out too to perfection whose Excellency is higher then the Heavens so that What can we do Deeper then Hell and therefore What can we know Longer then the Earth and Broader then the Sea and so altogether Incomprehensible we cannot find out and fathom all the Glory and Excellency of this Man the Son of man the Lord Jesus Well may it therefore be said of him that He hath a Name above every Name and that none knows but himself Rev. 19.12 And as himself saith None knoweth him but his Father Mat. 11.27 Yet many and great and glorious things are said of him by his holy Spirit That searcheth out all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 And Takes the things of Christ and shews them to us John 16.13 14 15. Things that commend him highly to us though yet his Name which is only Excellent Psal 148.13 Is Exalted above all Blessing and Praise Neh. 9.5 So that when we have searched and said all we can in and from what is Recorded of him by his holy Spirit yet we may conclude as in Psal 106.2 Who can declare his mighty Acts Who can set forth all his Praises God hath so poured out Himself and his Fulness and the Fulness of all things therein as it were into him that he is All and in all in the new Creature or Creation Col. 3.10 It hath pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell and it hath pleased all Fulness to dwell in him yea All the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and in him we are compleat Col. 1.19 and 2.9 10. All things in Heaven and Earth hath God pleased to gather together in one even in Christ Jesus Ephes 1.10 That if any thing in either or all things in both of them may like us and satisfie us we may have them fully and transcendently in him Let us essay to View something of his Infinite
of the living Creatures but Christ not only knoweth what is in them and in men also yea all men Joh. 2.24 25. but also he knows his own name and his Father and Fathers name which none else doth Joh. 7.29 Rev. 19.12 Matth. 11.27 Adam then had provision made for him that he might in standing live and been immortal a Garden planted furnished with all variety of Trees and Fruits pleasant to the sight and good for food and a River of Water running therein to water it and a Tree of Life in the midst of it And surely Christ as he had delight in God and fulness of glory and satisfaction in and with him before his Incarnation it being the same glory he had with him before the World was that now he hath Joh. 17.5 So now also he lives in God yea when in the flesh he lived by his Father as he that eats him lives by him Joh. 6.57 and it was and surely is his meat and drink to do his Fathers will Joh. 4.34 and He also hath planted a pleasant Garden and an Orchard of Pomegranates with pleasant Fruits Camphire Nard Spikenard Saffron and Calamus and Cinnamon and all the Trees of Frankincense Myrrh and Aloes with all the chief Spices and there is or rather he is the fountain of Gardens a Well of living waters and streams from Lebanon Cant. 4.15 And he exercises himself to dress this as the first Adam his and he eats of his pleasant fruits which it brings forth to him Gathers his Myrrh with his Spices eats his honey-comb with his honey The fruits brought forth by his spirit in his People are the joy of his heart and as his pleasant meat and he drinks his Wine with his milk even the love of his Spouse and of his Children to him which he hath begot in them by his spirit and the expressions of it Cant. 4.11 13 14. and 5.1 Joh. 15.11 And he is all this to us and for us Adam again had a Sabbath to rest in and surely Christ rested in the Father and in his love even before the foundations of the World and rests in his love to his People Zeph. 3.17 Yea and having offered one perfect Sacrifice now to God for us is set down and rests for ever from all his sufferings and toilsome work and service in his Priestly ministration at his Fathers right hand there expecting till all his foes be made his foot-stool Heb. 10.11 12 13. And is the Rest and Sabbath for us to rest in Heb. 4.3 4. Mat. 11.28 Adam was made in Gods Image and Christ is the Image of the invisible Majesty the brightness of his glory and express Character of his Person Col. 1.15 Heb. 1.3 Adam was Male and Female as Adam is the common name of both Gen. 5.1 and Christ takes on him both formes often He is the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 Yet sometime he is represented in the Feminine forme as Wisdom hath built her house and hewed out her seven Pillars Prov. 9.1 2. And as he is the everlasting Father that begets Children to himself and to his Father So he brings them forth too through the travail of his Soul Isa 9.6 and 53.10 Yet as God see it good for Adam not to be alone and therefore he made him an help-meet for him out of his side while he was cast by him into a deep sleep and so formed the woman for him and brought her to him that leaving Father and Mother Man might cleave to his Wife even so Christ also hath a Spouse formed out of his side out of his flesh and out of his bone through his sleeping in death which he hath left Father and Mother to cleave unto and in her is his delight Eph. 5.30 Isa 62.4 5. Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed in their innocent state or as the words may be read they behaved themselves prudently and did not shame themselves Gen. 2.25 and did not see themselves naked till they had sinned for till then they were comely through the beauty and glory of God upon them and their integrity and innocency and Gods favour and protection was their defence and cover from any thing that might harm them but after they had sinned and Christ was interposed to be their Saviour God clothed them with Coats So Christ also and his Spouse are represented as naked sometimes one to the other and there is no shame therein So Christ is nakedly represented in Cant. 5.12 16. and so we find the Spouse his Church set forth as exceeding comely lovely and beautiful without any Ornaments or clothing mentioned save upon her feet to keep her clean and safe in her walking with him Cant. 7.1 7. Yet at other times we find Christ represented as clothed not as having any thing of shame to be hid and covered but as Adam before he see himself naked was covered with the glorious Ornaments of his own virtues and the glory of God upon him So it is said The Lord reigneth he is clothed with Majesty the Lord is clothed with strength he hath girded himself c. Psal 93.1 and in Dan. 10. we find him clothed with linen his own innocency and purity as the high Priest that was to offer the atoneing Sacrifice and girded with the fine gold of Vphaz that is with his truth more precious then the finest gold as in Isa 11.5 Righteousness the girdle of his loynes and faithfulness the girdle of his reines in Rev. 1.12 we find him clothed with a Garment down to his Feet The Robe of Righteousness wherewith he covereth his whole Body the Church even to his lowest and meanest Members and girt about the paps with a golden girdle his heart girt with love and charity or strengthned therewith the bond of all perfection as it s called Col. 3.14 He hath as Princes use to have changes of Raiment in which is much preciousness We may find him sometimes among his People in Garments of Salvation and Praise Isa 61.10 And sometimes clothed with Garments of Vengeance against his and their Enemies So in Rev. 10.1 We find him clothed with a Cloud as threatning tryal to his Church or vengeance to his Enemies and with a Rain-bow about his head as mindful of his Covenant with them that fear him in Isa 59.17 He is clad as a Man of War having righteousness on as a Brest-plate and the Helmet of Salvation on his Head which he hath for his Body the Church also Eph. 6.14 15 and he put on the Garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak And in Isa 63.1 2. He is represented red in his Aapparel and his Garments dyed and stained with blood because of the vengeance executed by him on his Enemies as also in Rev. 19.12 But when he is clad as a Bridegroom or Suitor to our Souls all his Garments smell of Myrrh Aloes and Cassia sweet healthful and purging Spices and Perfumes out of the Ivory
there a little neglecting the vision of All the Foundation and Rest wherewith the weary should be caused to rest Isa 28.12 13 16. and 29.11 They that so do are so far from being healed and saved in and by such ways that they fall under reproof as taking the wrong course for themselves because not looking to yea are under greater misery and judgment for neglecting and despising this healing Object These things then being considered let us be exhorted to look off from other things as vain and unprofitable as being neither Crucified for us nor having a Name Power and Virtue able to afford Relief to us Yea oftentimes bewitching of and destructive to us as the Tree of Knowledg of Good and Evil was to Evah and the Wedg of Gold and Babylonish Garment proved to Achan and to look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of the Faith c. Yea let us look to him in all cases for all things in all means at all times and with all diligence and perseverance I say First Let us look to him in all cases for all Grace and Blessing needful for us As to say 1. For pardon of our sins for in him is forgiveness of sin Preached to us and to him give all the Prophets witness c. as we noted before in speaking to the believing on him to be exercised by us It is not for us to pore upon our selves and sins and think that way to get rid of them without looking to him in believing on him Nor is it for us to run to other Means or Medicines or trust to any Popes or Priests to pardon us but look to him directly as our only Saviour that having Suffered and Died for our sins hath there-through both Power and Readiness to forgive them and so we shall receive it of and in him 2. Let us look to him for cleansing from the filth of our sins For he is filled with Spirit and Power to that purpose the Spirit of the fear of the Lord is upon him to inable and furnish him to frame our hearts to fear him and in his Mediating and Ministring the New Testament or Covenant he puts the fear of God into the heart which is clean and leads to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit and to perfect holiness before him Jer. 32.39 40. with Heb. 8.6.10 Psal 19.9 2 Cor. 7.1 And to that purpose look we to him 3. For Light and Direction in the Truth of God as it is in him and to receive from him that Unction by which we may know all things and be lead into all truth That Light that will guide our feet into the Paths of Peace at all times and in all cases for He is come a Light into the World that whosoever believeth on him might not abide in darkness John 12.46 And he Will bring forth Judgment to the Gentiles and cause his Judgment to rest for a Light to the people Isa 42.1 and 51.4 They looked to him and were enlightned and their faces were not ashamed Psal 34.5 All others are vanity and their works wind and confusion none of them where he is not can answer any thing Isa 41.28 29. Let us look to him for direction in our ways as well as for instruction to our minds that we may know and understand his will concerning us in what he requires of us as well as what he is and hath done for us for he is the Counsellor to Action and Practice as well as the Teacher of us in Faith and Doctrine and he will teach us his ways that we may walk in his paths Isa 2.3 It 's good to seek to him both in matters of Faith and Practice and not to lean to our own understandings nor take things on trust from men simply on the account of their Authority or Wisdom 4. For Spirit and Grace to incline our hearts to believe on him and walk in his ways For the Spirit is put upon him and he is the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost John 1.33 which he gives to them that obey him Acts 5.32 Thus we find David looking to him for by Lord he oft-times signified the Son see Psal 97.1.5.7 and 68.17 18 19. and 102.12.25 with Heb. 1.6.10 11. Ephes 4.8.11 for the holy Spirit and for its inclining his heart to his fear and way Witness these and the like Expressions Uphold me with thy free Spirit Psal 51.11 Thy Spirit is good lead me into the Land of uprightness Psal 143.10 Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments incline my heart unto thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness turn away mine eyes from beholding Vanity quicken me in thy ways Psal 119.35 36 37. 5. Look we also to him For strength to strengthen us unto every good way and work and to uphold us in all difficulties and against all oppositions for the Spirit that is upon him is as well a Spirit of Might as of Vnderstanding and Counsel Isa 11.2 And the holy Men of God have looked to him for strength both unto all good so David In the day when I cried unto thee thou strengthnedst me with strength in my soul Psal 138.3 Strengthen me according to thy word Psal 119.28 And against all evil and opposition as Vphold me according to thy word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my hope hold thou me up and I shall be safe c. Psal 119.116 117. And so it s promised that they who wait on the Lord the Lord will strengthen their hearts and they shall renew their strength they shall mount up as with wings like Eagles they shall run and not be a weary walk and not faint Psal 27.14 and 31.24 Isa 40.29 30 31. 6. For comfort in Distresses Troubles and Temptations For it s he that prays the Father for and obtains and sends the Comforter even the Spirit of Truth John 14.16 17. and 15.26 And in his seeing his people or visiting them with his Salvation he makes their hearts rejoyce so as their joy shall no man take from them John 16.22 Thus David looked up to the Lord for comfort When wilt thou comfort me Psal 119.82 and When wilt thou come to me Psal 101.2 And Rejoyce the soul of thy Servant for unto thee do I lift up my soul O Lord Psal 86.4 But in looking to him for this and all other things take we heed to love him and keep his Commandments as our Saviour instructs us John 14.15 16 21. 7. For help and succour in dangers and deliverance from evils and from all enemies whether they be men or Devils For all Power and Authority in Heaven and upon Earth is his and he stands and feeds or rules in the strength of the Lord and in the Majesty of his Name and is both mighty to save his Servants and to destroy his and their enemies Mat. 28.18 Mich. 5.4 Isa 63.1 James 4.12 Thus David Mine eyes are evermore to the Lord for he
co-workers with and under him we are subject to his Spirit and sowing thereto we shall reap a good reward even life everlasting Gal. 6.8 Rom. 6.19 And indeed God will accept of no praises or commendations of him from us in which we neglect and lay by his Son the Son of man according to the measures of the Revelation given us of him seem our praises and commendations of him never so glorious The Pharisees would have had the blind man give the glory of his seeing to God so as to detract it from the Son of man as a sinner out of envy and opposition to him Joh. 9.24 But were they accepted think you in such a pretended glorifying of God Surely no Nor yet those zealous Pharisees and Jews who being zealous of God but not according to knowledge through ignorance of Gods righteousness went about to establish their own righteousness and submitted not to the righteousness of God which is Christ Jesus the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10.1 2 3 4. and no better but rather worse be those Antichristian spirits who taking offence at the Cross of Christ and lifting up themselves above it not holding the head do talk of God and Spirit but so as they confess not Christ come in the Flesh but through their knowledge of him after the flesh and ignorance of him according to the spirit of God lay him by as an unprofitable thing or thing out of date as much as the Ceremonies of Moses Law Joh. 4.2 3. Motive 2. Herein we shall be profitable to men to whom we lift him up that being the way to do them good and bring them in to believe and so to be saved from destruction and be made partakers of eternal life And what can we do better for them then to be Instruments of so great good to them Indeed this is the way to be profitable to them in every thing for if we be means of bringing them to Christ and planting them into him then are we means of their being made apt and fit for doing that which is good and well-pleasing in the sight of God in all things It being the only thing that puts Men into a sound and right plight both towards God and men and then we are means too of their being made able to bear and endure all kinds of tryals and exercises profitably which may befall them Yea this is the way to make them live both comfortably and acceptably to God and to dy in the favour of God and so to be happy for ever There is nothing then wherein we can be more friends to men or more beneficial to them then in a due lifting up the Son of man before them in word and conversation therefore it is that God calls upon us so frequently to praise bless exalt and magnify the Lord even Jehovah which Title or Name is attributed to the Lord Jesus also And he must needs be included in the object of that act inasmuch as God accepts not of our praises to him but in and through him as was shewed before especially the Servants of the Lord who stand in the House or Courts of the Lord they are called upon to exalt lift up or praise the Lord or the Name of the Lord Psal 134.1 2. and 135.1 2 3. And they are they that are chiefly set in the World to be Instruments of good to and in it and this is the way in which they are directed to do Men good even by praising and commending the Lord to them as we might consider in viewing particulars how all their service in the House of the Lord and in the World is to be done with this Engine or Instrument the praising or lifting up the Lord the Son of man As for instance Instance 1. Would we convince the World of Sin for not believing on Christ the way of the Holy Spirit is to do it by witnessing of him lifting him up and setting him forth as the object to be believed on the Christ the Saviour the Son of God that hath dyed for them and is risen again this presently pricks them at the heart as it did those in Act. 2.36 37. at the Apostle Peter's Preaching and till Men see and be convinced that He is such a one they think not themselves guilty in rejecting him seeking safety and happiness in the works of the Law or some other things till Paul see that Jesus of Nazareth was such a Person He was so far from thinking that He sinned in not believing on him that He thought He ought to do many things against his name Act. 26.9 But when he came to perceive who he was then he was convinced of sin in that and judged himself for it ever after as unworthy therefore of such mercy as was conferred upon him 1 Tim. 1.12 13 14. 1 Cor. 15.9 Eph. 3.8 This then is our way to convince men of sin for their unbelief on Christ let them see that He is anointed and appointed of God to be their Saviour their only Saviour that He hath dyed for them and is risen again and is every way able and ready to save them and therefore is to be looked to and to be believed on for all grace and blessing and then they who thought before that they might not believe on and hope in him they are so bad and unworthy will see it s their sin not to believe on him and that that is a greater evil then all their sins besides as binding them all upon them and hindering them from receiving the pardon of them they may be convinced of other sins by the Law as Murther Adultery Theft c. But not of this that they sin in not coming to Christ and depending on him for all grace and blessing but in his being lifted up and evidenced to be so excellent and glorious an one Joh 16.8 9. And again Instance 2. Would we shew men the odiousness of all other sins how hateful they are to God and how needful it is that they turn from them to Christ to receive forgiveness of them and washing and cleansing from them The way is not so much to tell them of the Law and what that saith as to let them know what Christ suffered for them and that through his death and sufferings only there is forgiveness and cleansing of them that way will do it if men in hearing hear and in seeing see and perceive what is set before them as we shewed before Thus the Apostle saw and judged all to be dead and in an utterly lost state in themselves in this that One died for all 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Instance 3. Would we convince the most seemingly righteous and just man in his own righteous walking and working that He is a sinner lost in himself and needs to believe on Christ and seek Justification and Righteousness in him the way is to set forth Christ and lift him up as the Son of
6. and 3.1 2 13 14. c. and 5.1 c. Instance 10. Would we comfort any in any Temptation or Affliction The way is to lift up the Son of man and shew the Grace in him and how God orders all things wisely and holily in him so as to the good and profit of men to further their Salvation and Welfare and that there is help in him in every condition Heb. 12. 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 10. c. 1 Thes 4.13.17 Rom. 15.4 5 6 13. Yea in a word would we either humble or exalt cast down or raise up encourage and strengthen in and unto what is good or do any other good thing in which we may profit men this is the way to do it viz. By Lifting up and Exalting Christ the Son of man and setting him and the Power and Grace in him before men as also his Terrours against those who refuse and turn from him 2 Cor. 5.10 11. Heb. 1. and 2.1 3. and 10.26 29. and 12.25 So that this way we may be profitable to men doing all in the Name of the Lord Jesus as we are exhorted giving thanks to God even the Father by him Col. 3.17 But waving this we do or can do nothing as is said John 15.4 5 6. That 's the second Motive Motive 3. Being acceptable to God and profitable to men we cannot but be useful to our selves also both in as much as no acceptable service to God or profitable work to men shall be without its reward 1 Cor. 15.58 Heb. 6.10 11. And also inasmuch as in Lifting up Christ to others we may mind him our selves if we do it as we ought And indeed we can scarcely Lift him up profitably to others without viewing and considering knowing and taking notice of him our selves and that 's the order and way approved of God for our doing it Let every one that heareth say come Rev. 22.17 And He that heareth speaketh constantly Prov. 21.28 While we view and look upon Christ our selves that we may commend him to others we shall not be without Fruit Profit and Advantage to our selves also opening our mouth wide in this sense too God will fill it Psal 81.10 And The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered also himself Prov. 11.25 Wherefore let us make it our business and design to know and view and serve the Lord Jesus and to know and view him that we may serve him and as we know him serve him in Glorifying and Lifting him up as we are exhorted Psal 99.5 8. Exalt that is lift up the Lord our God and worship him at his holy Hill for he the Lord our God is holy And let us do this as in all cases or to all purposes so in all things As to say 1. In all the Ordinances of God In Baptizing let it be into Him and his Name so as holding him forth and directing therein to Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world manifesting Christ to men as the Baptist did John 1.29 31. In breaking Bread or eating the Lords Supper lift up Christ the Son of man shewing forth his Death until he come 1 Cor. 11.26 Let it not be Baptism and the breaking of Bread much less the Water the Bread and the Wine that we lift up bless and magnifie therein but the Son of man they are sufficiently lifted up in being made the Mediums of lifting him up and conveying Virtue from him to us In Praying lift up the Son of man and so in Praising Thanksgiving and Singing of Psalms while we Pray and ask in his Name and upon his account and give thanks to God in all things by him and bless in his Name and in Singing Make melody with Grace in our hearts to him the Lord John 14.13 14. and 16.23 24. Col. 3.15 17. Ephes 5.20 Yea What ever we do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to God even the Father by him In our Meditations let them be much of him and of nothing but as represented also in and through him Psal 104.34 and 48.9 Isa 26.7 8 9. Mal. 3.16 And so In our Conferences and Discourses Let us with one mind and mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ so as the Father of him and so as lifting him up therein Rom. 15.5 Jude 20.21 And so 2. In all our whole Life and Conversation let us lift up the Son of man in walking so as becomes the Gospel of Christ Standing fast in one Spirit and in one Mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel which is the Gospel of Christ and concerns him Phil. 1.27 Rom. 1.3 4 16. Oh let it be our business in all things and by all means to lift up the Son of man to Praise the Lord to Sing forth his Praises and to make his Praise glorious CHAP. XXVI Reproof to those that are faulty in not lifting up or in not rightly lifting up the Son of man With some discovery of Spirits which are of God and which not Use 4 HEnce also we may Reprove the Evils of men yea too much our Defficiency therein every where in not making it more our Business to lift up and look to the Son of Man I may speak briefly to either Branch And Reproof 1. First He is too little lifted up by men even by those that Minister and pretend to be his Servants and to Preach his Gospel too many such are faulty in not lifting him up in their Ministry Such as 1. They who lift up Themselves their Parts Wit Learning Places Offices being Proud of them and Vaunting themselves of and in them above their Neighbours but not lifting up Jesus Christ the Son of man that men might see his Glory Look to and Believe on him Too many there are like to Diotrephes that love to have the preheminence themselves rather then to endeavour that Christ may have it in all things and in all hearts and spirits seeking their own things and not the things that be Jesus Christs 3 John 9.10 Col. 1.18 Phil. 2.21 Most men proclaim every man his own goodness but a faithful friend to Christ who can find Prov. 20.6 2. Such as lift up other men and have their persons in admiration for advantage sake as the Apostle saith of the false Teachers Jude 16. Whether it be the Beast either the Papal or any worldly Power lifting up it self like Jereboam who made Israel to sin in the Temple and House of God and exercising Lordship therein over the Consciences of men and Worship of God As it is said Prophetically of many yea of the whole World worshipping and wondering after the Beast that they will lift or cry him up saying Who is able to make War with him and to overcome him Rev. 13.4 And many such flatterers there be admirers and applauders of the Antichristian powers and Preachers up thereof in opposition to
dispensing to us his grace and blessing and so remaining as a perpetual High Priest for us and Mediator of God and us through whom we are to have all our access to and dependance on God in all things but as if Christ was gone out of the Flesh or Beeing of a Man again Or else or also 6. Talk of waiting upon God or the Spirit without use of or attending to the Means and Ordinances appointed by Him and the gifts given by him for our helpfulness dissolving Jesus at it were and loosing or dividing the Spirit from the Flesh or Humanity of Christ and so from the Means and Mediums appointed in liew of the Personal Presence of his Flesh in the World the Apostles Prophets Evangelists and other Ordinances given and appointed by him Eph. 4.8 11 12 13 14 c. Or whether He 7. Mock at or deny the glorious appearance of the Person of Christ as the Son of man sitting on the right hand of God and coming in the power and glory of God with all the Angels of his might to raise the Dead in Body out of their Graves and to judge them all according to their works condemning the wicked to everlasting misery for their obstinacy in their wickedness and giving an everlasting Kingdom and glory to all that have here believed in and obeyed him for these deny him a great part of the glory given him of his Father and so do not lift Him up but cast him down from his excellency Act. 10.42 and 17.30 31. Matth. 26.64 Luc. 22.69 c. Take we heed of all these Principles and Spirits as erring and not lifting up the Son of man and therefore not of Gods sending and owning CHAP. XXVII The second Branch of the use of Reproof viz. Of those who look not to Christ as lifted up of God his Spirit and Servants Use 6 Reproof 2 ANd as they are worthy of Reprehension and Reproof who lift not up the Son of man in their Doctrine or make not that their great design in order to the glorifying of God and doing good to others What ever or who ever else they lift up yea though they lift up as some do humane Virtues yea or Gods Gifts and Graces which are lift up out of their places when men lift them up neglecting him the right Spring of all truly good Works and the Author and Infuser of all real and right Virtues as discovered to and looked to by us So again many are greatly faulty too in not looking to and believing on him when lifted up as he is rightly lifted up in the Scriptures And indeed as the former sort are reproveable exceedingly as dishonouring God and Christ abrogating Gods Grace and obscuring Christs Glory so as men may not clearly see it and so are also very injurious and destructive to men hindring them of what is prepared of God for their Welfare and Happiness as was noted before And thereby also procure a woe and curse against themselves for how shall they escape the damnation of Hell who stand so cross and opposite to God in his grand Design and to Christ in the Honour due to him and to his Name and to the good of all men if they repent not Surely wrath is likely to and without Repentance will come upon them to the utmost 1 Thes 2.16 So also are they enemies to their own good and go contrary to Gods Ordinance Will and Command and by their evil examples are also at least prejudicial and injurious to others who when he is rightly lifted up of God and of his Spirit and his holy Apostles and Prophets as all their liftings of him up are right and by his Servants Ministers and Disciples yet refuse to behold and look to him and to seek their help and healing in and by him But either First Neglect him looking after and upon other things As the World and Flesh going in their hearts after their Covetousness their Oxen Farms Wives that I say not worse things as Hawks Hounds Whores Wine and Belly-chear Sports Pastimes c. like those in Mat. 22.5 6. Luke 14.19 20 21. and as those that look to their gain from their quarters neither sensible of their Wounds nor seeking to be healed of them they look rather on the Wine when its red or on Women or the Wedg of Gold c. Prov. 6.25 and 23.5.31 Josh 7. Or Secondly In case they be sensible that they be as it were bitten and punished for their sins If Afflictions Dangers Fears Poverty Pains or the like come upon them yet they look not to the Son of man for help or healing They turn not to him that smites them neither seek the Lord of Hosts but look to other things as their Policies and Contrivances for themselves saying In the pride and stoutness of their hearts the Bricks are fallen down but we will build with hewen stones The Sycamore Trees are cut down but we will build with Cedars Isa 9.10 13. Or else looking to those that smite them as instruments of their troubles thinking by complying with them and getting their favour and friendship and making them on their side shall be safe saying A confederacy to them that say a confederacy and staying upon them Isa 8.12 and 10.20 Or else looking to Humane helps and Carnal ways of defence and safety as when God brought War upon and discovered the Covering of Judah the weakness and nakedness of their Covering or else that Covering of his Spirit wherewith they should have covered themselves Isa 30.1 Even Christ as held forth to them in the Law and Prophets the true Propitiatory or covering Mercy-seat Rom. 3.25 then they not looking to that true Covering looked to the Armour of the house of the Forest and and saw the breaches of the City of David that they were many and gathered together the Waters of the lower Pool and numbred the houses and made a Ditch c. Such like Humane courses for safety they took But they looked not to the Maker thereof nor had respect to him that Fashioned it long ago looked not to the Lord the Maker Advancer and Blesser of their City nor to him that Fashioned it or made and fashioned the Covering wherewith they should have covered long ago Isa 22.8.11 Or they looked to Egypt and their Horses and Chariots Isa 30.1 2. but looked not to the holy One of Israel Isa 31.1 2 3. As men in a danger or fright that look hither and thither for help but look not to the true place for help So are men apt to look to Hills and Mountains in times of War in times of Sickness to the Physician as Asa 2 Chron. 16 12. and the like But seeing God hath set up and exalted such a one as is mighty to save the Son of man one chosen out of the People one who is one with us our Brother and Kinsman and so one compassionate of us as acquainted with our Temptations and Troubles And one that
is able to Succour us because one with God the Son of God one in whom God and his Fulness gives forth himself to us Should we neglect and flight him and look to any other thing or person from him As that in Psal 121.1 may be read and is read in the Margin Should I look to the Hills and Mountains From whence then cometh my help My help cometh from the Lord who made the Heaven and the Earth Not from the Hills and Mountains but from the Lord Jehovah the Lord who made the Heavens and the Earth Should not a man look to his God Should a man seek for the Living to the Dead Isa 8.19 Is it not better to search and try our ways and turn to the Lord lifting up our heart with our hands yea our souls and our eyes to him in the Heavens Lam. 3.40 41. Psal 25.1.15 and 123.1 2. But Oh! How apt are we to look for help from trouble but not to consider that our sins are the causes of our troubles and so neglect to seek to be delivered from them Or if we seek deliverance from them then yet how many Thirdly Look to false ways for deliverance from sin and trouble too Running like the Heathens to false Gods or as some Jews to the true God by false ways not by Jesus Christ the Son of man and his Death and Sacrifice in and through which our way lies to God and access to and acceptance with him may be had of us But we men are apt either 1. With Israel of old to look to the Altars and Groves the works of their hands as in Isa 17.7 8. Where he saith in That day a man shall have respect to his Maker and his eyes shall have respect to the holy One of Israel and he shall not look to the Altars the works of his hands neither shall he respect that which his Fingers have made either the Groves or the Images Implying that that was now their way of sinning that they looked in a Religious way by Idolatrous and Superstitious sacrifices and observancies to pacifie Gods anger appease his wrath and obtain his favour as in all Nations generally the Heathen did by their Idolatrous Sacrifices and Ceremonies seek to please their gods and divert their anger and by such superstitious and heathenish ways too many yet conceit they may do it with the true God doing that to the Lord which the Heathen use to do to their gods contrary to the express Command of God Deut. 12.30 31. Or else 2. With Israel in latter times after that being punished for their gross Idolatries they were reformed from them For then they looked to the works of their own hands in another sense which they in those former times under any Reformation in their better Kings days were apt also to do they used to look to the Temple and to cry The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these And to their Sacrifices Oblations Burnt-offerings solemn Meetings many Prayers Sabbaths and the like And to hope for Deliverance from Sin and Judgments upon such accounts as these as in Isa 28.14 15. and 66.1 3. Jer. 7.4 5 6 c. Rom. 9.31 32. and 10.1 2 3 Luke 18.9 11 12. And are there not many now that look either to things as bad as the Idolatrous Sacrifices and superstitious Groves and Altars of the Gentiles and Gentilizing Jews Some that look for help pardon and deliverance from wrath from the Pope and his Ministers their Masses Dirges Pilgrimages Invocation of Saints and such like Fopperies And by things too much of Kindred to them where the Pope is rejected as by their saying their Prayers getting the Priests Absolution observing Church-orders c. And those who are reformed yet more from those things do they not come up too much to the zealous Jews and Pharisees in looking to their Orders Covenants Zeal Profession Ordinances Duties and many the like things never Crucified for them but to him who died for them and into whose Name they were Baptized they look not or look too little 3. So also they who look to one another but not to Jesus who think this or that Religious man or these or those good People shall help and succour them Like the foolish Virgins who neglecting Christ and the getting Oyl in their Vessels from him while they had opportunity looked that the wise Virgins in their defects should supply them Mat. 25.8 but their hope and expectation failed them verse 9. To such it may be said as old Jacob said to his Sons when they were like to famish for want of Bread corn Why look ye one upon another Behold I have heard that there is Corn in Egypt get ye up thither and buy that ye may live and not die Gen. 42.1 So may we say Behold we have heard that there is Grace in Christ Jesus there is Salvation in him Redemption in him Forgiveness of sins and Eternal life in him all things that we need in him c. Let us arise therefore and go up to him or look up to him and Buy of him Gold tried in the fire that we may be inriched and White Raiment that we may be clothed and our Nakedness may be covered and our Shame may not appear If we look to other things they will fail us and be like those deceiful Brooks whereof Job speaks and like to his Brethren compared to them Job 6.15 16 19 20 21. Streams which pass away what time they wax warm they vanish or are cut off in the heat they are extinguished out of their place the Troops of Teman looked the Companies of Sheba waited for them they were confounded because they had hoped they came thither they were ashamed Whereas Christ is the Fountain of living Waters and that Spring of Waters whose Waters fail not Jer. 2.13 John 4.14 The remedy of Gods providing for and commending to us the sure Foundation of Gods Laying on whom whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed Isa 28.16 4. They also who trust in themselves that they are Christs who trust in or look to their making mention of Christ their Preaching or Prophecying in his Name and having success therein so as to do many wonderful works and to have the Spirits subject to them thinking thence to find safety and deliverance from their sins and sorrows from wrath and judgment but look not to the Son of man so as to be healed of their sins by him It 's not any mans Acts about Christian Profession or Religion but Christ himself delivered up of God for our Sins raised again for our Justification and Exalted and Glorified of him and so that Grace in him that is to be Eyed Looked and Depended on by us for all Grace and Blessing yielding up to be Saved and Healed thereby as in believingly minded it worketh in us and so He that looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty and continues therein being not a
believing on him and abiding in that believing p. 250. Chap. 19. Two other Conclusions shewing the Fulness and sufficiency of this means for Begetting and Preserving in the Faith of Christ and for bringing to the Salvation and Eternal life to which it is ordered and appointed p. 262. Chap. 20. The Application First by way of Instruction from the last Conclusions shewing the Excellency and Glory of the Gospel with six Inferences therefrom p. 281. Chap. 21. A second Use The Excellencies of Christ himself hence Inferred and that is Viewed First As the Excellencies of the choice Creatures are ascribed to him and so he in such a sense to the First-born of every Creature p. 310. Chap. 22. Secondly As in Christ are all things answering the needs of fallen man all things that pertain both to Life and to Godliness p. 335. Chap. 23. Thirdly As all the perfections of God both the Father and the Holy Spirit are in Christ p. 355. Chap. 24. A third use of this Doctrine by way of Exhortation and first To look to Christ as Lifted up for us in all Cases and for all Grace and Blessing in all means at all times and with all diligence and perseverance p. 364. Chap. 25. Secondly To Lift up the Son of man with some Motives to it and Demonstration of the Usefulness of it in several Cases with some Directions in it p. 388. Chap. 26. A fourth Use by way of Reproof to those that are faulty in not Lifting up Christ or not rightly Lifting up the Son of man and a fifth Use giving some discovery of Spirits which are of God and which not p. 399. Chap. 27. A sixth Use or another Branch of the use of Reproof reproving those that look not to the Son of man as Lifted up by God and by his servants p. 416. Chap. 28. A seventh Use shewing the Cause or Reason Equitableness and Inevitableness of mans Destruction who shall be thereto adjudged by Christ And an eighth Use shewing the Consolation that this Doctrine affords to the Members of Christ p. 425. Chap. 29. A ninth Use affording a brief Discovery of the true and false Church their distinct Manners and Priviledges And a tenth Use concluding the whole Treatise in a Brief Exhortation or Provocation to to thankfulness to God for this Decree and Design of God concerning the Exaltation of his Blessed Son the Son of man to such a gracious end and purpose p. 438. The Errata REader my great distance from the Press have occasioned too great a Bâ—ood of Mistakes in the Impression It 's my grief that it is so but I can no other ways help it now except in those Copies which I send abroad with my own hand than to give thee an account of them and direct thee how to amend them The most weighty of them are as here followeth In the Epistle Page 4. Line 17. Read sights in the Discourse it self p. 7. l. 3 r. water l. 21. r. it goeth p. 20. l. 2. r. credit to l. 3 put a at men p. 21. l. 17. r. Saviour p. 27. l. 1. r. duâ—y-waiter l. 8. dele for and r. Gods way p. 34. l. 27. for to r. in p. 35â— l. 24 r. hath not p. 37. l. 20. r. and 3 1 and l. 22. r. it s p. 41. l. 27. r. not worthy and l. 31. r. 13. p. 46. l. 3. r. the p. 51. l. 4. r. to them p. 61. l. 18. r. verily man p. 62. l. 18. r. succession p. 63. l. 15. r. Government l. 26. r. Son of p 64 l. 8. r Government p. 66 l. 7 8. r the Evangelist note p 68. l. 7 for 10. r so l 15. r. chief p 69 l. put a full stop between up and on p 5 7 l 1 r man p. 78. l. 2 r. to consume that Sacrifice p 84. l. 2 r. Abraham too l. 12 r the flesh p. 88. l. 23. dele the full step at therein p. 89. l. ult r. their minds p. 94. l. 21â— r Act p 101. l. 7 r righteousness l 33. r. experience p. 99. l 8 dele of l. 30. r God hath p 103 l 1. r. we not p 112. l 21 r. against Christ therein p. 129. l 21. r. saving them also p. 133 l. 33. r to him met with p 137. l. 12. dele of it l 33. r. life in p. 139 l 14. r. Psal 90 7. p. 140. l 24 r. all together p 141. l 9. r and judgment again p. 143 l. 24 for own r. one p. 157 l. 2. r. Isa 42. l. 15 r Joâ—ah p. 162. l. 5â— r. to God l. 11. r. 1 Cor 1 21 p 165. l. 11 r. thence p. 178. l 12 r. 5 6 p. 195. dele verse p 200. l. 20 r. instruct p. 202. l. 19 r. thereof p. 204. l. 27. dele the p. 205 l. 4 r. afflictive l 10. r Sun p 115. l. 23 r. puts p. 219. l. 1. for to r too l. 27 dele the. l. 3â— r. believes p 227. l. 34 r and signifies p. 228. l 30 r. justifie p. 230. l. 22. r. unworthiest l. 29. r eâ—ing l 23 〈◊〉 9. r. scarcity l. 20. r above l 33. r. there p. 239. l. 27. r is p 241 l. 14. r. confer l. 17. r. of God l. 29 r. whatsoever p 243. l. 1. r. believed on p 244. l. 22 r. to command p. 245. l. 4 r. is able p. 248 l. 23 r exercised l 26 r. mediation p. 249 l. 6 and 19. r. mediat p 251 l. 6. dele and l. 17. r accepting p 252. l. 1. r. worse man p. 25â— l. 24 and 26. r. bâ—re p. 254. l 8 r sent p. 262. l. 9. r which is p 263. l. 23 for he r God p. 264. l. 33. for 2 r. 1. p 294. l. 31 r. John 1 51. p. 297 l. 32. r. their lusts p 302 l. 28 r. withhold p. 304. l. 22 r put p. 338. l 12. r. all also p. 340 l. 20 r. 4. yea c p 345 r. Chap 23. p 260 l. 22 r. John 2.13 p. 377 l 7 dele Case 15. p. 38â— l. 32 r 2 John 9. p 402 l. 24 dele upon and rather p. 418 l. 2 r. they shall p. 423 â— 21 r. women l. 325. â—omeliness p. 424 l 32 r worshippers p. 428 l 6 r men p. 429 l. 2 r accounts p. 431 l. 2 r. Nah 1 p 436 l 11 r. looks p. 441 l 7 r magnifies p. 472 l 7 r. priviledges p 443 l. 2 r fainting p 445 l. 19 r stings p. 446 l. 32 r. every way In the Epistle p. 4. l. 17. r. light p. 7. l. 1. r. through and in the Note after the Epistle l. 5. r. Evangelies or Gospels