natural they yet live in like manner as from the first Adam they were heirs of death eternal See the parallel between them for life and death 1 Cor. 15. 20. and 45. c. as for sin and righteousness Rom. 5. And this life in its due time is to be communicated to all the members of Christ 1. both because the head and members have all the same spirit i. e. of the Father which therefore if it have raised one must needs also raise the other As we see in the living Creatures and the wheels Ezech. 2. 21. when those went these went and when those stood these stood for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels Or as we may imagine a man of those large Dimensions that his head were in Heaven and his feet on Earth and such is Christ and the Church Col. 2. 19. and both called by one name of Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. how easily and instantly such a one by the animal spirits communicated from the Head would move here below which way he pleased his inferior members See Rom. 8. 11. 1 Cor. 6. 14. Therefore those priviledges which the Apostle applies to Christ Heb. 2. 6. the Psalmist saith of man in general Ps. 8. And again 't is argued negatively from us to Christ If no resurrection of us then is not Christ risen neither 1 Cor. 15. 13. If not possible for the spirit to raise our human nature then not his And 2. because the head as Christ is to the Church naturally gives the sense and motion to the members Therefore as 't is said that the head and members are both raised by the same spirit so also that the Head shall raise and quicken the members See Jo. 6. 39. 1 Cor. 15. 45. 2 Cor. 4. 14. I speak of resurrection to life Else the wicked also shall be raised by him by his voice Jo. 5. 21. as their Judge to be thrown into endless torments which is but a Gaol-delivery and an haling them out of prison to execution an act of his power as God not of his merits as a Savior by their having any union to him as the second Adam And the proper Sacrament instituted to conveigh this life unto us by union with Jesus is the Eucharist being the Communion or Communication unto us of all himself first of his body and blood 1 Cor. 10. 16. by which we are made not in a Metaphor but in a Mystery and that a great one members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. 30 32. And 2. not only of his body but of his spirit too 1 Cor. 12. 13. by which soveraign receit and incorporating of him who hath life in himself our bodies also and souls are according to the ancient form of the Church in the administration of these mysteries preserved unto everlasting life a promise by our Savior annexed so often to this mystical partaking of him Jo. 6. 56 57. c. therefore the consecrated elements called Symbola resurrectionis and formerly never neglected especially to be received at the hour of death For 't is to be noted that tho both the Sacraments have all the same effects Remission of sins Matt. 26. 28. comp with Act. 2. 38. Union 1 Cor. 10. 16. comp with Gal. 3. 27 28. all one in Christ Jesus And Joh. 3. 5. comp with 1 Cor. 12. 13. And both Sacraments do intimate obligation to suffering to the receivers see Matt. 20. 22 23. where allusion doubtless is made to the two Sacraments as 1 Cor. 12. 13. Tho our baptism is not with blood as his nor our cup so bitter yet either of them have some more eminently then others Therefore Baptism to which we have more easy access upon repentance Act. 2. 38. and faith of the truth of the Gospel Act. 8. 37. and the promise onely of a new life Matt. 3. 6 8. is more principally the Sacrament of remission of former sins Act. 2. 38. and of our profession of our death to sin and relinquishing the old Adam and now putting on Christ. And then after this cleansing from sins past by baptism the Eucharist to which we are to bring not only faith and repentance but sanctification and holiness therefore such examination required see Matt. 22. 12. see 1 Cor. 11. 28. the end of 27. and 29. comp with 1 Cor. 6. 15. converted shall I then take the members of an â—…arlot and make them the members of Christ 1 Cor. 5. 11. converted No formcators presume to eat c. with the Saints is more specially the Sacrament of our union to Christ and living by him who is the life by the incorporating of his body and blood and spirit into ours 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. By which incorporation we contract such an identity as it were with him that see what he is we are Is he a Son of God so are we His heir So are we Rom. 8. 17. of the Kingdom the Glory to come only all this by and from him that in all things he might have the preeminence and amongst many breâ—…hren be the first born But we must know that as all these effects of our Savior toward us depend on a second generation and being born again of God by the seed of the spirit Jo. 3. 9. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Eph. 2. 22. -3. 16. which giveth life as the flesh from the first Adam soweth corruption see Gal. 6. 8. 2 Cor. 3. 6. Rom. 8. 11. Jo. 4. 14. Eph. 4. 22. and on our thus being made the true children and ofspring of Christ Heb. 2. 13. Esaâ—… 53. 10 11. So that this our second birth is not compleated all at once but this image of Christ by little and little at last is perfectly formed in us See Gal. 4. 19. 2 Cor. 11. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 2. As also all other works of our Savior are not consummate till his second coming and the resurrection Else did we walk by sight and not by faith how should we be transported with joy upon a vision of that infinite glory and nobility the poor Sons of Adam receive from this their second father to whom be all glory for ever And how should we sigh and groan till we were once possessed of it See 2 Cor. 5. 2 4. and Rom. 8. 23. To consider therefore a little the manner and the progress of our regeneration here in this life Our Savior as soon as he had died to sin as a son of Adam and lived again as a Son to God Rom. 6. 10. presently received this spirit by which he begets us promised long before and therefore frequently called the promise from the Father to communicate to his posterity see Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4. -2. 33. Eph. 4. 10. Jo. 7. 39. by which spirit derived from him to us thro whom we receive all things that we receive from God as it was from his Father to him and therefore called also his spirit of Christ
23. and as his glory so his sufferings in as much as part of hers are yet behind are said not to be yet compleat Col. 1. 24. And so he is said now to love the Church to nourish and cherish her out of the love he bears to himself for none ever hated his own flesh Eph. 5. 28. Especially the head in which are placed the senses for the good and defence of the whole body that is most sensible of any thing that happens unto it see Act. 9. 4. and more watchful in providing for it Therefore is this his love to her noted to be greater a more merciful faithful compassionate love from his being the second Adam and undergoing the experience of like infirmity then the blessed Angels or as he as God was if I may so say capable of See Heb. 2. 17 18. We being now the travail of his soul Esai 53. 11. for whom he endured the birth-throes of death Act. 2. 24. and therefore he as a pained mother the more loves us according to his sufferings for us Whose strait and intimate connexion and tye unto us in respect of this his second Adam-ship the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures hath expressed in all the nearest and dearest relations that can easily be fancied styling him and us In a new Creation or Regeneration where Christ is all in all Col. 3. 11. as Adam in the former Father and Children He being made after the perfect image of God and we after his He heir and Lord of all things and we by him who having lost our former title to the Creatures by the fall of Adam and upon this the use of many of them restrained have now a new right established thro him They being sanctified as it were now again by a new word of God in this new Creation as they were in the first and both thro Christ by which they are all free all clean upon prayer thanksgiving and alms to all his seed tho still unclean to all the rest See Rom. 14. 14. 1 Tim. 4. 3. Tit. 1. 15. Rom. 4. 14. Heb. 2. 5. Luk. 11. 41. 1 Cor. 3. 21 23. -7. 14. comp Tit. 3. 5. See Col. 1. 15. Rev. 3. 14. Heb. 1. 2 3. Heb. 2. 5. Gal. 6. 15. Rom. 8. 29. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 10. Esai 9. 6. -53. 10 11. Heb. 2. 13. Jo. 3. 3 4. Ps. 22. 30. Husband and Spouse A priviledge and relation to the Son of God which we shall have beyond the blessed Angels a similitude of nature being only capable of this For where are the Angels called the Bride the Lambs wife See Rev. 21. 9. Eph. 5. 25. c. 1 Cor. 6. 13 15. c. In which relation we are said to be members of Christ not only as the Hands or Feet are of the body natural but as Eve was of Adam of his flesh and of his bones and to be one spirit with Christ as Adam and Eve were one flesh Of which espousal and union of the Church with Christ the institution of marriage was but a figure and type And Adams saying to new made Eve This is now made bone c. Gen. 2. 23. but a prophecy And her being made out of Adams side but an allegory of the Churches springing out of Christs side pierced on the Cross so much observed by St. John Jo. 19. 34 35. 1 Jo. 5. 8. That water and blood which came from thence first begetting Jo. 3. 5. and then nourishing Jo. 6. 35. the Church his Spouse And mans being made head of the woman but an emblem of Christs being Head of the man 1 Cor. 11. 3. that is of mankind his spouse whom according to the ancient custome of not receiving a dowry with but paying one for the Virgin Gen. 34. 13. Exod. 22. 16. Christ is said to have bought with a dear price 1 Cor. 6. 20. even by giving himself for her Eph. 5. 25. that hereafter she should be wholly for him But yet tho she is betrothed already by the pledge of the spirit yet the marriage is not consummate nor to be celebrated but in Paradise where the first was This second Eve being as yet but in the forming as it were out of a crooked Rib by the hand of God Gen. 2. 21 22. in cleansing and purifying and making white forgetting her own people and her Fathers house Ps. 45. 10. so reproachful unto her future splendors c. that she may be presented at that day not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing a chast Virgin c. See 2 Cor. 11. 2. Eph. 5. 27. in dressing and putting on her wedding Garments that she may not be found naked as upon her fall she was in Paradise See 2 Cor. 5. 3. Rev. 3. 18. Rev. 19. 7 8. -16. 5. Matt. 22. 11. Head and Members This every where occurring Root and Branches The new stock into which we are ingrafted and planted by Baptism see Jo. 15. 1. c. Rom. 6. 3 4 5. -11. 17. -15. 12. Foundation and Building built up a Temple to be no more profaned and defiled 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. 1 Cant. 8. 9 10. Rev. 21. 9. 10. Eph. 2. 20 21. and Christ the Corner stone in whom the two side-walls of Jew and Gentile are joined Eph. 2. 14 15. Elder and younger Brethren in respect of God our common Father Jo. 20. 17. The honor of which we shall the more value when we consider such a a contemptible Prodigal upon this relation only so royally entertained Luk. 15. Called also the first born consecrated to God for the rest The first fruits which under the law represented the whole Rom. 11. 16. 1 Cor. 15. 20. Rom 8. 29. Hence all thing done by him from these relations we have to him are said also to be done by us received by him to be received by us done to him to be done to us and done to us to him So we now dead to sin Rom. 6. 1. To the law Rom. 7. 4. Col. 2. 20. To the world the affections to it Gal. 6. 14. Now risen Col. 3. 1. now ascended and sitting in heavenly places Eph. 2. 6. Sons of God Heirs Gal. 3. 27. See Matt. 25. 40 45. Hence all Gods promises are fulfilled unto him first in his human nature and then descend only from and thro him to us And all that we return blessings prayer c. ascend and are acceptable only thro him and for his sake to God Eph. 1. 6. -3. 21. But we must know in this our new Creation and parentage that we being once created in all the business of our Salvation as God worketh in us so we work together with God that there is a concatenation and conspiring of Gods grace and our will That as this new image of God is formed in us by his spirit so by our endeavors and that there is a configuration as effected by him so
salvation and eternal life Rom. 5. 16. Now since all our benefit by him comes from our ingrafting and incorporation into him that so his sufferings may be accounted for ours the Sacrament or religious Ceremony instituted to convey unto us this first effect of the second Adams dying for us and so freeing us from the condemnation and washing us with his blood from the stains of our former sins is Baptism After which tho the infirmity of concupiscence still remain for the benefits of the second Adam are not fully perfected till this life is ended yet is both the strength thereof much abated and the reatus or guilt thereof totally removed i. e. that none shall be condemned for the solicitations and importunings thereof which will happen till our redemption is compleated so they be by him sor which he is enabled with sufficient grace mastered and supprest Therefore are we said in the Scripture to be baptized into Christ to put on Christ. Gal. 3. 27. Rom. 6. 2. to be in Christ Rom. 8. 1. Phil. 3. 9. by one spirit to be baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12. 13. To be baptized into his death to be co-planted in the likeness of his death and to be buried with him in Baptism Rom. 6. 3 4. c. 1 Pet. 4. 1. by baptism to be saved from death and sin 1 Pet. 3. 20 21. c. and therefore as Baptism is called our death so his death by him is called a Baptism Matt. 20. 23 Luk. 12. 50. What by him was really performed being by us too represented and acted in Baptism For our Savior is supposed see Rom. 6. chap. to represent till his death a son of Adam as we are and one that had took sin upon him tho he had none in him and so to suffer the punishment and dy to it as well as for it that is no more afterward to be charged with it Rom. 6. 10. and then to rise again a new man according to which we true sinners in baptism are supposed to dy with him to sin Rom. 6. 2. no more to live in it and then to be born again of him to begin a new life a life to holiness called also newness of life Rom. 6. 4. life spiritual opposed to the former carnal see Gal. 6. 1. 1 Cor. 2. 15. Rom. 7. 6. according to which we are said to be already risen with Christ. Col. 3. 1. That is from death in sin Baptism signifying 1. both our putting on some think signified by the expression borrowed from the pulling of old clothes and putting on new a Ceremony used at Baptism in the Apostles times and after them in the primitive Church and being ingrafted into Christ so that we have right to his sufferings c. and 2. then by virtue of his death our being cleansed from sin typified by the water washing us and then 3. our putting to death crucifying and putting off the old man Rom. 6. 6. the son of Adam and so dying to sin signified by the ancient manner of immersion of the body under water nothing of it to be seen and 4. then our putting on the new man and Christ our being born again of water and the spirit and being made a new creature represented in the emersion and elevation again out of the water See Col. 2. 12. -3. 10. Jo. 3. 5. As if you stood by those curing waters of Bethesda nâ—…w stirred by an Angel and saw a son of the first Adam consisting all of flesh diving into those waters all polluted with sin and dying in them which thing one man in every ones stead did for us and then springing up a new child out of this old stock the son of the second Adam consisting of spirit Jo. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 17. washed clean and pure to live a new life in obedience 2. After he hath thus Communicated unto us as many as are his members absolution from sin by his dying to it for us and our implantation into his death by baptism the second blessing he derives upon his seed is Righteousness Rom. 5. 15 18. 19. Luk. 1. 72 75. that by this we may attain life eternal as by deliverance from sin we escaped death And this righteousness this second Adam conveighs unto us in two manners As Adam in like manner did sin to his posterity 1. For first as we derived both from the example of Adams disobedience and from the propagation of his flesh a natural soliciter even in mans innocence for its own delights without regard of their lawfulness Gen. 3. 6. but much more after the fall a pronity to evil and by loss of the Spirit inability to good so from the example of Christs obedience and the traduction of his spirit we receive a new ability inclination and pronity to good and aversion from evil See Eph. 2. 10. Tit. 2. 14. Jo. 8. 39 41 44. Rom. Rom. 13. 14. Eph. 4. 23 24. Rom. 11. 16. 2. Again as his posterity for Adams one sin and disobedience was made sinner and judgment and condemnation came upon them who sinned not after the similitude of his transgression for not their but his disobedience and that also one onely disobedience of his Rom. 5. 12. c. to the 20th The branches being holy or unholy as the root is See Rom. 11. 16 28. Heb. 7. 9 10. So the posterity of Christ both when they yeild obedience yet for his obedience and righteousness not theirs is accepted theirs whether devotions or good works at least many of them being by reason of the remains of the old man as yet only crucified in part weak and imperfect but his compleat and exact for which therefore all the imperfections of theirs by faith are pardoned And when they disobey their obedience likewise being not constant their repentance if it be rightly performed i. e. by now dying to their new sin since baptism in pennance and mortifications and commemorating the Lords passion in the Communion Matt. 26. 28. 1 Jo. 2. 1 2. serving to the remission of sin as they died before to their old ones in Baptism and then by living afterward according to the spirit for his sufferings and obedience is also accepted for obedience So that we are made righteous in Christ see Rom. 8. 1. comp Heb. 7. 9. 10. as well as from Christ in our selves by his spirit as also we were sinners in Adam Rom. 5. 12. as well as from Adam in our selves by the flesh derived from Him See Rom. 5. 15 19. Phil. 3. 9. Rom. 8. 1. 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Eph. 1. 4 6. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Eph. 4. 24. Col. 3. 17. 3. Thus Jesus Christ the righteous 1 Joh. 2. 1. derives to all his members righteousness and life spiritual opposed to carnal Next He for this righteousness advanced by God to Immortality Kingdom Glory c. derives upon his seed the reward of Righteousness life eternal opposed to this
of Jesus of the Son see Gal. 4. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 11. Act. 16. 7. vulg Jo. 16. 7 14. we come to be his sons Now this spirit is not given promiscuously to all the sons of the first Adam nor is all the seed of the first by God the Father's secret will in the dispensation here and there of the ministery of the Gospel and by the default of some of those that hear it therefore our Savior useth those limitations Jo. 6. 44 65. -17. 9 11 12. the seed also of the second But there is something on mans part prerequired for God having given us before in our first Creation something we may make use of in our second and besides this the external ministry of the Gospel where-we are called to grace tho creavit to sine te non salvabit te sine te to the receiving of this spirit I mean here in a more eminent degree of its operations and of our sanctification and union by it unto Christ our Lord and our incorporation and entrance into this heavenly linage And these are Faith some degree of it i. e. gladly receiving the word Act. 2. 41. called also obedience to the word see Act. 8. 12 13 37. comp v. 16. 17. Eph. 1. 13. Jo. 17. 39. not rejecting the counsel of God Luk. 7. 30. believing Gods justification of the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. and Repentance for sins past intending to live no longer in them see Heb. 6. 2. 1 Pet. 3. 21. yet which also both faith and repentance are the gift of God see Eph. 2. 8. 2 Tim. 2. 25. Act. 16. 14. tho the first cometh ordinarily by hearing where by Gods mercy the Gospel is preached Rom. 10. 17. and the second by the first Jonah 3. 5. Upon which two Christ hath appointed Baptism to be administred by his substitutes and the holy spirit at the same time by himself conferred see Jo. 7. 39. Eph. 1. 13. Gal. 3. 2 13 22. Act. 2. 38. -19. 2. -5. 32. Luk. 11. 13. First then at our Baptism upon faith and repentance Ps 45. 10. we begin to be born again of water and of the spirit but not so as presently quite cashiering the image of the former Adam but as being now a compound of an old man and a new or of a body and soul from Adam called the flesh and of a spirit from Christ I mean not that contradistinguished to the soul 1 Thess. 5. 23. where by the spirit seems to be meant the rational Intellective part or soul see 1 Cor. 2. 11. Act. 7. 59. Luk. 23. 46. By soul the 〈◊〉 and sensitive part or soul which is also used for to signify life but I mean a spirit superadded to this natural spirit See 1 Cor. 14. 14 2. where there is a spirit in us plainly distinguished from the natural faculty of the understanding which operated when the understanding was quiescent see v. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Rev. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 12. 10. c. the spirit of man being the soul of a natural man besides which the Apostles had another spirit searching all things c. as Christ also is compounded of two natures the Human and Divine Act. 10. 38 yet is the one of these dying in us by degrees as the other grows and we are putting off mortifying crucifying the one and putting on and renewing the other day by day Rom. 6. 6. Col. 3. 5. Gal. 6. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 16. Rom. 12. 2. Eph. 4. 22 23 24. whilst there is a perpetual combate between them The spirit lusting against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit Gal. 5. 17. until we are perfected which is not attained in this life Yet here the elder man is serving the younger provided that we do not wither and fall away from grace and dy again to God And by reason of this double outward and inward man that is in us it is that the Apostles where they tell us that we are dead to sin c. yet exhort us also to dy to sin see Rom. 6. 2. comp 12. 1 Pet. 4. 1. comp 1 Pet. 2. 11. and that the Saints where they give thanks do also pray for a deliverance Now in this our renovation made by certain steps and degrees this spirit derived from Christ operateth and produceth the image of Christ first in our soul and then afterward in our body After the same manner as it was in Christ himself who first had grace in his soul with passibility in his body till he died after which that also was glorified by the same spirit Here therefore it begins in this life by its mighty working Col. 1. 29. 2 Cor. 9. 14 15. to transform and renew us Rom. 12. 2. Eph. 4. 13. Gal. 2. 19 20. Eph. 3. 16 17. Phil. 1. 21. residing here after faith and repentance which are certain preludium's and foregifts also of it See Matt. 16. 17. 1 Cor. 12. 3. 1 Jo. 4. 2. and are increased in us proportionably as it is bringing all its rich graces with it mentioned 1 Cor. 12. 3 8. c. 1. Illuminating and inspiring and renewing knowledge in the understanding in vain without it sought by us any other way therefore called the spirit of truth see Jo. 16. 13. 1 Cor. 2. 10. c. 2 Pet. 1. 21. 1 Jo. 2. 20 27. and of prophecy Rev. 9. 10. -12. 17. 1 Jo. 5. 10. 2. Sanctifying the will and affections Therefore called the spirit of holiness first quenching there all worldly desires and satiating the soul instead of them see Jo. 7. 37 39. -4. 14. 2. Begetting an ardent and unsatiable love of God and fervency of praier and obedience to all his commands written by it in our hearts out of love such as was in Christ. Matt. 5. 6. Ps. 40. 8. Rom. 5. 5. 2 Tim. 1. 7. 2 Cor. 3. 6 7. Rom. 8. 26 27. 3. Producing greater joy in and desire of sufferings In imitation of our Savior for his for Gods for the truths sake which truth this spirit seals unto us 1 Thess. 1. 6. Rom. 5. â—… Heb. 10. 34. Act. 5. 41. Phil. 1. 29. 2 Cor. 12. 10. Col. 1. 11. 2 Cor. 11. 23. I more his Minister c. 2 Cor. 5. 14. Lastly comforting alwaies by begetting a lively hope by witnessing to us what we are and sealing what we shall be Gal. 5. 5. 1 Pet. 1. 3. Jo. 16. 17. Rom. 8. 16. 2 Thess. 2. 16. Gal. 4. 6. 1 Jo. 3. 24. Eph. 1. 13. All which graces now are the image of Christ stamped on the soul called partaking of his holiness Heb. 12. 10. and being created after God in righteousness Eph. 4. 24. But yet this image of or union with our Savior in the soul is not perfect neither in this life therefore called first fâ—…uits only of the spirit and tast of the heavenly gifts and the powers of the world to come an earnest and seal of something to be had more fully hereafter
last place he laid down his life and died a Martyr for the Truth he had taught 1 Tim. 6. 13. Rev. 1. 5. -3. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now after his resurrection from the Dead by the Divine power in Justification also of the truth of doctrine He being to return to God from whence he came and the same truth being necessary to be preached sins remitted Sacraments administred the Holy Ghost conferred c. to the end of the world to one Country after another and in them to one generation after another the last thing he did here on Earth was the ordaining some others for these offices in his name after he had now finished the work of our Redemption which was to be the subject of their preaching For his former mission of them was only preparatory Matt. 10. to tell men that the Kingdome of Heaven was near at hand which now after his conquest of Sathan and of death by his death was fully come erected and compleated Jo. 12. 31. Jo. 19. 30. At which time also he was to receive as he had before in his own person so now the promise of the Father so long expected the effusions of the Holy Spirit upon his seed even the whole Church but these especially upon his Apostles A type of which was Moses's spirit taken part of it and put upon the 70 Elders Num. 6. 11. which Apostles were to minister this spirit to others Gal. 3. 2 5. The solemnity of whose Ordination and Commission we find Jo. 20. 21 22 23. Matt. 18. 19 20. Mark 16. 15. Luk. 24. 47. Therefore is our Lord named for the Author of administrations and offices as the Father of miracles and the Holy Ghost of gifts 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6. To these as his Vicegerents he derived the Doctrine the Authority the Spirit the anointing himself had received of the Father See Jo. 15. 15. -17. 8 18. Eph. 3. 9 10. 1 Cor. 2. 10 13. Eph. 4. 7 8. Act. 2. 33. Phil. 4. 13. 2 Cor. 1. 21. Concerning whom also he left this Testimony to the world as the Father had done of him He that heareth you heareth me Matt. 10. 40. Luk. 10. 16. Matt. 17. 5. and as the Father sent me so I you Jo. 20. 21. -17. 18. Hence also are his own attributes frequently communicated to them They called foundations Matt. 16. 18. compared with 19. 24. Eph. 2. 20. Rev. 21. 14. And they also said to save men Jude 23. Rom. 11. 14. 1 Tim. 4. 16. Job 33. 24. and at the last day to sit on a Throne as He to judge men as he See Jo. 5. 22. Matt. 19. 28. Luk. 22. 30. 1 Cor 6. 3. To these he gave power to Baptize i. e. admit into the Church those they saw fit which implies their power also to refuse the unfit see Act. 10. 47 48. the Apostle ordering and others ministring Baptism And this again infers power to exclude out of the Church the backsliding and those not observing the conditions upon which they were admitted To these he gave power to preach and to declare to the world all the counsel of God which he had manifested to them and to be Ambassadors to men about their reconciliation to God for Christ and in his stead 2 Cor. 5. 18 19 20. Act. 20. 27. 2 Cor. 10. 8. Gal. 4. 14. Therefore they are said to speak in Christ. 2 Cor. 2. 17. To be received as Angels of God and as Christ Jesus Gal. 4. 14. and in their ministry to be a sweet savour of Christ unto God 2 Cor. 2. 15. He Authorizing them to make Ecclesiastical Laws and to order all the affairs of the Church See 1 Cor. 11. 34. -14. chap. 1 Cor. 16. 1. Act. 15. 1 Tim. 5. 14. 1 Cor. 4. 17. To these also he committed his keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven to take confessions and submissions to bind and absolve to remit sin or revenge it and that by his power and in his person Matt. 18. 18. 1 Cor. 5. 4. 2 Cor. 2. 10. 2 Cor. 10. 6. 2 Cor. 13. 10. 2 Cor. 8. 23. called the glory of Christ i. e. His representation and image see 1 Cor. 11. 7. To continue the dispensation of his sacred Body and Blood to the worlds end 1 Cor. 11. 26. which his Sacred hands first administred to them to all the Faithful and as to admit the worthy so to exclude the unworthy from that holy Communion 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. see 1 Cor. 10. 16. Act. 20. 11. Luk. 22. 19. The Hoc facite having been alwaies understood to have special reference to the Apostle's and their successours consecrating or blessing breaking and delivering it as well as to others receiving it To intercede for the people and procure remission of their sins from God by their prayers Jam. 5. 14 15. 1 Jo. 5. 16. Job 42. 8. Gen. 20. 7. 1 Tim. 2. 1. And the promises of hearing their requests Matt. 18. 19 20. Jo. 16. 23. seem to be made to them not in general as Christians but more especially as Gods Ministers and Apostles and that both for binding and loosing the people from their sins So see the Presbyters in the description of the Church triumphant holding in their hands the prayers of the Saints Rev. 5. 8. to be offered up to him that sitteth on the Throne as Incense is These He enlightned with the spirit tho others also see Jer. 31. 34. Jo. 6. 45. yet them extraordinarily for knowledge of the truth For I imagine those expressions Jo. 16. 13 25. comp with Jo. 15. 16 20 26 27. like to which are those 1 Jo. 2. 20 27. to belong to the Apostles specially as Christs ministers Therefore the stile of their whole Body in a Council runneth It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us See Act. 15. 28. -5. 3. -7. 51. 2 Cor. 6. 4 6. As also those extraordinary gifts of the Spirit at or after Baptism bestowed by laying on of the Apostles hands were not onely for Sanctification of the person see Matt. 7. 22. 1 Cor. 13. 1. but also for the publick benefit further edification of the Church by them Rom. 12. 6 7. 1 Cor. 12. 7. And enabling them by it that which all humane wisdom is too weak to effect see 1 Cor. 5. 10 12 13. -4. 19. to convince mens consciences convert their minds cast down throughout the world imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and with terrors of conscience with Sathan himself to revenge all disobedience and this by the power of Christ who speaketh and acteth in them 2 Cor. 13. 3. See 2 Cor. 10. 2 3 4 5. c. -13. 2 4 10. Jo. 16. 8. 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. Act. 2. 37. Matt. 10. 20. 1 Cor. 4. 21. 3 Jo. 10. 2 Jo. 10. Tit. 3. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 20. 1 Cor. 5. 5. On the
Heb. 2. 17. and tempted Heb. 2. 18. like unto his Brethren undergoing temptations from Sathan more then once Luk. 4. 13. and so far as to be carried up and down by him Matt. 4. 5. and that unclean spirit the most cursed of all the creatures of God to be suffered to take his onely Son in his arms From the world having all the glory of it presented to him Matt. 4. 9. a Kingdom offered him Jo. 6. 15. From the often necessities and natural inclinations of the flesh as may be sufficiently discovered in that passionate sad blood-sweating prayer many times iterated to be freed from death which he so resignedly concluded with not my will but thine be done for our example as if himself would have learnt patience by the things which he suffered Heb. 5. 8. He voluntarily became of no reputation Phil. 2. 7 A man of sorrows Esai 53. 3. put himself in the worst condition of life that those in the worst condition may neither complain nor boast that their sufferings are gone below the Son of God and then ended it in the most ignominious death upon a Gibbet naked among theeves a death inflicted on no free man particularly cursed by God Gal. 3. 13. Deut. 21. 23. commanded and executed under the Law only in the most horrid crimes as in the Israelites idolatry with Moab The perjur'd murthers of Saul the Kings of the cursed Canaanites to appease Gods extraordinary wrath where Famine or Plague broke out upon the people therefore is it stiled hanging them up before the Lord. And so â—…oathsome a spectacle was enjoyned again to be taken down and buried the same day as our Saviour was as it were out of his sight See Deut. 21. 22. Numb 25. 4. Josh. 10. 26. 2 Sam. 21. 6. This such a death he underwent despising the shame Heb. 12. 2. that in the greatest ignominy of their end also all his Sons might see before them a Divine precedent And suffered being perfectly innocent that none hereafter might think much to suffer for innocency all being some other way personally guilty For our example he became lowly and meek and stooped his neck unto the yoke that we might learn of him to be so too Mat. 11. 29. and put his shoulder under the heaviest cross that ever man bare that we might take up our lighter ones and follow him Luk. 9. And thus he suffered and thus he dyed not only before us but also for us first that his love saith the Apostle might constrain us 2 Cor. 5. 13. by his example so to suffer and to dy again if need be for him or also for one another 2 Cor. 12. 15. and that as he died for sin so we might dy to it Rom. 6. 6. 3. Thus our Saviour was made uuto us a pattern of sufferings Next God sent his Son to be to us in his resurrection from this death and reception into glory a pattern of the reward promised to obedience life eternal An example as of performing all the obedience active and passive God by him required of us so of receiving the reward God by him promised to us That so not only the promise of a greater reward then was revealed to the world formerly at least so expressly might more encourage us to weldoing but also the seeing of that reward bestowed upon the obedient might yet excite us more then the promise whilst we being yet in the combate behold another that used only the same weapons against the same enemies in the same infirmities crowned with victory and look unto one who running the same race for the joy also that was set before him enduring the Cross and despising the shame now for it is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God whilst considering him that endured such contradiction c. now for it exalted above all gainsaying we may not be wearied nor faint in our minds Heb. 12. 1 2 3. Therefore it was necessary that the Prophet that taught a resurrection should dy to shew us an example of deliverance from death And it was necessary that God should raise again this just person from the dead and cause him to reign to assure us by this example that whoever suffers with i. e. like Him shall also reign together with him Rom. 8. 17. and that we professing to be dead with him to sin should now likewise walk with him in newness of life Rom. 4. 6. For Christs exaltation also was bestowed on him for his obedience See Heb. 2. 9. Phil. 1. 8 9. Heb 1. 9. Rev. 3. 21. -5. 12. And as the natural Son came thus to be a pattern to us so must all the adopted Sons of God be a transcript and copy of him As if we obey and suffer as he we shall reign as he so if we will reign as he we must suffer and obey as he tho not so much as he yet in such manner as he For also neither shall we reign in such eminence as He. It is very well if the Servant be as his Lord Matt. 10. 25. not above Him And he that abideth in Christ ought himself also to walk even as he also walked 1 Jo. 2. 6. And that none may justly pretend inability so to walk I mean to some measure of perfection tho not to an equal with his for neither hath any had an equal measure of the Spirit to his he hath purchased from his Father the Derivation of the same Spirit on us which inabled himself Which holy Spirit is conferred and from time to time renewed and increased by the Sacraments i. e. non ponentibus obicem to the not wilfully and obstinatly unworthy receivers thereof and which Spirit alwaies abideth in us unless by great sins such as we are perpetually inabled to avoid it happen to be expelled and who so obeyeth the natural motions thereof must as necessarily operate the work of Christ the second Adam as he that abides still in the former state of the flesh must needs do the works of the first For as what is born of Flesh is Flesh so what is born of Spirit is Spirit and the same Spirit in the man Jesus and us guided that man no otherwise than us and now doth guide us as then Him CHAP. III. Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant GODS former Covenant of works with mankind made at the Creation and called the Law of Nature and again solemnized at Mount Sinai to that Nation to which he had confined his Church at the delivery of the law of Moses who was then the Mediator that passed between God and man see Exod. 14. mentioned Heb. 8. 9. being found unprofitable Heb. 8. 7 13. Man not continuing in the promised observance of it for indeed the promulgation of the law was effectual to make him more conscious of his sin but not to make him more observant of his duty see Rom. 7. 6. yet served it well to other Gods purposes intended by
c. This blood laying a solemn engagement and obligation on both the parties for performance of promises Therefore Gen. 15. 10 in Gods covenanting with Abraham were the Beasts divided into two halfs God passing between them and Exod. 24. In Gods covenanting with Israel the blood divided and half sprinkled on the Altar on Gods part and half on the people beside that in a Covenant of this kind especially between a just Lord and rebellious Subjects where one part had so highly offended this blood sprinkled upon them signified a remission which is never done without blood Heb. 9. 22. Hence no hearty agreement and reconciliation between two formerly differing parties being possible without remission of all former offences and again no remission of former offences from the just God being without sacrifice or satisfaction neither was therefore any Covenant without sacrifice And the eating of such a sacrifice given to â—…od being as it were an admittance unto Gods Table and Viands and to have Communion with him see Exod. 24. 5 11. 1 Cor. 10. 16. c. 21. signified a reentrance into his favor Thus sacrifice shedding and sprinkling of blood I say being required at the solemnity of a Covenant which Ancient ceremonies were all only forcadumbrations and types of this we now speak of and not it fashioned according to what the former were but they according to what it should be It pleased God to give and to confirm likewise and ratifie this last Covenant unto us in the blood of his Son Rom. 5. 10. with whose blood we were sprinkled this being the infinitely highest expression of his renewed love to mankind for what greater signification had Abraham of his love to God his Friend then to offer his only Son and the same we see God now requited to the children of Abraham tho these his enemies here giving really what he would not of Abraham really accept making this blood a perpetual witness and assurance of his remitting all those transgressions now which still remained under the former covenant Heb. 9. 15. and an everlasting obligation of him to performance of his promises But yet further this being not only a Covenant but a Testament both because it was Gods last will that he hath enjoyned unto man to observe Heb. 8. 8 10. none other being to come after it and being in this last will also a legacying and conveyance to us from the Son of that heavenly inheritance which from his Father by birthright from all eternity was his and no such Testament standing in force but from the death first of the Testator whom living perhaps it might be changed but after death never can Heb. 9. 17. Hence to make all sure to us every way our Savior the Testator suffered death And for these reasons is the Gospel called so often the new Testament in his blood Luk. 22. 20. and his blood stiled the blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. Zech. 9. 11. That we are said now to be come from Mount Sinai and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then Abels for that spoke revenge but this remission and his blood said to witness the remission of our sins c. 1 Jo. 5. 8. Heb. 12. 13. Hence we are called Elect thro the sprinkling upon us of the blood of Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Hence is he said to have made peace thro the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. And to have reconciled us in the body of his flesh thro death Col. 1. 21 22. that he suffered c. that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood See Exod. 19. 10. -29. 21. Therefore those also who afterward break this Covenant are said to have troden under foot the Son of God and to have counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified an unholy thing c. Heb. 10. 29. And lastly hence as they did eat of their peace-offerings before the Lord Exod. 24. 5 11. in token of their readmittance into his Friendship so were we likewise in this Covenant to be made partakers of the Lords Table in eaâ—…ing of this Sacrifice of our Savior offered for the establishing of the new Covenant and therefore this his flesh he hath given us to eat and his blood to drink Jo. 6. 53. c. And God again raised this Mediator who by his own blood sealed this our peace Col. 1. 20 21 22. from the dead that he might shew that he accepted of this his mediation and that all things by him transacted in it were according to his Fathers good pleasure And that God might give also into his own hands the management of all those gracious promises made by him in this new Covenant that he might be the Captain of our Salvation have power himself of the remission of sin and of pouring forth the spirit upon all flesh see Act. 3. 26. -5. 31. and of giving eternal life c. which were promised in it Thus it became that God of peace to bring again from the dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepheard of the Sheep thro this blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. That he might ever live to see to the performance of conditions CHAP. IV. Jesus Christ the Sacrifice Expiatory Eucharistical c. for remission of sin Procurement of Blessings c. GOD would never give any blessing nor forgive any fault absolutely gratis but that he would in some offering returned be acknowledged Lord of all for the one Mal. 1. 6 8 10. and with some offering slain be appealed for the other That he might to the world more solemnly appear by the first offerings a liberal Father to his Creature and the fountain of all good and by the second a just Judge to the sinner and the hater Ps. 5. 5. and punisher of all evil And hence the first worship of him that we find in the very infancy of the world is Sacrifice Gen. 4. 3 4. Sacrifice Eucharistical and Expiatory offerings of acknowledgment and thanksgiving for his benefits And those of the Firstlings Gen. 4. 4. And of expiation and attonement for our sin and that by the death of the Sacrifice for death being the irreversible punishment of sin without it might be no remission Heb. 9. 22. Besides which two we find also another sort of Sacrifice alwaies tendred unto him a Sacrifice of a more general devotion and dedication of the Officer to his service an Holocaust or burnt-offering wholly consumed on the Altar and of the most sweet smelling savour unto the Lord. Levit. 1. 9. Exod. 29. 41. Being given freely not out of necessity for an offence as the sin-offering and given all not any part shared by the Doner as in the peace or thank-offering Of which burnt-offerings one a Lamb Jo. 1. 29. in which respect our Savior was called the Lamb of God rather then any other offering because this was the daily sacrifice
18. For as he in our stead was made sin and an accursed thing and an offering that calling sin to remembrance suffered the extreme wrath of the Almighty due to sin so in himself and this for our sake too he was not only in his death being a voluntary and a free will-offering see Jo. 10. 15 17 18. comp with Jo. 19. 30 33. the other living longer for this my Father loveth me c. and so also loveth us for whom it is offered for his sake Eph. 1. 6. but all his life an Holocaust consumed with the fire of love towards man and zeal of the glory of his Father in a perfect devotement and resignation of his whole self to the will of God and in his perfect obedience and fulfilling of all his Commandements And then when he had done working Jo. 17. 4. finishing this Holocaust in suffering for the divine glory for the truth suffering till he was all spent and consumed with the zeal of his Fathers honor laid upon which whole burnt-offering all our imperfect sacrifices of obedience and resignation of sufferings and martyrdom of spending and being spent 2 Cor. 12. 15. Phil. 2. 17. 2 Tim. 2. 10. whereby God is made all in all and we nothing in our selves and so one with him do partake also of the sweet savor of this sacrifice and all our praiers and petitions for our selves or intercessions for others are accepted of God and the descent of all good things spiritual and temporal from him are procured Gen. 8. 21. Jo. 14. 13. Phil. 1. 12. 4. He was the grand Eucharistical sacrifice and peace-offering answering to those typical ones under the Law In which respect the memorial which we now celebrate of his passion is called the Eucharist and in which relation we are made partakers in the Communion and admitted to eat of this sacrifice see 1 Cor. 10. 16 20. of which as a burnt or sin-offering tho these it is also Heb. 13. 11 12. we might not eat for none might eat of his own sin-offering Now the peace-offerings had many several uses in all which the sacrifice of our Savior fulfilled them 1. They were a kind of federal oblation after remission of offences procured by the sin-offering which was still offered before not after the Peace-offerings by which the sinner was as it were readmitted into Gods favour and whereas he might not eat of the sin-offering by eating part of which sacrifice being Gods bread Lev. 21. 6. -22. 25. and partaking of these holy things he was entertained at the table and accepted into the fellowship of God c. Only none that was unclean or any stranger upon peril of death might eat thereof See Lev. 22. Secondly they were offerings of thanksgiving for all the Creatures all the blessings and good things first received from God Gen. 1. 29. -9. 3. Ps. 50. 10 11 12. and continued by his word Gen. 1. 22. Deut. 8. 3. Matt. 4. 4. of which therefore both of men and beasts and fruits the choicest and first were offered and sanctified unto the Lord as his portion and tribute Sanctifie unto me all the first born both of Man and of Beast and so also it was for the first Fruits It is mine Exod. 13. 15 2. And these accordingly they offered these or their price both to shew their gratitude and acknowledgment of Gods right as to these so to all the rest Deut. 8. 18. -28. 4 5 8 11 12. -26. 2 10. Lev. 25. 23. -19. 24. and also to receive his benediction through what was offered to him upon all the rest Ezech 44. 30. Lev. 23. 11 14. Rom. 11. 16. Now according to this type Christ the substance in whom all things are fulfilled and accepted for what careth God for Oxen or other Firstlings or first fruits not only the first born of his Mother but of every Creature and likewise the first fruits Col. 1. 15 18. Rom. 8. 29. 1 Cor. 15. 20 23. was not redeemed but offered in his own person offered unto God first by whom all others were redeemed from the like And secondly by and through which offering only all our praises and thanksgivings are accepted for all things Eph. 1. 6. -3. 21. Col. 3. 17. Heb. 13. 15. Phil. 1. 11. and the right to and lawful use of them procured unto us only by this offering Rom. 14. 14. Eph. 1. 3. -4. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 5. Rom. 8. 32. And again by it as a federal oblation is the Covenant of grace and our peace ratified To the eating and partaking of which Sacrifice also in the mystical Sacrament of his Body and blood we are admitted to the worlds end And 1. By the eating of which as the Jews and also Idolaters were to the eating of theirs we are accepted in partaking of this Table to the unity Communion and fellowship with God see 1 Cor. 10. 14. c. to the 22. Only concerning which it is also provided that no unclean person or stranger unadmitted by Baptism may approach to eat thereof 1 Cor. 11. 28 29. Secondly by eating and partaking of which sacrifice excelling the other under the law in as much as it is the Body and blood of the Son of God we are admitted to Communion with the Son and mystically incorporated into him made members of his body flesh of his flesh c. And that not in a Metaphor but in a great mystery saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 32. And then from being partakers of the body become also partakers of the Spirit of Christ 1 Cor. 6. 17. And from partaking of his nature the body and the spirit of the Son of God become also Sons of God and heirs of eternal life 1 Cor. 12. 13. -6. 13 15 17. c. Eph. 5. 29. Jo. 17. 2 23. By eating and partaking of one and the same nourishment of this one Sacrifice of this one bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. we also become one Bread and have Communion with all the Saints of God as well those in Heaven as those upon earth partaking of all their glory praiers c. Heb. 12. 23. Eph. 3. 15. Eph. 2. 19. Col. 1. 20. 1 Jo. 5. 16. Job 42. 8. Gen. 20. 7 17. 2 Cor. 1. 〈◊〉 5. And hence with reference to this Sacrifice as also to the tree of life in Paradise and to the Manna and water flowing out of the Rock in the Wilderness which were types of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 2 3 4. -12. 13. Jo. 6. 32 35 49. Our Saviour is said to be the bread of life preserving him that eats the flesh of this Sacrifice so that he shall live for ever And he that eateth him shall live by him Jo. 6. 57. 6. Lastly he was the true Passover Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. He the true paschal Lamb fulfilling that typical one of the Jews In relation to which also when this Lamb was slain it was taken care that a bone
26. Eph. 2. 3. Thus man being in his lapsed condition the Apostle makes as it were four persons sin the law and death and Satan tyrannizing over him and keeping him in an irremediable subjection possessed instead of the free loving good spirit of God with the spirit of bondage Rom. 8. 15. and of fear and of this world See sin which is called also the flesh and the old man described as a person Rom. 7. 9 11. Jam. 1. 14 15. Gen. 4. 7. 2. The law Rom. 7. 3 4. Gal. 3. 23 24. 3. Death 1 Cor. 15. 26 51. Rom. 5. 14. And they assault him in this order Sin slayes him by the dart of the law for the strength of sin is the law and death slayes him by the sting of sin for the sting of death is sin 1 Cor. 15. 56. and Satan slayes him by the hand of death As he who hath the power of death from Gods justice Heb. 2. 14. Lastly Satan having no power but from God the justice of God committeth us into the hands of this officer till we shall pay the debt of sin by the first Covenant due unto him Man being in this deplorable condition the Son of God in great pitty to his creature came to redeem him out of the hands of all these that hated him Esai 61. 1. Luk. 4. 18. Col. 1. 13. and to make him a freeman again Joh. 8. 34. comp 32 36. Gal. 4. 23. c. Gal. 5. 1. And that meanwhile justice might be satisfied and every one of the rest also have his due he put himself in our stead into their hands and paid the full ransom and price that was required not silver nor gold Ps. 49. 6 7 8 9. 1 Tim. 2. 6. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. but life for life Matt. 20. 28. 1. To destroy sin in the flesh he came in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. and after he had endured with the same weak nature all its assaults Heb. 2. 18. Matt. 4. 1. 16. 23. tho he did not sin yet was he made sin for us i. e. liable to undergo the ill consequents of sin as if he had sinned 2 Cor. 5. 21. 2. To satisfie the law he was made under the law also both the moral and the ceremonial in particular reference to the Jew that he might redeem them that were under the law Gal. 4. 5. most exactly keeping it in Circumcision and observation of the Sabbath tho they falsly accused him of the breach thereof and all other ordinances Yet after all this we being under its curse he also tho obedient in every thing to the law for he became a curse or accursed Gal. 3. 13. 3. Death requiring possession where sin had given it a just title and 4. Satan being not a-wanting to use his licensed power in inflicting it Luk. 22. 53. He therefore being first made sin and a curse also underwent the assaults of these two last for us underwent and tasted of death for every sinful man Heb. 2. 9. 1 Cor. 8. 11. even the death of the cross And his going thus far perchance might have served for the discharge of a debt had we been saving some trespasses past in a perfect and entire condition for the future but besides the fruit already brought forth unto death for which we owed it we were also subjected to the dominion of these enemies to bring forth more still for the future In respect of which no compleat redemption of us could be without a conquest of them as well as a payment And had our Redeemer not made a conquest of them had he been either pierced by sin or broken any point of the Law how then indeed could he have paid that death a ransom for us which had been due for himself Again not breaking these had he yet been any way held by death and Satan since tho the ransom was paid for sins past yet their dominion would have remained still in us for producing more How could he deliver us from this dominion from which he could not save himself In which terms the Devil once began to insult over him on the Cross thou that savest others c. How could he rescue us from death being himself detained in it how by his spirit in us destroy sin if that spirit could not raise him from the punishment of sin for all our spirit and life is only from and in him In whose death all our hopes were also dead 1 Cor. 15. 14. Therefore saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 14 17. If Christ be not risen from death ye are yet in your sins See Rom. 4. 25. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Indeed we were not only prisoners for debt to Satan as an Officer of Gods justice Matt. 5. 25 26 but captives to him as Prince of this world and therefore our Savior was our Redeemer also in two senses from debt and from slavery by paying a ransom and by making a conquest which he throughly did For sin could not enter into him nor the law could not accuse him in any point nor could death tho it had him in its arms hold him Act. 2. 24. and so Satan also that had the power of death yet in his reviving from death was overcome Heb. 2. 14. by the power of the holy spirit raising him again from it See Rom. 1. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Heb. 9. 14. Gal. 1. 4. And that he might be a pattern unto us in the way and of the victory of sufferings the manner he chose to conquer these enemies was by subjecting himself unto them and by making himself capable of their assaults and by suffering from them By comming in the likeness of sinful flesh he destroyed sin in the flesh by dying killed and triumphed over death In which Sampson slaying his enemies by his own being slain and Eliah raising the dead child by imitating the same postures were types of him Destroyed the Devils tempting by being tempted by him and in the likeness of the Serpent Numb 21. 9. Jo. 3. 14. being also made a curse like him cured the bitings of the Serpent by submitting to and most exactly keeping the law annulled it Thus he for his obedience being made Lord of the law Matt. 12. 8. and changing the ordinances delivered by Moses Jo. 4. 21. Col. 2. 13 14. Rom. 7. 24 25. Jo. 12. 31. Col 1. 13 14. and translating us out of the kingdom of darkness into his kingdom Tit. 2. 14. Redeemed us from iniquity for good works 2 Tim. 1. 10. abolished death 1 Thess. 1. 10. Delivered us out of the hands of justice Act. 13. 39. Eph. 2. 15. out of the hands of Moses's law And he triumphing first himself over them all thus set us also at liberty At liberty from them 2 Cor. 3. 17. Jo. 8. 32 36. yet not for our selves to be now our own Masters but redeemed us for his service for ever hereafter See 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Rom. 14. 4 7.
c. Rev. 5. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 15. That we might be now espoused and appropriated to him and not yield our selves to any other whom he bought out of their hands with so dear a price for whom he paid to Gods justice so rich a Dowry as it was the ancient custome for the husband to pay not to receive a Dowry see Gen. 34. 12. Exod. 22. 16. even himself Eph. 5. 25. Tit. 2. 14. that henceforth we should glorifie him in our bodies and in our spirits which are his Tho indeed this our service of 〈◊〉 is our perfect freedom Again at liberty from them yet hitherto not absolutely Rom. 23. as neither is our Saviors conquest over them as yet perfect in respect of his members tho it be for himself See Luk. 21. 28. Eph. 4. 30. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Rom. 16. 20. Why is it not Because so it seemed good to his wisdom by and for and to whom are all things as he made not perfect the world all at once but successively nor sent this Author of redemption before the latter end thereof so neitheir to make perfect our redemption all at once For indeed had sin and consequently the law and death and Satan upon our Saviors resurrection been utterly destroyed why should not all the Faithful that were before his coming as well as we since have enjoyed the same priviledg Again thus the world must have ended at our Saviors first coming 1 Cor. 15. 26. But the compleating of our redemption is reserved to his second Luk. 21. 28. Eph. 4. 30. Eph. 1. 14. and we see not yet all things put under our Savior in this manner For it pleased God to make our Savior only the Captain and we also but this wholly thro the strength of him who is the Author and finisher of our Salvation partners in this conquest giving us arms and strength to fight them but not victory without our fighting too after the same manner as did our Savior It pleased him that we should yet a while longer suffer the assaults of sin but repel them overcome the Devil but not without being tempted and death but not without suffering it and the law but not without obedience to it Lastly that in these things we should suffer in some sort for our Savior i. e. for his honor as he did for us i. e. for our wickedness that herein all virtues might more be exercised and Gods glory thro opposition more exalted It remains then we enquire next How much of our redemption is performed already by this our Saviour First tho some sin is hitherto still inherent in us yet we are restored to the spirit of God lost by Adam Rom. 8. 23. and 1. by it commanding now within us freed from the dominion of sin for the future In which respect we are said to be dead to sin Rom. 6. 11. And 2. by the price that was paid upon the Cross freed from the guilt and imputation of sins past in the time of sins former raign in us 2. 1 Tho we are still tyed to the obedience of the law moral yet we are freed from the law Ceremonial it being only typical of the things which were fulfilled in Christ. At his death when he cried consummatum est tho before he both observed it himself and commanded it also to others see Luk. 2. 21. Matt. 10. 5. -15. 24. -8. 4 he freed us perfectly from this 2. Again freed from the condemnation of the law Moral both 1. By having our former debts to it discharged by him and so this bond that was kept against us cancelled and nayled thro upon the Cross Eph. 2. 15. Col. 2. 14. 2. And freed by grace given us from that inability we had heretofore to perform it by being now enabled to observe it in all the parts thereof tho not without some defects And there is now no sort of sin how natural how customary soever uncleanness intemperance revenge c. but we have sufficient ability thro Christ to master conquâ—…r triumph over it so as never to commit any one more consummate act thereof if we will but use those weapons the spirit affords us prayer c. Insomuch as that we shall admire upon tryal the strange transformings of our selves and the great goodness and power of Christ. â—…3 And in those deficiencies by being delivered also from the curse of it thro Christ by repentance and faith in him Act. 13. 38 39. Nay yet further freed not only from the condemning power but from the commanding and directing power of the law Mosaick not that we now are without law 1 Cor. 9. 21. but that we have it much fuller then it was before in the Tables written in our hearts by which we walking in the spirit and being filled with love do all things commanded in the law by the demonstration and power of the Spirit see those places much to be noted Gal. 5. 13. 1 Tim 1. 5 9. Gal. 3. 19. Rom. 8. 15. And thus we are said to be dead to the law or it to us Rom. 7. 4. Gal. 2. 19. Dead to the former delivery of it by the giving of which we were not able to perform it as now we are when it is given us by the spirit for the law is given twice at the first by Moses written in Tables of Stone so a killing letter afterward by the spirit written on the heart and so 't is a quickening spirit that now doth the work of the law which law abides for ever Matt. 5. 18. 2 Cor. 3. 6. see Heb. 10. 11. 2 Cor. 3. 7 8. the difference of the ministrastration of the spirit and the ministration of Moses Rom. 8. 2. 3. Tho we are still subject to death yet we are freed already from the most considerable death from that eternal and from the fear of the temporal yea we are now inviting and desiring it as an entrance into our Saviors presence and eternal bliss Nay further taking pride to conquer it the same way our Lord did and turning all the preparatives thereof diseases infirmities c. by willing patient cheerful suffering thereof into matter of advantage and reward so that we had been less happy in a greater present conquest Phil. 21 23. Again freed as our Savior was Heb. 5. 7. tho not from suffering it yet that we shall not perish in it but after a while be recovered from it Therefore harmless now it hath changed its name in the new Testament Scriptures and is called a sleep 1 Cor. 11. 30. In which respect we are said already to be passed from death to life Jo. 5. 24. 4. Tho we are still subject to the temptations of Satan yet are we freed from his former power in and over us Act. 26. 18. by the more powerful spirit of God which is now greater in us then he that is in the world 1 Jo. 4. 4. And the strong man now cast out by a
of God as the first Adam was before him Luk. 3. 38. 2 Cor. 4. 4. Gen. 1. 27. And heyr of all things and having the dominion over them as Adam in innocence had Ps. 8. 5. comp with Heb. 2. 6. Psal. 2. 8. which are all resanctified and as I may so say redeemed from their former pollution in him as they were unhallowed by the other see Heb. 1. 2. 1 Coâ—… 10. 25 26. Rom. 8. 19. c. -14. 14. Now he readmitted into Paradise Luk. 23. 43. and to the Tree of life Rev. 2. 7. -3. 21. -22. 14. from which the first was expelled For tho he was and had all these from all eternity yet emptying himself as it were of all former rights in becoming man he thus made a new purchase and acquisition of them that so these his honors might be transferred to his seed as were the first Adams misfortunes Which seed hâ—… now began to propagate and to multiply and replenish the Earth with it He multiplying it not as thâ—… first Adam by carnal pleasure but as a vegetable seed increaseth by dying 't is our Saviors own allusion Jo. 12. 24 23. -3. 14 15. Esai 53. 10 11. And as the spirit in seed upon its burying in the Earth and dying begins first to operate and dilate it's self So did his spirit to the production of a numberless progeny See Jo. 7. 39. For which seed also as well as for himself upon his exaltation he received the promised spirit to be given them for the present Luk. 24. 49. Act. 2. 33. by which the rebelling flesh should be brought again under its dominion And the Crown of Immortality to be received shortly being the two things we lost in the fall of Adam So that look how much the first Adam contributed to our destruction much more hath the second for our Salvation To number up all whose derived blessings upon mankind more particularly we are first to take notice that sin having entred into the world by the first man and after it death this second Parent was forced in the first place to undo the works of the former and to clear the malevolent influence that came from him before he could impart to us his own and remove the punishment the first brought on us before regain the reward he lost us Therefore as the first Adam sinned and we barâ—… part of his iniquity so we sinning the second Adam bore all our iniquities and as we by partaking the first Adams flesh became heirs of his sin so he by partaking ours became if I may so say heir of our sins And that even of the sins of the whole world as not some few but all mankind were sinners and perished in Adam That the restitution might be as large as the fall This man upon the precious Cross offered a price of mans redemption not only sufficient for all the Sons of Adam and yet limited by him to some few i. e. the saved but also actually tendered to God his Father indifferently without exception for them all See 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. where the Apostle argues that all the sons of the first Adam were dead in sin because the second Adam died for them all See Heb. 2. 9. 2 Pet. 2. 1. Rom. 14. 15. 1 Cor. 8. 11. 1 Jo. 2. 2. Rom. 5. 18. 1 Tim. 2. 6. So those that perish Heb. 10. 29. by apostacy could not be said to have troden under foot the Son of God and the blood of the Covenant if no way pertaining to them and so in the Holy Communion if not his body offered also for and to the wicked how could they be guilty of his body and blood 1 Cor. 11. 27. That therefore this blood becomes not effectual and profiting to all in respect of which that phrase for many is used Matt. 26. 28. it is because of the conditions to be performed on every mans part that it may be beneficial unto him See Joh. 3. 16 17. Or also to take the strictest opinion of predestination because the Father hath so pleased to enable only some of the seed of Adam to the performance of such conditions But the Son in all things obedient and subject to his Father chose or picked out none no not his twelve Disciples but took into his diligent protection those whom ever the Father pleased to give him and even amongst the twelve in submission to his Fathers will chose one of them well foreknowing it Jo. 6. 70. to shed his blood See Jo. 17. 6 9 24. Jo. 6. 65. Act. 13. 48. -15. 13. Jo. 10. 26. Matt. 11. 25. Rom. 11. 7. and with a Divine patience tolerated him robbing him of his necessary provisions before he betrayed his sacred person See Jo. 12. 6. Nothing therefore is there on the account of the universality of his pretious sacrifice why every single Son of Adam may not be saved by the plentiful effusion of that all-meritorious stream of his blood which gushed out from so many Fountains made in his body from his head back breast hands feet nay in that Garden-agony thro every pore And those who make themselves uncapable of the benefit thereof make in as much as concerns them the blood of tâ—…e Son of God who loved them and gave himself for them Gal. 2. 20. to be shed so grievous a crime in vain and this by the Apostle is making themselves guilty of his murther Heb. 6. 6. 1 Cor. 11. 27. Thus he by Gods promise becoming the second head of the body of mankind 1 Cor. 11. 3. whereof we by faith are members by suffering and dying for us and in our stead tasting death for every man saith the Apostle Heb. 2. 9. he thus satisfied Gods justice and appeased his wrath toward us as one member in the natural body oft suffers the punishment for the fault of some other Sicut Homo saith Aquinas per aliquod opus quod manu exerceret redimeret se a peccato quod commisisset cum pedibus For by this Communication of head and members Adam brought in condemnation and death and therefore shall not mercy be enlarged as far as justice by the same relation that also they may be removed For as if one member suffers 1 Cor. 12. 26. all the members suffer with it so all the members are counted to suffer what any one doth For all the members of one body being many are one body and so is Christ 1 Cor. 12. 12. and we This is certain the first Adam hath brought no guilt or misery on his members which the second hath not or shall not in due season take away Nay saith the Apostle he hath taken away far more then the first brought to wit all our own personal guilt too For one only sin of the first was enough to undo not only himself but all his posterity and to bring in death but many millions of sins besides that could not hinder the second to procure us notwithstanding them
promiseth to pray the Father for them who was greater then he and therefore they might rejoyce they had such a friend with him see Jo. 14. 16 28. -16. 7 26. tho he assured them of his Fathers great affection to them for his sake even in case himself should not pray for them 3. His long many whole nights and assiduous practises of prayer here on earth doubtless for them and us tho importuned with so much other business S. Peters suddain repentance and tears Matt. 26. 75. came from his intercession Luk. 22. 32. 4. If we consider the matter of that one only long praier of his that is set down Jo. 17. after his work was finisht here and he was to leave his Disciples here on earth to the custody of his Father Ver. 12 13. And some part of his Church now and till the end of the world having the same necessities Many sheep that were not of that fold of whom he saith also that he must bring them in Jo. 10. 16. How can he not continue for them the same petitions till he be made compleat also in the whole Church his body Neither praied he then for his Apostles alone but for them also that should believe on him thro their word vers 20. for our sanctification vers 17. for our perfecter union with him and the Father in this world vers 11. 21. for our glorification with him in heaven vers 24. Perfectly knowing every ones infirmities A particular Advocate as any one of his Servants Heb. 5. 9. sinneth procuring remission 1 Jo. 2. 1. and infinitely pitying every ones condition An Advocate as any one of his is tempted and afflicted procuring succour and watching that their suffering may not be beyond their ability Heb. 2. 18. and perfectly foreseeing all their dangers An Advocate begging deliverance from future evils as he did here on earth for Peter when Satan would have sifted him but I have praied for thee that thy faith fail not Luk. 22. 23. and going away for his Disciples left behind Father I desire not to have them quite taken out of the world but keep thou them in it from the evil vers 15. from their powerful and invisible enemy and from all those wolves among among whom I leave them Think we then the Shepheard of Israel now sleepeth But we must not let this pass un noted That his Intercession who is alwaies heard for he asketh according to the will of God Rom. 8. 27. never asketh such things as God hath decreed by no praiers to be exorable in As to be capable of his mercies and favors there are some dispositions prerequisite in the person See Ezek. 14. 3 5 14. For such therefore as want these our Savior perfectly knowing his Fathers will can ask nothing absolutely that is against it Tho with a velleity if you will now as when he praied in the Garden for himself or for his enemies when on the Cross Luk. 23. 34. he desires or wisheth mercy even for all even for those who shall never receive any Velleity I say qua hoc vellet si aliud non obsisteret but his intercession with an absolute will which is alwaies conform to his Fathers and so alwaies fulfilled by his Father is not general and for all so we might think it frustrated but for those that are or will be rightly disposed and are or are to be of his Church even as the High Priest carried in before the Lord only the names of the twelve Tribes I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world Jo. 17. 9. not for those who have the devil for their Father 1 Jo. 3. 8. not for the man of sin and those persecutors of his Church Against whom we may imagine he now deprecates his Fathâ—…r in behalf of the Church in that form Rev. 6. 10. How long Lord c. Ps. 44. 9 17. and Zech. 1. 12. How long c. which Angel was the Son of God and receives from him that answer in the Psalmist Ps. 110. 1. Sit thou on my right hand till I make c. whom he will at last uttâ—…rly destroy at his coming for there is a sin we may not therefore neither doth he pray for 1 Jo. 5. 16. And this much more indears his intercessions unto his since they are not common for all and let us take heed least there be in any of us an heart of unbelief Heb. 3. 12. either not to enter at all or to run out of this fold either not to be ingrafted into or to be cut off from his body and so be made uncapable and loose our share of such dear intercessions and omnipotent praiers by virtue of which 't is not possible for the elect to miscarry Matt. 24. 24. 2. And as this our High Priest intercedes and offers up his own praiers for us so he offers up all ours too For God under the Gospel is served with spiritual sacrifice as under the law he was with carnal both with sin-offerings our Confessions and peace-offering our giving of thanks of praise and glory unto him and Free-will-offerings our restraint of some lawful liberty when this any way conducing more to his service and whole burnt-offerings our resignation and dedicating of all we have and are to the promoting of his glory So our praiers are called Incense and the morning and evening Sacrifice Rev. 5. 8. Ps. 141. 2. Our praise the calves of our lips See Heb. 13. 15. comp with Hos. 14. 2. Ps. 50. 14 15. preferred before all the Herds on the Mountains all our words and actions even to our eating and drinking required to have a special dedication to God Col. 3. 17. 1 Cor. 10. 31. And as all our actions that are by the soul so all our passions and sufferings that are by the body are sacrifices too and much more properly such then the former so both those mortifications and crucifyings of the flesh by our selves whether for the wiping away or for the prevention of sin and killing of our brutish lusts now instead of slaying of beasts or our patient and contented undergoing those sent from God for sin are no mean sacrifices see Ps. 51. 16 17. Thou delights not c. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart c. And those sufferings in the flesh from others for righteousness sake or for the glory of God or for the benefit of our Brethren when we instead of the blood of Beasts offer up our own to God and undergo Martyrdom for his sake this is the highest sacrifice of all and so St. Paul calls his 2 Tim. 4. 6. Phil. 2. 17. 2 Cor. 12. 15. And these sufferings also our Savior presents to God as he doth those of his own body for we also are his body and as he offers up himself so us to the Father Tota congregatio societasque sanctorum universale sacrificium offertur deo per sacerdotem magnum Aug.
Civ Dei l. 10. And as spending of our lives for God and our Brethren so the spending of our Estates all our Alms and charities are Evangelical Gifts and Oblations and Sacrifices therefore many times anciently made by Christians at the Altar See Heb. 13. 16. Phil. 4. 18. I have received c. the things that were sent from you an odour of a sweet smell a sacrifice accâ—…ptable c. All our doings then and all our spendings our souls and our bodies Rom. 12. 1. the spending of our lives and of our estates all these make up one compleat Holocaust which we owe unto God under the Gospel of which those under the Elements of the world were types and in which they are fulfilled after that our Savior had first begun to us and sacrificed instead of Beasts himself 1 Pet. 2. 5. Col. 1. 24. Now these the peoples sacrifices under the Gospel as those under the Law must of necessity have a Priest to offer them for the reason mentioned not only because they are so nothing worth the best we can bring of them and so unprofitable when we have done all we can and God so self all-sufficient without them whose offerings to him whatever are only his gifts to us 1 Chron. 29. 14. all of us but our sins being his but because by contagion of sin in us they are also all unclean for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job 14. 4. and he so pure and so holy that we are in the same condition as Uzziah 2 Chron. 26. 18. or Nadab and Abihu unless there be one to bear the iniquity of our holy things and thro whose merits towards God and Gods love unto him they may be accepted To whom methink God speaks as Moses Exod. 19. Do thou come up c. but let not the people least I break forth upon them And unto us as disguised Joseph did to his brethren see not my face unless you bring your Brother with you Or as God to to the Friends of Job 42. c. 8. v. Take with you a sacrifice and go to my servant Job and my servant Job shall pray for you for him I will accept or as to Abimelech concerning Abraham Gen. 20. 7. He is a Prophet and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt live For these intercessors were set down for types of this supreme Mediator By our Savior therefore all these our Sacrifices must be offered or by us in his name which is all one Phil. 1. 11. and that not only our praiers and petitions where we need and ask something that they may be heard thro Jesus Christ our Lord but our giving of thanks and glory to God Alas what glory can we give where we present something that they may be accepted We then first come to him and he offers them for us so we are said to praise to give thanks to give glory to God by him See Heb. 13. 15. Rom. 1. 8. Col. 3. 17. 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. Therefore he stiles himself the way to the Father Jo. 14. 6. and the door Jo. 10. 9. thro which we must pass And to God be glory in the Church by Christ. Eph. 3. 21. The tongue being in the head that speaks for the body 3. But thirdly he not only presents and delivers our petitions for us c. but he hath procured for us free admission to the Father to deliver them our selves not in a body by presence indeed as yet but by the spirit Eph. 2. 18. and sent us unto the Father to ask any thing in his name see Jo. 16. 23 24 26 27. according to which the Church directs her praiers not to him as he saith vers 23. but to the Father telling us that the Father himself for his sake loveth us vers 27. Eph. 1. 6. Rom. 8. 39. love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this far outdoing the mediation under the law where Moses indeed went up but the people were rail'd out and trembling and quaking stood afar off which preeminence of us the Apostle often intimates in the Epistles Heb. 12. 17. By him therefore now we also are said to draw nigh unto God to have access to the Father access with boldness to come boldly unto the throne of grace into the Holiest Heb. 10. 19 22. all our words and works to be accepted if done in his name c. See Heb. 4. 16. Eph. 5. 20. Heb. 7. 19 25. Eph. 2. 18. -3. 12. Col. 3. 17. And for these causes above-said it is that the Church so often in all Divine service repeats that holy dear name and St. Paul 't is noted in his Epistles above 500 times because to by thro and in Him and his name are all things said and done and to be done that are well and acceptably done Which name be it blessed for ever 4. After these acts of this High Priests intercession let us now proceed to the fruits and benefits thereof And first As the legal High Priest first after he had offered the sacrifice and again after he had carried in the blood into the Holyest blessed and put Gods name upon the people Lev. 9. 22. c. Numb 6. 27. So our Savior answerable to the first before he went into the Sanctuary Luk. 24. 50 and at other times blessed his people and answerable to the second also doth it since his going in blessing us from it because by his everlasting Priesthood needing to make no more offerings he is not to come out of it till the consummation of all things when he will yet in a more transcendent manner give us his blessing See Act. 3. 26. and what the blessing that he sent us was see Act. 2. 33. Upon whose blessing us from above that fire Act. 2. 2. descended upon the Apostles and consequently upon his Church ever since of which that material one which came out from before the Lord upon Aarons first blessing was a type Lev. 9. 24. Imagine him then first now speaking from Heaven putting his Fathers name upon us and pronouncing that form Numb 6. 24. and then after it all those spiritual and temporal blessings and deliverances of his Church here showred down by him but above all that fire of the Holy Spirit for ever burning upon the Altar of our hearts and hallowing all our sacrifices and elevating them unto God the manifold gifts and graces of which are mentioned elsewhere Only here take notice 1. Of the time of their collation and that was after his being ascended and entred into the Sanctuary and having interceded there See Jo. 7. 39. -16. 7. Act. 2. 33. Eph. 4. 7 8. Jo. 14. 28 29. So that we have and do receive far greâ—…ter advantages by his absence and service there then we could by his corporal presence here Blessed be God by whose wisdom all things serve for our good as also appears in his Disciples far more expert in knowledg
We are all therefore one day to take holy orders to be made Priests and Kings or Priests Melchisedechical Indeed we are already Priests not only some of us in respect of the rest which I have mentioned before who officiate for them in the publick assemblies but even all the people of God in comparison of the rest of the world the Church being a chosen generation out of all the rest an holy Nation a Kingdom of Priests Gods peculiar treasure the Israel of God separated and sanctified for to serve him See Exod. 19. 5 6. Gal. 6. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 5 9. Rev. 1. 6. Every one of whom not only by the Priest in publique assemblies but by themselves also in their hearts may offer sacrifices immediately to God the Father acceptable thro Jesus Christ Heb. 7. 19. and hence are we also called not only Priests by whom but Temples also and that not our souls only but our bodies inhabited by Gods spirit as that Ancient one was by his Glory in whom such sacrifice is offered as our Saviors body also more eminently was stiled a Temple See Jo. 2. 21. 1 Cor. 3. 16. -6. 19. Eph. 2. 22. But this Temple is yet but in building as it were we being here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hereafter more perfectly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Here Tabernacles hereafter Temples see Eph. 2. 21 22. But these we shall be made yet much more hereafter 1. After the day of judgment For then shall every place become a Sanctum Sanctorum and every one a Priest See Rev. 21. 22 23. where the new Jerusalem that after the final judgment Rev. 20. 12. comes down from heaven where perhaps as God expresseth elsewhere earthly by heavenly things so here heavenly by earthly hath no Temple at all in it For that which indeed makes a Temple whereever it resides the glory of God and of the Lamb being now spread all over it irradiating and illuminating it throughout in which respect there is said to be neither Sunshine nor Night there it is all of it nothing but a Temple vers 3. or God being the Temple vers 22. all over it See the same thing prophecyed Esai 4. 3 5. that every one should be â—…alled holy and every house and assembly in Sion have the same glory upon it cloud by day and fire by night that was on the Tabernacle And in this Sanctum Sanctorum Gods Servants shall see his face without a cloud of Incense betwixt and stand before his glory with his name Holiness unto the Lord in their foreheads Rev. 22. 4. and there they shall serve him vers 3. See Esai 61. 6. -66. 21. night and day in his Temple Rev. 7. 15. before the Throne of Glory in singing eternal glories and praises to him for there shall be no more confession where no sin nor praier where no more want not infirmity nor affliction the nations being healed by the tree of life Rev. 22. 2. no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any curse or excommunication of any Rev. 22. 3. there And secondly As then Priests and Servants to God the Creator so are they also Kings or Lords over the Creation sit down on thrones with Christ and Rev. 3. 21. and reign for ever and ever 22. 5. reign on the earth 5. 10. over the Nations 2. 26 27. Judge Angels Judge the 12 Tribes be rulers over Cities Luk. 19. 17. see Matt. 25. 21. -24. 47. Luk. 16. 10. which expressions so far as they have reference to Christs kingdom after the final day of judgment and not to that prosperous condition of the Church which is promised before it are metaphors expressing the unintelligible things of the next by the more acquainted things of this world which cannot be no more then those Ezek. 43. c. c. speaking of the same things litterally fulfilled 2. Priests also after Death before the great judgment day in the better part of us the soul the estate of which tho it was Gods pleasure that it should not be fully revealed to us yet we may not neglect to take notice of that which is so It seems plain then 1. That tho there is no formal judgment or sentence passed upon any man at the day of Death or final reward appointed or any convention or appearance of the soul before the eternal Judge for why then have not other spirits that are void of bodies as yet received that judgment see 1 Cor. 6. 3. And tho the soul as well as the body attain not as not extensively so neither intensively its full beatitude reward and crown nor vision and communication of God and glory nor a full satisfying of its desires Ps. 16. 15. or punishment pain and torment until the general day of judgment and retribution which is true not only of men 2 Pet. 2. 9. but devils more great and more Ancient offenders then men 〈◊〉 6. as may be gathered from both our Saviors and the Apostles frequent expressions commanding us to depend and cast our hope on the expectation of the coming of Christ in glory at the last day and deferring the receit of our salvation of the reward and of the crown of glory c. till that time See Luk. 14. 14. 2 Tim. 4. 8. -1. 12 16 18. 1 Pet. 1. 5 13. 2 Pet. 3. 11 12. Act. 3. 19 20 21. Luk. 21. 27 28. Phil. 2. 16. -3. 11. 1 Cor. 1. 7 8. -15. 19 32. 2 Cor. 5. 1. c. 2 Thess. 1. 6 7. Heb. 9. 27 29. Rev. 22. 7 12. Col. 3. 3. comp 4. 1 Jo. 3. 2. 2 Pet. 2. 9. Jo. 14. 3. By which it appears that there is a place not to be entered before Christs second coming prepared by his Ascension but before this were many souls in Paradise And this applied not only to the body but the spirit 1 Cor. 5. 5. From the petition and expectation of these souls Rev. 6. 9 10 11. From the just punishments of other spirits much worse and that stay for no bodies yet defer'd till that day See Jude 6. Matt. 8. 19. -25. 42. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Luk. 8. 31. comp Eph. 2. 2. Some at least it seems dwelling in the Air and not yet cast into the Abysse and likewise in this interval between death and judgment tho 't is most probable that some souls attain not so much bliss and glory and priviledg as some others See Rev. 20. 4. comp 5. -14. 4. Nor perhaps so much security I mean not in respect of damnation but in respect of that severe tryal which shall be at that dreadful day and of the measure of their salvation bliss and reward For since some sins shall come into judgment and scrutiny at that day which shall not amount to the condemnation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which our Savior expresseth hell here Matt. 5. 22. as frequently elsewhere See vers 29. Matt. 25. 33. see Matt. 5. 22. comp Matt. 12. 36. And since of those
who shall be saved in that day yet this salvation shall be much more difficultly attained by some then others 1 Cor. 3. 15. It cannot be imagined that the state of all the souls of those who rest in peace are alike blissful in the interval between death and judgment or equally comforted of some of whom such a severe examen is afterwards to be passed It cannot be that such a difference of the salvandi being to be in judgment there should be none before it nor the same soul so much in bliss at one time as some other see Rev. 20. 4. -14. 1. -7. 4 9 14 15. comp Rev. 6. 10 11. Yet it seems plain I say that the soul in general severed from the body doth afterwards of it self subsist That it is still intelligent and hath use of its faculties That it because other spirits are is capable 〈◊〉 â—…wing things corporeal That it certain of salvation passeth at least those of the more perfect carried thither by Angels Luk. 16. 22. comp Matt. 24. 31. Luk. 16. 9. comp Luk. 12. 20. into a place of rest consolation inchoative bliss or certain of its damnation of imprisonment and inchoated pain till the resurrection of the body Secondly That the souls of the faithful since his resurrection are gathered to Christ and do tho not all in the same proximity and degrees of consolations then see and behold him and the blessed Angels See 2 Cor. 5. 7. comp with 6. 8. for if St. Paul desires this change because here we walk by faith not by sight therefore we walk there by sight not by faith See 1 Cor. 13. 12. comp with 10. and Heb. 12. 23. So Calvin who spake very warily in this point Animae piorum militiae labore defunctae in beatam quietem concedunt ubi cum felici laetitia fruitionem promissâ—… gloriae expectant and again Christus illis praesens est eas recipit in paradisum ut consolationem percipiant c. Reproborum vero animâ—… the furthest removed from God and light cruciatus quales meritae sunt patiuntur vinctae catenis ut etiam diaboli Jude 6. tenentur donec ad supplicium cui addictae sunt trabantur It is plain I say from these texts well considered Matt. 10. 28. Job 1. 8. 2 Cor. 12. 2 4. Heb. 12. 23. Act. 7. 59. Luk. 23. 43 46. 1 Pet. 3. 19. Phil. 1. 23. 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. comp 6. and 8. Luk. 16. 22. 〈◊〉 20. Rev. 19. 22. comp 20. 12. In some of which tho some things are said of the person yet they must needs be understood only of the soul Animus cujusque est quisque And indeed it were unreasonable to deny to the soul in its state of separation that converse with God those favors revelations c. from him which we must grant to it in an extasy wherein the body lies as it were dead and unserviceable unto it which St. Paul experienced in his raptures 2 Cor. 12. 2. and to the Prophets in their dreams These things granted to see a little further whether any thing can be discovered concerning the imployments c. of the souls of the Blessed that are with Christ. First we find the Court of Heaven as now it is since our Saviors Ascension described by the Apostle Heb. 12. 22. c. to consist of God Christ Angels a Church or general assembly of the first-born and spirits of just men made perfect called by him in other places the Family in Heaven Eph 3. 15. Thâ—… Jerusalem above our Mother-City Gal. 4. 26. Heb. 12. 22. In respect of which we are said to have our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heaven Phil. 3. 20. And perhaps that text Eph. 2. 〈◊〉 where we are said to be set down with Christ may be meant of that part of the Church which now resides in Heaven Again in all St. Johns visisions we find besides all the usual appearances of the old Testament first the representation of a Church or Ecclesiastical Senate now in heaven described before Heb. 12. 22. and these there praising God for the Creation Rev. 4. 10 11. then the Lamb Rev. 5. 8. for his mercy to the Church and for his judgment upon its enemies for all the works of God are one of these two for the reward they had received Redemption of the whole Church out of every nation and people amongst which still this comes in that they were made Priests and Kings as we find it every where frequent see Rev. 1. 6. -7. 15. -20. 6. and for that they should receive reigning upon earth i. e. in the new Jerusalem descending from Heaven Rev. 21. 2. after the execution of Gods judgments upon their the Churches enemies See Rev. 5. 9 10. -11. 16 17 18. which praise in the 4. and 11. chap. the 24. Presbyters singly perform and tho in the 5th the Cherubims joyn with them 't is in the worshiping not in the song as drawn in that form for else the Angels every where glorify God as fellow Servants Rev. 19. 10. -22. 9. for his mercies to the Church 2dly Besides this Senate we find mention of souls first of the primitive Martyrs those slain for the witness of Jesus appearing under the Altar where sacrifices were slain and the blood which is the life or soul Lev. 17. 14. poured out at foot thereof and here crying out How long before the time of vengeance Rev. 6. 10. not that they thirst after Revenge but their reward yet this thirst void of impatience which it seems was not to be bestowed till the accomplishment of the rest of their Brethren yet under persecution and the destruction of their enemies see Rev. 20. chap. as Gods reward and punishments have their solemn and set times and are not of men single but of many together thus it is in the first resurrection Rev. 20. 4 5. after destruction of the Beast c. Rev. 19. 20. those sooner and later martyred crowned at once and thus in the second Resurrection Rev. 20. 12. At the destruction of Satan and death those long and lately dead raised at once Meanwhile there are given them white Robes and rest Rev. 6. 11. white robes implying both the righteousness innocency holiness of these Saints which they bring with them from the Earth see Rev. 19. 8. -7. 4. -3. 4. and the glory and light and beauty which is given to this innocency from God after this upon their number accomplished and judgment ready to be executed upon those who killed them See Rev. 8. 7. c. we find these souls clothed with white robes and palms in their hands standing before the Throne c. and praising God and admitted to serve him in his Temple and to follow the Lamb c. Rev. 7. 9 15. c. Next we find the souls of those who living in latter times had gotten the victory over the Beast first with patience resting and their good works i. e. their white linnen following them
all knowledg of the various wisdom of God and mysteries of his works but being successively in the due time increaâ—…ed in it according to the dispensation of the Almighty see Eph. 3. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. continually receive their greater illumination and perfection of knowledg he being the eternal wisdom of God and light of the whole world Of whom he is head also as he is of the Church therefore called the elect Angels as men 1 Tim. 5. 21. from whom 't is conceived for doubtless they are conserved by and in all things depend on him by whom they were created they possess their present confirmative grace and illuminations Rev. 19. 10. and shall hereafter receive at the end of the world a greater glory see Eph. 1. 10. Col. 2. 10. -1. 20. As over the Church so over the adversaries of it Luk. 19. 27. Rev. 19. 15. -1. 7. 2 Thess. 1 7 8. As over Christian so over Heathen Kingdoms governing them also with his providence and by his Angels Dan. 10. 13 20. Dan. 11. 1. As over bodies so over souls and consciences to know convince to send torment and self-condemnation into them Rom. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 4. 5. -14. 24. 2 Cor. 10. 2 3. c. Act. 5. 5. -2. 37. -24. 25. Jo. 16. 8. Tit. 3. 11. having power over the laws what shall oblige them what not Annulling the former Ceremonials of Moses Lord of the Sabbath c. Col. 2. 8 9 17 21. Act. 15 10. Gal. 5. 1. -4. 3. Eph. 2. 14. Power to remit and to retain sins with the key of David opening and shutting as he pleasetâ—… Joh. 5. 22. Act. 10. 42. Act. 17. 31. Power as over the living so over the dead the Author of the raising again of their bodies 1 Cor. 15. 45. Jo. 5. 28. all that are in the grave shall hear his voice c. and the disposer of eternal life or torments to whom he pleaseth Jo. 6. 54. -10. 28. Phil. 3. 21. The final Judge and this as man Act. 17. 31. Rev. 1. 7. Jo. 5. 22. Act. 10. 42. before whose tribunal all must appear 2 Cor. 5. 10. judging most righteously being the wisdom of the Father the word the truth Most throughly and those things especially which escape all former judgments of men the secrets of men Rom. 2. 16. the counsels of the heart 1 Cor. 4. 5. See what a word it is that we have to do with in that day described Heb. 4. 12 13. Very accurate and punctual in weighing the several worths of every mans works and putting fire to those that are drossy even of those whom he saves See 1 Cor. 3. 13 15. Gal. 6. 4 5. Judging not only men but Angels 1 Cor. 6. 3. and these not only the evil to pass their sentence and deliver them up to torments Matt. 8. 29. 2 Pet. 2. 4. but probably the good also for their reward non disquisitione meritorum sed retributione praemiorum for tho from the beginning of the world they both in respect of their own demenor in themselves have had their sentence and the one then confirm'd in grace and goodness the other having left to them no regress from evil yet in quantum actibus hominum communicati ratione eorum quae circa homines operantur as the Schools the one sort here not doing more necessarily good then the other evil nor the other more rejoycing in our straying from God then the other in our Conversion Luk. 15. 10. which argues the diligence of the one for our salvation as of the other for our destruction Therefore I say if these have not all their punishment already but shall suffer also for deceiving men Rev. 20. 10. and who knows whether this likewise in a just proportion why should we imagine the other to have all their advancement Especially since they are not yet freed from many charges and imployments about persons in dignity much inferior unto them and the perfection of blessedness seems to consist in rest and the end of motion which alwaies tends to something yet desired not attained But occulta Domino Deo nostro Meanwhile how terrible this to those who tread the blood of the Covenant under foot to have their violated enemy their Judge 2 Cor. 5. 11 How comfortable this to those who obâ—…y him to have their Brother to have Power as over men so much more over all the other Creatures Seas Winds and Heaven and Earth who as he made the old so hereafter shall make a new world ending with a Creation of it as he began by the same power by which here He to our astonishment or another in his name i. e. by his power Act. 3. 16. did create or repair an eye or leg or some small piece thereof He being the grand Liberator of the whole world at last as well as of the Sons of God Rom. 8. 21. and Heaven and Earth being in his power as well as all the power therein given him See Heb. 5. 5. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Rev. 21. 1. That we may know that there is nothing nor present nor to come nor high nor low from which he cannot defend us out of which he cannot deliver us Rom. 8. 38 39. and over which we also are not rulers and conquerors thro him that being flesh of our flesh loveth us v. 37. But amongst all these over whom he hath power yet his care is now more special toward the Church his body Eph. 1. 21. Heb. 3. 6. sending abroad Teachers Eph. 4. 7 11. c. distributing to several several gifts of the spirit Phil. 4. 13. communicating a great part of his power to them whatever they ask doing it for them c. helping them in miseries afflictions tho not as yet keeping these from them delivering them from the mastery tho not as yet from the assaults of their enemies For tho all power every where is given him and when any is executed t is executed by him and no part almost of this his universal power but hath in a specimen for an essay and testimony of it been executed by Him already even to that highest one of raising the Dead by him and by others also by his power yet this power was not received to be in every part executed all at once but according to the dispensation of the times appointed by the Father who gave him this power See Heb. 2. 8 9. 1 Cor. 15. 23. c. Matt. 20. 23. He governing all according to his Fathers will whose will yet is the same with his own Therefore is he in respect of some acts of his power described sitting down at Gods right hand and resting and expecting Heb. 10. 13. till the time comes of doing every thing in that order that the Prophets have foretold it i. e. that the Father hath fore-ordained it Act. 3. 21. who hath put the times and seasons of every thing in
his own power as our Savior answered his Disciples when they were inquisitive about his Kingdom Act. 1. 7. as in other acts going forth already conquering and to conquer Neither are all his enemies to be subdued at once but one after another First Antichrist then Satan the last death See Rev. 19. 20. -20. 10 14. 1 Cor. 15. 26. And so are the same enemies also overcome by degrees They first hindred from conquering his elect which power over them he received at the very first then hindred from assaulting For already by the power of his spirit neither the flesh nor Satan are suffered to overcome us except by our own default but only permitted for the exercise of our virtues still to assail us And that meanwhile many by these assaults perish 't is not from any defect of the power or goodness of this king who is so dilâ—…gent that of all that his Father gives him he calleth them all by their names goeth before them leadeth them out fleeth not from them when the wolf cometh looseth not one Jo. 10. 13 12. -17. 12. Ps. 23. 1. and in heaven in the presence of the Angels rejoyceth like the woman that had found her lost piece and the shepheard that had regain'd his straying sheep for the recovery of every sinner See Luk. 15. 7 10. But from the eternal wisdom and law of the Father which law his power must not transgress not to take away free will from man which done all further demerit and reward ceaseth and by which left he must still have a possibility to sin till the consummation of the world But this only Free-will being continued to man without which as vice so all virtue expireth and what is there that he could have done for his vineyard that he hath not done for there is nothing in or without us that can oppose him concerning ns if we our selves do not See Rom. 11. 23. When we believe not when we will not Matt. 23. 37. Mark 6. 5. Rom. 11. 23. Jo. 16. 12. These are the bounds the Father not to overthrow the nature of man hath set to the power of his Son they arguing no impotency nor unwillingness in him but incapability in us Else all things that can make man happy shall be accomplished by the omnipotent power of this King of Saints in their proper season But to express the manner of this kingdom yet more fully we are to know that as God by our Saviors coming into the world and first appearance of the kingdom of God removed away the weak elements and imperfections of the former times and by this light caused all those shadows to vanish so he compleats not this kingdom neither all at once but makes it to grow like Elijah's cloud from the bigness of a man's hand till it cover all the earth and like those waters Ezek. 47. 3. c. by which doubtless are meant the larger and larger effusions of the spirit till the day of the Lord come Act. 2. 17 18 comp 19 20. Umbra in Lege Imago in Evangelio veritas in Caelo S. Ambrose and advanceth it by gentle degrees to more and more perfection till the end come therefore compared to a mustard-seed and a piece of leaven Luk. 13. 19 21. It was the Disciples error Act. 1. to think that the Kingdom of Christ that was but then vagient in its infancy should presently appear in its full strength without any intermediate growth which had it then come to pass and so nothing have been capable of any further perfection the world must also presently have concluded the fulness of all perfection being only in the last scene of the last Act thereof For there is no decrease or revolution to imperfection or standing at a stay in the work of God Man his image cannot endure this in his petty contrivances but increasing alwaies and advancing to that just height he hath determined for them A prognostication of which governing the world he hath left us in the 6 daies work of the Creation of it And so our Saviors kingdom is not yet come to its period of perfection See Dan. 7. 14 9. Heb. 2. 8. Rev. 11. 15. -16. 17. -19. 6. Luk. 19. 11. c. 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. Dan. 2. 34 44. Act. 3. 21 23. but in a constant progress toward it both in respect of the subduing of his enemies And the more and more enlarging of his dominion till all the Heathen be his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth his possession And for the first To repeat more largely what was briefly said before tho all power in heaven and earth be already givea unto Him in respect of himself Matt. 28. 18. Tho God hath made him both Lord and Christ Act. 2. 36. and we see him crowned already with glory and honor Heb. 2. 9. yet all things are not as yet put under him in reference to his body tho sitting at the right hand of God in his person he is suffering still in his members Col. 1. 24. Saul why persecutest tâ—…ou me At his resurrection long ago he then led captivity i. e. Sin Satan and his instruments Death and its associates captive so as to suffer no more at all from them in his own person nor to suffer in his body the Church so far as that it should be conquered by them Luk. 22. 32. Matt. 16. 18. he then disarming them of their formerly mortal weapons but yet not so far that it should by them be no more assaulted nay the stronger assaults are now toward the latter end of the world as his members are more by him enabled to bear them His servants also conquering the same way as himself they never so much as now since he sits on the Throne being given up to martyrdom and overcoming death by death Christianity is yet only under the conduct of their spiritual Moses travailing afresh in the wilderness toward another Canaan expecting not entred into rest Moses was but a type of Christ the Israelites of the Church Egypt and Babylon and Antiochus of Antichrist that is to be revealed in the last times against whom Christ comes first with aids of grace before he comes with the glory of his presence going forth conquering and to conquer but by several degrees and one enemy after another first triumphing over the Beast and then over his image and the false Prophet first by the constancy the witness and blood of the Saints Rev. 12. 11. Then by the sword of vengeance Râ—…v 19. 15. Then over Satan first so far as to bind him from doing hurt then casting him into destruction Rev. 20. 2 10. and last of all over Death the last of all his enemies that shall be destroyed vers 14. And as the subduing of his Enemies so the enlarging of his dominion is effected by certain degrees He brought salvation to all people but not therefore it tendered to all persons
laid upon him that he cannot walk about and seduce After which conquest first over the ministers and the temptations of Satan he shall also destroy Satan himself and take his Saints also out of the hands of death and raise them again by his power given him from the Father and glorifie them His Kingdom in respect of his members seeming to have three degrees of its growth and his throne 3 steps or ascents one much higher then another The first beginning at his resurrection a kingdom of grace chiefly when our Savior first goes forth conquering and to conquer Rev. 6. 2. The second beginning at the fall of Antichrist and restraint of Satan Rev. 19. 20. -20. 2. The entrance of our Savior into a kingdom of power a kingdom mixt of grace and of glory too his kingdom on earth See Rev. 19. 6. -20. 4. The third which is the consummation of it and the kingdom of absolute glory his kingdom in heaven beginning at the destroying the last enemy Death and the general resurrection Rev. 20. 12. 2 Tim. 4. 1. Matt. 25. 31. Luk. 19. 12. And then he shall give up this kingdom unto the Father when God shall become all in all in him and in us That is when this Vicegerent in a kingdom now full of opposition shall have gathered all Gods elect into safety and felicity destroyed all enemies and gathered out of it all things that offend Matt. 13. 41. finished his business for which he reigned i. e. our salvation Then shall this General give up his Commission as we say there needs no government where nothing can disobey and return with the Father and and the Holy Spirit to govern after a new and in respect of the manner of it if I may so say after an higher way i. e. God shall govern immediately without any appropriated service of Christ or Angels or men his substitutes or use of external means without the least contradiction or opposition of any thing in his kingdom whereby his glory now is as it were violated and diminished himself offended and displeased When God takes again to him as it were his great power see the expression Rev. 11. 17. for God the Father by the wickedness of free will now as it were admits and undergoes some diminution of his glory and governs with as entire and pure a glory as we may imagine he did before the world was and when there was nothing but himself and perfect and infinite glory reflected only from himself Our Savior also having this kingdom resign'd as he then had it with him Jo. 17. 5. So now as then above all and thro all and in all Eph. 4. 6. as all being nothing but himself all So that this resignment of our Saviors government such as now it is is only the transition of it into a greater perfection for it endures for ever and ever Luk. 1. 33. The more things multiplicious are united and things diverse 〈◊〉 into God the more they also being perfected Which as it is true in all other creatures so also according to his humanity may be verified of our Savior blessed for ever more In respect of which consummation of all things that is yet to come all the present things which are consummations of the types of former times are but types themselves and imperfections as also many of those prophecies that are already fulfilled in there are to have a second fuller accomplishment hereafter Our Saviors first coming but a type of the second and the prophecies applyed to this see Mal. 3. 1. Matt. 3. 10 12. much more verified and fulfilled in that Our Sabbaths but types of the rest to come the present communion of Christs body and blood and the present inhabitation of his spirit but types and earnest-pence of a more intimate incorporation and union to him hereafter When whatever he is we shall be like him tho we cannot now imagine what we shall be and our present knowledg and conceit of things seeing them under the law thro a veil under the Gospel thro a glass somewhat clearer but not yet face to face 2 Cor. 3. 14 18. 1 Cor. 13. 12. such as shall hereafter vanish away 1 Cor. 13. 8 12. but by improvement as Stars vanish in a greater light Meanwhile all things under this King of Saints go on apace to their perfection by whom all that is imperfect shall at last be done away And in his Majesty may he ride on prosperously and may his arrows be sharp in the heart of his enemies and the people be subdued unto him and may he remember his poor servants now he is in his kingdom to whom be glory for ever Amen Lastly to conclude this chapter as the rest what is said of his Kingdom is verifyed also of the Saints By whose merits after whose example under whose conduct assisted by his spirit protected by his power all those who depend on him shall also overcome shall have a kingdom thrones reign on Earth rule over the nations judge men and Angels c. only saving to him the primogeniture the preeminence the right hand c. Rev. 2. chap. 3. CHAP. IX The Benefits of our Savior common to all Generations ever since the Creation LASTLY As all these benefits come to mankind by and thro Christ so they came alwaies by him to all generations of men ever since the Creation And as well these before as those since his coming in the flesh attained salvation and were blessed only by in and thro him God perfecting as all his other works so that of our redemption by degrees and still reserving some better thing behind to superinduce upon the former that the precedent without the following times might not be made perfect Heb. 11. 40. appointed not the full-manifestation of his Son for taking away our sin c. nor after the Son reascended the visible and more plenary descension of the Holy Ghost for enabling our obedience c. till the last times indeed But yet he not only promised them I mean to his Church from the beginning where note that in what manner the sending of the Messias or the promised seed so the sending of the spirit wat only promised to former ages See for this which is less taken notice of Gal. 3. 14. Act. 2. 3â—… 39. Esai 32. 15. -44. 3. Jer. 31. 33. -32. 40. Ezek. 11. 19. -36. 27. Joel 2. 29. Zech. 12. 10. c. and raised a continued expectation and longing for them both in men and Angels Mal. 3. â—… 1 Pet. 1. 12. and therefore the faithful were then called the children of the promises and the priviledges of the Jews the then Church of God said to be great in that they had the promises see Rom. 9. 4. -3. 3. Act. 2. 39. But he also exhibited them and this not only in types the figures and representations of what was to come As all former times were almost in all things types of the latter
see 1 Cor. 10. 6 11. Rom. 15. 4. Eccles. 1. 9. that the whole world might know Gods waies in his mercies judgments c. what they are and what they will be by what they alwaies have been and so in both kinds might hope and fear the same things to fall out to them which have come from God formerly upon others for their example but in the virtue and benefit of them Thro the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ saith St. Peter we shall be saved even as they i. e. the Fathers see Act. 15. 11 comp 10. nor only this but in the presence of them First for the Son The government of the Church of God under the old Testament was by this only begotten of God 1 Cor. 10. 9. Heb. 11. 26. tho not yet incarnate Humanity indeed was not assumed till the appointed time nor any of those offices that necessarily depend on it no sacrifice no sufferings for us no obedience to the laws which were enjoyned us no intercession as yet as High Priest for men his Brethren as yet a Mediator in respect of man to God he was not being in all things till he emptied himself equal to God the Father yet the benefits of all these tho not to be acted till their season were participated and equally communicated to all ages before thro faith in those to come as to ages since thro faith of these past And thus the Lamb may be said to be slain from the beginning But yet it seems plain that by the divine Oeconomy from the person of the Son of God which was alwaies The first as well as last Alpha and â—…mega Davids ofspring or branch and root Rev. 1. 11 17. -22. 16. and all things as of the Father so by the Son 1 Cor. 8. 6. Jo. 1. 4. As the first begotten from the dead Rev. 1. 5. Col. 1. 18. so the first born of every Creature Col. 1. 15. comp 17. From this person I say as it were a Mediator from the Father to us came in all times the enlightning and teaching Jo. 1. 9. Esai 60. 1. comp â—…ph 5. 14. he was alwaies the light the conduct and protection Ps. 80. 1. he was alwaies the shepheard â—…sai 27. 3 6. of the Church of God From this person all blessings derived upon Her She was ruled with his more extraordinary personal presence and immediate presidence and not by subordinate Angels and this done with his great delight Prov. 8. 30. with great compassion and affliction for their miseries Judg. 10. 16. Exod. 19. 4. Deut. 1. 31. Fsai. 46. 3. -63. 7 9. and with great patience grief and 10-times provocations from their sins Numb 14. 22. Ps. 95. 10. He often assuming an human figure as a preamble to his incarnation tho not yet a real and natural body and appearing to and discoursing with and seen by the Saints of old before his coming in the flesh as he hath done to others since after his ascension many times to one man Sâ—… Paul that are mentioned Act. 9. 4. -18. 9. -22. 18. 2 Tim. 4. 17. All the promises of Himself to come were from Himself and from his spirit 1 Pet. 1. 11. and amongst the rest that gracious designation made to his Father of his person to be emptied and to assume flesh Lo I come the Father again promising before the world was all the blessings that should come to mankind there from See Tit. 1. 2. comp Gen. 1. 26. and -3. 22. and -11. 7. And as all mercies upon the Church and the Godly so all judgments upon the wicked and the enemies thereof were executed by the person of the Son as well before as since the incarnation see Jo. 5. 22 23. All judgments also being a proper effect of the word of God See Rev. 19. 13 15. Heb. 4. 12. All those judgments upon the old world were by him being forerunning types of the world to be judged by him at that last day Therefore is he said in the same manner since his incarnation as before to come often still to execute judgments without any descent of his humanity See Rev. 2. 5. Matt. 16. 28. -24. 34 50. Rom. 11. 26. comp Esai 35. 4. -40. 10. And from Him all these as the second Person in the Trinity contradistinguished from the Father For tho opera trinitatis sunt indivisa and all external works are of the whole Trinity yet in the operation the same manner of concurrence cannot be attributed to the 3 persons we cannot say that as the Father made the world by the Son so that the Son by the Father Nor that as the Son became incarnate so the Father Nor because our Saviours praiers were addressed to the Father therefore they were to the Holy Ghost or to the Son i. e. himself Now then to prove this that we pretend more fully and here to pass by that deduction firm enough of God the Fathers creating upholding governing all things by his eternal Son therefore governing the Church his people Elect whose God he more specially calls himself these I say more especially by the same person his Son 1. This seems to appear from two Lords several times named in the old Testament see Ps. 110. 1. where the second Lord whom David calls his Lord is expressly by our Saviour expounded to be himself Matt. 22. 44. and Himself not as he was Davids Son since by his question he implyed that Christ as Davids Son could not be his Lord but as Gods Son which the blind Jews imagined not So of God and God Psal. 45. 6. comp 7. see Heb. 1. 10 and 8. David making many addresses unto God the Son as appears by the quotations in the new Testament see Psal. 68. 24. comp 18. and Eph. 4. 8 9. After this consider Gen. 19. 24. which diversity of expression seems to arise from that Lords being yet on earth that discoursed with Abraham Gen. 18. 1 3 21. Add to these Ezek. 13. 7. comp Matt. 26. 31. Esai 5. 1. 2. From those many places where the same divine person is promiscuously called the Angel of the Lord therefore not God the Father and also is himself named God The Lord The God of Israel is delivering his message if I may so call it in his own name receiving worship dedication of Altars Sacrifice as God and seeing God and living with wonder applyed to him by those trembling mortals to whom he appeared by all which joyned together tho to some it may seem the phrase of those daies to give any Angel the name of God See Judg. 13. 21 22. And their opinion that the sight of an Angel was death to a mortal see Judg. 6. 22. it is as evident that he was distinguished from all created Angels See Gen 32. 1 2. no such ceremonies used Therefore is this Angel in an especial manner called the Angel of Gods face or presence and Gods name said to be in Him Exod. 23. 21.
Abraham and the glad tidings he brought him in them of that coming which the Jews then yet without rejoycing as Abraham beheld And might not Abraham be said thus to see his glory as well as Esai it must be granted did 2. And next the descent of the Lord in the times of Noah how like is it to this in Abraham's time before the firing of Sodom And his conference with and complaint to Noah see Gen. 6. 3 7 8 12 13. -7. 1 16. and his promises to him and Covenant with him and his seed Gen. 6. 18. -9. 9. c. to those with Abraham And his preserving of Noah with his family and his shutting them up in the Ark Gen. 7. 16. to his delivering of Lot and his leading him forth by the hand And his causing it to rain those miraculous waters by opening the windows of heaven and springs of the deep Gen. 7. 4 11. to the fiery rain upon Sodom and how well do these agree with that expression 1 Pet. 3. 19 So that it seems without doubt these two of the firing of Sodom and of the flood and that of drowning the Egyptians in the Red sea with the salvation of Noah Lot and Israel being the 3 grand types to the world of the last great judgment to come see 2 Pet. 2. 5 6. Jude 5. 7. that they were executed by the same hand see 2 Pet. 2. 5 6. Luk. 17. 26 28. that the other shall be even the Son of God to whom the Father for ever hath committed all mercy and judgment 3. The same person it seems to be that first wrestled with as he doth in afflictions with all the pious and then blessed Jacob Gen. 32. 24. That appeared to and was adored by Joshuah Josh. 5. 13. 14 15. comp Exod. 3. 5. To Gideon Judg. 6. 22. To Manoah Judg. 13. 15. c. all which may be gathered from the arguments forementioned And I can call to mind in the sacred story only 2 apparitions or visions which certainly appear to be of God the Father That of the Ancient of dayes Dan. 7. 9. comp 13. and Rev. 4. 2. comp c. 5. 5. 4. Lastly he was the Angel that conducted the Church in the wilderness as is shewed above and by consequence that gave them the law in Mount Sinai for tho the law is said to be given by the disposition and promulgation of Angels Act. 7. 53. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 2. 2. multitudes of whom appeared in the Mount Deut. 33. 2. Psal. 68. 17. by whom those voices were formed in the Air. Heb. 2. 2. In which speaking of the law to the people the Angels were Mediators as afterward in receiving from the Angel and carrying the law to them Moses was Gal. 3. 19. which is taken notice of several times in the new Testament to shew the preeminence of the Gospel since the law was delivered to men by the intermediation of Angels and Moses Servants and Ministers but the Gospel by the mediation of his only Son made flesh that he might familiarly converse with man without those terrors that accompanied the law yet the supreme Legislator was God Deut. 33. 2. Exod. 20. 1. Exterior loquela Angelorum interior Dei per Angelum and that the Son the eternal word and Vicegerent of the Father called the Angel Act. 7. 38. that spoke with Moses upon the Mount from whom he received the law written with his finger the same Angel that appeared in the bush vers 35. that conducted them in the cloud Which soveraign Legislator for the glorifying of his Father and the saving of man humbled himself afterward to become Himself the Mediator The type of which mediation of his Moses then was both in delivering the will of God to the people coming down to them from the Holy place in the Mount and also ascending and interceding forty daies to God for the people Deut. 9. 18 25 26. As he since hath both descended in flesh from the bosom of the Father to declare and reveal all his will to us Jo. 1. 18. who only saw his face but Moses only his back-parts and in whose face the glory of the Gospel shone as of the law in Moses his face see 2 Cor. 4. 6. comp 3. 7. and is ascended again to the Father to intercede for us this Real Moses remembring him not of our righteousness c. but of the promise he made to them of the blessed sced Dâ—…ut 9. 27. and of the triumph the spiritual and temporal enemies of God would make over the deserted tho most worthy to be deserted Church vers 28. By whose prayers and intercessions it now standeth and shall stand for ever Amen Thus much that the Government of the Church of God also under the old Testament was by the Son of God Next for the Holy Ghost The operations also of Holiness in men under the old Testament was by the same spirit By it then Regeneration Gal. 4. 29. and our Saviour wondred at a Doctor in Israel Jo. 3. 10. that he was ignorant of it Tho therefore Christ not yet ascended and this Holy Spirit not then received and poured out in so full a measure upon all flesh yet as of the Son the Author so of the Holy Spirit the promise of the Gospel there were made some predescents in the old Testament Esai 63. 10 11. Nehem. 9. 30. Zech. 4. 6. some sprinklings and drops of those large effusions which have been poured out in the latter daies and of almost all those several kinds of its rich graces mentioned 1 Cor. 12. c. some first fruits as it were and samplars we find in the Ancient Church of God The spirit of wisdom eminent in Solomon 1 King 3. 12. and Exod. 31. 3. The power of miracles eminent in Moses Elijah Elishah and in these a specimen of almost all sorts of them that are exhibited in the new Command over the waters Exod. 14. 21. 2 King 2. 8. fire 2 King 1. 10. Dan. 3. 27. Air 1 King 18. 44. The Heavens Josh. 10. 12. The multiplying of oyl meal bread like that of our Saviours 1 King 17. 14. 2 King 4. 6 43 44. The Resurrection 1 King 17. 21. 2 King 4. 34. -8. 5. The Ascension in Enoch and Elijah Pentecost in the spirit descending upon his Disciple Elisha from ascending Elijah the type of Christ. Gifts of healing 2 King 5. 10. -4. 41. -2. 19. Esai 38. 21. Prophecy that called the proper season of the Prophets Helps in Government see the operations of the spirit upon Joshua and the Judges of Israel and the 70 Elders Interpretation of tongues and hearts too of dreams c. eminent in Joseph and Daniel see Dan. 5. 12 25. Only one the gift of tongues we find reserved as a property to the Gospel upon the enlarging of the Church from one before at this time to all nations and languages We find this Holy Spirit also represented of old both in
The one having a confusion of languages amongst them The other retaining as proper to them the first language of paradise called afterward the Hebrew from Heber in whose time the earth was divided and afterward amongst his multiplied posterity adhering only to Abrahams race And of the former of these there was a Church of God erected from the beginning which had Gods more special presence in the same land where paradise was Gen. 4. 16. Which Church seems from Matt. 19. 4 8. comp Gen. 6. 1 2. and 4. 19. and Mal. 2. 15. to have been then restrained both from polygamy and marrying with the unbelievers which matching with them afterwards was cursed with a gigantick and consequently tyrannous ofspring like that of Cain's the wicked generation Gen. 6. 4. -4. 23 24. and of which matching after the flood Abraham and the Patriachs had much abhorrence doubtless because the worship and fear of the true God was not among them See Gen. 20. 11. -24. 3. -27. 24. From which wicked Cain was excommunicated and banished whose murthering of his brother may be guessed by the way of Cain being joyned with the gainsaying of Core Jude 11. to hav been not only out of envy to him because his sacrifice was more accepted but out of emulation for his being some way or other more specially preferred in the ministration also of the divine worship and his race proved like him full of violence murders many wives c. Gen. 4. 23 24. -6. 11. see Gen. 4. 3 12 14 16. Amongst these sons of God Abel was the first recorded in the Heb. c. 11. declared there to be righteous or justifyed and accepted of God by faith and that faith was that God was a rewarder of all those that diligently seek him vers 6. which is a faith in Gods promises and a faith of things not seen vers 1. a faith therefore of promises not yet attained and indeed why else his blood cry after death vers 4. how else did he and the rest dy in faith vers 13. if not something hoped for after death viz. the restoring of that paradise which was lost see vers 16 26 39. and the restoring of life again to the innocent as well as future vengeance on the oppressor Righteous Abel slain by him that was born after the flesh that God might shew in the first Saint the lot of his Church here on earth Seth is given in his stead the Father of the holy race said to be begotten in Adams image as Adam was in the likeness of God Gen. 5. 1 2 3. which is not said of the former issue it may be with reference to restoring of man in Christ to the image in which God created Adam Col. 3. 10. Eph. 2. 10. And born after long expectation first as Abrahâ—…m's son of promise was Adam being 130 years old before he had this seed that was appointed by God instead of Abel Gen. 5. 3. -4. 25. After him Enos who comparing Gen. 4. 26. with 2 Pet. 2. 5. was the first more publick preacher of righteousness as Noah was the eighth The fifth after him Enoch a Prophet Jude 14. and after a singular manner pious who served God out of faith that he was a rewarder of the diligent seekers of him and accordingly received that reward in an anticipated translation that the times before the law might in him have a type of the advancement of the promised seed and an example of the promised reward to all beleevers thro him as those under the law had in Elias and those under the Gospel saw in the seed it self See Heb. 11. 5 6. The eighth preacher of righteousness was Noah And here in the tenth generation from Adam the world that then was was to be as this second also shall be for its wickedness destroyed but after first the preaching to them by Christ 1 Pet. 3. 19. i. e. by the spirit of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 11. the same Gospel which is preached to us viz. that as Christ was in the appointed time put to death in the flesh but quickned in the spirit so they might be judged and be put to death or become dead in the flesh according to the former will and lusts of men and be quickned in the spirit according to the will of God See 1 Pet. 4. 6. comp vers 1 2. and 1 Pet. 3. 18 19. 2 Pet. 8. 9. At which time the world after this preaching of the Gospel unto them and the long-suffering of God 1 Pet. 3. 20. for an 120 years Gen. 6. 3. still continuing disobedient and being to be destroyed by water the type of the end of it to come by fire we find the first express mention of a Covenant established with Noah and his seed Gen. 6. 18. where my not a seems to me to imply the continuation not the beginning of a Covenant in which God makes a promise to save him in this ark of the Covenant and to bless the earth unto him which was cursed for sin and then should have been destroyed Gen. 6. 13. Which also his Father at his birth prophecyed of him Gen. 5. 29. and to regive to him and his seed the dominion of the world which after the flood he gives him the possession of see Gen. 9. 1. c. And this promise we find made to Noah almost in the same terms that we nâ—…d not doubt of the same thing intended by it as it was afterward to Abraham that he also should be the heir of the world Rom. 14. 13. c. so also of Noah as of Abraham 't is said that he became heir of the righteousness which is by faith Heb. 11. 7. that is heir of the benefits thereof promised unto him And the promise was one and the same from the beginning first of the coming into the world of the promised seed which is already fulfilled and then of the restoring of man first in and then by the promised seed to the inheritance which he forfeited by Adams fall which inheritance was 1. a right both to the earth and the creatures therein which since Adams fall none have right to before God but only thro Christ. 2. And more specially to the heavenly country and city Heb. 11. 16. called also entring into Gods rest Heb. 4. 6. c. that yet to come vers 7 8 9. In the presignification of which rest to come the Sabbath was appointed from the beginning to be observed with rest c. see Heb. 4. 3 9 10. after the 6 daies labour of this world and after our deliverance from the persecutions of Egypt that is all whatever the Churches enemies For because both these are the same in the substance therefore was it instituted as a symbole of both see Exod. 31. 17. Gods work in the creation after which he is said to be refreshed being a type of his work in the redemption of the world and in the Elect from which also being perfected
Christian religion since he hath attained his just bounds their defences have been wonderfully successful not so their invasions And since the last divisions in the Church 1500. the many as unprosperous civil wars of Christians amongst themselves As on one side the famous invasion of the Swedes the attempts of the Reformed in the low-Countries in France On the other side the invasion of 88 The powderconspiracy the late insurrection of the Romanists in Ireland c. without any considerable advantage to that side which ever it be that is orthodox Neither did Moses and the giving of the law annul or weaken the covenant of grace being seniour to this promulgation of the law as it was renewed to Abraham yet being before him also 430 years Gal. 3. 17. neither yet did the Gospel i. e. the covenant of grace manifested and accomplisht in the times of the Gospel annul or weaken the law See Gal. 4. 21. Rom. 3. 31. -3. 21. And therefore the Gospel is said as to be preached to Abraham so also to them in the wilderness tho many of them it profited not as also now it doth not being not mixed with faith in many of the hearers Heb. 4. 2. And first for the law Ceremonial it was nothing but the Gospel in symbole and type and therefore is not abolished by the Gospel when fully manifested but only by being compleated and improved as the Gospel in shadow by the Gospel in substance or a child is by becoming a man Gal. 4. 3. -3. 24. Secondly for the law moral it now well consists with the Covenant of the Gospel not one title of it being expunged but rather as some think much enlarged and a stricter observance thereof then by Moses required by our Saviour See Maâ—…t 5. 17 18. comp 19 20. Rom. 8. 4. 1 Cor. 7. 19. And it was included and presupposed in the Covenant of grace transacted with Abraham Gen. 18. 19. Why then should we think that the law given at Sinai did not well accord with the Gospel that was then also preached Heb. 4. 2. Nay that more perfect knowledg of Gods will the giving of the law to Jacob c. whilst other nations walking in darkness were not so dealt with Ps. 147. 19. is quoted as a great priviledg and favour to that people by the Apostle Rom. 3. 2. -2. 18. -9. 4. where the Apostle reckons among benefits not only the promises and one Covenant but the Covenants and the giving of the law and rejoyced in as such every where by the Psalmist Ps. 119. -147. 20. which rendred them I mean the sons of faith not of works much more holy and less sinners then generally the Gentiles were see Gal. 2. 15. being a lantern to the feet of the children of the spirit as a letter of condemnation to those of the flesh and in that it is said to bring nothing to perfection Heb. 7. 19. being intimated to have the power to advance men some steps toward it For tho the law was not the Gospel nor the ministration of the letter the same with that of the spirit nor that of Moses with that of Christ yet one was subservient and a precognitum unto the other And it was first in order to receive the precept to tell us what is to be performed and then the spirit to enable us to perform it tho without the spirit also we never perfectly know it Therefore the first law-giving was to Adam as soon as created and to it answered especially the divulging of the Gospel to Abraham again the law was set forth again and as it were reprinted by Moses at Sinai and to it answered the manifestation and last edition of the Gospel by Christ coming in the flesh Yet tho thus the law is before the Gospel in order of nature yet not in time for even Adam himself as he had an external command to observe which was the letter of the law so had he the spirit to enable him for it and that the same spirit which is to us restored by the Gospel The ministration therefore of the law by Moses taken single and abstractively by it self from the ministration of the spirit which was also administred at the same time tho not in its great solemnity to the children of the promise and of faith tho not by Moses was of nothing but the letter and that letter a killing one impressed in stone but not upon the heart the the ministration of death 2 Cor. 3. 7. a Covenant faulty i. e. defective and no salvation by it but the promise annexed was only He that doth shall live in them a sentence of condemnation and so it accidentally happened to be then as now also to those who were of works and not of faith Gal. 3. 9 10. to those who had the administration of the letter only and not of the spirit In which sense taken all things are said in its disparagement the law ceremonial making nothing perfect the moral all fuller of sin and all those oppositions of the law to the Gospel and of Moses to Christ. See Heb. 8. 9. Therefore where the Apostle makes any such opposition 't is either of the more obscure manifestation of the Gospel and promises in the times under the law in respect of those after the incarnation of Christ Or of the law Ceremonial sometimes also called the old Covenant in respect of its accomplishment in Christ as this occurs often in the Epistle to the Hebrews Or not of the book of the old Testament i. e. of Moses and the Prophets to the new Testament i. e. of the Gospel of our Saviour for thus the new Testament is also contained in and proved out of the old but of the law moral considered by it self in the old Testament and abstracted there from all the promises of Gods mercy and of grace that are frequent in it only as it rigidly commands all righteousness forbids all sin promiseth rewards to those that keep denounceth punishments to those that transgress it and meanwhile changeth not helpeth not at all mans natural pravity and inability to observe it Yet thus also as the letter only it served well by shewing men their sins and inability to perform them to drive them forward with the rod of this Schoolmaster into the Covenant of grace see Rom. 3. 19 21. -9. 32. Gal. 3. 22 24. and to make them look after a Redeemer by seeing how guilty they stood before God and after the spirit promised and procured by him by seeing their former self-weakness which spirit and redeemer then also offered themselves to the children of faith Tho many of the Israelites abused this intention of the law by seeking justification by it rather then by faith Rom. 9. 32. whilst mean-while the ministration of the spirit see 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8. Rom. 8. 2. Heb. 8. 10 11. writ it upon the hearts of the faithful by which spirit as the just lived and had
powerful in working according to the promise Jo. 14. 20. after his departure 2. Of the manner of their conveyance which will much advance our confidence if we consider our near relation For we receive them not by his procurement only from the Father but even from his own hand Every good and perfect gift cometh from the Father c. Jam. 1. 17. but thro and by immediate donation of the Son and by the same way as all our praiers and sacrifices ascend and enter in blessings come forth of this Sanctâ—…ary Upon his asking all things are given him Psal. 2. 8. whom the Father alwaies hears and at his own pleasure he dispenseth them Act. 2. 33. â—…ph 1. 3. And this the having in his own power the gift of all things from whose hands we may be sure we shall want nothing belongs peculiarly to the tenure of his Priesthood being Melchisedechial and joyned with Kingship Sacerdotium Regale or Sacerdotale regnum i. e. having royalty and power joyned with it as before the law these two were joyned in the Princes of families so after the law they are united in Christ a King over all but Him whom as a Priest he serves Therefore we find him sitting at the right hand and the promise of having his enemies made his footstool so frequently joined with his Priesthood and intercession for to shew the everlasting power of his Priesthood See Heb. 8. 1. Rom. 8. 34. Ps. 110. 1. comp with 4. Act. 2. 33. Ps. 2. 8. Therefore since he ever liveth to make intercession he is able to save saith the Apostle not willing only Heb. 7. 25. Able to succour Heb. 2. 18. see Jo. 17. 2 24. Father I will that c. Jo. 14. 13 14. If ye shall ask any think in my name his asking or our asking in his name is all to one effect as is shewed before I will do it where he shews both his dependance on his Father as a Priest and power over all things else as a King Besides this officiating as an Intercessor in Heaven as a Sanctuary as he is High Priest wherein he is compared to Aaron Our Savior by the same Apostle in his treatise of his Priesthood is called the Captain of our Salvation bringing many sons of God unto glory Heb. 2. 10. Lord of the houshold of God and conducter of them into a promised place of rest and forerunner entred before them into Heaven as it is the land of promise and this as he is a regal High Priest wherein he is compared to Moses and Joshua his successor conducters of Israel towards Canaan See Heb. 2. 10. -3. 1 2 6. -4. 8 9 14. -6. 20. comp with Heb. 12. 1 2 18 22 25. -11. 14 16. We being in this world after our deliverance from Egypt the dominion of Satan and sin and passing thro the Red Sea of Baptism 1 Cor. 10. 2. yet as in the Wilderness a dry and thirsty land where no water is as the Psalmist spiritually complains of it see Psal. 63. 1. -39. 12. -119. 19. whoever take it for any thing else much mistake it now under Christ I speak of him according to his manhood our Conductor as they were under Moses and Joshua and all things that were done there were examples 1 Cor. 10. 6 11. First therefore as Moses when the mount of God burnt with fire nothing but blackness and darkness and tempest nothing but wrath and judgment towards us and fear least the fire of the Lord should break forth upon us having all sinned as Israel had and none durst draw near to speak for us Behold him coming forth out of the midst of us the true Mediator and going for us into the Mount and there like Moses Exod. 32. 30. making an attonement for us And tho there is yet to come another shaking of all things shaking heaven and earth and all in pieces under this second Moses Heb. 12. 26. far more terrible then that under the first wherein he shall come in judgment to destroy his enemies from which then there shall be no Mediator to hinder him as Exod. 32. 10 11. yet then to those that obey him this Mount Sinai shall be changed into Mount Sion and the city of the living God c. see Heb. 12. 22. c. where are such and such glorious company And thither shall he also carry up his Brethren after the remainder of the 40 daies or 6 weeks of his abode there are expired Meanwhile from thence not from an higher place of the earth but from the highest heaven into which he is gone up he continually speaks unto us not with that terror as the Angels from Mount Sinai gave the law but with the soft voice of his spirit the ministration of which by him is opposed to that of the law by Moses 2 Cor. 3. 8 9. And wo be to all them that refuse to hear him far beyond those that refused to hear Moses Heb. 12. 25. -10. 29. 2. And then as resembled by Joshua or Jesus called so as a type of him he is the Conductor also of the people of God into the true land of promise Heb. 4. 8. the place of rest the rest of God Heb. 4. 5. Into which God hath sworn no unbelievers shall enter And into this our blessed Savior is entred already before us and set down the posture of resting at the right hand of God entred not only as a forerunner Heb. 6. 20. or leader to give an example that we should follow him thither the Anchor of our hope being already cast within the veil by the taking possession of this our forerunner Heb. 6. 19 20. But also a forerunner or Harbinger as Joshua his type also was to view that good land as it were and there to prepare a place for us Jo. 14. 2 3. in that house where are many mansions the heavens that we see being but a center to it from whence God looks down upon them as they upon the earth Ps. 113. not any therefore but an honourable a choice place there see Rev. 4. 4. where the Church-men were sitting on either side of Gods Throne in the midst of all the glorious train of Heaven and the Angels standing in a circle about them Rev. 5. 11. -7. 11. Father I will that those be with me where I am to behold my Glory c. Jo. 17. 24. not in the same region but in the same place of it where his glorious body is not in the Country only but of the Court following and waiting on the Lamb there where ever he goeth which is named as some special honour Rev. 16. 4. -7. 15. -3. 4. And from thence after this place prepared for us and us for it he hath promised to come again and accompany us thither in person Thus is he a forerunner to all the faithful in respect of their bodies entring into that celestial Canaan he being the first-born from the dead but
again forerunner according to the opinion of antiquity of the souls too entring into the heavenly Sanctuary in respect of the spirits not only of all Saints dying since him of this no question but of all those that deceased before him from the beginning the very first into this Sanctuary as none ever entred for the cause but by and in relation to him so none for the time beâ—…ore him which opinion seems to be strengthned from thâ—… expressions of our Savior concerning Lazarus That He i. e. his soul. as Luk. 21. 43. this day shalt thou i. e. thy soul was carried by Angels into Abrahams bosom as being Father of the faithful a place of bliss doubtless being opposed to the other's place of torment wherein Lazarus received consolations but now we are said to be gathered unto Christ after this life we and Abraham and all into Christs bosom ours and Abrahams Father See 2 Cor. 5. 1. c. Phil. 1. 23. Act. 7. 59. Eph. 1. 10. Again as 't is said in general Heb. 9. 8. That the way into the holiest was not made manifest under the old Testament so in particular of the Saints of it that they received not the promises before us Which may be interpreted not only of the promises of the Messias but also of those obtained thro him spoken of vers 13 14 16. that they without us were not made perfect Heb. 11. 40. and perhaps in respect of this is the same term used Heb. 12. 23. of the spirits of just men now made perfect i. e. admitted into the Holiest by and with our Savior according to the hymn having overcome death thou openedst the kingdom of heaven to all Therefore none of tâ—…e old Testament Celestial visions have any representation of any Church there none of the new are without it See Rev. 4. 4. Heb. 12. 22 23. where setting down the Court of Heaven he numbers the spirits of just men and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 probably the same with those primitiae Rev. 14. 4. To this purpose some apply Zech. 9. 11 12. comp 9. Jo. 14. 3. Matt. 25. 6 10. Into which notwithstanding the good tidings this Joshuah hath told us of it many fail to enter in partly thro unbelief of the glory and riches of that place beyond this Egypt or Wilderness like those Numb 14. chap. longing and lusting after denyed Onyons and Garlick whilst they are fed with Manna and partly thro cowardliness of not fighting their carnal lusts and withstanding the pleasures of this present life the enemies and Gyants which hinder them from possessing this Holy land which notwithstanding this Joshua and his faithful Souldiers have in many battails discomfited before them But seeing there remaineth a rest Heb. 4. 9. and seeing we have a great High Priest tâ—…at is passed c. v. 14. let us lay aside every weight and run with patience c. looking unto Jesus c. who is set down there Heb. 12. 1 2. that at the last we may be made partakers of of Christ. Heb. 3. 14. Thus much of our Saviors officiating in this perpetual Office of Priest above But 1. As God also still retains Sanctuaries on Earth there are certain persons substituted by him in the same sacred office to do that in these earthly which their Master doth in the Heavenly Church 1. By whom first the sacrifice of his body and blood is presented here unto God for a remembrance of him unto the Father in the consecrated elements for all the same purposes for which it is presented by our great High Priest there i. e. for all the purposes for which he offered it first on the Cross. See Mal. 1. 11. Gal. 3. 1. Itaque veteres in hoc mystico sacrificio non tam per actae semel in cruce oblationis cujus hic memoria celebratur quam perpetui sacerdotii jugis sacrificii ad quotidie in coelis sempiternus sacerdos offert rationem habuerunt cujus hic imago per solennes Ministrorum preces exprimitur Cassand p. 169. 2. By whom is Intercession made both by presenting their own praiers for the people and also the peoples prayers to God thro Christ. For God accepteth no praiers but thro Christ nor yet all those that are made in Christs name except either they come from persons deputed by him who is so dearly loved to which persons God hath made extraordinary promises as those I conceive are Matt. 18. 18 19. Jo. 16. 23. c. or from those that are holy and like unto him For sinners God heareth not till reformed The emploiment of the Saints in heaven as we have any notice of it is praier and praises For first since the spirits of Saints departed hence are in paradise Luk. 23. 43. and with Christ Phil. 1. 23. are now said to be made perfect Heb. 12. 23. and clothed with white garments Rev. 6. 11. that is advances in charity and purity greater then here are described in Priests habits having in their hands vials of incense doubtless to offer it which is interpreted by St. John to be praiers of the Saints Rev. 5. 8 -8. 3. have a zeal to Gods glory in mens salvation beyond ours or their own whilst on earth and more charity which grace is not decayed by death but perfected 1 Cor. 13. 8. 2. Since their interpellations there can prejudice our Saviors no more then the Priests intercessions here 1 Tim. 2. 1. and if any ask what needs theirs we may as justly reply what need these nay what need any praiers at all see Matt. 6. 8. Tho little concerning this their interpellation is revealed and those Christians who have implored it seeming to have grounds partly on Miracles pretended to be done by them But probably true ones done and that frequently at their memorials See Austin Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 8. and partly on pretended apparitions of them after deceased yet in general it seems piously credible that as Christs members on earth now suffer as he did on earth so his members in heaven intercede for these sufferers at least in general as he doth there and echo unto the King of Heaven the words of their Master as the Angels do to the Church Rev. 5. 12. comp with 9. Rev. 7. 11 12. comp with 9 10. And that petition Rev. 6. 10. I cannot imagine so circumscribed to themselves that it did not represent to God also the sad condition of their Brethren on earth mentioned vers 11. See Rev. 5. 9. where the Presbyters give praise for the salvation of others as well as of themselves for those of every tongue kindred people and Nation See Rev. 11. 17 18. Thus much of our Saviors officiating in the heavenly Sanctuary and his Ministers here Now this discourse as the former must be concluded with the communicating of this honour also unto us who look whatever he is that we also shall be for we shall be like him 1 Jo. 3. 2.