Hoc praestat timor Dei ut alios timores contemnamus and St. Ambros speaking of the burning of the Martyr Laurentius saith e Ambr. Serm. 19. n. 41 Maâ—or slamma intrinsecus est The fear of God overcometh all humane fears and the fire of Gods Spirits within us wherewith our hearts burn is more ardent then the flames of Tyrants as cruel Antiochus was told by a Martyr f Ioseph de Macab Ignis tuus frigidus est O Magister crudelitatis i. e. That the Tyrants fire was but cold in respect of this Heavenly flame Thus doth the Scepter and Kingly power of Christ appear most in our weakness and this is the method of his Kingdom in this world But of the carnal domineering insulting ruffling and ranting Kingdom which Millinarians dream of Christ saith My Kingdom is not of this World SECT III. Of Christs Kingdom and Acts in Heaven of his Melchisedechical Priest-hood there The manner of his intercession Advocate-ship and Mediatorship for us in Heaven That it is not by sacrificing or praying for us there What Priestly act he there performeth WE are next to inquire whether Christ since his ascensioÌ„ hath any Kingdom or Dominion in HeaveÌ„ what he hath done there all this while for the English Socinian Commenter on the Hebrews tells us that this Epistle is a The Preface a. 3. the History of Christ in Heaven which is true in part although himself have depraved it but so are also other parcels of Scripture as may thus appear in his ascension he was attended and proclaimed King by Angels as Justin. Origen Jerom. Ambros and Chrysost understand these words Ps 24. 7. Lift up your Psal 24 heads O ye gates or O ye Princes and the King of glory shall come in for although as he is the Son of God or God the Word he was in Heaven before yet his humane nature was not there before his ascension as is well expressed by b Ruf. in Symb. apud Cyp. Ruffinus Ascendit ad Coelos non ubi verbum Deus ante non fuerat sed ubi verbum caro factum ante non sedebat being there he is said to have a Throne and that for ever and Heb. 1. 8. ever Ps 45. 6. a Throne is Kingly but this Throne is also on the right hand of God so it is the highest Throne thence he is said to give gifts unto men Eph. 4. 8. as The Holy Ghost at Pentecost was by him shed Act. 2. 3. So he gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers Eph. 4. 11. to those more gifts are added Gifts of healing helps in government diversities of tongues 1 Cor. 12. 28. besides many other sanctifying graces to holy men and women He â—hewed himself to be in Heaven and at the right hand of God to the Protomartyr Act. 7. 56. out of Heaven he spake to Saul and restrained him from persecuting Act. 9. He is called a Priest an High-Priest and a Bishop he maketh intercession for us in Heaven Rom. 8. 34. Heb. 7. 25. He is our Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1. And our Mediator 1 Tim. 2. 5. c. What Act of Priest-hood and what kind of intercession Christ performeth for us in Heaven and what is meant by his session at the right hand of God we will inquire anon but first his Kingly authority is to be shewed After the Passion and Resurrection of Christ and before his ascension he said All power is Mat 28. 18. given unto me in Heaven and in Earth These words are weighty The giving is meant only of a gift to his humanity thus That all power in Heaven and Earth which was naturally in the Son or Word before his incarnation is now by the God-head even his own God-head communicated to his humane nature being personally united with his divine nature so that now the Emanuel or Christ or the Word made flesh hath all power in Heaven and Earth the whole power of the God-head is in him There is nothing done by God either in Heaven or Earth but what Jesus Christ doth because there is none other God but that God which he is for he is the one and only God The Father and the Spirit are with him but one God whatsoever the Father doth he doth it by the Son and whatsoever the Son doth he doth it from the Father and by the Spirit and whatsoever the Spirit doth he doth it from the Father and the Son Christ saith The Ioh. 5. 17. Father worketh and I work this because the works of one are the works of both He saith again I can of my self do nothing 30. this he said because the Father and the Son are one therefore the works of the Son are the works of the Father also This is to be understood of the Essential or Absolute works of the God head but not of the Personal or proper works of each several person he saith again The Son can do nothing of himself but what he 19. seeth the Father do This is not so to be understood as if the Father did first perform a work to be as a Sampler or pattern for the Son to work by and then the Son after him should perform such another work but that the very same individual work of the Father is also the work of the Son for example The Father made the world so did the Son make the same world If this work be not the one and self same work of the Father and the Son then as Austin argueth a Aug. in Ioan. tract 20. Da mihi alterum mundum quem fecit Filius you can not shew me two worlds one of the Fathers making and another of the Sons making Indeed before the incarnation of the Son all the power in Heaven and earth was in the pure God-head residing in the Father Word and Spirit But since the Word or Son was incarnate all that power is communicated by the same God-head to the Son incarnate who is thereupon called Christ and Emanuel There is now none other King of glory but that God which is in Christ St. Iude calls him both The only Lord God and our Lord Iesus Christ Iude 4. Ioh. 5. 22. 27. therefore himself saith That the Father hath committed all judgment to the Son that is to Christ and this Son shall therefore in the end in his assumed and visible nature judg the world If it be said that his humane nature is a creature and therefore must always be subject to his God-head we answer that it is true but nevertheless the Emanuel i. e. The Divine and Humane Nature joyntly govern all things for so the body of a King is subject to the soul or will of the King yet the King consisting of a Body and Soul with both ruleth If it be said that the Father and the Holy Spirit do also reign and govern all things as well as the Son though neither the Father
Father and the Son under the name of Wisdom Prov. 8. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way before his works of old I was set up from everlasting I was brought forth just so doth the Psalmist express the Eternal generation of the Son Psalm 1103. Ex utero ante Luciferum genui te so was the old reading of those words in Jerome and Austin Brought forth and from the womb these words signifie that by Wisdom the Son is meant and the mention of the Womb of the Father doth signifie that this Son is of the same substance with the Father as children of the womb are of the same substance with their Parents and Before the morning Star signifieth that the Son was before time or any other Creature And that it may appear that by Wisdom the Son of God is meant the words of the Apostle will declare 1 Cor. 1. 24. where he calleth Christ The wisdom of God And as the Psalmist tells us that God made all things in wisdom So the Gospel tells us who this wisdome is viz. The Son The Word The Father created all things but he created them by the Son which St. John expresseth in these words Joh. 1. 3. All things were made by him that is by the Son or Word and this St. Paul doth clearly apply to Christ Col. 1. 16. For by him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers so that even the most glorious Arch-Angels and Angels are but the Creatures of this Son of God and this Wisdom of God Finally These men that tell us That God hath not always a Son may as well tell us that God had not always Wisdom But as they dare not deny the Wisdom of God to have been from Eternity so neither can they without very great impudence deny the Word or Son of the Father to have been from everlasting I will conclude this Chapter with the words of St. Basil who thus argued against the Anti-Trinitarians out of the words of St. John k Basil Hom. 16. To him that shall say There was a time when the Son or Word was not you may answer If this speech be true which the Gospel delivereth In the beginning was the Word I pray when was that time when he was not CHAP. IIII. Of the Holy Ghost That he is one of the Three Divine Persons and that he is to be prayed unto which is shewed both both by Warrant of Scripture and by the practice of the Primitive Christians and of the Church of England wherein he is confessed in Creeds and invoked in Baptisms and Doxologies THe Macedonian Hereticks confessed the Divine Personality of the Father and the Son but they denied the Person of the Holy Ghost and there are some among us who although they will not openly deny the Divinity and Person of the Holy Ghost yet they are doubtful and suspensive therein And this because they cannot or will not finde that any Prayers in Scripture are used or directed to the Holy Spirit as they are both to the Father and the Son They finde the Son of God praying to the Father Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And Forgive them Father they know not what they do They Luk. 23. 46. 34. find also St. Stephen praying to the Son Lord Act. 7. 59. Jesus receive my Spirit For the satisfaction of such as these who are neither maliciously nor obstinately wedded to this error I will endeavour to shew both the Personality of the most Holy Spirit and also that he is to be prayed unto and both these by the evidences and precedents of holy writ and by the practice of our of our owne Church and also of the Primitive Christians First That the Holy Ghost is a Divine and distinct Person in the Trinity as well and as truly as either the Father or the Son We find that the Scriptures record and report many diverse actions and operations of the Holy Ghost which must needs be the performances of a Person for He appeared as a Dove And as fiery Tongues He teacheth He leadeth into all truth He brought into the Apostles memories whatsoever Christ had said He decreed in a Council Acts 15. He forgiveth sins by the Apostles by whom he was received and entertained for that purpose Joh. 20. 22. He is an Advocate or Comforter He distributeth gifts He spake by the Prophets and in the Apostles He calleth and maketh Ministers Act. 13. 2. And Bishops Act. 20. 28. where the very Original word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I know not why our Translators rendred Overseers when in other places they Translated the very same word Bishops which is the very Text word without any alteration but only as it is formed to out English Idiom In a word this Holy Spirit is produced by St. John as a witness that Jesus is the Christ 1 John 5. 6. Secondly for Prayer We say that the Scripture doth evidently set down a Warrant and a Precedent of Prayer to the Holy Ghost which you will finde if you observe the words of St. Paul 2 Cor. 13. 13. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you This is a Prayer and here is not only a mention of the Holy Ghost but indeed all these words Grace Love and Communion do relate principally if not only to the Holy Ghost for the Spirit is the Grace and the Love of the Father and the Son and the grace of Jesus and the Love of the Father are conveyed unto us only by the Communion and Inspiration of the Holy Spirit The Spirit is the Conduit of them and the Cement or Ligament by which our conjunction fellowship Union or Communion is wrought and by which we are joyned and united in one Mystical body or corporation with the whole Trinity and this is the meaning of that saying of St. John Baptist concerning the Baptism of Christ He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost for those that are Mat 3. 11. baptized into Christ are by this Spirit united to him in one mystical body and so become One with him and by this Union with Christ they are united with the whole Trinity and therefore there is mention of the Holy Ghost in the formal words of Baptism because our Union is wrought only by this holy Cement of the Spirit for this reason it is that the Apostle prayeth for the Communion of the Holy Ghost Communion signifieth a mutual union of the Spirit with us and of us with the Spirit Communio is as much as Counio or uni◠cum The Scriptures are so plentiful in precedents of Prayers to the Holy Ghost that you may find them at least in thirteen of St. Pauls Epistles and at the beginning of every one of them for thus we read Rom 1. 7. Grace
therefore how it can seem reasonable to any man that understandeth Baptism and especially to our learned Teachers that one should enter a Covenant in Baptism of beleeving when the things to be confessed and beleeved are not at all rehearsed or mentioned And yet more strange it is that although they have changed the old form of singing with the signe of the Cross into singing with the signe of the Covenant yet the words of the Covenant are not at all by them rehearsed Whereas it is evident in Scripture that a confession of faith and so a Covenant of beleeving is required in Baptism for when the Noble Eunuch desired Baptism he was first required to beleeve and thereupon made a confession of his faith thus I beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Act. 8. 37. so he was baptized As for the reforming of great Fonts into little Basons and the like lesser matters wherein how much the amendment is better then the supposed fault or defect we dispute not but we are heartily sorry that in many Congregations the Incumbents do often refuse to baptize at all except it be the children of the Rich of their own fraternity Fourthly We have also lost the grave and venerable Order Episcopal which may justly seem to argue a dis-belief or a disparagement of the Holy-Ghost of whom it is said Acts 20. 28. Spiritus sanctus posuit Episcopos for if it be indeed beleeved that the holy spirit did plant or place them it must also be believed that some contrary Ghost or anti-Anti-spirit it is that supplanteth them Our Lord Jesus himself now since he sate at the right hand of God in Heaven yet there sitting is called a Bishop 1 Pet. 2. 25. The Shepherd and Bishop of our souls and the chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the great Shepherd of the sheep Heb. 13. 20. The Appellation of Pastor belonged only to Bishops in the Primitive Church but but now every young Curat though but an intruder will write himself Pastor too arrogantly St. John in his Revelation saw four and Rev. 4. 10. twenty Presbiters so is the original fall down before this great Bishop but our new Revelations have shewen us twenty four Bishops falling before Presbyters I suppose that the greatest adversaries of Episcopacy will not deny the Title of Bishop to be a scriptural word as it is and not an extraordinary or temporary word or appellation as some others are but a positive and fixed name and office and if it be indeed so planted by the Holy Ghost in the holy Scriptures men should be afraid to raze it out if they consider that Moses charged his Israelites neither to add nor diminish ought from the word that he had Deut. 4. 2. taught them and so St. John at the very close of the Gospel hath left a terrible threatning which surely extendeth to all holy writ If any man shall add to it God shall add plagues to him Rev. 22. 18. And if any shall take away from it God shall take away his part out of the book of life The greatest Sticklers and Dogmatical opposers and enemies to Episcopacy for I meddle not with Authoritative power are those men who would have Presbyters to be the Supream Sacerdotal order but I firmly beleeve that in the Scripture the word Presbyter was not intended to signifie any order at all of Sacerdocy but only to signifie a jurisdictive Authority annexed to the two only Orders of Bishop and Minister for Bishops are therefore called Presbyters in the Scripture because of their jurisdiction only Presbyter is an appellation of the Office or work of a Bishop but not of his Order as St. Paul doth evidently distinguish them 1 Tim. 3. 1. If a man desire the Office of a Bishop he desireth a good Work Here is 1. The Office or Work 2. The Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Afterwards inferior Ministers were called Presbyters and that very early in the Primitive Church And now all Ministers are generally called Presbyters which is improper and abusive except there be first a faculty of some part of the Ecclesiastical jurisdiction annexed to the Minister which jurisdiction in due form should be derived on them by grant of the Superiour Order of the Bishop for although it is very true that in the Primitive Church a new Order was set up and called Presbyters and placed between Bishops and Ministers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet this Order was onely Ecclesiastical but not Scriptural For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Presbyter in Scripture is promiscuously used to signifie both Ecclesiastical and civil Governours because it signifieth only a jurisdictive Authority and not a sacerdotal Order In the new Testament Presbyters of the people Mat. 21. 23. and 26. 47. and 27. 1. are mentioned And Presbyters of the Church Act. 15. 4. 6. and 1 Tim. 5. 17. And Tit. 1. 5. in all which places our English renders the word Elder But Beza varies in in the Translation of it for when it is said of the Laity he renders it Seniores i. e. Elders But when it is said of Ecclesiastical persons there he renders it Presbyteri i. e. Presbyters In the old Testament we find but two Sacerdotal Orders viz. 1. The High-Priest Aaron and his Successors 2. Inferior Priests called the Sons of Aaron So in the new-Testament we finde but two Orders of Sacerdocy viz. * Bishops the inferiour Ministers or Presbyters are both called Sacerdotes by St. Augustin de civ l. 20. c. 10. 1. Bishops 2. Ministers who are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So St. Paul reckons them more then once as Phil. 1. 1. The Bishops and Deacons and so 1 Tim. 3. 2. 8. So St. Jerome in that Epistle to Evagrius which hath been so tugged and stretched to make it speak for the Presbyterian design doth propound this sure rule concerning Ecclesiastical Orders a Hier. Epist 84. To. 2. Sciamus traditiones Apostolicas sumptas de veteri Testamento i. e. What the Apostles have delivered or written concerning Ecclesiastical Orders was by them taken from the patterns of Sacerdotal Orders in the old Testament which certainly is true because the same Immutable God is the Authour of Orders both in the old and new Testament St. Jerome goes on thus b Id. ibid. Quod Aaron filii ejus atque Levitae in Templo fuerunt hoc sibi Episcopi Presbyteri Diaconi vindicent in Ecclesia i. e. That which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were during the Temple The same may Bishops Presbyters and Deacons claim in the Church But every learned man knoweth that the Levites were not Priests therefore those that St. Jerome calls Presbyters must needs be the same that St. Paul calls Deacons or Ministers Now if Presbyters must be the highest Order in the Church by the same proportion Aarons Sons sholud have been the High-Priests in the Temple but
profaned Psal 89. 38. 39. 40. 42. 43. his Crown by casting it to the ground Thou hast broken down all his hedges and brought his strong holds to ruin Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries Thou hast turned the Edg of his Sword Thou hast made his glorie to cease c. Therefore this prophesied Kingdom can not be meant of the old David or any of his posterity but only of Christ in whom only this Davidical Kingdom still resteth and shall last on earth as long as the Sun endureth Of this Kingdom of Christ as he is the Son of David are those prophecies to be understood Ps 72. He shall come down like rain upon Psal 72. 6. the mowen grass or fleece of wool This is said of the secret birth of Christ of a Virgin without noyse or clamor He shall have dominion unto 8. the ends of the earth So had not any other of Davids posterity All Kings shall fall before 11. him and all Nations shall serve him This is not verified of any King but only Christ Prayer 15. shall be made ever to him or for him by his institution and dayly shall he be praised his name shall endure for ever as long as the Sun and men shall be blessed in him all Nations shall call him blessed any man that is but of meane progress in Religion may easily apprehend that these speeches can fit none other but Christ even Balaam an Heathen and a Magician Num. 24. 2 when the Spirit of God came upon him prophecied of a Star to come out of Jacob and a Scepter 17. out of Israel The Star signifieth the Heavenly or Divine part of Christ which should condescend to take flesh from Jacob. The Scepter signifieth the Kingdom of this Heavenly Star or Son of God so incarnate or as he is the Son of Jacob or Israel and so it must signifie the Kingdom of Christ Neither is the Gospel silent concerning the universal Kingdom of Christ in this world The Angel said He shall reigne over the house of Jacob Lu. 1. 33. for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be Regi Deâ— Mcrituro Naz. Ambr. no end This was said of Jesus as he is the Son of Mary therefore of the Man Christ The Wise men of the East call him King and they offer Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe as to a King and to a God and to a Mortall as the Fathers generally agree The news of this Kingdom came to Rome in the days of Nero and is reported by a Suet. in Vospat c. 4. Ioseph de Bel. Iud. l. 7. Suetonius That by an old Prophecie it was foretold That about those times there should come out of Judaea some who should have dominion over the whole world This by flatterers was applied to Vespasian though he thought it to be meant of another and not of himself and therefore caused inquisition to be made among the Jews for the posterity of David to be put to death so did his Son Domitian and when two of them were brought before him of mean condition he asked them what estates they had they answered they had but b Iugera Euseb Hist l. 3. c. 20. Paul Oros l. 7. c. 7. 39 Acres of Land then he looked on their hands and perceived them to be hard and brawny with labour and so dismissed them as contemptible Herod beleeved the Prophecy of Christs Kingdom but mistook the manner of it and therefore slew the infants to prevent it What else can be the meaning of those sayings in St. Johns Gospel The word was made Ioh. 1. 14. flesh He came into the world and the world was made by him He came unto his own therefore 10. 11. Ioh. 3. 35. the world was his The Father hath given all things into his hand This is said of the Son now incarnate Thou hast given him power over all flesh This was said before his passion and that also Mat. 11. 27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father This power was given to him as man for by his God-head all was his before there is also mention of a Kingly prerogative annexed to his manhood wheÌ„ it is said The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive Mat. 9. 6 sins and this is so high that in the Apocalyps he is called The Prince of the Kings of the earth Rec. 1. 5 so the greatest Potentates on earth are but his subjects Neither did his Kingdom cease whilest he was dead and buried there was no Interstitium no Inter regnum or Interval of his Dominion for neither was the union of the God-head and man hood in him dissolved by death indeed the body and soul were parted each from the other but yet so that they did convene in Vno Tertio for they were both held in the hands of the Father or God head as when one draweth a sword out of the scabbard and holdeth the sword in one hand and the scabbard in the other Christ said at the point of his death Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit Lu. 23. 46. therefore neither could his soul be detained in Hell or wheresoever it was as it is said Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hâ—ll nor Act. 2. 24. 27. could the grave retain his body so as to hinder its reuniting with the soul as it is said It was impossible that he should be holden of death we find also both in his life time and in the very lowest degree of his humiliation and death all Creatures acknowledging his Soveraignity He commanded the winds of the air He walked on the Sea the Fishes brought him tribute the Earth did quake The Sun was darkned in Heaven Angels ministred unto him Divels were dispossessed by him Graves gave up their dead bodies and Paradise it self as it seems sent back the souls of sleeping Saints The Kingdom of Christ in this world is acknowledged both by Romanists and also by those Protestants that are of the Presbyterian persuasion although I conceive they both err in the circumstance and manner thereof for the Romanists place the Throne of Christ in their Roman Consistâ—rie and in the Infallible Chayr but that Throne will not agree with the words of the Psalmist because all Kings and Nations have not fain before it and many who heretofore acknowledged it have since utterly rejected it so that the Roman Catholick or universal Throne hath not increased of late nor the universality thereof doth-last as long as the Sun or days of Heaven Neither will the Presbyterian Vestry be suteable with the Universal Throne of Christ although some have said that the Presbytery is his Throne and that it is to be set up by the sword but so is not the Sion of Christ the Prophet reproves the Jews for building up Sion in blood it may be reasonably suspected that all the former Mich. 3. 10. and present indeavours and
nor the Holy Ghost were incarnate we answer that it is true that all the Three Persons equally govern and we further acknowledg that neither the Person of the Father nor the Person of the Holy Ghost are incarnate but only the Person of the Son yet we beleeve that the whole God-head and essence of the Father and of the Holy Ghost is incarnate in the Person of the Son This was affirmed by Christ when he said The Father is in me and I in him Ioh. 10. 38. and John Baptist had said before That God hath given him the Spirit not by measure Ioh. 3. 34. and St. Luke saith that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost and St. Paul saith Col. 2. 9. In him Lu. 4. 1. dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily whereby it appeareth that the Dominion of Christ doth not in any wise exclude the Dominion of the other Divine persons although St. Jude calls Christ the only Lord God yet this word only doth not barr the Lordship or God-head of the Father and Holy Ghost because as our good rule in Logick teacheth us That Propositio exclusiva non excludit inclusa Next concerning the Priesthood of Christ he is said to be a Priest for ever after the order of Heb. 7. 17. Melchisedech if for ever then he must be a Priest in Heaven but if so then the Socinians tell us that Christ can not be the supream God because the supream God can not be a Priest This cavil I have met with before and answered a Lib. 2. c. 15. out of Arstin That Christ is a Priest only as he is the Son of man as incarnate and Emanuel but not as he is the Son of God or God the Word and so Prosper also resolved this doubt upon those words Thou art a Priest b Prosper in Psal 109. Non quatenus ex patre sed quantenus ex Matre natus est Sacerdos i. e. Christ is a Priest not as he is the Son of his Father but as he is the Son of his Mother But we are further told by the Socinians That Heb. 7. 1. p. â— 16. c. Christ was not a Priest till he was dead and that then his Priesthood began that the expiatory or satisfactory offering of Christ was not performed on the cross or on earth but in Heaven This they affirm because they will not beleeve that our Redemption was wrought by the death of Christ so blasphemously do they vilipend the blood of Christ whereas indeed the ultimate expiation or satisfaction consisteth in the death of Christ answering to the very words of the Covenant viz In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye and therefore the Apostle Gen. 2. 17. Rom. 6. 23. saith The wages of sin is death now if Christ dyed for us on the Cross he there also performed the expiation and paid the ransom for if the expiatory sacrifice were to be performed in Heaven then must Christ have suffered death in Heaven but the Apostle tells us that after his resurrection he dyeth no more This foul blasphemy Rom. 6. 9. is near a kin to that of Origen which St. Jerom reports a Hier. Epist 59. c. 4. That Christ was to suffer in the Air for the salvation of Divels and to suffer in Heaven also because we read of Spirituall wickedness in Heavenly places that so the inhabitants Eph. 6. 12. of al regions might be saved through Christs passions Thus he It being granted that Christ is now a Priest in Heaven it would be inquired of what order or kind his Priesthood is there in this we are certified that it is a Priesthood for ever and that it is after or according to the Priesthood of Melchisedech that is Christ is such a Priest in Heaven as Melchisedech was on Earth and therefore Christ in Heaven doth such Priestly acts as Melchisedech did on earth For Christ whilest he was on earth was a Priest but here his Priesthood was Aaronical i. e. like unto Aarons Priesthood because Christ did offer a bloody sacrifice even his own body and blood on the Altar of the Cross which he gave for a ransom for us Mat. 20. 28. For a propitiation Ro. 3. 25. for our Justification Ro. 5. 9. for our Redemption Eph. 1. 7. Col. 1. 14. to bear our sins in his own body 1 Pet. 2. 24. that is to undergo the punishment for our sins paying the ransom of his own self for us 1 Tim. 2. 6. This bloody sacrifice of Christ was typified and only signified by Aaron offering the bodies and blood of Beasts But the sacrifice of Christ on earth was also unlike Aarons because Aaron offered beasts but Christ offered himself Aaron might not offer human blood nor might Christ offer the blood of Beasts whereupon it is said Heb. 8. 4. That Christ on earth could not be a Priest because he could not offer gifts according to the Law that is he could not offer Levitical Sacrifices of Beasts as the Legal Priests did because he was not a Son of Aaron or of the Tribe of Levi. But he might and did offer his own humane blood which was the Substance whereas the blood of Beasts offered by Aaron was but only the shadow Therefore they that tell us that Christ may not be called an Aaronicall Priest because he was not a Son of Aaron may as well tell us that he may not be called The Lamb because he was not literally a Lamb taken out of the Sheep-fold The truth is this As the Lamb was Ex. 12. 5. but the shadow of Christs Passion so the Priesthood of Aaron was but the shadow of Christs Sacrificing Priesthood This Sacrificing Priesthood of Christ ended at his death so that he is not any more to be sacrificed but his Melchisedechical Priesthood and only that order of his Priesthood must continue for ever St. Austin saith of the Iews a Aug. in Psa 109. Iudaei vident jam periisse sacerdotium secundum Ordinem Aaron non agnoscunt Sacerdetium secundum ordinem Melchisedech This reproof toucheth not only Jews but Romanists and Socinians The Iews expect a restitution of their Temple and Aaronical or Levitical Sacrifices Romanists say Christ is daily Sacrificed on their Altars Socinians say that Christ Offereth Sacrificeth himself Com. on Heb. 9. v. 12. p. 168. in Heaven not considering that his Priesthood is only like Melchisedech's now which was not a Sacrificing Priesthood for we find not that any Sacrifice was offered by Melchisedech on earth neither may Christ our Melchisedech be thought in any wise to offer Sacrifice in Heaven But of this more anon If Christ being in Heaven doth there Sacrifice for us it must also be granted that he there prayeth for us because no Sacrifice can be rightly performed without prayer but no good Christian may imagine that the mediation of Christ in Heaven is by way of prayer neither can we find in