the Long-suffering he exercises to that purpose 3. By his mighty over-ruling all the violent and raging Oppositions made by the World and the Powers thereof against Him his Church and his Interest and doing it in such a manner as that whatever is most maliciously intended against them shall be rendred useful and subservient to them 4. By his compleat Conquest over and final Judgment upon all his incorrigible Enemies at last Secondly With respect to the Church there he is most eminently triumphant in his Glory and Government for he dwelleth in Heaven and ruleth on Earth but reigneth in Sion the Church is his peculiar Province where he displays the manifold Wisdom of God in curious variety 1. They are all redeemed with his own Blood St. Peter tells us We are not redeemed with corruptible things 2. They bear his Image look upon the Frame and Constitution of every true Christian and if you ask whose Image and Superscription is this the answer is it is Christ's and therefore the same treatment he met with here below the very same will always attend the Church every Christian is a Member of the New Creation Christ has remade him all over herein lyes the great Power and Glory of Christ's Kingdom in remaking and new making of the Sons of Men and this New Creation 't is an Abomination to the fallen Angels and all apostate and unrecovered Men and so will be to the end of the World 3. The tender Heart and gracious Disposition of Christ is most transparently beheld in the Government of his Church of his own House and Family 't is here you may have the report of all his unwearied Kindness and unutterable Forgiveness of all his Attendance upon and Endurance of the froward and perverse Spirits of Men here you may see all the fulfilling of the good pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith with power and all those gentle easie and obliging Methods he useth to gain Souls to himself and render them happy how many Faults he bears with and forgives in his People how many Temptations he shields them from and how many sore Lapses he pities them in and recovers them from under and puts forth his Hand as he did to Peter to every sinking Soul what that eminent Apostle and Servant of Christ said of himself is much more verified in his great Master and ours upon him lyes continually the care of all the Churches and of every particular Member and that not only in one Age but throughout every Generation Laftly The Greatness and Excellency of this Government appears herein that he makes all subservient unto it and brings all his Subjects safely to their Eternal Inheritance all Humane Motions are so over-ruled as to promote the great Work of Salvation as all things were designed in their first make to be serviceable to the manifestation of Divine Grace therein so they are made to be in the future Revolutions of all Ages how glorious and wonderful an Enclosure is the Church out of this prophane apostate World God the Father is the Supreme Benefactor sets the great Wheel going For the Son does nothing but what he sees the Father do And in the great Volume of God's Book this peculiar Memorandum is made and 't is recorded of him that he came to do the Father's Will I come to do thy will O God All that Christ does is but the Execution of the Father's designs the Holy Ghost is their peculiar Comforter and Companion the grand Operator in Christ's Kingdom and that mighty Instrument by which all is effected that heart-changing life-reforming wonder-working Spirit by which all the stubborn unruly unconquerable Lusts of Men all the Wills of the Flesh and of the Mind are all subdued Leopards Spots quite washed away Ethiopian Skins made white and Men old in sinning and such as are accustomed to do evil are so instructed convinced and changed that they readily learn to do well resign up themselves as Temples for that blessed Spirit to dwell in and are no more led by depraved unruly Appetites but wholly conducted and managed by that safe and blessed Adviser Here 's the great delight of God in the Creation restored in Man new made and remade by the mighty workings of the Holy Ghost in the Mediator's hand 's God says of these Men the world is not worthy of them but the World are quite of another opinion for they cry out Away with such fellows from the earth it is not fit they should live Thirdly and lastly As it appears that the whole design of God touching both Angels and Men was laid in his first creation of them by the Son so is it in reference to all the rest of the Creation the inferior Creatures were so made as that God would receive all the Homage of them from Man they were made for his use and put in subjection to him Man's Habitation is this lower World and the Creatures are the Furniture of it given to him of God and as the Dominion and Soveraignty of this inferior part of the World was vested in Man by an unalterable Law of Creation so it has ever since been involved in his condition while Man abode in his primitive state all the rest of the Creatures kept their original lustre and beauty In Man's fall they also fell when Man fell into Rebellion this lower World fell under a Curse for his sake and that Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is renewed and restored by that gracious Covenant of God sealed in the Blood of the Mediator so at last when the Church is compleated the whole Creation shall be restored to its original and first created Glory The Scripture gives plain evidence to both these things First That the Curse is gradually taken off from the Creatures as Man is restored and the Church built up but 't is in this sense to be taken and no farther that the Curse is taken off from the Creatures As to Man's use and enjoyment of them the Curse upon them lay in two things 1st A natural defacing of them and degrading them from their original Image for at first every thing was very good and there was no deformity nor any such production as Briers and Thorns And 2dly By inverting the use they were created for which was to be a Blessing and laying the enjoyment of them by Man under a Curse and a Judgment for Sin 's sake In respect of the first The Creatures contiliue alike to all and will do so till the restitution of all things the Creatures are naturally the same to good and bad and enjoyed by both alike without any such distinction or change But as to their enjoyment and use the difference is plain As Man is by the Mediator reconciled unto God so he comes to a sanctified enjoyment of and right to all the Creatures for God in the gift of his Son has with him also freely by a second Donation given us
bears here are to be seen the Beauties of Holiness and the Stamp of all the Divine Attributes and this City as it is called the heavenly Jerusalem and the City of the living God is opposed to the earthly Jerusalem as it abode during the whole state of the Law for we are told in the Epistle to the Galatians that that was in bondage with her Children as well as Mount Sinai but Jerusalem which is above says he is free which is this heavenly Jerusalem he here speaks of the Apostle means not by Jerusalem above the Heavenly State that is plain by the Context but he means the State of the Gospel-Church here upon Earth the thing to be enquired after is upon what account 't is called the heavenly Jerusalem and Jerusalem above and that we shall find to be a most proper and reasonable Appellation of it and that upon several accounts 1st It comes originally down from Heaven Divine Revelation is the Ground and Foundation of it 2dly All the Inhabitants of Heaven dwell also here both the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost by their gracious Presence and Influences and in that respect this is said to be their Dwelling-place and their Abode for ever and therefore in the following words the Apostle tells them who the Inhabitants are of this Mount and City to which they are come God the Judge of all Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and an innumerable company of Angels the Angels are all as ministring Spirits and Servants present in it and conversant about it and such Inhabitants must needs make an holy City 3dly It is made up of Members part in Heaven and part on Earth the blessed Angels and the Saints departed as well as the Saints living on Earth are parts of it and so it has a good Title to be called Heavenly and Jerusalem above 4thly All the true Members of it even upon Earth are holy and heavenly Persons their conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their City-conversation is in Heaven and they are all travelling towards their everlasting rest there And so this Heavenly Jerusalem is the Heavenly State of the Catholick Church under the Gospel which is not fixed to any one earthly place nor can it be in bondage or come under captivity but is free is the Mother of us all comes from above and returns thither it may be said of it as it was of Christ when he was the Son of Man upon Earth he was also the Son of Man in Heaven and so this Jerusalem this heavenly City whil'st it is upon Earth it is also in Heaven the nature of it is purely spiritual and heavenly and the whole World both Jews and Gentiles are comprehended in it making as the Apostle speaks of them twain one new man The third think Believers are said to come to is an innumerable company of Angels the expression is taken out of the 7th of Daniel where it is said speaking of God Thousand thousands minister unto him and Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him ye are come to Miriads of Angels which is well render'd an innumerable company of Angels and this is made good several ways 1st We are come so to them as to be of the same Society and Family with them they are part of Christ's Houshold only inhabit a Story above us for by the Blood of his Cross all things in Heaven and Earth are gathered together in and under him as their Supreme Head and Soveraign and make but one Incorporation they all joyn together in the same Adoration and Worship for God hath said let all the Angels of God worship him and they declare themselves upon all occasions to be fellow-servants with the Saints in all Christ's Concerns in all the Affairs of his House and Family 2dly We are come to these Angels by having a secret invisible yet constant and sweet Communion with them great is the invisible influence the Angels have upon us and the converse they have with us taking notice of all our private Devotions and farthering us therein by many unthought of and undiscerned yet very advantageous circumstances such as lyes in their way to administer and also by being present in the publick and solemn Assemblies of the Church where they not only joyn and concur in the Worship and Service performed but without all doubt in such methods as are proper to them to operate in they are aiding and assisting and both in the private and publick Worship of the Saints continually preventing and opposing the malignant endeavours of Satan and the other Angels and so there is always a sweet Communion maintained between the Saints upon Earth and them in Heaven as the Saints here look upwards and rejoyce in their fix'd and establish'd Happiness and Glory above so they are continually ascending and descending and visiting the Saints here below and using all endeavours to bring them safe to the same blessed state with themselves and beholding the whole Trinity so employed as they are for Man's recovery and taking such complacency in it and they themselves having received Orders in Heaven from their Supreme Soveraign and Head to that purpose their whole Endeavours tend that way and to assist in the compleating of the Church as it is their peculiar Province so it is also their great Delight and Satisfaction 3dly We are come to those Miriads of Angels as they are Christ's supreme invisible Agents and Officers in his Church and to all the Advantages of their Service and Ministry in general they have the care of all the Elect the whole Body of the Faithful are committed to their charge and keeping we are told the Angels of the Lord encampeth about them that fear him as they did about Elisha of old How many gracious and wonderful Deliverances does Christ effect for his Church in general and each individual Member of it by the Angelical Ministry the manner of which though we enjoy the benefit is to us unknown and as they were under the Old Testament employed to make extraordinary Revelations of the Will of God to the World so they are now employed to be continually suggesting the Mind and Will of God to the Hearts and Spirits of his chosen and to counter-work the Devil in all his Temptations and Suggestions to the contrary this is not done in such a way as the holy Spirit operates who is an indweller with us and cohabits with the Soul but the Angels work upon us only as external Operators and so what they do is by making impressions upon our Faculties from outward and external Means and Circumstances suted thereunto and from our present Inclination and Disposition sutable to which they accommodate their Actings but they convey not as the Holy Ghost does any inward Power of Acting nor any new Abilities to our Souls 4thly As the evil Angels are constant observers of all the Transactions of the Church in general and of every Member of it in particular in order
New Covenant This New Covenant is also called a Testament because the great Promulgation of it was to be a consequent of Christ's death and the Gospel that Law and Covenant of Grace the Legacy he left to the World was to be dispensed to the Legatees by his grand Executor the Holy Ghost And whatever we read of God's Covenants in the Old Testament 't is to be reduced to one of these two for the Apostle in the 8th and 9th Chapters of this Epistle calls the Mosaical Covenant the first Covenant and the old Covenant the whole Mosaical oeconomy was included in it and reckoned as part of it but it was chiefly denominated from Mount Sinai because there was the most solemn promulgation of the most essential part of it The Covenant God made with Man in his Innocency was peculiar to him in that state and went no farther is not at all continued in any force since the fall By a Covenant of God in the Scripture sence of it is meant a Law promulged wherein God obliges himself to such rewards and punishments and Men stand obliged to such duty and performance this was the case of the Old Covenant at Sinai and so is the case under the Gospel God has in Christ obliged himself to the salvation of the World upon such and such terms and Man stands obliged to the performance of them if ever he will be happy 'T is a vain and a wild conceit to think the Gospel offers Salvation otherways then upon conditions to be performed on our part the first Proclamation of it is with this condition annexed he that believes shall be saved And Faith is every-where used in the Gospel as a Word comprehensive of all that is therein required of us Punctually to pursue the Apostles drift in this place by this expression the best way is to shew in what particulars this new covenant to which he tells the Believing Hebrews they were come exceeded the old which was the point he designed to himself to make good 1st Both Covenants agreed in this they both had a Mediator an internuncius between God and Man which was to inform us of the vast distance sin had made between them what a vast gulph there was fixed between Heaven and Earth and that 't was impossible there should be any converse between God and Man by vertue of any Covenant without some third Person interposing and herein this New Covenant has infinitely the preference the Mediator of it being of so glorious a composition and constitution and so adapted to this matter as is wonderful to conceive he that intercedes to bring God and Man together is himself both after a stupenduous and wonderful manner united in one and the same Person 2dly This New Covenant delivers us from all the Fear Bondage and Condemnation which the Old Covenant brought upon us the Law left Men to answer to God for their disobedience without either assistance or remedy and so the case of every Man was that when the law came sin revived and he dyed by coming to the Mediator of this New Covenant we are totally discharged from any concern with the Law or the first Covenant the satisfaction of Christ to God's Justice is fully accepted in our stead for all our disobedience of the Law of Works and by this New Covenant we are wholly discharged from any obligation to the Old God found fault with it and it being in its nature and designment to prepare for a better Covenant it grew Old and upon the publication of the Gospel is quite vanished away 3dly This New Covenant much exceeds the other in its nature and constitution for it always admits of Repentance and Pardon which the other never did 't is an intire Law of Grace accepts of sincerity of intention in the stead of perfection of action and is accommodated with all imaginable tenderness to the weak and frail constitution of Man since his fall 4thly And wherein the Glory of this New Covenant chiefly lies and wherein it fundamentally exceeds the other and displays eminently the Glory of God's Grace and Goodness to the World a Divine ability is given from Heaven for the performance of every part of it whatever is required is given the great security of Mens Salvation under this New Covenant is that we are kept by the mighty power of God through faith unto salvation and that when Men work out their salvation 't is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure 't is his power that is perfected in weakness and grace only that proves sufficient for us in this case the ways and methods by which this Divine assistance of the Holy Ghost from above is conveyed into the Hearts and spirits of Men is admirable but known only to God and out of the compass of all humane discovery a Man born after the Spirit is compared to the Wind the effects of which we know but we know nothing whence it comes nor whither it goes how far God is pleased at first in some to move and excite humane abilities and still to reward their motion Heaven-ward with more and farther grace and how far he is pleased in others to reward with Divine assistance endeavours purely Natural and Human is a knowledge too high for us and what we cannot by searching attain to this we are sure of that grace is never wanting to such as make a faithful improvement of what power they have he that under the Gospel does but what he can do will be sure to be enabled to do what he should do I make no question but that generally speaking grace comes in to the assistance of Humane endeavours and is grafted at first upon such natural improvements as are preparative to the reception of Christ and the Gospel but 't is not always so but Grace breaks in upon some in the height of their carreer against Christ and the Gospel as it did upon St. Paul to make him an instance in this point and makes a perfect conquest of the Soul unto Christ where there is nothing but a Wicked Profane opposition against him Had not this Divine assistance been a gracious appurtenant to the Covenant of Grace Mankind had never reaped the benefit of it no terms of Salvation that were consisting with the Holiness and Justice of God though never so condescending and easie without this would ever have made Mankind happy so desparate and as to their own power irrecoverable an apostacy are all Men subjected to so that if either we consider the Mediator of this New Covenant or the Covenant it self we shall perceive the great advantage the Apostle has of his side in the comparison and what a foolish choice the believing Jews would make to depart and apostatize from this New Covenant and this Mediator to Moses and Mount Sinai The last thing the Apostle mentions and which he couples and conjoyns with the Mediator of this New Covenant as
every Man comes naturally to speak and understand this heavenly Language when he is born of the Spirit and brought up in the Nurture and Instruction of the Holy Ghost The prophane part of the World are ever deriding this and making it a constant part of their diversion Now what a profound solid part of Discretion do such Men act who have in contempt the Result and Effects of Infinite Wisdom The Papists have a Saying That never any Dog barked at a Crucifix but he run mad The Moral of that Fable is very good and may serve to instruct a prophane Protestant God himself gives a very solemn and withal dreadful Caution and Premonition to all prophane Scoffers by the Prophet Esaias Be not Mockers saith he lest your Bands be made strong that is lest I chuse your Delusion and give you irrecoverably up to your own prophane sence which will be found at last to be the worst sort of Madness I will not believe any will be so unnecessary critical and nice as to blame the Title of this small Tract in regard the Catholick Church under the Gospel is so very often in Scripture denominated by Mount Sion called the Mountain of the Lord's House which is to be set up upon the top of the Mountains And to this Mount Sion that is to the Gospel-Catholick Church are some way or other related all the blessed and glorious Spirits that are extant the fallen Angels are only excluded for by coming to this Mount the Apostle tells us we are come to God the Judge of all to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect A great part of a true Christian's Life and I am sure the best part of it is a Converse with Spirits the best and noblest part of Man is a Spirit and he must shortly for some time exist only in that part and when the Body is reunited to it that second Coalition and Constitution will be altogether Spiritual for a Soul and a Spiritual Body conjoyned will render a Man not less Spiritual than he was while he existed singly in his Soul but will make him perfectly like to an Angel so we are told by our Saviour That in the Resurrection the Saints shall be like to the Angels of God Upon this account God is training us up and gradually fitting and preparing of us for this state he is acquainting us as much as our present condition will allow with himself and other Spirits here that so we may joyfully resign up our earthly state to become of their number and at last abide in that condition that will be purely Spiritual without any sort of Terrene Allay and such who live without any Communion with Spirits here and have no sort of foretaste nor any preparative relish of that state must needs if they any way make use of the thinking faculty leave their Bodies with very great Amusements The Mount of Spirits Hebrews 12.18 For ye are not come unto the Mount that might be touched and that burned with fire nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest Verse 19. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more Ver. 20. For they could not endure that which was commanded and if so much as a beast touch the mountain it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart Ver. 21. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said I exceedingly fear and quake Ver. 22. But we are come unto Mount Sion and unto the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels Ver. 23. To the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect Ver. 24. And to Jesus the Mediatour of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel THis Epistle is a Funeral Sermon preached at the Interment of the Law the material Body of Moses God himself buried long before and no man ever knew the place of his Sepulture and now his mystical Body his Doctrine growing old and ready to vanish away ripe for abolition or rather dissolution not so much by being repealed or rescinded but its use ceasing the end and substance of it appearing and its glory being naturally and of course swallowed up and dissolved into a greater glory that excels The Holy Ghost himself by this Epistle lays it honourably in the grave and so we have the Sepulchre of this mystical Body of Moses abiding with us at this day And happy had it been for the whole Nation of the Jews if this Sermon had had its due effect upon them God in his wise and gracious Providence gave them this Warning this Holy Instruction and Admonition to prevent their obstinate adhaesion to the Mosaical Rites and violent opposition of the Gospel thereby which ended in a very few years after the writing of this Epistle in the sad and utter Ruine of their Temple their City and themselves The Penman of this Epistle by such Probabilities as come very near to a Certainty appears to be St. Paul the great Doctor of the Gentiles and that Person whom it pleased God so eminently to make use of in the glorious Fulfilling of that early prophetick Prediction God shall perswade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Sem. The exact Time when this Epistle was written is very uncertain Antiquity affords us little or no Information about it what Knowledge we can have of it must be by consulting the Scripture and comparing it with it self It seems reasonable to suppose that St. Paul wrote it after his Release at Rome from two Years Imprisonment there with which the Story of the Acts of the Apostles ends wherein is contained an Ecclesiastical History of the Church for about 28 Years after our Saviour's Resurrection unto the 7th Year of Nere that he wrote it after his Release appears from hence that Chap. 13. v. 23. he intends and promiseth a Journey with Timothy which had he been a Prisoner and not in his own power is not reasonable to think he would have done 'T is likewise very probable to be written before the sharpest and most violent Persecutions fell upon the believing Jews before the slaughter Herod made at the instance of the Jews of St. James and those at Jerusalem because he tells them in this Epistle they had not yet resisted unto Blood and 't is very evident to be writ and to be well known to the Jews before St. Peter wrote his second Epistle for therein he seems very plainly to refer to this Epistle and if so then 't is plain also beyond denial the Author of it was St. Paul And Account says he that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation even as our beloved
happiness from his adjudging them thereunto so that he is to all Men their Alpha and Omega in Creation in Redemption in Superiority and Government and in that final irreversible and eternal Judgment he will at last pass upon them Fourthly This important Truth is evident from hence The supreme End of all God's Works is his Glory now 't is plain that the glory God designed to himself by the making and forming of Man 't is all given up and handed unto him in by and through the Son upon that account he that honours the Son honours the Father the creating Work of our Lord Jesus his redeeming Work his mediatory Government all his Workings and Operations by the Holy Ghost upon the Hearts and Spirits of Men and his final Judgment at last they are but to collect and bring in a Revenue of Glory for the Father and when the Kingdom is delivered up to the Father all the Glory of it will for ever center in him This will farther appear the larger View we take of the Particulars First In the Creation of Man by the second Person how greatly does the glory of God's Power manifest it self in bringing into being such a creature as Man first was so stupendiously constituted and ever after so fearfully and wonderfully propagated compounded part of Heaven and part of Earth between an Angel above and a Beast that perisheth below a spark of Divinity and Eternity put into a lump of mouldering Clay intended to be separated after a dreadful manner and as wonderfully to meet again and be reunited such is the Soul breathed into the Body a Creature made able still to mount upwards be guided by his nobler part and cleave to his Maker as his chief good and also under possibility of being influenced by his meaner and lower part and still sinking down into vanity sensuality and folly a Creature so made as to be of everlasting duration and a future Subject of mighty Rewards and Punishments and his Person by reason of the wonderful and unbounded workings of his Soul a Stage of stupendious Transactions wherein the whole Trinity are most eminently manifested all the Angels both above and below most highly concern'd and in which the welfare of all the rest of the Creatures and of this lower part of the World is much bound up this Creature although he may derive himself from the eternal pleasure of all the Persons in the Godhead yet his Creation was the peculiar Act and Operation of the second Persons and the Glory of that Creation results to the Deity through him Secondly The Glory of God's innate Mercy and Goodness is exceeding transparent from hence no sooner had Man lost himself but the flood-gates of Divine Bounty are let open by the undertakings of the Son nothing imaginable nothing possible could so display Divine Grace as Christ's undertaking to leave Heaven and become Man and do what he did for Man's sake no Glass but this could have shew'd at once the compleat and intire Glory of that Attribute the Faculties of Angels and Men though they are large and inquisitive comprehensive and sagacious yet they are quite silenc'd and extasiz'd by this Transaction the Object quite over-matching the Faculty when God gives his Son and himself in him what Creature can think himself into the Heighths and Depths of that Gift or pretend to span its Dimensions in his Imagination all we can utter upon this Subject is what St. Paul in a Sacred Extasie says in the 8th of the Romans What shall we say to these things and improve it as he does there by that holy Interrogation He that has given us his Son will he not with him also freely give us all things Thirdly How transparent is the Glory of God's Justice in punishing Sin upon his own Son and redeeming the World by no less a Sacrifice than the Blood of God this is to exalt the Glory of that Attribute to its utmost heighth and for ever to abase Man and lay him as low as he can be this is a stupendious Instruction to the prophane ignorant World to let them see what Sin is and what the sense is God has of it and how hard a thing it is for a rebellious creature to be reconciled again unto God when we consider the absolute boundless Dominion and Soveraignty God has over us as our Maker and the uncontroulable Authority that is inherent and resides in that infinite Being that gives being to all besides himself and whose Laws are in their nature perfect and the very quintessence of all rectitude we must needs then reflect upon that rebellious Evil and Poyson that is in Sin no contradiction can consist with such a Being as God is and therefore no Man can oppose him and prosper whil'st Man abides in a state of subjection and conformity to him he is happy and nothing can make him miserable but when he turns aside to Rebellion and the Madness and Folly of Sin he becomes naked a dread and terror a frightful Ghost to himself and renders himself exposed to all the Misfortunes and Miseries his Being is capable of Fourthly By the second Person is given up unto God the glory of his rectoral and magistratical Authority over all his Creatures and therefore in the second Psalm God calls him his King being both from him and for him this is done by Christ's Rule and Government as Head of the Church the whole Creation is put into subjection to him and he that is in our own nature our Redeemer and Saviour him has God made to be Ruler and Lord of all By his Government all the Divine Attributes are clearly and evidently display'd all the righteous Methods of Government pursu'd and all the true and noble Ends of it brought about and accomplished All the various Turnings and Windings of Humane Affairs here below as they are under the Mediator's regulation are but subservient to a discovery and manifestation of God's Wisdom his Power his Grace and other Divine Attributes and through them all perfect Methods are pursu'd and at last the right Ends will be attained giving every Man according to his Works and setling Rewards and Punishments in their due places In two respects the Excellency of Christ's Government does chiefly appear 1st In respect of the World as he is King of Nations And 2dly In respect of the Church as he is King of Saints With respect to the World the Glory of Christ's Government appears eminent in these four things 1. In his providential Endeavours in the course and motion of Humane Affairs for their Information Reformation and Salvation bringing Men out of Satan's Kingdom and embodying them with his Church over-ruling things in the course of the World to tend that way his Heart is still upon Salvation and his ultimate design to make Men eternally happy 2. In respect of those spiritual invisible Influences and Convictions by which he more nearly treats with the World about their Eternal Welfare and all
thing than what by his degeneracy and apostasie he has made himself nothing did more plainly and evidently discover itself in the whole transaction of God with this People then that there could be no Law given that would singly and of itself without foreign Assistance introduce Righteousness that there was an absolute necessity the Holy Ghost should be sent down from Heaven if ever Mankind were made fit to go thither and such a Covenant made with the World as would give to Men a new Heart and a new Spirit and such a Covenant God declares having found fault with this that he would make whereby he would write his Laws in Mens Hearts and put them into their inward parts and so possess them with his Grace and lock them up to himself by his fear that they should not depart from him If we begin with this People in Egypt and consider them there it is plain the generality of them had fallen in with the Religion of the Country notwithstanding all the colateral inducements they had and all the obligations they lay under to the contrary and totally forgotten the true God this seems plain from what Moses in Exodus replied unto God when he commanded him to go to them and tell them The God of their fathers had sent him unto them Moses Answers when I come unto the Children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you and they shall say what is his Name or as it is better rendred what God is he what shall I say unto them 'T is plain from hence that Moses was well aware of the success he was like to have and that the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob was a thing that the people at that time had no notion at all of and upon their entrance into Canaan when Joshua had by Gods direction circumcised them God himself declares this day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you which reproach of Egypt was their Idolatry in Egypt which was rolled away by their being devoted by Circumcision to the true God and his Worship some learned men have supposed that the people were not circumcised in Egypt and that their uncircumcision there was that reproach that was rolled away but 't is I conceive a mistake for we are told in Josh 5. v. 5. Now all the People that came out speaking of Egypt were circumcised but all the People that were born in the Wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt them they had not circumcised And in the 4. v. that is said to be the reason of their being now circumcised those that came out of Egypt 't is expresly said were circumcised now if they were circumcised by Moses after their coming out then the reproach of Egypt was rolled away before and this circumcising could not be it if they were as I believe they were circumcised before they came out of Egypt then uncircumcision could not be the reproach of Egypt here meant and 't is probable they were all circumcised there because Pharaohs Daughter so soon as she had taken Moses out of the water and looked upon him knew him to be an Hebrew Child which is likely she did by the mark of circumcision If you ask how Circumcision and their Idolatry could stand together the answer is They kept up that Right without any regard to the ends of it just as the Posterity of Esau and Ishmael do to this day who are the greatest Idolaters in the World though circumcised and constant observers of that Right No sooner were they come into the Wilderness though by such stupendious deliverances as the World before had never been acquainted withal and although they had a Miracle by the Cloud and the Pillar of Fire always in their eye yet while Moses was gone into the Mount to treat personally with God about their concerns they fell greedily into the Egyptain Idolatry a great demonstration they had been used to it before and set up the Calves to declare in the Highest manner their disloyalty to God their King their uneasiness under his Government and that his Rule and their unruly Humours would never sute together and withal to signifie their wretched ingratitude for all he had done for them against Pharaoh and the Egyptians And to testifie their utmost satisfaction and delight in what they had so done the Text says Exod. 32. v. 6. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play Suitable to this was their carriage all along in the Wilderness so Stephen told their successors that for Forty Years in the Wilderness they took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the Star of their God Remphan Figures which they made to Worship them and had not sacrificed unto God as they ought the 78 Psalm is a Holy recapitulation of all the disloyal undutiful and unthankful treatment God had from them If we follow them to their last settlement into Canaan their constant spiritual Whoredom there was intolerable provoking the most high to his face their whole behaviour was utterly to testifie their dislike of God and his Government and that they desired not him of all others to rule over them but rather subjected themselves to the meanest Idol the two tribes of Judas and Benjamin that kept longest in their Integrity yet soon fell to the Worship of Baal and before the great Captivity they had set up the most odious Idol-worship in the very House of God this was plainly shewn in vision to Ezekiel when he was in Babylon upon the first Captivity there he saw Men in the Temple worshipping the Sun Women weeping for Tamuz and many more Abominations and in the 19th of Jeremiah God tells them by his Prophet Jerusalem and Judah shall be destroyed because they have burnt incense to all the hoast of heaven The ten Tribes early deserted the true God and fell down before the Calves at Dan and Bethel and at last under one of their apostate Kings those Idols were removed to Samaria the Metropolis of the ten Tribes and placed there to put the utmost Honour and Credit upon them that possibly could be this was done by Omri of whom the Scripture records that he did worse than all that went before him because he made Laws to bring these Idols from Dan and Bethel to Samaria the Royal and Capital City of the ten Tribes for so it is called in the 7th of Esau to affront the God of Israel in the highest manner and as much as in him lay to obliterate the Name and Mention of him amongst those Tribes in his own chosen and peculiar Country The Holy Ghost has left a perpetual Brand throughout all Ages upon these Statutes of Omri and in the 6th of the Prophet Micah tells the People nothing they did should prosper because they kept the
to accuse calumniate and misrepresent before God so these blessed Angels are constant Spectators and publick Notaries of all the Proceedings of the Church and all the Actings and Sufferings of every Member thereof in order to bear a faithful Witness before God and be a punctual Record thereof at the Day of Judgment And in this sense we are come unto them they are not only present in publick Assemblies but conversant in the Closet of every Saint and take an exact view of all their devout and fervent Addresses unto God upon this account it is that St. Paul tells us that the Apostles by their Preaching and Suffering were a Spectacle to Angels the holy Angels beheld their Spiritual Courage and Conquest with wonderful satisfaction and upon this account it is that St. Paul chargeth Timothy before the Elect Angels to look well to the discharge of his Work and Office because they are Witnesses appointed of God to take punctual notice of his Behaviour therein and the Presence of the Angels is made an Argument by the Holy Ghost for the well-ordering our selves and all our Actions in Church-Assemblies 5thly The Angels as they are God's Officers employed for the guard and security of the Church so they are also for the revenging of his Wrath upon their Enemies so it often was under the Old Testament and so it is under the New and will continue till the end that wretched prophane Herod who added to all his former wickedness to shut up John in Prison and after added to that addition to cut off his Head to please a Dalilah and at last came to make himself his own Idol by taking to himself that glory that should have been ascribed to God at last an Angel smote him and dispatch'd him to his own place by a woful and miserable Catastrophey the Angels stood all ready when our blessed Saviour was led to the Cross to have rescued him upon the least Command this our Saviour himself told the Jews when he was encompass'd with a Roman Guard he could upon request to his Father have more then twelve legions of angels to rescue and assist him which exceeded the number of Men the Romans then had in their whole Army for their Army at that time did not consist of twelve Legions and in the Revelations we find the Angels constantly employed by God as the great Executioners of his Wrath upon the Churches Enemies to the end of the World 6thly We are come to this innumerable company of Angels as to our truest Friends and most faithful Companions for they never leave us till they have brought us home 1st To the rest of our Souls in Heaven for they wait upon every dying Believer to comfort and chear his spirit so soon as ever it hath left the Body and safely to convey it into that Blessed fellowship above and into that glorious place and state of rest called Abraham's Bosom And 2dly They will be assisting and instrumental though it be effected by the mighty Power of God to call and raise the Bodies of the Saints out of their Graves at last when Christ comes to effect the first Resurrection he will be attended with all his Glorious Angels and by their Ministry the Dead in Christ shall rise first the Trumpet that will sound to summon them out of their ashes will be an Angelical sound probably the Voice of the Arch-Angel and when they arise out of the Earth they will together with all the Saints then living be caught up by the Angels and conveyed by them to meet the Lord in the Air the last office the Angels will have to perform and so will ever abide with him Whose heart would not burn within him upon the contemplation of these things that God should be such a lover of Men that the Eternal Son should by his death redeem them his own spirit by his influences come down and dwell in them and all the Angels in Heaven made their Guardians and their whole Ministry and Service employed on their behalf How blessed a condition does the Gospel instate us in above the Law in reference to this particular When Man first fell by sin the Angels became his most avowed Enemies and Executioners of Wrath that went out against him for the Cherubims stood with a flaming Sword to keep the Tree of Life and to shut Man out of Paradise he made his Angels Spirits and at that time his ministers a flame of fire When the Law was given upon Mount Sinai and Man considered only in his natural state the Angels were most dreadful and terrible in their appearance but now under the Gospel Angels and Men by the Blood of the Cross are embodyed into one Fellowship and Society united in and under one head engaged in the same Worship and Service and enjoy a sweet and most endeared communion each with other all which is fully insinuated and intimated by the Apostle in telling the Believing Jews they were come to this innumerable company of angels 4thly The Apostle tells them they are come to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in Heaven This is an expression of that part of the Catholick Church here upon Earth to which by the Gospel all Believers come and with which they are incorporated and imbodyed two things are intended hereby to shew the preference of the Gospel-state before that of the Legal 1st That instead of the Assembly of all the Males three times a Year at Jerusalem which is called in Scripture the great congregation they are come now to the great Assembly of all the Members of the true Catholick Church amongst Mankind to all the true servants of God both of Jews and Gentiles that any where call upon God in Spirit and Truth and that God would have such a general Assembly and such an universal Church of the first-born throughout all Nations without any farther respect to the Jews or their Church was a secret undiscovered till the Gospel Revelation came 2dly That this assembly consists only of real and true Saints such as have the right of the first born the great inheritance that men are born capable of in this World is the possession of Heaven at last those that obtain that are the eldest sons of this lower World and the first-born amongst Mankind in the Scripture sense and none obtain this inheritance but such as are eternally elected in Christ to it and therefore the Apostle when he names the Church of the first-born adds as explanatory of it whose names are inrolled in Heaven that is in the Lamb's Book of Life in the Roll of God's eternal purposes and councels there they are Registred and not in an Earthly Register as the Jews were this Church of the first-born is called in Scripture the first fruits of the whole Creation unto God and the Lamb they are said to be Heirs to God and Joynt-heirs with Christ they are made Kings and Priests unto God and so have
inseparably appurtenant to both is the Blood of Sprinkling which he says speaks better things than the Blood of Abel this is particularly and emphatically mentioned because the death and suffering of Christ the shedding of his precious Blood was the greatest performance of his mediatory Work here upon Earth the grand Fundamental of the New Covenant and of all the effects and consequences of it all was purchased by this as the price of it and in regard the Jews had been much accustomed under the Old Covenant to the shedding of Blood without which there was no remission the Apostle instructs them that this New Covenant infinitely excels the other in that very particular and he calls it the Blood of Sprinkling because there was no Blood at any time offered under the Law but part of it was sprinkled and as the Old Covenant at Horeb was confirmed by Moses the Mediator of it by sprinkling the Blood of the Oxen then sacrificed so this New Covenant is ratified by the sprinkling of Blood but 't is such Blood as of which all that was shed before was but typical and such Blood as is of an infinite value the Blood of God himself and as the Apostle in the 9th Chap. makes the comparison if the blood of bulls and goates says he could serve for Legal Typical and Ceremonial Purifications how much more shall the blood of Christ who by the Eternal Spirit offer'd up himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works so that by this expression the Apostle calling this blood the blood of sprinkling we are to understand that this is the soul purifying soul-justifying and soul-saving blood of which all the Sacrific'd Blood since the World began since Abel's first Sacrifices were but a Type and Prefiguration 't is being sprinkled with this that gives entrance and admittance into Heaven the true sanctuary of which admittance into the Earthly sanctuary by the sprinkling of blood was but a Type and this blood as 't is of transcendent Power and Vertue so it has a general and universal efficacy so the Prophet Esau tells us Esau 52.15 Where 't is Prophesied that Christ should with his Blood sprinkle many Nations which refers to that universal advantage the gentile World should reap by it this blood is not like the blood of the legal sacrifices that was often shed and reached but to one Nation this blood is of that infinite value that the whole race of Mankind the whole World are sprinkled with it in order to Justification and Salvation and there needs no repetition of it for by this one Sacrifice offer'd up Christ has for ever perfected them that are sanctified and there remains no more Sacrifice for Sin this blood the Apostle says speaks better things then the blood of Abel which was a consideration of great moment unto the Jews Some modern interpreters for I see it in no ancient Author conceive by the blood of Abel here is not meant his own blood but the blood of the sacrifices he slew which were the first we read of that God accepted and he gave such a Testimonial to them that in the foregoing Chapter the Apostle says upon that account he is yet spoken of not as 't is vulgarly rendred yet speaketh but is yet spoken of That which induc'd them to make this meaning of the Apostles Words was I suppose the little advantage there seems to be in the comparison to compare the blood of a Saviour with the blood of a murdered Man then which nothing could speak worse for it must needs call for vengeance and punishment and therefore there seems at first view to be little commendation given to the blood of Christ by saying that it speaks better things then the blood of Abel for it could not speak worse but to say it speaks better things then the very first sacrifice we read of that God accepted and gave testimony to of the best Man then in the World carries great advantage in the comparison this interpretation upon this account seems probable and is plausable but 't is not as I conceive the sense of the Apostle and to me it seems rejected By the words upon this account that the voice and cry that Abel's blood is said to have was after his death and God tells Cain his Brothers blood cryed unto him and so it was Abel's own blood that cryed now 't is plain the Apostle in saying that Christ's blood speaks better things then the blood of Abel speaks alludes to the speaking and crying of Abel's blood from the ground unto God as 't is recorded in Genesis the Jews had not only many false and pernicious instructors ready to diswade them from receiving the Gospel at first but after any of them had received it there were many false Judaizing Apostles who endeavour'd all they could to engage them to a relapse and apostasie either in whole or in part the Apostles business as has been often suggested is to prevent this latter and to establish such as had received the Christian Doctrine but were in danger of drawing back Now 't is most certain that amongst other discouragements that were suggested to the Believing Hebrews this was one of the chief and with which they were much affected that they and their rulers having shed the blood of this Mediator and taken it upon themselves and their posterity and some of the Apostles having openly to their faces reproached the Jewish Nation with it that they had been the betrayers and murderers of this Holy and Blessed Jesus the Son of God they could not reasonably hope for nor expect any benefit from that blood they had so murderously shed To obviate this objection the Apostle after he had mentioned the Mediator of this New Covenant and his blood wherewith he sprinkles the World to which he tells them by the Gospel they were come adds this which is of peculiar force and reference to the Jews and very emphatically argumentum ad hominem that this blood speaks better things then the blood of Abel Abel was murdered and his blood spake and cryed from the Ground to Heaven for yengeance upon his brother that murdered him but Christ was Betrayed and Murdered and his blood calls and cries aloud for pardon and forgivness for his very betrayers and crucifiers so that none of them need to fall into Cain's desparation and quit the Gospel upon any such sad consideration for this Blood though it was shed like Abel's yet had quite another Cry and Language attended it it called for no vengeance upon any man but for Peace Pardon and Reconciliation for all men even the very worst of his Enemies and Crucifiers and this renders the Comparison of wonderful advantage and efficacy to that end for which it was intended Nothing is more usual in St. Paul's Writings especially in his Epistle to the Romans than to answer Objections that were then well and commonly known without reciting them of which we at this day