This way of remedy and cure could be no devise of man nor Angel For 1. The Angels stand still admiring and amazed at it 1 Pet. 1. 12. 2. Men without a superior teacher cannot conceive it 1 Cor. 2. 14. much lesse invent it Secondly The thing appointed a Serpent of brasse resembling Christ in the matter and the form 1. The matter was of Brasse not Gold for five reasons 1. God ties not himself to the excellency of meanes but by weak and unlikely meanes effects his great works And therefore that which had no power of cure in it self must cure and heal that the work may be known to be his and not the meanes 2. The lower and baser the meanes are the better may the Israelites be led through them and so beyond them It was not the will of God that they should rest in the brazen Serpent which had no power of cure but through it be led by faith unto the Messiah who onely could cure them 3. Though it was of brasse yet it was strong and signified Jesus Christ how weak soever in mens eyes yet was he First the mighty and strong God Secondly powerful and able to deliver his people Thirdly most invincible and potent also against all his enemies he is a wall of brasse and his strength is as the strength of brasse Rev. 1. 15. 4. Being of brasse as it was strong so was it shining and bright signifying Christ in respect of his divine and eternal generation truly shining and glorious He was the brightnesse of his Father Heb. 1. 3. the very brightnesse of the glory of God excelling all the Angels in heaven in their clearest glory and brightnesse Rev. 1. 16. 5. As that Serpent so shined that the Israelites might look upon it and their eyes not dazled so this great glory was so veiled by his flesh and humility as we the Israel of God might behold it yea approach it and fetch our salvation and happinesse from it 2. It resembled Christ in the form for the form was of a Serpent 1. A Serpent is of an hateful and contemptible shape and appearance so was Christ in his own habit Isai. 53. a despised man a worm rather than a man men saw no beauty in him but hid their eyes 2. The Serpent was accursed of God so Christ lay under the curse of sin for us Gal. 3. 13. 3. That was but like a Serpent in the form of a Serpent not a Serpent it had onely the shape not the life sting nor poyson of a Serpent So Jesus Christ was the similitude of sinful flesh but no sinner No venome or poyson of sin was found in him neither in his nature nor actions Rom. 8. 3. he was in the similitude of sinfull flesh as that of a Serpent but without all sting or spot of sin The third thing in the appointment is the end or use of the Serpent It must be lift up upon a pearch that all Israel might see it Which plainly noteth both the kind of death which Christ must suffer as also the proper end and vertue of it as in these particulars 1. Both must be lifted up So Christs crucifying is called an exaltation from the earth Joh. 12. 32. 2. Both must be exalted upon wood the Pole a type of the Crosse of Christ. 3. Both among the Jewes out of the Church is no salvation 4. Both to be looked upon one with the eye of the body the other with the eye of faith 5. Both to recover health and life one of body the other of soul one frees from corporal death the other from spiritual and eternal II. The applying of this remedy was nothing but the looking upon the brazen Serpent which signified the sinners beholding of Jesus Christ for his cure The meanes of application of the remedy was the eye of the Israelite So the instrument of applying the remedy by Jesus Christ is the eye of faith which is the eye of the soul. So our Saviour Christ himself expoundeth it Joh. 3. As the brazen Serpent was lift up so shall the Son of man that whosoever believeth in him c. That which Moses calls looking on the type Christ calls believing in himself the truth Which if the Lord had not purposed to expresse he could as easily have removed the Serpents as appointed the making of another and as easily have healed them by his word as by this sign but hereby affords them a double mercy and cure one of the body by the sign another of their soules by the thing and truth thereby signified III. From this application follows a saving effect The Israelite by looking lived and received present ease with freedome from pain and poyson So the believer looking on Christ by the eye of faith hath an heavenly life restored present ease from the pain of a guilty and accusing conscience freedome from the poyson of sin both the guilt and stain of it But herein the truth is advanced above the type 1. That brazen Serpent had not power in it self to cure this hath power in it self 2. Whereas they were cured to dye again believers attain a sound cure never to dye more Joh. 11. 26. 3 Whereas that did not alwayes retain the vertue of curing our brazen Serpent doth ever retain power and vertue for the salvation of believers looking towards him to the end of the world 4. Whereas this brazen Serpent now a remedy against poyson was after turned to poyson the Israelites in Hezekiahs time which made him stamp it to powder our brazen Serpent ever remaineth the soveraign and healing God as unchangeable in his goodnesse as he is in his most holy and divine nature 5. That remained a great while about seven hundred and threescore yeares but after was defaced and destroyed Our brazen Serpent can never be defaced or destroyed but abides the Saviour of sinners to all eternity Oh now what a sweet Sermon doth this one type contain of the whole sum and marrow of the Gospel what a pregnant testimony and vaticinie is it alone of the death and passion of Jesus Christ as also of the vertue and merit of the same and consequently what a prop and stay of our faith what a goade and spurre to drive us to Jesus Christ in whose name alone we can be saved Sect. III. I. Note What weak unlikely and contrary meanes the Lord useth to effect great things for his Church and in his Church Was there any sence or reason to be conceived in all this counsel and ordinance of God in healing thus his people 1. Could a Serpent of brasse a shape onely more heal than hurt them 2. Could a dead Serpent prevail against so many living and fiery Serpents 3. Shall not this shape and image of a Serpent be so much as touched or applied to the wound but the sight of it onely afar off cure a mortal wound really inflicted How inconceivable is this to humane
be a prayer of faith that is available Jam. 5. 15. If to good works and good life it must be a life of faith led by faith for the just must live by his faith If to the Church of God he must be of the houshold of faith else he shall be but as Judas among the Disciples Faith must be every where diffused to walk by faith live by faith and die in faith as the Saints in former ages have done for our imitation 3. We must hold on this expectation on our Serpent as the Israelites did till they were perfectly cured And because we can never be perfectly cured in this life but onely in part we must still look up to Jesus the Author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12. 2. till we be fully and perfectly healed Hence it is that the Lord will never have this Brazen Serpent taken down as the other was after a short time but hath appointed the Ministery to lift him up and hold him perpetually before our eyes so long as we are here below and enjoyned us the constant use of it all the while we are in this wildernesse which were needlesse if we had once attained our perfect cure This is a strong motive to hold our eyes fast fixed upon Jesus Christ till we come to enjoy him as he is when all Ministery shall cease and the Lamb shall be all in all Sect. VIII From this so excellent a figure ariseth a bright Sun of light and comfort for all the faithful 1. The Israelite that could look to the Serpent if his eye were never so tender weak or dim yet was cured Thou that art the weakest believer be comforted thy weak faith shall save thee thy smoaking flax shall not be quenched but cleared to farther brightnesse Thy weak hand shall be able to receive and hold the gift of righteousnesse and eternal life It is not the greatnesse of thy faith that saves thee but the truth of it Yet with this caution If it be true it will strive to encrease And if there be so much comfort in weak faith how much is there in strong 2. The Israelite stung never so often if so often he did look on the Serpent so often he was cured Oh singular comfort Thou that renewest thy sins every day and every day goest over the same frailties renew also thy faith daily and thy repentance and thou art safe That brazen Serpent lost his vertue of healing but our Brazen Serpent never loseth his If thou sinnest seventy times seven and so many times returnest by faith in Christ and say It repents me by this looking upon the brazen Serpents all those wounds shall be cured Yet with this caution That as he had been a mad Israelite who because there was a Serpent set up to cure him would therefore run of purpose among Serpents to be stung by them So is he no lesse witlesse a Christian who therefore willingly makes his sin abound because grace hath abounded A mad man he is that will therefore break his head or wound his members because he hath a soveraign plaister by him 3. The Israelites stung never so deadly never so desperately never so long wounded yet looking on the Serpent were cured If thy sins be as red as scarlet and never so great if in thy sense some one of them deserve a thousand hells and the guilt of it or them rings continually in the eares of thy conscience frighted with feares of hell and death if thy sins be festered and of long continuance Now come to the Brazen Serpent Never was any Israelite that could look on the Serpent sent away uncured But there is ten thousand times more vertue in Jesus Christ than in ten millions of brazen Serpents onely look on this Serpent by the eye of faith turn from all thy sins and be saved 4. The Israelites looking on the Serpent brought present cure and ease and they went away rejoycing If thou believest in Jesus Christ thou art perfectly cured As Christ was wont to say to his Patients so I say to thee Goe in peace Thy faith hath made thee whole Onely this grace can quiet the heart distressed and can keep it from sinking as once it did Peter Mat. 14. 29. In this is the beginning and accomplishment of thy happinesse The converted Gaolor went away rejoycing that he and his house believed Act. 16. 34. Now if one sight of faith in this our absence from Christ be so joyful a thing what shall the sight of fruition doe in his presence 5. The Israelites having once the brazen Serpent cared not for the fiery Serpents They might sting them now but not much hurt them they might now poyson them but not kill them So the believer looking to the true Brazen Serpent may triumph over the old Serpent and all the serpentine seed and say as the Apostle teacheth 1 Cor. 15. 55. Oh sin where is thy sting Oh hell where is thy victory Nay Thanks be to God who hath given us victory by our Lord Jesus Christ. Great was the power of the Israelites looking upon that Serpent for when the fiery Serpents were present it made them powerlesse and not hurtful Greater is the power of faith in the Lord Jesus which though our sinnes in themselves are most venomous and poysonful stings and such as we cannot be rid of them yet it so blunts them and makes them so powerlesse that they kill us not nay that they hurt us not nay more that they help us and make us better more humble more wise more watchful Thus our good God who out of the most infinite curse of Christ his Son on the Crosse brought forth to us the most infinite blessing which fills heaven and earth doth out of our cursed sins bring forth his own glory joyned with our greatest good For which as for all other his unspeakable mercies unto us be praise given in all Churches and from henceforth to all eternities Amen FINIS J. Lambert Martyr Epist. ad Romanos 1. 2. Rom. 10. 4. Cont. Jul. 9. De cibis Jud. c. 5. Cont. Faust. Advers Jud. Heb. 13. 8 John 14. 6. Heb. 11. 2. Eph. 4. 5. M. Min. Fel. Octav. Rom. 11. 26. Ludov. Coeretus 1553. Christ the truth of legall shadows Introduction to this Treatise 1. 2. 3. 4. Sacramenta sunt mutata non sides August 5. God appointed a multitude of ceremonies to the Iewes for 5. reasons 1. Velata sunt ista doneâ— aspiraret dies removerentur umbrae Aug. 2. Grace in the new Testament specially how Ceremonies called shadows for 4. reaseus 3. Non ex opereoperato 4. Use of them to the Iews 5. Gods wisdome in appointing them The generall division of this Treatise Adam a type of Christ in four things 1. Uterque ad imaginem Dei conditus uterque Deo charissimus 2 Primus ecclesiae doctor audiens immediate a Deo quae ecclesiae erant proponenda ita et Christus 3. 4. Use
habit but considered relatively with his object which is Jesus Christ the Lord our righteousnesse for faith is the eye of the soul. But as it was not the eye of the Israelite but the eye set upon the brazen Serpent that cured him so here faith upon his object cureth because onely faith draweth vertue from Christ as in the Syrophoenician who touched Christ and was cured but not by touching but by believing More plainly in this comparison As a Jewel included in a Ring enricheth a man or healeth him it is not the Ring doth it but the Jewel and yet none have the Jewel without the Ring So Jesus Christ is the onely Jewel and antidote against the deadly poyson of sin This Jewel is included in the Ring of faith Now it is apparently Christ the Jewel that justifieth enricheth cureth but we cannot have him without the Ring of faith which includeth him So as faith saveth and justifieth us onely as a meanes suppose the hand of the soul to convey Christ to us for justification which no other grace can doe So not faith but Christ applied by faith that saveth and cureth us 3. As no Israelite could be cured but by his own sight of the Serpent and no man could be cured by another mans looking or seeing it So must every just man live by his own faith Hab. 2 4 No maâ— can be saved by anothers faith or the faith of the Church but by his own special faith believing in particular upon assured grounds the remission of his own sinnes II. By what marks may I know that I have looked on this brazen Serpent for cure Answ. By four marks 1. If thine eye have been rightly affected which will appear in four particulars First If it be a discerning eye cleared to see in Jesus Christ two things the first his power the second his will to cure That he is able to help being the mighty God and that he is willing to cure being a compassionate Saviour who himself was stung to death that he might have compassion on them that are stung Heb. 2. 18. Secondly If it be a mountfull eye He that had seen the Israelites â—…ing about the braâ—en Serpent should have seen many a 〈◊〉 falling and heard many a deep grâ—an and pittiful complaints of their deadly pain and poyson Hast thou come to Jesus Christ with sorow in thy heart with teares in thy eyes with lamentable groans and complaints of thy misery by sin this is to look upon him for cure Zach. 12. 10. the members of the Church shall behold him and mourn as a man for his onely son Such lookers on him he looketh upon and easeth Mat. 11. 28. Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you Thirdly If it be a wishing and oraving eye for there is affection as well as vision in the eye As the lame man that lay in Solomons potch Act. 3. 5. wistly looked on Peter and John expecting to receive something from them so no doubt did the Israelites on the Serpent And so must thou hold on waiting and expecting sound cure from Christ and take no denial till thou be fully cured for so did the Canaanitish woman prevail Fourthly If it be a faithfull stedfast eye a believing eye carries cure from Christ. Christ was wont to ask some of his Patients that came for cure if they did believe he could help and in the cure According to thy faith be it unto thee and after the cure go thy way thy faith hath made thee whole and much more works he the cure of soules by meanes of the parties faith and not without it 2. If the sting were gone and the poyson of the Serpent abated this was an infallible sign that the Israelite was cured Consider if the power and rage of sin be removed the guilt of it gone by justification if the poyson and stain of it be abated and daily abolished now art thou in the way of cure But if the poyson remain that sin lives in thee prevailes and raignes in thee and commands thee as formerly thou hast not yet looked on the Serpent for cure Justification and Sanctification are inseparable 3. A ceasing of pain and ease and comfort restored which when the Israelite felt it was a sign he was cured So if after sense of pain and grief of spirit thou hast received sound peace of conscience joy of the holy Ghost and comfort of a good estate in Christ that thou art able upon good grounds to challenge thy righteousnesse in Christ and maintain thy self sted fastly assured and cheared in Gods mercy and the goodnesse of an excusing conscience thou hast now looked upon Christ and Christ upon thee for perfect cure 4. When the sting with the pain was gone the Israelite could goe as strongly and chearfully about his businesse as ever before he had new life new strength new motions by which he might be sure he had looked upon the Serpent So if thou canst find so happy a change in thy soul as new life new motions new actions new affections and in a word the whole renewed nature all these are the fruits and effects of thy faith and faithful beholding of Christ and of his looking upon thee Of this new obedience and renewed strength of a Christian having lately spoken I passe it over more briefly III. Motives to stirre us up to this looking upon our Serpent are 1. Nothing else can cure us but Christ. The Israelites had Gold Silver Manna from heaven Water out of the Rock yea the Ark the Oracle but none of all these can help them onely the Serpent must cure them no sight else can cure Thou mayest see Gold Silver Lands Friends Playes Pleasures nay couldst thou see Heaven it self without Christ there were no help or cure in it In respect of this sight the Apostle counted all things losse and dung and desired to see and know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and lifted on the wood 2. No not Christ himself can cure without this looking and faithful beholding him as the brazen Serpent not looked on healed not The want of the eye or sight disabled the Israelites from cure though the Serpent were by them so the want of faith disableth God after a sort and Christ himself from doing a man any good Mark 6. Christ could doe no great cure in Capernaum because of their unbelief Neither can any ordinance of God doe him good that wants faith no more than this Serpent ordained by God could doe a blind Israelite good If we should send a man to the Word it must be a word of faith must doe him good that is not onely because it is a begetter of faith but because it must be mingled with faith else it proves unprofitable Heb. 4. 2. If to the Sacraments if he bring not faith they are not to him the seales of faith but as seales set to blanks If to Prayer it must
reason which perhaps would count it foolish and ridiculous But the Lord though he might by many other more mighty and likely meanes will by no other meanes effect their deliverance He that brought in the Serpents could as easily have removed them if not that yet he might have hindered them from biting them or he might powerfully of the same poyson have made a remedy but he chooseth most unlikely meanes Quest. Why doth the Lord thus Answ. For three reasons 1. He will have his people look for help at no hand but his own who useth in such meanes to help as whence no help can be expected but onely divine Israel now sees that all the world cannot make a dead Serpent prevail against living Serpents but that God of all the world to whom all creatures obey 2. He will have his people hereby know and acknowledge the power of his Word For it was not the Serpent as it was brasse nor as it was lifted up nor as it was beheld that could heal them but as unto this sign was added the word first of commandement secondly of promise By vertue of which word the infected persons were cured Psal. 107. 20. he sent out his word and healed them Gods word alone can make a Serpent heal and a dead Serpent restore to life 3. He will shew the mighty power of his arme which hath ever by weak things confounded the mighty See this in examples When God was to save Noah from the deluge one would have thought it fit to have reared him up a mighty turret of iron or Adamant or founded him some invincible building upon some mighty Rock to have resisted the waters But Noah must build himself a weak Ark of boards and a little pitch and that must float all the time and sustain all the waves and billowes without mast stern or Pilot or any the like meanes to preserve it When God was by Joshua to demolish the mighty walls of Jericho he bids him not set against it huge engins or warlike Ramms and batteries to batter it seven dayes together but he must cast down the walls with looking on them and win the City by walking about it seven dayes and onely blow upon it with Rams hornes but not lift an hand or weapon against it Josh. 6. When God sends Gideon against an huge army of Midianites to overcome them a man would have thought he would have furnished them with armour of proof and munition fit for the warre but he puts into their hands trumpets and pitchers and lampes within the pitchers and bids them not fight but onely make a noyse and so they conquer Judg. 7. 17. When God is to foyle that mighty Giant Goliah a warriour from his youth who alone at the sight of him made all Israel run away 1 Sam. 17. 24. he chooseth not a man of war and prowresse but a poor shepheard David a boy as Saul calls him ver 33. and he not armed with sword and spear as Goliah was but with a sling and a scrip and five stones with which when he had overthrown him he borrowed his own sword to cut off his head These instances instead of many may serve to shew Gods ordinary custome and delight to effect the greatest matters by weakest meanes and to advance his own power in weaknesse This doctrine may be fruitfully applyed to our present times in which we see such tumults raised against the Church such insolencies of the enemy such hopes yea and triumphs before victory If God give his Church a check and his people receive a foyle oh how the enemy laughs and boasts and blasphemes as if all were theirs but let us raise our faith and confidence in considering these grounds I God can and doth often work by unlikely and contrary meanes When he was to multiply Abrahams seed as the starres of heaven he begins his promise with that precept Abraham take thy son thy onely son and slay him in sacrifice What seemed more diametrally or directly contrary to this promise yet hindered not but furthered it 2. Gods word and promise for the present causes of the Church shall be accomplished either with meanes or without them yea against them God hath determined and in his word foretold the fall of Antichrist and destruction of Babylon Isai. 60. 12. the kingdome that will not serve the Lord shall be destroyed much more that kingdome which is most opposite to the Lord as this is More specially 2 Thes. 2. 8. whom the Lord shall consume and abolish There is both a consumption and an extinction The former we have seen the second as certainly remaines in short time to be done Rev. 19. 20. 21. The Beast and the false Prophet shall be taken and their flesh made meat for the fowls of the air There is more strength in this word of God than in all Antichistian limbes and captaines All Babylons Physitians shall not heal her for great is the Lord who will destroy her If this be the time it shall forward apace if deferred not forgotten 3. The cause in hand is Gods cause against a Kingdome 1. Contrary to Christs whole Kingdome 2 A Kingdome destinated to destruction by God 3. A Kingdome against which Christian Princes are called to sanctifie their swords and to fire her and to return double according to the whores workes 4. A Kingdome in which every member is an high blasphemer and ought to dye no eye pittying them 5. A Kingdome an infinite encroacher upon Christian Kings and Kingdomes and disturber of all their common and publike peace by claimes to all Crowns Scepters Lawes subjection but God is with his cause and therefore it is strong enough 4. The cause is not therefore at an end because foyled nor farther from victory because the party seemes weaker and the meanes incomparable Judges 20. Israel had the better cause than Benjamin and more number of souldiers and were prudent and expert in war as it appeares by some stratagems set against the enemy yet was foyled and broken twice because although God had been sought yet not so seriously as was fit If the Israel of God had sought the Lord so seriously by fasting prayer and sound humiliation the powers of Antichrist could not prevail But great are the sinnes of the Church which must be corrected and God will be more earnestly sought to be found in so great mercy Again Salomon observed that the race was not alwayes to the swift nor the battail to the strong nor for their strength Gideons Army may be too many for God to give victory by Meanes are to be used not trusted in and whether they be likely or unlikely God will save his Church either by them or without them Therefore let the Church look back to that of Moses Exod. 14. 14. The Lord shall fight for you and yee shall hold your peace Sect. IV. II. Moses having a commandement shuts his own eye and makes a
humbled heart will not so lose his time nor dwell in toyes and unnecessaries to thrust out things more profitable A wise heart will not for a shadow forgoe the substance but will be much in that question of the young man Master what may I doe to inherit eternall life what may I doe to be saved what may I doe to be rid of this Serpent and of that of this sin and of that How may I doe to get mastery of my corruptions In going to Gods Ministers let thy errand be the same with the Israelites in their going to Moses how to be rid of the Serpents 4. Moses directs them to the brâ—zen Serpent erected for their cure for Moses himself cannot help them Moses law cannot cure them that rather sharpens the sting and thrusts it deeper into the flesh and spirit He directs them to no merits or works of their own to cure them for their merits brought in those poysoned stings among them but he sends them quite out of themselves to Gods ordinance which was the brazen Serpent Thou art never in the way of cure till thou art sent out of thy self out of the Law and works of it which now cannot justifie till thou comest to the Evangelical brazen Serpent there is no hope of cure As the Israelite could never be cured till he acknowledged the brazen Serpent the onely meanes so no more canst thou till thou acknowledge Jesus Christ the onely healing God and that there is no other name in heaven or earth to be saved by but the name Jesus Onely Christ onely Christ said that Martyr for he onely can give a perfect righteousnesse he onely can cover our imperfections he onely being no sinner could conquer sin he onely by dying could conquer death he onely by entring into the grave could sweeten it he onely by sustaining the sorrows of hell could shut hell for all believers Had Moses sent the Israelites any whither but to the brazen Serpent he had deluded them and they had lost all their labour Who now is so void of judgement that cannot discern whether our Religion or the Roman be the antient and true Religion of Moses and the people of God If a man stung with the Serpent come to us for counsel and cure as they to Moses we send him as Moses out of himself to Christ onely the true brazen Serpent Our doctrine leads him out of himself out of his own merits out of external works and ceremonies unto Christ who is our peace and left his peace unto believers and by this meanes through Gods blessing the Patient attaines true tranquility of mind and inward peace of conscience and rejoyceth with an unspeakable and glorious joy for his recovery as the Israelites did in theirs But let a man stung in conscience goe to a Roman teacher he leads him any way but the right any whither so not to Christ. Instead of Gods certain direction in the words of the Prophets and Apostles which testifie of Christ the onely brazen Serpent they send him to unsound and uncertain speculations fables traditions equal say they to Scripture and some of them say far better Instead of Christs satisfaction and merit they send him home to his own merits and satisfactions by which say they he may apply the satisfaction and merit of Christ. But in case he be so bad as he have no merits of his own the Church hath a Treasury of other mens merits to dispense by taile so he will come to the price So he may buy oyle enough to fill his lamp out of the Popes Exchequer or Burse filled to the top with works of supererogation But if he make some scruple of this least the wise Virgins have not enough for themselves and others then they may have the sacrifice of the Masse not to fail but never apply that one and onely sacrifice upon the Crosse it self Now whether of us agree with Moses 5. As the Israelite must look up to the Serpent lifted up so must thou look up and behold Christ lifted up This must thou doe two wayes First on the wood of the Crosse Secondly on the Throne of the Kingdome both of grace and glory Behold Christ lifted up not in his abasement onely but in his advancement First in the Kingdome of grace as he is lifted up in the Word and Sacraments In which Christ is mightily declared the Son of God and preached the Saviour of the world Gal. 3. 1. among whom Christ was crucified Secondly in his Kingdome of glory raised from the dead ascended into heaven and exalted at the right hand of God above all principalities and powers Phil. 2. 9. God hath given him a Name which is above every name Now the looking on Christ thus lifted up is the act of faith not a bare intuition sight or vision as to believe that Christ was thus exalted on the Crosse and in his Kingdome but it is apprehensive and applicatory and to believe in Christ crucified and glorified This looking hath three things in it 1. To believe that he was the Son of God and son of man our Immanuel 2. That he being so was lift up for the salvation of believers 3. That my self assuredly trust and depend on him alone as the onely author meritour and bestower of salvation This is Evangelical looking on the Serpent Now because this looking is the principal thing in the cure we will consider 1. How this looking cures us 2. How we know we are cured by our looking 3. Motives to stir us up still to look on our Serpent Sect. VII I. When the Israelite comes to Moses and asketh Oh what shall I doe to be saved from death being so deadly stung A full answer to this question was goe look upon the brazen Serpent thou shalt be whole So if an humble soul suppose the Jaylor shall come to the Minister as Paul or Silas Sirs what may I doe to be saved the direct answer to this question is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Act. 16. 31. and yee are saved by faith and Thy faith hath made the whole Quest. But how doth faith save us Answ. Not as it is an excellent grace nor as any work of ours We are not saved and cured for believing but by believing 1. Because faith is the condition of the Covenant and of our cure as looking was the condition of the cure of the Israelite For it was not the having of a Brazen Serpent nor the lifting it up could cure but the Israelites looking upon it so it is not the hearing of Christ nor the lifting of him up in the Ministery nor knowledge of his merits can save unlesse they be received by faith A potion never so vertuous is fruitlesse if not taken As meat uneaten so is Christ not digested and applyed by faith 2. Faith cannot cure considered simply in it self as a quality or vertue or gift or