Christ in the Flesh and so on 6. From thence to these times In which too this will be evidenced that all the said Revelations of God as to the way of mens salvation have either expresly or implyedly spoken of Christ and of his appearance in the Flesh as may be seen in the following Sections of that Induction SECT 3. Of the Dispensation of the knowledge of God and Christ by his words in Paradise and from thence to the Flood NO sooner had our First Parents Tempted of the Serpent Fallen from God and was Convicted thereof by the Voice of God but God in the greatness of his Mercy in threatning Destruction to the Serpent and his Works Preached Grace and Redemption to Mankind and intimately made Promise of a Saviour to us in that expression Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between her seed and thy seed He that is her Seed shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel Indeed these Expressions were somewhat Mystical yet contained in a manner Isa 7.9 9.15 the whole Gospel for surely by the Serpent was primely signifyed That old Serpent the Devil and Satan Rev. 20.1 2. And by his Head his Plot Device and Project and the Principallity and Power he thereby got over Mankind His Plot was to separate between us and God to our utter ruine by inticeing us to Sin against him whom he knew to be so perfect a hater of Sin and to have so solemnly threatned Death to Man in case of his sinning as that he might rationally expect that in case he would draw him to Sin his Ruine would inevitably follow thereupon and that being cast off by God He should be left to his the Serpent Power and Malice to do what He pleas'd with him The bruising of his Head Heb. 2.14 Coll. 2.16 Luk. 11.22 2 Tim. 1.10 Luk. 1.74 75. 1 Pet. 3.18 then could signifie no less then the spoiling of his Plot and devesting him of his Power by destroying his Works and abolishing their Fruit taking away his Armour Sin and the sentence and curse of the Law upon Man for Sin and so evacuating Death the Wages of Sin and setting Man at liberty from Satan so as he may return to God again all which God intimately promised should be done not immediately by himself for he said I will break thy head no God would have Satan know he disdained to match himself with him as it were in the Combat he would do it by a Man one in that nature that he had got Victory over and which was spoiled by him even a Seed to be born to and to come forth of the Woman And so he signifyed both that Man should be Ransomed from that his Fall and from the jurisdiction of the Serpent the Devil thereby obtained And that the Saviour should be a Man nor Adam himself nor Eve but one to descend from them the Seed of the Woman with respect to which Adam hearing and believing it called his Wife by a new Name for whereas before he called her Ishah a Woman Gen. 2.23 with 3.20 or Manness because one with and taken out of Man now he calls her Chavah or Evah because by this gracious appointment of God she was made the Mother of all Living the bringer forth of a Seed remotely that should remedy dead and destroyed Man and remove the Curse come upon the Creation by Man's Sin and so bring in Life and Immortality to Man but for which She might rather have been called the Mother of all Dying This Promise God was pleased to put as a Foundation sure and firm Isa 28.16 under Man's Feet to support and bear him up in all his following Griefs and Sorrows Labours and Turmoyles even to Death that now were to come upon him because of his Sin that he might not despair and sink under them And this before God proceeded to denounce any of those things upon him or to take away Paradise and the Tree of Life from him that so yet the Woman might thenceforth conceive and bear in hope And the Man labour and eat his Bread though in the sweat of his brows yet in Hope and both Man and Woman both live and dye in Hope even in the hope of Eternal Life through this Faith of the Promised Seed or Messiah which is the Faith that the Just have had to live by and to dye in in all Ages So much was implyedly Revealed then to Man even to all Mankind then Being Yea sure and God further implyed That that Seed should be one with himself and so God-man when he after added ver 22. Behold Man is become as one of us to know good and evil not by way of Irony or Derision but by way of Prediction with respect to his former appointment That Man's Nature should be in the Promised Seed as one of the Persons in the Trinity taken up into Unity with God and to his glory and throne of Dignity to have indeed a knowledge of Good and Evil such as the Devil little thought of not such as Adam got by Sin to know the difference between his former good and his present bad Condition but both an Experimental Knowledge of the Depth of Man's Misery to be born by him and of the height of Good in the injoyment of God's Glory to be injoyed of him and such a knowledg of them as is with and is given forth by the Divine Majesty as also thereby may be implyed his Power and Authority over Men in the Person of Christ to Save and enliven Fallen Man and to help him against Satan and all adverse Power being as one of the Persons in the Trinity Isa 11.2 3. 42.1 the Spirit of Might Counsel Judgment upon him c. Thence also God took away that Tree of Life that might have preserved him Immortal in his Fall that he might be forced to look to the Promised Seed and live by the Faith of him in a Mortal Dying condition By the Faith of whom Preached and held forth doubtless by Adam and Eve to their Posterity as they came into the world Abel afterwards offer'd up to God a more acceptable Sacrifice than Cain Heb. 11.4 with Gen. 4.4 Yea doubtless the very Law and practise of Sacrificing mentioned all along after the Fall and propagated to all Nations and places of the world had its rise and spring from the Promise of Christ and was an outward Testimony of their acknowledging themselves Sinners and that they needed by some Ransome or shedding of Blood to have Attonement made for them and that there-through onely they might have access to and liberty to Worship God though all that offered understood not or believed so much and that seems rather the meaning of their Bloody Sacrifices such as Abel brought then of such dry ones as Cain Offered Cain by his Offering seemed onely to acknowledge God Lord of the World the giver of the Creatures to
and Appearing in the World besides his Spiritual and Providential Comings all spoken to in the Doctrine of the Gospel of which I shall hint something briefly and seveâ—ally in order as follows SECT 1. Of the Two Adams the First and Laâ— The First and Second Man FIrst 1 Cor. 15.45 47. we have therein partly in what it supposes and takes for granted and partly in what it more directly declareth the mention and consideration of Two Adams The First Adam and the Last Adam Gen. 1.26 27. The First Man and the Second Man set over against and opposed the one to the other because none so answering one the other for Publikeneâ— of Concernment to all Men as they The First Adam was the First Man the first and Natural Root of all Men in whom God Made us and Honoured us as 〈◊〉 said before Eccles 7.29 Psalm 49.12 Rom. 3.23 5.12 18. The First Man both in order of Being as a Man and in Dignity and Glory as to his Appearance State and Condition in the World that He was Made and Manifested in He had 〈◊〉 All and our Priviledges in his Hand and keeping but he Sin'd and lost himself and us all with all the Honour and Priviledges given us in him Jer. 31.22 Gen. 3.15 Gal. 4.4 5. Heb. 2.14 Rom. 5.18 Heb. 3.1 2. Therefore God was pleased to Make and bring forth another a Second Adam to recâ—ver us who is also the Last Adam eveâ— Jesus Christ Called Adam both because a Man that pertook with us in Flesh anâ— Blood and was of the First Adam as to his Flesh and because a Publick Man in whom were and are the Concernments of all Men put again And He is Faithful and hath not nor will fail or loose Himself or any Man None shall Perish by any defect or default found in him 1 Joh. 5.11 12. Col. 1.29 2.9 10. Matth. 22.4 2 Cor. 5.14 Rom. 14.9 Eph. 4.8 9. Psal 68.18 Mar. 16.15 16. Isa 45.22 In him Man even all Men not after a Natural but in a Spiritual way and manner are Made as it were and Provided for again as fully as in the First Adam and more surely as to him inasmuch as having Dyed for All He hath Redeemed All into his own dispose and recovered into himself in the Man for men what Adam forfeited or lost or rather greater and better things so as for All. Free for All and to be had by any in coming in to him in his preventings and drawings or begettings of them And he is called the Last Adam because never was there any other since the First Adam besides him nor shall be after him of such publick capacity and concernment to Men as also because He was Abased Phil. 2.7 8. and made lower than that First Adam in his Innocent Condition that I say not then All Men in their present State Gen. 1.26 27. 2.7 For though the First Man was Originally of a far Inferiour and Viler Matter than the Being of the Second Adam was Originally yet the First Man was Made and set in the World in a far more honourable and glorious Form than the Second The First Man was something before he was a Man but what was He Dust of the Earth Whence he is Called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dusty or earthly man but he was made by Exaltation and Advancement into a better Form even in the Image and likeness of God God therein shewing forth his great Power Bounty and Goodness to him and to us in him in making so base a matter of it self uncapable of knowing Prov. 8.29 30. magnifying God to be so glorious and honourable capable of knowing praising and having fellowship with his Maker and to be an Habitable part of Earth for his word and wisdom to dwell and delight in The Last Adam too Joh. 1.1 2. Phil. 2.6 7. 1 Cor. 15.47 Coll. 1.15 16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 2.7 8 9. Rom. 8.3 Heb. 4.16 was before he was made Man but far better than Man God with God in the Form of God The Lord in Heaven by whom the Father made man and all things the brightness of God's glory and the express Character of his Person and He was made a Man by way of Diminution made lower than the Angels yea in a Form far below that of the First Adam in his Innocent Condition for He was made in the Image of Man of fallen Man in the likeness of sinful Flesh in all points Tempted like us except Sin that so he that was Originally and in himself as incapable of Suffering and Dying at the Dust was in it self of knowing and praising God might in the Form of Man Suffer and Dye for us Through which also He the Last and lowest Adam is now again Exalted to the Glory He had in his own proper Being before with God Joh. 17.4 Psal 68 18. Ephes 4.8 9. Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Cor. 15.45 even the Man and is become far more Excellent Honourable and Glorious than the First Adam ever was Gen. 2.7 Joh. 5.21 25 28 29. and the Nature of Man is more Exalted and richly accommodated in him then ever in the First Adam 〈◊〉 we have above shewed For the First Adam was but a Living Soul that had Life in himself but could not quicken the Dead But this last Adam is Made now at God's Right Hand a quickning Spirit He is called also The Second Man Gen. 3.15 both because He was the Second and Last so immediately Made of God and in such a publick concernment for man as also as I conceive because he was provided promised stept in and became as to his â—gagement and undertaking the Man for us before any Second to Adam John 8.58 Psal 75.2.3 any Son or Child was born to him And so even in that respect He was as to Revelation and usefulness to the World before â—ain or any Man was Born of the First Adam as a new Basis or Foundation to â—he World that was meritoriously Destroy'd by the Sin of Adam The Earth was Dissolved and the Inhabitants thereof but he stepping in bore up the Pillars thereof So as in him ever since Col. 1.17 Heb. 1.3 as the Son of Man or Second Man all things consist and stand together For he was promised in Paradise to be the Seed of the Woman and so to bruise the Head of the Serpent before any doom passed upon either Man or Woman much more before the Execution of the Sentences after â—assed So as all the Providences Merâ—es Judgments of God towards and upon Men are ordered to us by and through him and with respect to him Whence Adam before he was put out of Paradise called his Wife Eve Gen. 3.20 the Mother of all Living when as she otherwise might deservedly have been Named The Mither of all Dying Yea and God not Ironically as most understand that but seriously and according to Truth as
being at first Instituted in Paradise before the promise of Christ and as now continued through Christ it being a civil Ordinancee or an Ordinance pertaining to the things of this life I do not take it here into conâ— ration but only those Ordinances of Goâ— which more directly were appointed 〈◊〉 and pertain to the Religious Worshipâ— him Out of which too I exclude tha◠〈◊〉 the Sabbath and that of the Tree of Life if it might be so called as instituteâ— and given in Paradise before the fall because before the promise of Christ and such as should have been had man nevâ— fallen nor Christ been sent forth for him That of that Tree of Life being now also expired and gone together with the integrity and innocency in which God made man The Sabbath as since 〈◊〉 newed through Christ or by him continued we shall in fit place take inâ— consideration And so only these Ordâ— nances which pertain to his worship and were since the fall injoyned by him to be observed are those we shall speak to Again by Miracles I mean not all the monstrous or unusual providences oâ— things that have happened in the world for there have been not only through Gods Providence many miscarriages as it were of nature but also through hiâ— permission and sufferance many greaâ— and stupendious things wrought by the power of evil Spirits for confirming the minds of Idolaters through Gods just and severe judgements in their impietieâ— which they having rejected the light of his truth had given themselves up to Such as the going or removing of certain mages which Aeneas is said to have â—rought from Troy and Ascanius to have hurried from Lavinium to Alba from which place it 's recorded in the Heathen Histories that they went twice of themâ—ves without any visible appearing hand of man to carry them Such also was that in Tarquinius Priseus his time that Actius Naevius the Augur cut a Whetstone in two with a Rasor and that one of the Vestal Virgins suspected for unchastity to clear her self carryed water from Tyber in a Seive and the like mentioned by Lyvy and out of him by Augustine de Civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 16. which were all doubtless wrought by Diabolical power Matth. 24.24 2 Thess 2.9 10 11 12. As Magicians and Witches may be found by their help to do some such lying wonders to further their designs upon men as it was also foretold by our Saviour and his Apostles that Antichrist should do such things for hardning his followers that they might be damned that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness But I shall speak only of those far greater certainer and more glorious Miracles wrought of God for the confirmation of the truth of his Doctrine And first I shall begin with his Ordinances SECT 2. That Christ was and is the foundation all Ordinances appointed to fallen 〈◊〉 for his Worship of God and that Châ— and the grace in him are the thâ— mainly witnessed to by them LEt me say this in general of all these Ordinances of God which he haâ— given to man since his fall that Châ— was and is both the foundation of them and the matter chiefly signified and 〈◊〉 forth in and by them they stood and stand upon Christ and all look and poâ— towards or unto Christ like the Cheâ—bims of old that stood upon the Mâ— Seat and looked toward it figuring the Angels peeping down into that grâ— mysterie figured by it 2. Pet. 1.12 Those Ordinaâ—ces mentioned above as given in Parâ—dise before the fall might be some resemblance too of Christ either as he was the word and should have been the 〈◊〉 and life of man as so had he stood 〈◊〉 else as he was in the Divine foreknowledâ— of God to come in the flesh for fallâ— man but certainly they were not foundâ— upon any promise of Christ to come anâ— suffer for us man as then not having sinnâ— Nor were they therefore ordained of God to mind us of him and stir us up to loâ— and wait for him but they were appoinâ— to other ends and uses as the Sabbath 〈◊〉 mans rest from his labours and to miâ— him of Gods resting therein from all 〈◊〉 works and to give him a more devoted opportunity to contemplate the truth and works of God in and to mind him of the more blessed rest he should attain in obeying him The tree of life was for preâ—ving the life of man immortal and free from Diseases and the woman for the comfort society and multiplacation of mankind But the Ordinances given to sinful fallen mankind instituted as external means for or ways of our approaching to God and entring or holding communion with him must needs stand upâ—â— Christ either first as promised or else also as actually come in the flesh for we could not be in Covenant or have Communion with God having sinned and being therefore sentenced to death accurâ—ed and banished from his presence but through a Mediator and therefore always appointed for us thereunto must needs have dependance on him and so both witness of and lead us to him If than had stood in his innocency doubtless he should have worshipped God and that not only inwardly in his heart but also outwardly in bodily actions but sure those should have been more simple and such as in which the Power Wisdom Goodness of God his Maker should have been acknowledged and his blessings sought as in Praisings of him â—hansgivings Invocations c. in which also he might have been in the power of God and his Word and Spirit the immediate Offerer and Priest himself aâ— should not have had need of a Mediatoâ— but being fallen the case was and is altered Now no access or acceptance bâ— by another a person holy and harmlâ— in himself and that makes or hath madâ— peace and attonement for us and hath thereby power and authority to present our suits and services and to be our Righteousness and therefore also it was good and meet that we should in all Ordinances have thereof some apt signification and remembrance Verily the promises of Christ as the seed of the woman to bruise the head of the Serpent and as the Seed of Abraham to bring in blessing to all the Nations and Families of the Earth or rather Christ as so promised was the ground and foundation of those Ordinances appointed in those first Ages before his coming And the exhibition and actual appearance of him the ground and basis of those we have since so as all stand upon his said coming and the things accomplished therein by him and witness to him and to his said coming only differently according to the different times and dispensations of the knowledge of his coming those that were before his coming represented him as then yet to come and 〈◊〉 one that should in his coming makâ— attonement for us by his blood and therefore had something in them generally of blood-shedding but