judgment seat whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own his Fathers and his Angels glory who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him Chap. 7. ver 9 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view cloathed in garments as white as snow with the hair of his head like the pure wooll sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame and its Wheels as burning fire with a fiery stream issuing out from before him and a thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whilst the Iudgment is set and the Books are opened And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming from whence I proceed to the IV. And last general I proposed to treat of viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects viz. the Righteous and the Wicked about which it is to be exercised for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats the Good from the Bad and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another Mat. 25.32 33. And he i. e. the Son of Man shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand and the Goats on the left in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous who are to be judged first for so the Scripture assures us that the dead in Christ are to rise first and that after they have undergone their Iudgment they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air there to meet the Lord and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked vid. 1 Thes. 4.15 16 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2 In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied 1. Their Citation or Summons 2. Their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons which as was observed before is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet so by the same sound the Scripture tells us God will assemble the world of men to judgment and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth I see no reason to doubt because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.16 and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World than it was his coming to give Laws to Israel But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power even his holy Spirit by which he raised himself from the dead by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 For if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body and animate it with immortal vigour and activity and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising those who shall then be living and have not tasted death shall by the same Almighty Power be changed transformed and glorified in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ Mat. 13.27 For II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud and placed in the Region of the Air at a convenient distance from the Earth streaming with light from every part and casting forth an unspeakable glory for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory and is described by S Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne Rev. 20.11 out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed Rev. 4.5 which implies that it will be a Cloud it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed And before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial and receive a happy Doom Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World both Militant and Triumphant meet and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10 III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial for so the Apostle assures us We must all appear i. e. we Righteous as well as others before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 which plainly implies that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them and more expresly Rom. 14.12 he tells us that we must every one of us give an account
will 118. Fourthly He sealed his Declaration with his own Blood 120. Fifthly He Instituted an Order of Men to Preach what he had declared to the World 121. Sixthly He sent his Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain his Doctrine to those whom he had ordained to Preach it and to inable them also to prove it by Miracles 123 124. SECT IV. Of Christs Priestly Office. To what persons the Priesthood antiently belonged 130. What the Melchisedecan Priesthood was and in what respects Christs Priesthood is of that Order 132. what the old Priesthood was and in what acts it consisted 136. That it consisted first in Sacrificing and secondly in presenting the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People 136 c. That this ancient Priesthood was in both these acts of it intended by God for a Type of the Priesthood of our Saviour 142 c. SECT V. Concerning the first Act of our Saviours Priesthood viz. Sacrificing That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite Conditions of a Sacrifice for Sin and what those Conditions are shewed in five Particulars 147 c. these Conditions applyed to our Saviours death as first In his death he was substituted in the room of sinful Men to be punish'd for them in order to their being released from their personal Obligation to punishment 151. Secondly He dyed a pure and spotless Innocent Thirdly His death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole World of sinners 155. Fourthly His death was on his part voluntary and unforced 160 161. Fifthly His death was admitted and accepted of God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind 164. The wisdom of this method of Gods· admitting Christs sacrifice for sinners in order to the reforming Mankind shewn in five Particulars â— First That the Sacrifice of Christs death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgement of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin 167. Secondly It was an ample declaration of Gods severity against sin 169. Thirdly It was a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us 171. Fourthly It is a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon if we repent and amend 174. Fifthly It is a seal and confirmation of the New Covenant 177. SECT VI. Of Christs Intercession or presenting his Sacrifice to God in Heaven by way of Advocation for us The Nature of it defined 183. The definition explained in the several parts of it which are four First It is a Solemn Address of our Blessed Saviour to God the Father in our behalf 184. Secondly This Address is performed by the presenting his Sacrificed Body to the Father in Heaven 186. Thirdly it is continued and perpetuated by the perpetual Oblation of this his sacrificed Body 190. Fourthly In vertue of this perpetual Oblation he doth always successfully move and solicit God 193. And that which he moves him to is First to receive and graciously accept our sincere and hearty Prayers 196. Secondly to impower him to bestow on us all those Graces and Favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised to us 199. The admirable tendency of this method of Gods communicating his Favours to us through Christs Intercession to reform Mankind shewn in five Particulars First It naturally tends to excite in us a mighty awe of the Divine Majesty 204. Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of Gods hatred of Sin 206. Thirdly It secures us from presuming upon Gods mercy while we continue in our sins 208. Fourthly It encourages us to approach God with chearfulness and freedom 212. Fifthly It assures our diffident minds of Gods gracious intentions to perform to us all the good things which he hath promised to us upon our performing the condition of them 216. SECT VII Of Christs Kingly Office. Christs universal Royalty successâ—â—e to his Sacrifice and Intercession pag. 221 c. Christ had a particular Kingdom in this World viz. The â—ewish Church before his Incarnation and during his abode upon Earth 225. and therefore that which he was exalted to upon his ascension was the universal Kingdom of the World ibid. Six Heads proposed to be treated of concerning our Saviours Kingdom 226. SECT VIII Of the Rise and Progress of Christs Kingdom from the Fall to his Incarnation Of which an account is given at large in eight Propositions pag. 227. First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded in the new Covenant 228. Secondly That the new Covenant commenced immediatly after the Fall and was afterwards in a particular manner renewed to Abraham and his Posterity ibid. c. Thirdly That from its first Commencement Christ was Mediator of it and so he continued to be all along under that particular renewal of it to the People of Israel 233 c. Fourthly Christs being always Mediator of this Covenant necessarily implies his having been always King over all that were admitted into it and particularly over the People of Israel 235 c. and that he was the Divine King that reigned over Israel and who in the Old Testament is promiscuously called Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah is proved in five Propositions 238 239 c. Fifthly That after his coming into the World he still retained this his right and title of King of Israel in particular 255 c. Sixthly That the main Body of the Jews rejected Christ from being their King and were thereupon rejected by him yet was there a remnant of them that received and acknowledged him 258. Seventhly That this remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with what it was before its main Body revolted they very much reformed and improved 259 c. Eighthly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity 272 c. SECT IX Of the Nature and Constitution of Christs Kingdom The Kingdom and Church of Christ the same 275. The universal Church or Kingdom of Christ defined 277. This definition explained in the several parts of it which are eight 272 278. First It is one Vniversal Society consisting of all Christian People 278 c. Secondly It consists of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant 280 c. Thirdly These Christian People are incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism 283 c. Fourthly They are incorporated under Iesus Christ their supreme Head 291. Fifthly This one Vniversal Society thus incorporated is distributed into particular Churches 292 c. Sixthly These particular Churches are distributed under Lawful Governors and Pastors 295 c. Seventhly These particular Churches thus distributed hold Communion with each other 298 c. Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold is first in all the Essentials of Christian Faith 303 c. Secondly in all the
Scripture his Ascension into Heaven there to intercede for us represented as a Triumphal progress to his Coronation wherein after the manner of Princes in that glorious Solemnity he scatters a Royal Largess among his Subjects Ephes. 4.8 It is true before his Ascension he tells his Disciples that all power was given him in Heaven and Earth Matth. 28.18 but this it is evident he spake by way of Prolepsis or Anticipation a very usual Scheme of speech in Scripture which is to express things of certain futurity as if they were actually existing according to which Scheme all power is given me imports no more than all power is shortly to be given me i. e. upon my Ascension into Heaven For so it is evident our Saviour must be understood in that parallel expression Iohn 5.22 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son which words he spake long before his Death when it is evident that all judgment i. e. Vniversal Regal authority was not actually committed to him but there was only a certain futurity of it For so he himself tells us that his sitting down with his Father on his Throne or investiture with that Regal Authority which he now exercises was the reward and consequence of his overcoming or consummate victory on the Cross Rev. 3.21 By all which it is evident that it was upon his Ascension into Heaven and Oblation of his Sacrifice there by way of Intercession that Christ was installed in his Vniversal Mediatorial Kingdom It is true our Saviour had a particular Kingdom in this World viz. the Iewish Church not only before his Ascension but before his Incarnation as I shall shew hereafter but as for that Right of Dominion over the Gentile world too by which he became universal Lord and King he was not invested with it till his Ascension into Heaven And therefore he himself tells us that his Mission into this world was purely to the lost Sheep of the house of Israel Matth. 15.24 and accordingly in the pursuance of this his Mission when he sent forth his Ministers to preach his Gospel he orders them not to go into the way of the Gentiles nor to enter into the City of the Samaritans but to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Matth. 10.5 6. which implies that at that time he was not actually authorized to subdue and reduce the Gentiles under his dominion but that his Authority extended only to the Iewish Nation but when he had told his Disciples in that proleptical speech after his Resurrection that all power was given him in Heaven and Earth it immediately follows go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father c. as if he had said now my Commission and Authority is inlarged and I am made Vniversal Lord and King go ye therefore in pursuance of it and by your Ministry endeavour to reduce all Nations under my dominion And hence it was that the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ was not revealed till after his Ascension vid. Acts 11.18 because it was upon his Ascension that he received his Vniversal Kingly Authority over them and till then it was to no purpose to reveal it So that it was over the Gentile world peculiarly that he received Power and Dominion upon his Ascension into Heaven he was King of the Iews long before but upon his Ascension he was invested with a right of Dominion over the Gentiles too and thereupon became the Vniversal Lord and Monarch of the World under the most High God and Father of all things but this I shall have occasion farther to explain hereafter In the prosecution of this great Argument I shall endeavour these six things First To give an account of the Beginning and Progress of this Kingdom of Christ. Secondly To explain the Nature and Constitution of it Thirdly To shew who are the Ministers of it under Christ. Fourthly To assign and explain the Regal Acts which Christ hath and doth and will hereafter exercise in it Fifthly To give an account of the End and Conclusion of it Sixthly and lastly To shew the reason and wisdom of this method of God's governing sinful men by this his Mediatorial King Christ Iesus SECT VII Of the Rise and Progress of Christ's Kingdom AS for the first viz. the beginning and progress of Christ's Kingdom I shall endeavour to give an account of it in these following Propositions First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded upon the New Covenant Secondly That the new Covenant commenced immediately after the Fall and was afterwards particularly renewed to Abraham and his Posterity Thirdly That upon its first Commencement Christ was the Mediator of it and so he continued all along in that particular renewal that was made of it to the People of Israel Fourthly Therefore that as Mediator of this Covenant Christ was King of all that were admitted into it and particularly of Abraham and his Posterity or the People of Israel with whom it was renewed Fifthly That after his coming into the world he still retained his Title of King of Israel in particular till they finally rejected him and the Covenant in which his Kingdom is founded Sixthly That though the main body of that Nation rejected him yet there was a Remnant of it that received and acknowledged him as their rightful Lord and King. Seventhly That this Remnant still continued the same individual Kingdom of Christ with the former though very much reformed and improved Eighthly That to this individual Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded in the New Covenant For it is by the New Covenant that he engages himself to us to be our gracious and merciful Lord and that we engage our selves to him to be his faithful and obedient Subjects and from these mutual Engagements results the relation of King and Subjects between him and us So that the Church or Kingdom of Christ consists of all those People Nations and Kindreds who have been admitted into this Covenant-relation to him wherein by a solemn Vow of Fealty and Allegiance they have indispensably obliged themselves to serve and obey him but of this I shall have occasion to discourse more largely hereafter Secondly Therefore this new Covenant commenced immediately afâ—er the Fall and was afterwards in a particular manner renewed to Abraham and his Posterity For the New Covenant was a Plank thrown forth to Mankind immediately after that woful Shipwreck that was made by the Fall. For no sooner had God denounced his deserved Doom on our lapsed Parents but to support them from sinking into utter desperation he subjoyns that gracious promise Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the woman shall bruise the Serpent's head where by the Seed of the woman not only Christian but the ancient Iewish Interpreters understand the
first Commencement of this Covenant Christ was Mediator of it and so hath continued all along under that particular Renewal of it which God made to the People of Israel For the Scripture expresly affirms that he is the Mediator and Surety of this New and better Covenant that is that it is he who as our Advocate with God obtains for us the Blessings of this Covenant and who as our King under God dispenses thâ—m to us and if he be thus the Mediator of this Covenant now he must have always been so even from the Fall upon which it commenced to his Ascension into Heaven otherwise the New Covenant upon which he now Mediates must have been four thousand years without a Mediator which considering the whole state and condition of it can by no means be allowed For besides that the Fall of man was the reason why God withdrew himself from all immediate converse with him and that therefore it is reasonably to be presumed that whatsoever converse he had with him afterwards it was through a Mediator there is nothing more evident from Scripture than that this very Covenant which is the standing Medium of God's converse and intercourse with men was granted to us by God in consideration of Christ's Death and Sacrifice Since therefore it was granted long before Christ died even from the Fall of Adam it must be granted upon Christ's obliging and engaging himself to the Father to die for us in the fulness of time which engagement of his was virtually and in effect an offering up himself a Sacrifice for us God being as much secured of it upon his engagement as if he had actually performed it Upon which account he is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world Rev. 13.8 because upon his obliging himself to die for us which was immediately after the Fall the Event became as certain and infallible as if in that very moment he had breathed out his Soul upon the Cross. And accordingly God proceeded on it as on a sure and certain Fund and in consideration of it granted the new Covenant to the World. Hence the Apostle tells us that it was by means of his death that there was redemption for the transgressions that were under the first Covenant Heb. 9.15 Since therefore it was in consideration of Christ's future Sacrifice that God first granted this Covenant to men it necessarily follows that upon the same consideration he at the same time appointed Christ to be the Mediator of it because as I shewed before he is Mediator in the right and vertue of his Sacrifice by which he obtained it and therefore since his Sacrifice had the same vertue in it when it was future as it hath now when it is past he had the same right to be Mediator of it then as he hath now In short Christ's Sacrifice was as certain in God's account and therefore as prevalent with him before as after it was offered and therefore since his Mediatorship of the New Covenant is wholly owing to the prevalence of his Sacrifice there was the same reason why God should admit him to be Mediator of it before it was offered as after and accordingly long before he offered up his Sacrifice he is called the Angel or Minister of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 And St. Paul expresly tells us that four hundred and thirty years before the Law of Moses this Covenant was confirmed of God to Abraham in Christ Gal. 3.17 and if it was then confirmed in Christ it is certain that then Christ was the Mediator of it Fourthly Christ's being always Mediator of this Covenant necessarily implies his having been always King under God of all that ever were admitted into it and particularly of the People of Israel because his Kingly Office is so necessary and essential a part of his Mediatorship that he cannot be properly a Mediator without it For to mediate as he doth between God and men is to act Authoritatively for and in the behalf of both parties so that if he act only for one he cannot be truly said to be a Mediator between both but in his acting Authoritatively for God consists his Royalty or Kingly Office as you may see p. 7 8. and if his Mediatorial Office necessarily includes a Kingly power to be sure that power must extend to all that ever were admitted into the Covenant upon which he Mediates For how can any man be admitted into that Covenant of which he is the authorized Mediator without being subject to all the Authority which his Mediatorship necessarily implies Hence therefore it follows that Christ hath been always King of the Church of God or confederate Society of the true Worshippers of him in all Ages of the world For thus in the Old world St. Peter tells us 1 Pet. 3.19 that by that very Spirit whereby Christ rose from the dead he went and preached to the spirits in prison i. e. by Noah who by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit was a Preacher or Herald of Righteousness Christ preached to the Spirits or Souls of men whilst they were yet shut up in and united to their bodies long before that general separation of their Souls from their Bodies which was made by the Floud vid. Dr. Ham. in Loc. at this time I say whilst they were yet alive Christ preached to them to warn them of that general destruction which was pursuing them and would ere long overtake them unless they speedily repented which shews that long before the Floud Christ acted as a King in issuing out by his Heralds his Royal Proclamations to men to declare his Will and Pleasure to them and warn them of the fatal consequence of their disobedience to it Soon after the Floud mankind almost universally Apostatized from God to Idolatry so that the Church or Society of the true Worshippers of him was quickly reduced into a very narrow compass so that four hundred years after it seems very probable thâ—t Melchisedeck was the only King in the world who was not an Idolater And now God seeing his Church almost totally extinguished by this general defection of mankind from his Covenant to recover and repair it he calls Abraham out of his Idolatry and Idolatrous Country and with him and his Posterity renews the New Covenant which the rest of mankind had renounced and deserted and to secure them from ever revolting from it he seals and ratifies it with them by a sign in their flesh viz. that of Circumcision which he gave them as a mark to distinguish and preserve them distinct from the Idolatrous Nations round about them And when afterwards the Posterity of Abraham was multiplied in Aegypt into a numerous Nation and this Rite of Circumcision being by Ishmael and Esau derived to their Posterity and so made common to other Nations with Israel God to renew this distinction gives them the Ceremonial Law upon their coming out of Aegypt one great design of which even as
Prince or that that voice was a designed delusion Since therefore our Saviour declares that he is the first and the last which is the essential Character by which Iehovah the King of Israel describes himself and doth no where intimate a different sence of this Character as applied to himself from what it signified as applied to the Iehovah it necessarily follows that either he meant not sincerely or that himself and that Iehovah the King of Israel were the same Person And accordingly Zach. 9.9 which all agree is a Prophecy of our Saviour he is expresly called the King of Israel Rejoyce greatly O Daughter of Sion shout O Daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King cometh unto thee the most natural sence of which Phrase thy King is he that is now thy King not he that is hereafter to be so and if then when this Prophecy was delivered he was King of the Daughter of Zion or People of Israel to be sure he was always so and therefore the Prophet Malachi calls the Temple which was the Palace of the divine King of Israel the Temple of Christ Mal. 3.1 Behold I will send my Messenger i. e. John Baptist and he shall prepare my way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the Angel of the Covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of Hosts from whence I infer first that this Lord of Hosts which is the ordinary stile of the God of Israel was Christ whose Messenger and fore-runner Iohn Baptist was vid. Luke 1.76 And secondly That the Temple which was the abode of this Lord of Hosts was the Temple of Christ the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple which cannot be meant of God the Father because in the next words he is called the Angel of the Covenant which all agree is Christ if then the Temple of Ierusalem was the Temple of Christ and he was that Lord of Hosts that dwelt in it it necessarily follows that he was that divine King of Israel who under God the Father governed the Iewish Church And now having proved at large this fourth Proposition which is the principal Hinge upon which the whole Argument turns I proceed Fifthly That after his coming into the World he still retained this his Right and Title of King of Israel in particular till they finally rejected him and Apostatized from that Covenant on which his Kingdom is founded For he did not at all divest himself by his Incarnation of that Royal Authority he was vested with as he was the Eternal Word and Son of God hereafter to be incarnate For this his Royal Authority as I shewed before is necessarily implied in his Mediatorship of the New Covenant of which as I have also shewed he was always Mediator without any discontinuance or interruption So long therefore as the New Covenant continued in force with the Iews in particular so long he was their Mediatorial King in particular under God the Father Now it is certain that the New Covenant continued in force with them so long as they continued to be the Church of God because it was the New Covenant that made them so and it is certain they continued the Church of God many years after the Incarnation of our Saviour even till such time as by their obstinate rejecting of our Saviour and incurable Apostasie from that Covenant which made them the Church and People of God they had finally incensed him to reject them to break off his Covenant-relation to them and utterly to dispark and un-Church them And therefore we find that for several years both our Saviour and his Apostles continued in close Communion with the Iewish Church frequented their Temple and Synagogues and joyned with them in all the Solemnities of their Publick Worship by which they owned them to be the true Church of God and consequently to be yet in Covenant with him Since therefore they continued in the New Covenant after Christ's Incarnation Christ must also continue the Mediator of that Covenant to them and consequently their Mediatorial King. And hence he is stiled the King of the Iews in particular after his Incarnation for so the Wise-men in their enquiry after him Where is he that is born King of the Iews Matt. 2.2 And that he was born King of the Iews not merely as he was descended from the Loins of David but by a Title that he had Antecedent to his birth viz. as he was the Son of God hereafter to be Incarnate is evident by that confession of Nathanael Joh. 1.49 Rabbi thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel where his being the King of Israel is consequent to his being the Son of God and so Iohn 12.13 they who attended him in his progress to Ierusalem salute him with a Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord which S. Iohn makes the accomplishment of that forementioned Prophecy Zach. 9.9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion behold thy King cometh unto thee sitting on an Asses Colt verse 14 15. And this Title our Saviour assumes to himself in that good confession he made before Pontius Pilate who asking him Art thou King of the Iews He answered him Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me And when Pilate presses him for a more explicite answer he tells him My Kingdom is not of this world as much as if he had said I know the Jews mine enemies have insinuated to thee that by assuming to my self this Title of King of the Iews I design to usurp the temporal Dominion of Caesar thy Master but let not that trouble thee for though it is most certain that I am King of the Jews yet my Kingship and Caesar's are of a quite different nature and do no way clash or interfere with one another for whereas his Kingdom is Temporal mine is purely spiritual and not of this world and when Pilate insists farther Art thou a King then Jesus answers Thou sayest I am a King i. e. thou sayest truly so to this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world that I should bear witness to the truth John 18.33 34 35 36 37. And as he retained the Title of King of the Jews after his Incarnation so we frequently find him exercising his Royal Authority among them For in the first place he not only authoritatively explained to them those old and eternal Laws of Morality which he delivered to them from Mount Sinai and inforced them with new Sanctions and Motives but he also gave them two new Laws viz. that of Baptism and that of the Lord's Supper to be continued in force to the end of the world Secondly He erected a perpetual form of Government and Discipline in his Church and gave Commission to his Apostles to exercise and administer it and to derive down their Commission to all succeeding Generations Thirdly
still they retained their old Lesson For the Doctrine of Iesus was the standing Doctrine of their Legal Types which they taught darkly and obscurely but he most clearly and distinctly and therefore though those believing Jews still continued in the same Doctrine yet they had very good reason to change their Teacher and from being the Disciples of the Law to become the Disciples of Iesus under whose instruction they were sure to improve far beyond what they had hitherto done under their old Master Since therefore Christianity is nothing but the ancient Judaism explained and unriddled it hence necessarily follows that the believing Jews by embracing it did not commence a new Church distinct from the ancient Jewish one but were the same Church still continued and improved the same Church because founded on the same Religion but the same Church improved because enlightened with a far more distinct and explicite knowledge of that Religion And as our Saviour did very much improve the Religion of the Jewish Church in respect of clearness and perspicuity so he did also in respect of easiness For besides those many Rites and Ceremonies which the Law of Moses superadded to it as Types and Shadows of the Gospel there were sundry others superadded to it by the same Law partly in conformity to the more innocent Rites of the Aegyptians among whom the Jews were educated and of whose Rites and Manners they were pertinaciously fond and partly in opposition to their Magical and Idolatrous ones vid. Vol. 1. p. 45 46. For the Primitive Jewish Religion was that which the Patriarchs and their Posterity professed and practised before the giving of the Law and to which the Ceremonial Law was but a superaddition but by reason of the vast number of Rites and Ceremonies which this Law contained which yet considering their state and temper was very necessary for them their Religion was rendered exceeding cumbersom and grievous to them and therefore the Apostle justly calls it a yoke which neither they nor their fore-fathers were able to bear Acts 15.10 But our Saviour when he came into the World who was the substance and accomplishment of all those Ceremonial Types and Prophetick Pictures unloaded it of all those burthensom appendages and thereby restored it to that ancient ease and liberty in which it was before that yoke of bondage was imposed on it nay and not only so but also render'd it more easie than ever for whereas before the Law it had annexed to it that painful Rite of Circumcision which was the Primitive Seal of that Religion or Covenant our blessed Saviour exchanged it for a much gentler and easier viz. that of Baptism For whereas Circumcision was not only an infamous Rite among the greatest part of the Gentile World and upon that account unfit to be the sign of initiation into the Church of Christ which was now to be enlarged and propagated through the World but also a bloudy and painful one and upon that account more apt to affright men from than to iniâ—iate them into his Church Baptism was a Rite that both Jews and Gentiles reverenced and that is very easie and practicable in its own nature So that whereas the ancient Judaism was rendered a yoke of bondage as the Apostle calls it Gal. 5.10 through those numerous Rites and Ceremonies that were superinduced upon it our Saviour disburthened it of them all and thereby rendered it an easie yoke as he himself calls it Matt. 11.30 Since therefore Christianity for the main is nothing but the ancient Judaism released from the bondage of the Ceremonial Law and restored to its Primitive easiness and freedom it hence follows that by embracing Christ and his Doctrine the believing Jews did not turn to a new Religion nor consequently constitute a new Church but still continued in their Old Religion which our Saviour only bettered and improved and rendered far more easie and practicable Thirdly and lastly Our Saviour very much improved the Jewish Church and Religion in respect of the extent and Amplitude of it It is true the Gentiles who embraced the Jewish Religion were always allowed admission into the Jewish Church For so at first not only Abraham himself and his Children but his Servants also were admitted into Covenant with God and thereby made his Church and People And in the Reigns of David and Solomon as Mr. Selden de Iure l. 2. cap. 2. observes there were vast numbers of Converts to the Jewish Church out of all the Neighbouring Nations and in Ahasuerus's Reign many of the People of the Land of Media and Persia became Iews Esther 8.17 and afterwards in Hyrcanus's Reign the whole Nation of the Idumeans embraced the Jewish Religion all which and many more as the true Children of Abraham's faith were by Circumcision initiated into the Covenant God made with him and his Posterity and thereby became Co-members with them of the same Corporation and Coheirs to the same Promises But though the Gate of the Jewish Church was never shut against the Gentiles yet as I shewed before there were sundry of the Rites of that Church instituted on purpose to divide and separate the Jews from the Gentiles to create a distance and mutual strangeness between them that thereby the Jews might be preserved and secured from mingling with the Gentile Idolatries Now by these distinguishing Rites which begat an inveterâ—te mutual prejudice between the Jews and Gentiles the Jewish Church was very much narrowed and contracted For in the first place thâ—se distinguishing Rites by prejudicing the Iews against the Gentiles restrained them from all free converse and communication with them and thereby from propagating their Religion among them and secondly by prejudicing the Gentiles against the Iews they also prejudiced them against the Jewish Religion and rendered their minds extremely averse to the entertainment of it Thus as these Ceremonious singularities of the Jewish Church were to the Iews great preservatives against the Idolatries of the Gentiles so to the Gentiles they were very great hinderances of their conversion to the Religion of the Jews And therefore our Saviour in order to his design of propagating Christianity among the Gentiles which is the true Spirit and Mystery of Iudaism found it necessary to remove from it these offensive Rites which lay as so many stumbling blocks in the way to the conversion of the Gentiles to it and so by pulling down this middle Wall of partition between the Jews and Gentiles and abolishing this enmity of Ordinances which created such a vast distance between them he opened and prepared the way to the conversion of the Gentiles and took a most prudent and effectual course to make peace between them and the Jews and to reconcile them both into one body in the Cross and and hereby to extend and enlarge the Church into an universal Corporation In short therefore Christianity being nothing else but only Judaism separated from all those Appendages of it which rendered it
obscure and burthensom and narrow it hence follows that that Remnant of Jews who received and embraced it were so far from renouncing their old Religion that they still admitted and professed and adhered to it under its greatest advantages and improvements that they renounced nothing of it but only its comparative defects and did only admit of these new reformations of it by which our Saviour advanced it to its utmost lustre and perfection and rendered it infinitely more clear and easie and extensive and since it was their old Religion thus reformed and improved that they still embraced and continued in upon their turning Christians it necessarily follows that they did not become a new distinct Church but were only a continued succession of the Old one And hence it is that Christians in the New Testament are sometimes called Iews Rev. 2.9 i. e. reformed Jews or which is the same true Christians and sometimes the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 and sometimes the Children of Abraham Gal. 3.7 and sometimes a chosen generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people which is the proper Character of the Iews because by their Faith and Religion which is nothing but the true spiritual and mystick Judaism they were Iews and Israelites and the Children of Abraham though they were not all so according to the Flesh as the Apostle distinguishes 1 Cor. 10.18 and hence also it is that the Christian Church is called the new Ierusalem Rev. 3.12 because it is nothing but the Old Ierusalem or Jewish Church renewed and enlarged Eighthly and lastly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity When the main body of the Jews had rejected our Saviour his Kingdom was reduced to a very narrow compass and consisted only of one single Congregation of Christians in Ierusalem which through the blessing of God upon the indefatigable industry of his Apostles and Disciples was by degrees spread and dilated over all the World. For this single Congregation was the Primitive root out of which the vast stock of the Catholick Church sprung which hath since branch'd forth it self into particular Churches to all the ends of the Earth for it is of this Church that the Apostle speaks Acts 2.47 when he tells us that the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved So that all that were converted to the faith of Christ were but so many additions to this Primitive Church so many living stones incorporated into this spiritual building which by the industry of its builders did soon encrease and multiply into several other Congregations and these Congregations though they were several yet were not separate or independent but continued all of them united to the first as Homogeneous parts growing out of the same body or distinct Apartments superadded to the same building So that the Christian Church began in one Congregation and by degrees enlarged it self like a fruitful stock by branching forth it self into other Congregations in a continued unity with its own body which for the convenience of Worship and Discipline were afterwards formed into several though not separate particular Churches under the conduct of their particular Pastors and Governours And thus all the particular Churches that are now in the World are only so many Lines drawn from this Primitive Centre and united in it and it is upon this account particularly that they all of them constitute but one Catholick Church because they all grew out of one and so are but comparts of the same body and branches of the same root and are only that one Primitive Church multiplied into several Churches living in the same Catholick Communion and Vnity And accordingly the Gentile Converts are said to be grafted into the Jewish Church which the Apostle calls the good Olive tree in Rom. 11.17 18 For if some of the branches that is the unbelieving Jews be broken off i. e. rejected from being any more the Church and People of God and thou being a wild Olive Tree growing in the wild common of the World without the Pale and Inclosure of God's Church wert grafted in among them i. e. incorporated with the believing Jews and made a member of the body of their Church and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the Olive Tree i. e. communicatest with them in all the blessings of God's Promise to Abraham which is the foundation of their Church boast not against the branches but if thou boast consider thou bearest not the root but the root thee i. e. the Jewish Church grew not out of thee but thou out of that she is no branch of thee but thou of her as being ingrafted into her Stock and added to her Communion By which it is evident that the converted Gentiles were all but so many superadditions to that Primitive Church of Ierusalem which was the only remainder of the ancient Jewish Church and which from one single Congregation did by degrees increase and multiply it self into an infinite number of particular Churches in Vnion with it self from one end of the World to the other And this in short is the Progress of Christ's Kingdom which from Adam to Abraham consisted of all such as were true Worshippers of God of whatsoever Kindred or Nation from Abraham to Jesus Christ principally of the Iewish Nation and when the greatest part of that Nation had revolted from Christ and renounced their relation to him his Kingdom extended no farther than to the small Remnant of the Jews that adhered to him who made up but one single Congregation which Congregation by the diligence of its Ministers and the blessing of God increased and propagated from it self vast numbers of other Congregations and these were formed into particular Churches which like so many conquered Provinces were still united to that Primitive Kingdom till at last by a continued accession of new Conquests it was spread and enlarged into an universal Empire SECT VIII Of the Nature and Constitution of Christ's Kingdom THE Kingdom of Christ and the Church of Christ are phrases of a promiscuous use in holy Scripture and do import the same thing Thus Matth. 16.18 19. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven where the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same thing And thus to be translated into the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 and called to the Kingdom of Christ 1 Thess. 2.12 imports no more than to be made a member of the Church of Christ. And thus also by the Kingdom Matt. 13.38 by the Kingdom of God Matth. 21.31 by the Kingdom of Heaven Matt. 11.12 and by the Kingdom of Christ Rev. 11.15 no other thing can be intended but only the Church of Christ. I confess the Kingdom of Christ taken in the largest sence extends a great deal farther than the
Church of Christ. For under God the Father he is universal Lord and King of the World his Kingly power being upon his Ascension into Heaven extended as was shewn before to the utmost limits of the Vniverse For so he himself tells us by way of Anticipation that God hath given him power over all flesh John 17.2 i. e. over all mankind For his Regal power extends as far as his power of judging which is one of the principal Acts of his Regality and his power of judging is over all mankind for so we are assured that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World by the man Christ Iesus Acts 17.31 and that Christ is ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead Acts 10.42 and not only so but that when he shall sit down upon the throne of his glory all Nations shall be gathered before him Matth. 25.31 32. Since therefore by the right of his Royalty he shall judge all Nations it necessarily follows that all Nations are under his Empire and Dominion and accordingly the Apostle tells us that God hath set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.20 21 22. So that the Kingdom of Christ in a large sence extends to all Nations in the World even to the Heathens and Infidels that never heard of his name and upon this account he is stiled The blessed and only Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 1 Tim. 6.15 and so also Rev. 17 14. But the Church is more peculiarly his Kingdom as consisting of that part of the World which owns and acknowledges his authority makes a visible profession of fealty to him and submission to his Laws and Regulations As for the other parts of the World they are all of right his Subjects by vertue of that Vniversal Regal Authority wherewith the most High God and Father of all things hath invested him but de facto they are Slaves to the Prince of darkness all whose Dominions in this World are nothing but usurpations on the Kingdom of Christ. But the Church is that part of the World that hath thrown off the yoke of this Vsurper and by a solemn Profession surrendered up it self to the Authority of Christ its rightful Lord and Sovereign and hence the Members of the Church are said to be translated out of the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Col. 1.13 The Church therefore being more peculiarly Christ's Kingdom as being that part of the World which is actually subjected to him and under his Government I shall with as much brevity as the Argument will admit inquire into the nature and constitution of it In general therefore the Church or Kingdom of Christ may be thus defined It is the one universal society of all Christian People incorporated by the new Covenant in Baptism under Iesus Christ its supreme head and distributed under lawful Governours and Pastors into particular Churches holding Communion with each other in all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Worship and Discipline For our better understanding of which definition it will be necessary to explain the several parts of it First Therefore it is the one universal Society of all Christian People Secondly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant Thirdly Of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism Fourthly Of all Christian People incorporated under Iesus Christ its supreme Head and Governour Fifthly It is a Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches Sixthly It is distributed into particular Churches under lawful Pastors and Governours Seventhly It is distributed into particular Churches holding Communion with each other Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold with each oâ—hâ—r is First In all the Essentials of Christian Faith and Secondly In all the Essentials of Christian Worship Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Discipline First The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society consisting of all Christian People who as was shewn before were at first comprised in one single Congregation at Ierusalem and then this single Congregation was the whole Church or Kingdom of Christ which by the continual accession of new Converts increased and multiplied by degrees till at length it was spread over the whole Earth So that the Christian Society as it is now enlarged is nothing but that Primitive Church diffused and dilated For it was not diffused into separate and independent Societiâ—s but into similar parts and members of the same Society and therefore as a man is one and the same person when he is full grown as he was when he was an Infant but of a span long because his growth consists not in an addition of other persons to him but only of other parts of the same person so the Church of Christ is the same individual Church now since it is grown to this vast Bulk and Proportion that it was in its infant state when it extended no farther than one single Congâ—egation because it grew not into other divided Churches but only into other distinct parts of the same Church and therefore since its growth consisted only in new accessions of similar parts to the same body it must be as much one Body or Society now as it was at first when it was but one single Congregation For this Congregation was the root out of which the Catholick Church sprang or as our Saviour phrases it the grain of mustard-seed which though a very small seed shot up into a mighty tree in whose far-spread branches the Birds of the Air came and lodged and therefore as the stock and branches grow up from the root in a continued Vnion with it and all together make but one Tree so all the Christian People in the World sprang out of this single Congregation and as they sprang were still incorporated and united to it so as that all together they make but one Church And this is that which in our Creeds is called the holy Catholick or universal Church For so the Apostle tells us that there is but one body or Church as well as one Spirit one Lord one Faith and one Baptism Eph. 4.5 6. and our Saviour tells us Other sheep have I meaning the Gentiles which are not of this fold meaning the Iewish Church and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd John 10.16 For so the Gentiles added to the Christian Iewish Church are said of twain to make one new man Eph. 2.13 and both together are compared to a building fitly framed together growing into an holy Temple in the Lord Ibid. ver 21. And indeed since all
Christians do enjoy in common and without any distinction the same priviledges and immunities they must of necessity be all of the same Community For it is by theiâ— peâ—uliar Faith and Laws and Rights of Worship and Promises and Priviledges that the Christian Society is distinguished from the rest of the World and therefore since these peculiariâ—ies are by the very institution of Christian Society mâ—de common to all Christian People it is non-sense to suppose them distinguished by that institution into separate and independent Communities For how can they be separate Societies which have nothing to separate and distinguish them but enjoy all things in common with one another Secondly The Church is one universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant For this is that which distinguishes râ—gular Societies from confused multitudes that whâ—reas the latter are only locally united so that as soon as â—ver their parts are dispersed into distant places they cease to be and are utterly dissolved the former are united by Laws and mutâ—al stipulations which are the Political Nerves and Arâ—â—ries by which their several parts how remoteâ—nd â—nd distant soever are united to one another Even as it is in our City Companies which are not only united while their Members are met together in their Common Halls but do also continue united after they are dispersed abroad to their several homes because that which unites them is not their being together in the same place but their being obliged together under the same Laws and stipulations and communicating with one another in the duties and priviledges of one and the same Charter by reason whereof though they suffer a continual defluence of old and access of new parts yet still they remain the same Societies even like natural bodies that are under a perpetual flux of parts because they still retain the same Laws and Charters which are the sâ—atique Principles or Forms that individuate them and keep them still the same And thus it is with the Church which partakes of the common nature of all other formed and regular Societies For hence in Scripture it is called a Kingdom a City or Commonwealth and compared to a natural Organized body to denote that it is a Regular Society all whose parts are united together by legal bonds and ligaments Now the legal bond which unites the Church and renders all its Members one regular Corporation is the New Covenant by which all Christian People are in one body obliged to all the duties it requires and entitled to all the Priviledges it proposes and by being all engaged together in this one Covenant whereby they are all concerned together in the same common duties and priviledges they are all incorporate together into the same Community And thus it was that the Iewish People were all united into one Church by their being all confederated as one party in one and the same Covenant whereby they all engaged themselves as one body to be God's People and God engaged himself to them as to one body to be their God which in Deut. 26.17 18. is thus expressed Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar People as he hath promised thee This therefore was that which united them into one Religious Society that they were all confederated with God in one and the same Covenant For thus saith God I entered into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine Ezek. 16.8 and hence God is said to be married to thâ—t People Iâ—r 3.14 and to be their Husband Isa. 54.5 because by the Covenant which like a Matrimonial engagement was transacted between God and them they were all united into one Spâ—use and contracted to one Husband And in thâ— same sense the Christian Church is called the Bride and the Spouse of Christ vid. Rev. 22.17 and Christ is called her Husband 2 Cor. 11.2 because we by contracting our selves to him in one and the same Covenant do all become one Party and are incorporate together into one Spouse and he by contracting himself to us in one and the same Counterpart unites us in one common Husband and endows us in common with all his spiritual Goods and Blessings So that by the New Covenant which is the Nuptial Contract between Christ and Christians and in which we are said to be married to Christ Rom. 7.7 we are not only united to one head and Husband but are also incorporated into one body and Spouse And accordingly as the Iews by vertue of their Covenant with God were separated from all Nations and united together into a distinct body upon which account they are called God's peculiar Treasure a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation Exod. 19.5 6. so we Christians by vertue of our Covenant with God in Christ are separated from all other Societies and made a distinct Corporation from the World upon which account we are also called a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood and holy Nation and a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2.9 Thirdly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is the universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the new Covenant in Baptism For so in humane Contracts it hath been thought meet even by the unanimous consent of all prudent Law-givers that the mutual engagements of the contracting Parties should not be legally Pleadable till they have been first mutually sealed and solemnly confirmed before witness And accordingly God who is wont to proceed with men in humane Methods hath always thought meet to strike and ratifie his Covenants with them by some visible sign or solemnity For thus he struck his Covenant with the Iews in that visible solemnity of Circumcision which was the sign by which God and that People sealed and consigned to each other their respective parts of that Covenant by which he stipulated to be their God and they to be his People And till such time as this outward sign was transacted between God and them the Covenant it sealed was not in force so as to oblige either Party or give them a mutual claim in one another And hence it is called God's Covenant in their flesh for an everlasting Covenant and they who refused to admit this sign unless it were under some great necessity in which case God accepted the sincere desire for the deed were to be cut off from that People i. e. to be treated as Aliens from that Church and that because they had broken or rejected God's Covenant i. e. by refusing that sign which was the Seal and ratification of it Gen. 17.13 14. But this bloudy sign as was shewn before being not so commodious for the state of the Christian Church which was to be diffused over all the World our Saviour abolished it and in its room introduced the sign of Baptism which was before used by the Iews for the initiation of their
them in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost where that Phrase in the Name plainly imports as it generally doth in other places of Scripture by the Authority So that by this Commission Christ's Ministers are authorized and constituted the legal Proxies of the holy Trinity in the stead of those blessed Persons to seal the New Covenant with the Baptismal sign to those whom they baptize and thereby legally to oblige the Father Son and Holy Ghost to perform the Promises of it to all those Baptized persons who perform the conditions of it For that the Baptismal sign is a legal ingagement upon God as well as us to perform the New Covenant is evident from Mark 16.16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved where it is evident that Baptism as well as Faith doth confer a right to Salvation and therefore since Faith confers it only as it is the Condition of the Covenant Baptism must confer it as it is the Seal of the Covenant And accordingly S. Peter exhorts his Converts to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost from whence it is evident that Baptism as well as Repentance has a great influence on our remission of sins and our communication of the Holy Ghost Since therefore Faith and Repentance are the whole condition of the promise of remission and of the Holy Ghost it necessarily follows that Baptism doth not influence it as it is the Condition but as it is the Seal of the Promise And so also in Baptism we are said to wash away our sins i. e. the guilt of them Acts 22.16 because the sign of Baptism seals to us on God's part the Promise of Forgiveness By all which it is evident that Baptism is a federal Rite in which God and we do seal and ratifie to one another each others part of the New Covenant and it is this sealing that makes the Covenant obliging to both Parties and gives to each a legal Claim and Title to each others promise and engagement to God it gives a legal Title to all that duty which we promise and to us it gives a legal Title to all those blessings which God promises So that till such time as we are Baptized the New Covenant is not struck between God and us nor have we any right or title to any of the blessings promised in it And though we should perform all that duty which the Covenant requires yet this will not at all intitle us to the blessings it promises For he who engages to walk a Mile for me upon my promise to give him a thousand pounds hath upon his performance a just claim and title to the whole Sum whereas he that walks ten Miles for me without any such promise hath a right to no more than what in strict justice he deserves And therefore since what God promises in the New Covenant infinitely exceeds the merit of what he requires our performance of what he requires doth not at all oblige him to bestow the blessings of his promise on us unless we perform it upon a Covenant-engagement and therefore till this engagement is made and sealed in our Baptism we can have no promise to rely upon and though we should nevâ—r so heartily endeavour to repent we canâ—â—t claim the divine grace and assistance and though we should actually repent we can plead â—o title to remission of sins and though we should pâ—rsevere in well-doing to the end we cannot challenge eternal life And since our endeavours do not merit God's grace nor our repentance his Pardon nor our perseverance eternal life he is no more obliged to bestow these blessings on us by his Iustice than he is by his Promise So that in this state all we have to rely upon is the hope of an extraordinary mercy that God will do for us that which he never promised and bestow upon us that which he is not obliged to But when once we have struck Covenant with him in Baptism we have him fast obliged to us to perform his part of the Covenant whenever we perform ours and our being thus tied together as one party in one and the same Covenant by this federal Rite of Baptism is that which makes us one Catholick Church or Community For our admission into this New Covenant which is the Churches Charter is our admission into the Church it self and it is by being intituled to all the blessings that belong to Christians in common by vertue of the New Covenant that we become Members of the Christian Community And hence we are said to be Baptized into the body or Church of Christ 1 Cor. 12.13 because Baptism which is our admission into the Christian Covenant is only in other words our admission into the Christian Church which is nothing but the Body of Christian People joyned and confederated by the New Covenant Fourthly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism under Iesus Christ its supreme head And it is this also that makes all Christian People one Body and Society because they are all united under one and the same supreme head and Governour For as several neighbouring Congregations are called in Scripture one Church as I shall shew hereafter because they were all under the Government of one and the same Bishop so all the Churches under all the Bishops in the World are in Scripture called one Church because they are all under one Governour even Iesus Christ the supreme Bishop of our souls And accordingly the Apostle tells us that as there is but one body i. e. one Church so there is but one Lord or supreme Governour of that Church Eph. 4.4 5. and in Col. 1.18 he tells us that Christ is the head of this body the Church and again Eph. 5.23 that the Husband is the head of the Wife even as Christ is the head of the Church For Christ being Mediator of the Covenant by which we are incorporated into a Religious Society it must be under him as our immediate head and Governour that we are incorporate by it because as he is Mediator of it for God his Office is to govern us for and under God according to the terms and conditions of it Fifthly The Church or Kingdom of Christ is one universal Society of all Christian People distributed into particular Churches which distribution is made for the convenience of divine Worship For the Catholick Church being a vast Body composed of infinite parts which are separated from each other by vast distances of place it is impossible for it to celebrate the Offices of Divine Worship in any one Assembly or Congregation At first indeed the whole Catholick Church was only a single Congregation but this in a little time encreased and multiplied so fast that they could no longer exercise the Publick Worship of God together in one place or Assembly
of Religion for that is no more in our power than it is to be all of one stature or complexion but that we should all unanimously consent in all those fundamental Articles of which that one Faith consists which is the common Creed of Christians So that it is not the differing of one Church from another in Doctrines that are either remote from or near the foundations of Christianity that dissolves their Communion in the Christian Faith but so long as the essential Doctrines of the Gospel are secured on both sides no corrupt Doctrines on either side can warrant a breach of Communion between them It is true if the erring Church imposes the belief of its errors as a Condition of its Communion no Church or Christian that believes them to be errors can lawfully Communicate with it be those errors never so small or inconsiderable not that in themselves they are a sufficient cause of separation but because they who do not believe them cannot profess they do without telling a lie which is a condition that is simply unlawful And so also when the errors are such as do corrupt the vital and essential parts of her Worship so that there is no communicating with her in her Worship without communicating in her corruptions all Churches and Christians are obliged to abstain from its Communion not because of the errors simply considered in themselves but because they profane and desecrate her Worship with those sinful intermixtures they infuse into it so that we cannot joyn with her in her Worship without joyning with her in her sin so that there is no error can separate any Church or Christian from the Catholick Communion of Faith but only Heresie which is a perverse renunciation of some essential part or fundamental Article of that Faith. Secondly The Communion which the particular Churches of which the Catholick Church consists hold with each other is in all the Essentials also of Christian Worship By the Essentials of Christian Worship I mean the Invocation of the one Eternal God through the one Mediator Jesus Christ and the participation of the two Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper Hence the Apostle tells us that as there is but one common Faith wherein all true Christians communicate with each other so there is but one Lord Eph. 4.4 and but one God for us to address to and one Mediator between God and man for us to address by 1 Tim. 2.5 and therefore to address to this one God by this one Mediator is an essential part of Christian Worship And the same Apostle tells us that there is but one Baptism Eph. 4.4 and but one bread of which we are all partakers 1 Cor. 10 17. and therefore to participate of these Sacraments must also be essential to Christian Worship so that all those particular Churches that admit each others Members upon lawful terms to communicate with them in worshipping this one God through this one Mediator and in this one Baptism and one Eucharistical Bread and Cup are so far in Communion with the Church Catholick For in these acts of Christian Worship consists the principal part of Christian Communion and therefore that Church which refuses either to admit other Churches to communicate with her in these acts of Worship or to communicate with them in them upon lawful terms doth so far separate it self from the Christian Communion I say upon lawful terms because if it either require unlawful or refuse lawful ones it utterly excludes all other Churches from its Communion If on the one hand it hath sophisticated its Worship with any unlawful intermixtures so that there is no participating with her in the one without partaking with her in the other If we cannot pray with her to the one God by the one Mediator without praying to Creatures too or praying by other Mediators also If we cannot partake with her in her Baptism without partaking with her in some sinful and impure Rites of Baptism In a word if we cannot be admitted to receive the Lord's Supper with her without receiving it by halves or being obliged to pay divine homage to its Elements in this case I say all Christians and Christian Churches are utterly excluded by her from communicating with her in the Essentials of Christian Worship And so on the other hand if a Church forbid its Members to Communicate upon occasion with any other Church in these acts of Christian Worship upon lawful terms in so doing it divides it self from the Communion of the Church Catholick and though that Church it refuses to communicate with should through the neglect of its Discipline have a great many bad men as well as good in it though it should require the observation of a great many indifferent Rites Customs and Ceremonies yea and of contrary Rites and Customs to its own yet so long as the Essentials of its Worship are kept pure and entire and are not so blended with unlawful intermixtures but that we may safely partake of them without being at all obliged to partake of any sin in this case I say to refuse to Communicate with it is to separate from the Communion of the Catholick Church For for the same reason that any Church refuses to Communicate with this Church it must refuse to Communicate with all other Churches in the World because we cannot to this day nor ever could Communicate with any Church in the World in which there was not some defect of Discipline some intermixture of bad men with good and some indifferent Modes and Ceremonies of Worship Thirdly and lastly Another thing wherein those particular Churches into which the Catholick Church is distributed do communicate with each other is in the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline for though the particular Modes and Circumstances of Christian Government and Discipline are not determined by divine Institution but left for the most part free to the prudent ordering and disposal of the Governours of particular Churches yet there is a standing form of Government and Discipline in the Church instituted by our Saviour himself which as I shall shew hereafter is this that there should be an Episcopacy or Order of men authorized in a continued Succession from the Apostles who were Authorized by himself to oversee and govern all those particular Churches into which the Church Catholick should be hereafter distributed to Ordain inferiour Ministers to teach and instruct and administer the holy Offices to particular Congregations and having Ordained them to guide and direct them in the discharge of their Functions to prescribe the particular Rules of outward Order and Decency to the People of the respective Churches committed to their Charge to confirm the weak and admonish the disorderly and correct the obstinate by excluding them from the Communion of the Church of Christ. These things therefore being all of divine Institution are the Essentials of Christian Government and Discipline in which all Christian Churches are obliged to Communicate
to fall asleep again afterwards when their Lord was apprehended condemned and crucified At all which times they were doubtless rather more sorrowful than they were in the Garden and therefore it seems very probable that there was a much more powerful cause than sorrow in the case viz. a preternatural stupâ—faction of their senses by some of those malignant spirits that were then conflicting with our Saviour who perhaps to deprive him of the solace of his Disciples company did by their Diabolical Art produce that extraordinary stupor that oppressed them that so having him all alone they might have the greater advantage to tempt and terrifie him Fourthly and lastly If we consider the warning our Saviour gave his Disciples when they entered the Garden with him of the extraordinary danger they were in of falling into temptation it seems very probable that he expected and found there an extraordinary Concourse of Tempters or evil Spirits for as soon as they were entered with him into the Garden S. Luke tells us that he bid them pray that ye enter not into Temptation Luke 22.40 and when notwithstanding this admonition they fell asleep the first time he bids them again watch and pray that ye enter not into Temptation Matth. 26.41 which words plainly imply our Saviour's apprehension of some extraordinary danger they were in of being tempted in the very time and place of his Agony and what more probable account can be given of this apprehension of his than this that he â—ound vast numbers of evil spirits there by whom he himself at that very time was furiously tempted and assaulted and that therefore having experienced their power and malice in himself he thought meet to admonish his Disciples who were much less able to resist them than he to stand upon their guard lest they should tempt them as they had tempted him For these reasons it seems highly probable that this last Agony of our Saviour was nothing else but a mighty struggle and conflict with the powers of darkness who having by God's permission mustered up all their strength against him intending once more to try their fortune against him and if possible to tempt or deter him from prosecuting his design of redeeming the World were in the end gloriously repulsed by his persevering resistance and forced to flee before him and of this his glorious victory over them he made an open shew upon the Cross where in despite of all those terrors and temptations they had exercised him with if possible to divert him from laying down his life for the World he freely and voluntarily poured out his Bloud as a Sacrifice for the sins of mankind And hence the Apostle tells us Col. 2.15 that on his Cross he spoiled Principalities and Powers viz. in that victorious Act of laying down his life to ransom us from their power in despite of their most exquisite temptations to the contrary and made an open shew of them triumphing over them And by this glorious Victory he finished his Conquest of those Infernal Powers so that from thenceforth they never durst assault him more but like vanquish'd Slaves were forced to yield their unwilling Necks to the yoke of his Empire and though with infinite Reluctance to obey his Will and execute his Orders and hence we are told that by his Death our Saviour hath destroyed him that hath the power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2.14 so that now at his powerful Name every knee must bow or every Being yield obeisance not only of things in heaven and of things on earth i. e. of Angels and Men but of things under the earth too i. e. of Devils who notwithstanding they are incensed with an implacable animosity against him and would gladly pull him down from his Throne if they had but Power answerable to their Malice yet having long since experienced the might of his victorious Arms even then when they had him at the greatest advantage and being thereby driven into everlasting despair of prevailing against him they have from thenceforth been forced by the mere dread and terrour of his power to submit themselves to him and to become his Servants and Ministers in his heavenly Kingdom so that now whatsoever they do it is by his Permission or Order who holds their mischievous power in Chains and lets it loose or restrains it as he pleases And thus having proved at large that both the good and bad Angels are Christ's Subjects and Ministers I proceed in the second place to shew wherein their Ministry to Christ in his Kingdom consists And in the first place I shall shew wherein the Ministry of good Angels consists And secondly wherein consists the Ministry of bad Angels And because the Philosophy of the Nature and Operations of Angels is far above the ken of our short-sighted understandings I shall not presume to inquire any farther into the Ministry of either good or bad Angels than the Scripture gives me light in which we find these seven following instances of the Ministry of good Angels under Christ. First They declare upon occasion his Mind and Will to his Church Secondly They guard and defend his Subjects against outward dangers Thirdly They support and comfort them upon great undertakings and under pressing Calamities Fourthly They protect them against the rage and fury of evil spirits Fifthly They further and assist them in all their Religious Offices Sixthly They conduct their separated Spirits into the Mansions of Glory Seventhly They are to attend and assist Christ in the great solemnity of the day of Iudgment I. One instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their declaring upon occasion his Mind and Will to his Church and People for thus most of those Prophetick Messages which God from time to time sent to the World were conveyed to the Prophets by the Ministry of Angels so Daniel for instance had all his Visions from an Angel of God vid. Dan. 8.16 and Chap. 9.22 23. as also Chap. 10.11 so also the Prophet Zechariah vid. Chap. 1.9 14 19. and Chap. 2.3 4. and sundry other instances there are of it in the New Testament vid. Matt. 1.20 21. as also Chap. 2.13 20 22. and Luke 1.13 30 31. and many other places and it was an ancient and Catholick Doctrine among the Jews that all Prophecy was communicated by the Mediation of Angels whence the Pharisees describing St. Paul as a Prophet thus pronounce concerning him We find no evil in this man but if a Spirit or Angel hath spoken to him let us not fight against God Act. 23.9 And accordingly we find our Saviour sending forth his holy Angels on Prophetick Messages to his Church for so St. Iohn received his Revelations from Christ by the hand of an Angel Rev. 1.1 Rev. 22.16 And an Angel is sent from Christ to Philip to bid him go to the Ethiopian Eunuch to expound to him the Prophecy of Isaiah Acts 8.26 And Cornelius received a Message from Christ
of his Supremacy over all indifferent things in all causes whatsoever but by his own Authority he not only convened General Councils and for the most part presided in them as particularly in that of Ephesus Chalcedon the sixth General one in Constantinople called Trullo and several others and inforced their Canons with his own Imperial Edicts but many times made Laws even in Church matters without them to which the Ecclesiastical Governours yielded the same Obedience as they did to the Decrees of the most oecumenical Councils for so not only Constantine who was the first Christian Emperour made Laws concerning the Festivals of the Church Ordaining what might and what might not be done upon the Lords Day and not only several of those Ecclesiastical Laws in Gratian's Collection are now confessed on all hands to be the Laws of Princes but the first Titles of the Code are all of them concerning Eâ—clesiastical matters and so also in the Laws of the Goths and Vandals the Authenticks and Capitulars of the French Kings there are numerous instances of the Legislative Power of Kings in Ecclesiastical matters and this power was openly asserted by the French Embassadours in the Council of Trent viz. that the Kings of France following the examples of other Christian Emperors had frequently made Laws for the Church which were so far from being countermanded by the Bishops of Rome that they received many of them into their own Canons and that the Gallican Church had been always governed by the Ecclesiastical Laws which were made by their Kings and Cardinal Cusanus tells us lib. 2. Cath. Concord c. 40. that he himself had collected Eighty six Chapters of Ecclesiastical Laws made by the ancient Emperors besides many others of Charles the Great and his Successors in which there are many things concerning the Popes and all other Patriarchs declaring that he never read that ever any Pope was asked to confirm those Laws or that ever they were accounted the less obligatory because they wanted the Papal confirmation And indeed before Pope Hildebrand who was the first Bishop that challenged the Supreme Legislation in Ecclesiastical affairs it is notoriously known that the greatest Prelates of the Church frequently addressed themselves to the Emperor for such good Laws as the present necessities of the Church called for Thus Pope Damasus intreated the Emperor Honorius to make a Law for the more Regular Election of the Popes Thus also Sergius Patriarch of Constantinople supplicated the Emperor Heraclius to forbid by a Pragmatick Sanction the admission of any man into the Clergy unless it were into a dead Place and it was as it is thought upon S. Ambrose's intreaty that Theodosius made a Law for the disanulling of Marriages within the Prohibited degrees so when the Emperor Iustinian turned the ancient Canons of the Church into Imperial Laws he was so far from being accused of being an Usurper of the Ecclesiastical Power that Pope Adrian IV. highly extolls him for so doing though in his 133 Novel that Emperor affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing is impervious to the inspection and cognisance of the King in which S. Austin accords with him when he affirms the Kings do nothing but their duty Cum in suo regno bona jubeant mala prohibeant non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem verum etiam quae pertinent ad divinam Religionem i. e. when they make good Laws not only concerning humane Society but also concerning divine Religion by all which it is evident that the Civil Powers for several ages after they became Christians did claim and exercise a supreme Legislative Power in causes Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and this without any contradiction from the Bishops and Governours of the Church for as for that saying Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do with the Church It was not the Language of the Church but of that fireband Donatus who was the Ring-leader of one of the most factious and turbulent Heresies that ever infested the Christian World and if in those instances wherein they exerted their Legislative Power in Ecclesiastical Causes the Church had no power to Controul or Countermand them then neither hath it in any other instance of the same nature and if so then notwithstanding their subjection to our Saviour they still retain their Supreme Commanding Power over all matters of indifference whether it be in Civil or Ecclesiastical causes But then Secondly By this their subjection to our Saviour they are not deprived of their natural Right of being unaccountable to any but to God alone through Jesus Christ for all the difference between the state of Sovereign Powers in this matter before and after their subjection to Christs Mediatorial Scepter is only this that before they were accountable to God only immediatly whereas now they are accountable to God only through Iesus Christ for Christ being Authorized by God to Mediate for him or which is the same thing to be his Vicegerent in the World all things are now subjected to him and God now rules and judges rewards and punishes all men by him whether they are Subjects or Sovereigns Vassals or Emperors for so in the great transaction of the last day we are told that the Kings of the Earth shall be arraigned before his Judgment Seat Rev. 6.15 16 17. but though they are now accountable immediately to Christ who during this Evangelical Oeconomy is to rule and judge for God yet in respect of any Earthly Tribunal they remain altogether as Sovereign and unaccountable as ever for to be Sovereign and unaccountable are convertible terms and it is nonsense to say either that any Power is unaccountable which hath any Superiour or that any Power is accountable which is Sovereign and Supreme so that by necessity of nature those Powers which are Sovereign upon Earth must be unaccountable to any Power upon Earth because to call to account is an Act of Superiority and that which is Supreme can have no Superiour to account to so that unless it be made appear that Christ hath erected some earthly Tribunal that is Superiour to the Tribunals of the Supreme Civil Powers he must of necessity have left them as unaccountable as he found them Now it is plain that our Saviour erected no other Tribunal in this World but only that of the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Government which he was so far from advancing above the Tribunal of the Civil Sovereign that while he was upon Earth he acknowledged himself to be subject and accountable thereunto though he was then the Supreme Bishop and Head of that spiritual Regiment and this he did not only by Recognizing Cesar's Right of receiving Tribute from him of which I have spoken before for by bidding them render to Cesar the things that are Cesars he leaves Sovereign Princes in the quiet possession of all those Rights which he found them possessed of and requires their Subjects to pay them whatsoever is
Subjection to Christ to render his Church is to Fence and Cultivate its Peace and good Order either by wholsom Laws of their own or by permitting and requiring it when occasion requires to make good Laws for it self and if need be by inforcing 'em with Civil Coercions for so when the Church was either broken by Schisms or corrupted by Errors and disorderly Customs it was always the practice of Christian Kings and Emperors even from the time that they became Christians to restrain and give a check to those Divisions and Disorders either by their own Royal and Imperial Edicts or by convening the Ecclesiastical Governors to Councils there to consult and agree upon such good Laws and expedients as the present necessities of the Church required and because these Laws being grounded upon mere Spiritual Authority could as such be inforced by no other Penalties than Spiritual which by bold and obstinate Offenders were frequently despised and disregarded therefore those holy Kings and Emperours thought themselves obliged as they were the Ministers of Jesus to strengthen and reinforce 'em with temporal Sanctions and Penalties by which means they became the Laws of the Empire as well as of the Church Of all which I have given sufficient Instances and all this was no more than what they were obliged to by vertue of their Subjection to Christ for being subjected to him they are his Viceroys in the World and do Reign and Govern by his Authority and since their Authority is his they must be accountable to him if they do not imploy it for him in Ministring to the necessities of his Church and Kingdom and therefore if when it is in their power to check a prevailing Schism or Corruption in the Church by wholsom Laws and Edicts they refuse or neglect to do it they must doubtless answer to him from whom they received their power and who being himself the Supreme Head of the Church hath constituted 'em its Guardians and Nursing-Fathers III. Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged to render his Church is to Chasten and Correct the irregular and disorderly Members of it for though there are Spiritual Rods and Corrections which Christ hath solely committed to the Spiritual Government and which if men understood and considered the dire effects and consequences of 'em are sufficient to restrain and keep in awe the most obstinate Offenders yet when men are stupified in sin and do feel nothing but only what pains or pleases their bodies these Spiritual Corrections are insignificant to 'em they being such as make no impression on their corporeal Senses and so when men are hardened in Schism or Heresie to be sure they will despise the Ecclesiastical Rods as being confidently perswaded that they cannot be justly applied to 'em and that where they are applied unjustly they are only so many Spiritual scare-crows that can only threaten but not hurt 'em and therefore in these cases the Secular Powers are obliged by vertue of their Subjection to Jesus to second the Spiritual with the Temporal Rod and to awe such offenders with corporeal corrections as are fearless and insensible of the Censures of the Church And conformable hereunto hath been the constant practice of all good Kings and Emperors even from their first Conversion to Christianity as might easily be demonstrated by innumerable Instances out of Ecclesiastical History for they not only made Laws inforc'd with temporal Penalties for the regulation of the Clergy as well as Laity not only commanded and obliged their Bishops in case of notorious neglect to execute the Church Censures on the Schismatical Heretical and disorderly of both sorts but when they found those Spiritual Executions ineffectual they very often seconded 'em with temporal such as pecuniary mulcts Imprisonments and Banishments and though in the case of error and false belief they were always very tender and gentle yet whenever they found men busily propagating their Errors into Sects and Divisions to the disturbance of the Churches peace they thought themselves obliged to restrain their petulancy with temporal Chastisements And indeed as they are the Vice-roys of our Saviour they are ex officio the conservators of the peace of his Kingdom and stand obliged to exert that Authority he hath devolved upon 'em in the defence of its Unity and good Order which in many cases they can no otherwise do but only by restraining the Schismatical and disorderly with the terror of temporal corrections so that as well in the Church as in the Civil State they are the Ministers of God to us for our good and therefore if we do that which is evil we have just cause to be affraid for they bear not the Sword in vain for they are the Ministers of God Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil Rom. 13.14 IV. And lastly Another of those Ministries which Princes are obliged to render to Christ's Church by vertue of their subjection to him is to make good provision for the Decency of its Worship and for the convenient maintenance of its Officers and Ministers to take care that it hath decent and commodious places set apart for the publick Celebration of its Worship and that those places be supplied with such Ornaments and Accommodations as are sutable to those venerable Solemnities that are to be performed in them that so its Worship may not be exposed to contempt by the slovenliness and Barbarity of its outward appendages and this is the clothing of the Church which as it ought not on the one hand to be too Pompous and Gaudy that being naturally apt to distract and Carnalize the minds of its Votaries and to divert their attention from those spiritual exercises wherein the life and soul of its Worship consists so neither ought it on the other hand to be sordid and nasty that being as naturally apt to prejudice and distaste men against it and to create in their minds a loathing and contempt of it Now the furnishing the Church with such decent Places and Ornaments of Worship as do become the grave Solemnities of a spiritual Religion being a matter of Cost and Charge must necessarily belong to the Civil Powers who alone can lay Rates upon the Subject and have the sole Command and disposal of the publick Purse and therefore by vertue of their subjection to Christ they are obliged to take care that such Religious Places and Ornaments be provided as the Decency and convenience of his Worship do require And then as for the Ministers and Officers of his Church they are under the same Obligation to take care that they whose Office it is to serve at the Altar should live upon the Altar and that according to the different stations and degrees wherein they are placed that so they may neither be necessitated for a subsistence to involve themselves in secular affairs and thereby to neglect their spiritual Calling which is Burthen enough of all conscience for any one mans shoulders nor be tempted
to base Compliances with the lusts of men and the iniquities of times for a maintenance and that so Religion it self may not be exposed to contempt through their wretched Poverty and indigence who are the Ministers of it and who for want of a fair and honourable subsistence can never obtain Credit and Authority enough to do any considerable good in the World. And this is the food and sustenance of the Church without which it cannot long flourish either in true Knowledge or true Piety but must insensibly wither away and degenerate into Barbarity and Ignorance And accordingly if you consult Ecclesiastical History you will find that it was ever the practice of Pious Princes and Emperors to take care both for the erecting of decent and convenient Churches in all parts of their Dominions for the Celebration of Divine Worship and to furnish them with all the decent Accommodations and Ornaments that were proper thereunto and also for the endowing the Bishops and Pastors of the Church with such honourable subsistences as becomes the Port and Dignity of their several Orders and Offices in which they did no more than what they stood obliged to as they were the Viceroys of Jesus and the foster Fathers of his Church by vertue of which Relation to it they are bound in duty to supply it with decent Raiment and convenient Food And now having explained the subjection of the Sovereign Powers of the Earth to our Lord and Saviour and shewn what those Ministries are which they are obliged to render to him in his Kingdom I proceed to the Fourth and last sort of his Ministers by which he governs his Kingdom viz. the Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governours in treating of which I shall endeavor these three things First To shew that Christ hath erected a spiritual Government to minister to him in his Church Secondly To shew in what hands this spiritual Government is placed Thirdly To shew what are the proper Ministries of this Government I. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church And indeed supposing the Church to be a regular and formed Society subsisting of it self distinct from all other Societies it must necessarily have a distinct Government in it because Government is essentially included in the very notion of all regular Society which without Rule and Subjection is not a formed Society but a confused multitude for what else do we mean by a Humane Society but only such a company of men united together by such and such Laws and Regulations But how can any company of men be united by Laws without having in it some Governing Power to rule by those Laws and exact obedience to them So that we may as well suppose a compleat Body without a Head as a Regular Society without a Government Now that the Church is a Regular Society utterly distinct from all Civil Society is as evident as the truth of Christianity which all along declares and Recognizes the Law or Covenant upon which it is founded and by which it is united to be Divine and consequently to be superior to and independent upon all Civil Laws and if that which constitutes the Church be Divine Law and not Civil then the Constitution of the Church must be Divine and not Civil for that which makes us Christians at the same time makes us parts of the Christian Church and that which makes all the parts of the Church makes the Church it self which is nothing but the whole or Collection of all the parts together and therefore as we are not made Christians so neither are we made a Christian Church by the Laws of the Commonwealth but by the Laws and Constitutions of our Saviour which were promulgated to the World long before there were any Laws of the Commonwealth to found a Christian Church on for there was a Christian Church for three hundred years together before ever it had the least favour or protection from the Laws of Nations In all which time it subsisted apart from all other Societies and was as much a Church or Christian Society as it is now and as it is now it is only a continued Succession of that Primitive Church and therefore as to the Constitution of it must necessarily be as distinct now from all other Societies as it was then when it subsisted not only apart from but against the Laws and Edicts of all other Societies in the World in short therefore since the Church of Christ is founded on a Charter and incorporated by a Law that is utterly distinct from the Charters and Laws of all Civil Societies it hence necessarily follows that it self is a distinct Society from them all because that which individuates any Society or makes it a distinct body from all other Societies is the Charter or Law upon which it is founded and accordingly our Saviour tells Pilate when he asked him whether he was a King that he was a King indeed but that his Kingdom was not of this world Joh. 18.36 i. e. though my Kingdom be in this World yet is it not of the World for neither are the Laws of it Humane but Divine nor the powers of it external but invisible nor the Rewards and Punishments of it temporal but Spiritual and eternal From the whole therefore these two things are evident First That Government is Essential to formed and regular Societies Secondly That the Church of Christ is in the Nature and Constitution of it a formed and regular Society distinct from all other Societies from both which it necessarily followeth that it must have a distinct Government included in the very essence and being of it And accordingly in the New Testament besides the Civil Magistrates we frequently read of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Governors so Heb. 13.17 there is mention made of the Rulers that watch for our souls and a strict injunction to obey and submit our selves to 'em and so again in the 7th and 24th Verses and in 1 Tim. 5.17 The Apostle speaks of the Elders that Rule well who are to be accounted worthy of double Honour And indeed the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Bishop or Overseer doth in Scripture always import a Ruler or Governour Vid. Hammond Acts 1. Note 1. and therefore being applied as it is frequently in the New Testament to a certain Order of Men in the Christian Church it must necessarily denote 'em to be the Rulers and Governors of it and this power to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Oversee and Rule and Govern the Church was derived to 'em from Christ the Supreme Bishop of our Souls even by that Commission he gave 'em John 20.21 As the Father hath sent me so send I you i. e. so I Commission you with the same Authority in kind to Teach and Govern in my Kingdom as I my self have received from the Father and accordingly as Christ is called the Pastor or Shepherd which name imports Authority to Govern his Flock for
So that here are plainly two sorts of Ecclesiastical Officers the one superiour to the other of our Saviours own Institution and appointment and therefore if his institution be still valid there must still be a superiority and subordination between the Officers and Ministers of his Church and consequently the Government thereof must still be Episcopal i. e. by some superiour Officers presiding and superintending over other inferiour ones I know it is objected that this superiority of the Apostles over the seventy was only in Office but not in Power or Iurisdiction but since it is the Office that is the immediate Subject of the Power belonging to it I would fain know whether superiority of Office must not necessarily include superiority in Power for Office without Power is an empty name that signifies nothing and every degree of superiority of Office must be accompanied with Power to exert it self in Acts of superiority otherwise 't will be utterly in vain and to no purpose So that either the superiority of the Apostolick Office over other Church-Offices must be void and insignificant or it must have a proportionable superiority of power over 'em inseparably inherent in it But it is farther objected that supposing the Apostolate to be superiour to the other Ecclesiastical Orders in Power and Office yet it was but temporary it being instituted by our Saviour in subservience to the present exigence and necessity of things without any intention of deriving it down to the Church in a continued Succession To which I answer in short that this is said without so much as a plausible colour of reason for they allow both that our Saviour instituted this Office and that in his institution he never gave the least intimation to the World that he intended it only for a certain season Now if men will presume to declare Christs Institutions Temporary without producing the least intimation of his Will that he so designed 'em they may with the same warrant repeal all the Institutions of Christianity and even the two Sacraments will lie as much at their mercy as the Institution of the Apostolick Order which unless they can prove it repealed by the same authority which established it will be sufficient to prescribe to all Ages and Nations for the obligations of divine Commands are dissolvable only by divine countermands and for men to declare any divine Institution void before God hath so declared it is to over-rule the Will of God by their own arrogant Presumptions for though the matter of the Institution be mutable in it self yet the form and obligation of it is mutable only by the authority which made it and therefore though God hath not declared that he instituted it for perpetuity yet till he declares the contrary it must bind for perpetuity especially if the reason of the institution of it be not apparently altered which cannot be pretended in the case under debate there being the very same reasons for a superiority and subordination between Ecclesiastick Officers now as there was when our Saviour first appointed and instituted it Until therefore they can shew either that the reason of the institution is ceast or that the institution it self is repeal'd by some other Law neither of which was ever yet pretended they may as reasonably dispence with most of the precepts of the Gospel which are no more declared perpetual than this as with this of superiority and subjection among the Ecclesiastical Orders which is the proper form of the Episcopal Government II. That the true Government of the Church is Episcopal is evident also from the Practice of the holy Apostles who pursuant to the institution of our Saviour did not only exercise that superiority in their own persons which their Office gave 'em over their inferiour Clergy but also derived it down with their Office to their Successors which is a plain argument that they looked upon our Saviours institution of this superiour Office of the Apostolate not as a temporary expedient but as a standing form of Ecclesiastical Government to be handed down to all succeeding Generations for though during our Saviours abode upon Earth and sometime after his ascension into Heaven the number of the Apostles was confined to twelve yet when afterwards thro their Ministry the Church was spread and dilated not only through Iudea but into the Gentile Nations they added to their number several other Apostles to whom they communicated the same Office and Degree of superiority over the other Clergy that our blessed Saviour had communicated to them for so Eusebius lib. 1. cap. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. besides the twelve there were many other Apostles in that Age after the similitude of the twelve and of the truth of this I shall give three or four instances The first is that of S. Iames of Ierusalem the Brother of Iesus who though he was none of the Twelve for in that number there were but two Iameses viz. the Son of Alpheus and the Son of Zebedee neither of which was he whom S. Paul calls the Lords Brother and S. Paul reckons him apart from the Twelve 1 Cor. 15.5 6.7 is yet stiled an Apostle by S. Paul Gal. 1.19 but other Apostles saw I none save James the Lords Brother And S. Ierom in his Comment on Isaiah stiles Iames the thirteenth Apostle that is the first that was made an Apostle after the Twelve and that he was not merely a nominal Apostle but actually endowed with Apostolical Power and Superiority is evident both from Scripture and the unanimous consent of Ecclesiastical History from Scripture it is evident that this Iames was a man of great preheminence in the Church of Ierusalem for in the first Council that was held there we find him giving a discisive Sentence in the matter of Circumcision Acts 15. for after there had been much disputing ver 7. and S. Peter and S. Paul and S. Barnabas had declared their Judgment in the case ver 7.13 S. Iames after a short Preface thus delivers himself Wherefore my Sentence is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned unto God and this Sentence of his determines the Controversie and puts a final end to all farther debate which plainly argues his great authority and preheminence in that place Again Acts 21.17 18. we are told that when S. Paul and his company were come to Ierusalem the Brethren received him gladly and that the next day following Paul went in with them unto James and all the Elders were present Now for what other reason should Paul go in to Iames more especially or upon what other account should all the Elders be present with Iames but that he was a person of the greatest note and figure in the Church of Ierusalem and for the same reason in all probability S. Paul mentions Iames before Peter and Iohn discoursing of a meeting he had with them at Ierusalem Gal. 2.9 because though Peter and Iohn were two
and Elutherius Bishops of Rome successively but also tells us that after Iames the Iust who was the first Bishop of Ierusalem had suffered Martyrdom Simeon Cleophae was made Bishop of that Church because he was of the Kindred of our Lord vid. Euseb. lib. 4. cap. 22. Not long after him Dionysius Bishop of Corinth makes mention in several Epistles of several Bishops by name and particularly of Publius and Quadratus successive Bishops of Athens of Dionysius the Areopagite the first Bishop of that Church of Philip Bishop of Gortyna in Crete of Palma Bishop of Amastris in Pontus of Pinytus Bishop of the Gnossians and of Soter Bishop of Rome vid. Euseb lib. 4. cap. 23. About the same time lived Irenaeus Bishop of Lions who as himself tells us in his Epistle to Florinus had often seen Polycarp the Disciple of S. Iohn and did very well remember his person and behaviour when he discoursed to the Multitude the intimate conversation he had with S. John and the rest of the Apostles who had seen our Lord. And from him we have this express Testimony concerning the matter in debate We can reckon up those who were Ordained Bishops by the Apostles in the Churches who they were that succeeded them even down to our times for the Apostles would have them to be in all things perfect and unreprovable whom they left to be their Successors and to whom they delivered their Apostolick Authority And then he goes on and gives us a Catalogue of Eleven Bishops of Rome by name beginning from Linus to whom he tells us S. Peter and S. Paul Episcopatum administrandae Ecclesiae tradiderunt i. e. delivered the Episcopal power of Governing that Church and ending with Elutherius who was the twelfth and did then actually preside in the Episcopal Chair and that by Bishops in this Age was meant such as presided over Presbyters as well as Laicks is evident by the demonstration Clemens Alexandrinus makes who was Irenaeus his Cotemporary between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Strom. 6. i. e. the Processes of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and a little before speaking of the dignity of the Presbytery he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that it was not honoured with the first Seat or placed in the first Class of the Ecclesiastick Orders which plainly shews that then there was an Order above the Presbytery viz. the Bishops whom presently after he mentions as the first Order of Ecclesiasticks And that passage which Eusebius quotes from him out of his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lately published is a plain Argument that in his time Bishops were look'd on as a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy for he tells us that when S. Iohn returned from Patmos to Ephesus he visited the neighbouring Provinces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. partly that he might ordain Bishops and partly that he might set apart such for the Clergy as were pointed out to him by the Holy Spirit by which it is evident that in Clement's time at least and if he be not mistaken in S. Iohn's too the Bishops were a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy viz. the Presbyters and Deacons Thus both in the Apostolick Age and that succeeding it we have abundant Testimony of the derivation of the superiority of the Apostolick Order from the Apostles to the Bishops of the Churches of Christ. And then for the next Age we have the concurrent Testimonies of Tertullian Origen and S. Cyprian not only of the continuance of this Apostolick superiority in the Church but also of the derivation of it from the Apostles themselves but we need not cite their words it being granted by the most learned Advocates of the Presbyterian Government that for several years before these Fathers viz. about the year of our Lord 140. the Episcopacy was every where received in the Church for they tell us that though the Apostles exercised a superiority over the other Ecclesiastical Orders yet they left none behind to succeed them in that power but the Church was every where governed by a Common Council of Presbyters but this Form of Government being found inconvenient as giving too much occasion for Schisms and Divisions it was at last universally agreed upon that one Presbyter should be chosen out to preside over all the rest and this say they was the beginning of the Episcopacy for which they cite that famous passage of S. Ierom Antequam Diaboli instinctu c. i. e. Before such time as through the instinct of the Devil divisions in Religion began and it was said among the People I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas the Churches were Governed by Common Councils of Presbyters but afterwards every Presbyter reckoning such as he baptized to be his and not Christs it was decreed over all the World that one from among the Presbyters should be chosen and set over all the rest to whom should belong all the care of the Churches that so the seeds of Schisms might be destroyed which universal Decree as they guess was made about the year 140. Now not to dispute with them the sense of this passage but allowing it to bear their sense I shall only desire the Reader to consider First That it is the Testimony of one who lived long after the afore-cited Witnesses and so far less capable of attesting so early a matter of fact for some of the Witnesses above-cited were such as lived in the days of the Apostles others such as lived in their days who lived in the days of the Apostles and certainly these were much more competent Witnesses of what was done in the Apostles days than S. Ierom who was not born till about the year 330. almost one hundred years after Origen the latest and three hundred years after Clemens the earliest of the above-cited Witnesses and certainly to prefer the Authority of one single Witness who lived so long after the matter of fact to the unanimous attestations of so many earlier Witnesses is both immodest and irrational II. It is also to be considered that S. Ierom was a witness in his own cause in which case men of his warmth and passion are too too apt to exceed the limits of truth for the design of that passage was to curb the insolence of some Pragmatical Deacons who would needs advance themselves above the Presbyters which Saint Ierom being a Presbyter himself takes in high disdain and as the best of men are too prone to do when their own concerns are at stake bends the stick too much t'other way and depresses the Deacons too low and advances the Presbyters too high For III. In other places where he is not Biassed by partiality to his own Order he talks at a quite different rate so in Dial. advers Luciferian dost thou ask why one that is not Baptized by the Bishop doth not receive the Holy Ghost why it proceeds from hence that the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles
Where it is plain he places the Bishops in the same rank with the Apostles so also in Ep. 1. ad Heliodor speaking of the Bishops of his time they stand saith he in the place of S. Paul and hold the place of S. Peter and in Psal. 45.16 Now because the Apostles are gone from the World thou hast instead of those their Sons the Bishops and these are thy Fathers because thou art Governed by 'em and Ep. ad Nepot What Aaron and his Sons were that we know the Bishops and the Presbyters are And therefore as Aaron by Divine Right was superiour to his Sons the Priests so is the Bishop above his Presbyters all which are as plain contradictions to that famous passage of his understanding it as the Presbyterians do as one proposition can be to another and whether is a man more to be credited when he speaks without Bias or Partiality or when he speaks in his own cause and under the influence of his own Interest VI. It is further to be considered that the Decree of which S. Ierom here speaks by which the Government of the Church was translated from a Common Council of Presbyters to a single Bishop must according to his own words be Apostolick and consequently much earlier than the Presbyterians will allow it for it was made at that time when it was said among the People I am of Paul and I am of Apollos and I of Cephas and this as S. Paul tells us was said in his time and therefore this Decree must be made in his time and that S. Ierome did mean so we are elsewhere assured from his own words for so in his Book de Eccles. Script he tells us that immediately after the ascension of our Lord S. James was Ordained by the Apostles to be Bishop of Jerusalem Timothy by S. Paul Bishop of Ephesus Titus Bishop of Crete and Polycarp by S. John Bishop of Smyrna So that either he must here expresly contradict himself or else the Decree of which he speaks must have been made immediately after the Ascension of our Lord and consequently be a Decree Apostolick V. It is yet farther to be considered that if any such Decree of changing the Church Government from Presbyterial to Episcopal had been made by the Apostles it is strange we should not find the least mention of it in Scripture and if it had been made after the Apostles about the year 140. it is as strange we should have no mention of it in Ecclesiastick Antiquity for an universal Change of the Government of the Church from one kind to another is a matter of such vast moment that had the Apostles made a Decree concerning it they would doubtless have been very solicitous to publish it through all the Churches and to have transmitted down to Posterity some standing record of it which yet they were so far from doing that they have not given us the least intimation of it in all their Writings And had it been made afterwards about the year 140. to be sure all Primitive Antiquity would have rung of such a publick and important alteration but on the contrary you see both Clemens and Ignatius who lived before that period testifie that the Church was not Governed in their time by a Common Council of Presbyters but by Bishops Hegesyppus Irenaeus and Dionysius of Corinth who lived in that period are so far from taking notice of any such Decree of alteration that they testifie the Government of the Church by an uninterrupted Succession of Bishops even from the Apostles themselves and as for Irenaeus who gives us an account of the Succession of the Roman Bishops from S. Peter down to the time when he himself was at Rome it was as easie for him to know who they were that succeeded from S. Peter as it is for us to know who succeeded from Arch-Bishop Whitgift in the Chair of Canterbury he being no farther distant from the one than we are from the other and though through the Ambiguity or defect of the Records of some Churches this succession be not equally clear in all yet in the most eminent Churches such as Ierusalem Rome Antioch and Alexandria the successions are as clear as any thing in Ecclesiastical History and is it not much more reasonable to conclude what was the Government of those Churches that are not known from what we find was the Government of those that are than to question those Ecclesiastical Records that are preserved because of the uncertainty of those that are not for though we do not find in all Churches an exact Catalogue of all their Bishops yet we cannot produce any one instance in any one ancient Church of any other form of Government than the Episcopal and therefore we may as well question whether ever there was any such thing as an ancient Monarchy in the World because many of the Histories of the Monarchs are defective as to their Names and the Order of their Succession as whether there was ever any such thing as a Primitive Episcopacy in the Church because the Records of several Churches are defective as to the Names and Successions of their Bishops Since therefore this Story of S. Ieroms universal Decree is not only altogether unattested but also directly contradictory to the concurrent Testimony of all Antiquity how can we reasonably look upon it otherwise than as a mere figment of his own fancy especially considering VI. And lastly How odiously this conceit of his reflects upon the Wisdom of our Saviour and his Apostles for the Apostles devolving the Government of the Church upon Common Councils of Presbyters was as he himself tells us the occasion of sundry Schisms and Divisions for the removal of which the Church afterwards found it necessary to dissolve those Presbyteries and introduce Episcopacy in their Room and this S. Ierom approves as a very wise and prudent action for saith he the safety of the Church depends upon the Authority of the High-Priest or Bishop to whom if there were not given by all supreme Authority there would be as many Schisms in the Churches as there are Priests So that according to him had the Church continued under that Government which the Apostles left in it it must unavoidably have been torn in pieces with endless Schisms and Divisions and if so either the Apostles were very imprudent in not foreseeing this or very neglective in not preventing it so that had not the after-age taken care to supply the defect of their Conduct by erecting a wiser-form of Government than they left the Church had infallibly run to ruin This is the unavoidable consequence of S. Ieroms Hypothesis which therefore I can look upon no otherwise than as a mere device of his own brain snatched up in hast to defend his Order against the Insolence of those Factious Deacons that flew in the face of the Presbytery This therefore being removed which is the main and indeed the only considerable Objection against the
which is the good of the Publick Since therefore the Church by Christs own institution is a governed Society of men we must either suppose its Government to be very lame and defective which would be to blaspheme the Wisdom of our Saviour or allow it to have a Legislative Power inherent in it But that de facto it hath such a Power in it is evident from the Practice of the Apostles who as all agree had the Reins of Church Government delivered into their hands by our Saviour for so in Acts 15.6 we are told that upon occasion of that famous Controversie about Circumcision the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter where by the Elders by the consent of all Antiquity is meant the Bishops of Iudea Vid. Dr. Hammond on Acts 11. Note B. And after mature debate and deliberation this is the result of the Council It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burthen than these necessary things ver 28. so that those necessary things specified in the next verse were it seems laid upon them as a burthen i. e. legally imposed on them as matter of duty for herein it is plain the Apostles exercised a Legislative Power over those Christian Communities they wrote to viz. in requiring 'em to abstain from some things which were never prohibited before by any standing Law of Christanity and as the Apostles and Primitive Bishops made Laws by common consent for the Church in general so did they also by their own single authority for particular Churches to which they were more peculiarly related Thus St. Paul after he had prescribed some Rules to the Corinthians for their more decent communication of the Lords Supper tells them that other things he would set in order when he came among them 1 Cor. 11.34 but how could he otherwise do this than by giving them certain Laws and Canons for the better regulation of their Religious Offices so also 1 Cor. 16.1 the same Apostle makes mention of an Order or Canon which he gave to the Churches of Galatia which he enjoyns the Church of Corinth also to observe and in 1 Tim. 5. he gives Timothy several Ecclesiastical Rules to give in charge to his Church ver 7. so also Tit. 1.5 he tells Titus that for this cause he left him in Crete with Apostolick or Episcopal power that he might set in order the things that were wanting i. e. that by wholsom Laws and Constitutions he might redress those disorders and supply those defects which the shortness of S. Pauls stay there would not permit him to provide for By all which instances it is abundantly evident that the Governours of the Church have a Legislative Power inherent in them both to make Laws by common consent for the Regulation of the Church in general and to prescribe the rules of Decency and Order in their own particular Churches For what the Apostles and Primitive Bishops did to be sure they had Authority to do and whatsoever Authority they had they derived it down to their Successors And accordingly we find this Ecclesiastick Legislation was always administred by the Apostles Successors the Bishops who not only gave Laws both to the Clergy and Laity in their own particular Churches but also made Laws for the whole Church by common consent in their holy Councils wherein during the first four general Councils no Ecclesiastick beneath a Bishop was ever allowed a Suffrage unless it were by deputation from his Bishop and though in making Laws for their own Churches they generally conducted themselves by the advice and counsel of their Presbyters and sometimes also admitted them into their debates both in their Provincial and General Councils yet this was only in preparing the matter of their Laws But that which gave them the form of Laws was purely the Episcopal Authority and Suffrage and whatsoever was decreed either by the Bishop in Council with his Presbyters or by the Bishops in Council among themselves was always received by the Churches of Christ as Authentick Law. It is true this Legislative Power of the Church as was shewn before extends not so far as to controul the Decrees of the Civil Sovereign who is next to and immediately under God in all Causes and over all Persons Supreme and is no otherwise accountable by the Laws of Christianity than he was by the Laws of natural Religion and therefore as the Civil Sovereign cannot countermand Gods Laws so neither can the Church the Civil Sovereigns but yet as next to the Laws of God the Laws of the Civil Sovereign are to be obeyed so next to the Laws of the Civil Sovereign the Laws of the Church are to be obeyed II. Another peculiar Ministry of the Bishops and Governours of the Church is to Consecrate and Ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices For that those holy Ministries which Christ himself performed while he was on Earth such as preaching the Gospel administring the Evangelical Sacraments c. might be continued in his Church throughout all Generations he not only himself ordained his twelve Apostles a little before he left the World to perform those Ministries in his absence but in their Ordination transferred on them his own mission from the Father deriving upon them the same authority to ordain others that he had to ordain them that so they might derive their Mission to others as he did his to them through all succeeding Generations for this is necessarily implied in the Commission he gave them Iohn 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so send I you that is I do not only send you with full authority to act for me in all things as my Father sent me to act for him but I also send you with the same authority to send others that I now exercise in sending you for unless this be implied in their Mission he did not send them as his Father sent him unless he gave them the same authority to propagate their Mission to others that his Father gave him to propagate his Mission to them how could he say that he sent them as his Father sent him since he must have sent them without that very authority from his Father which he then exercised in sending them Now the Persons whom he sent were the Eleven Apostles as you will see by comparing this of S. Iohn with Luke 24.33.36 Mar. 16.14 Mat. 28.16 in all which places we are expresly told that it was the Eleven he appeared to when he gave this Commission and consequently it must be the Eleven to whom he gave it This Commission therefore of sending others being originally transferred by our Saviour upon the Apostolick Order no others could have right to transfer it to others but only such as were admitted of that Order none could give it to others but only those to whom Christ gave it and therefore since Christ himself gave it to none but Apostles none but Apostles could derive it and accordingly we
word of my Patience I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the World to try them that dwell upon the Earth Rev. 3.10 By which it is plain that the power of protecting and defending his Subjects is inherent in Christ as an essential part of his Regal Authority and this power he continually exercises now he is is heaven for it was for this end among others that he promises to be with his Church to the end of the World Mat. 28.20 namely to guard and defend it by his Providence against the outragious attempts of its numerous enemies For it is for this end that the Father hath put all things in subjection under him and that he hath left nothing that is not put under him Heb. 2.7 8. that so having the Universal Government of all things in his hand he might by his over-ruling Providence render them all subservient to the interest of his Church For so Eph. 1.21 we are assured that the Father hath put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to his Church i. e. hath vested him with an universal power over all things that so he might order and direct them all to the interest and advantage of his Church And accordingly now he is in heaven the defence and preservation of his Church is the great business which he intends upon earth there he now sits looking down from his Throne with a watchful eye to observe all the motions and trace out all the dark designs of her enemies and from thence he stretches forth his Almighty hand to guard and defend her against them to repel or over-rule their malice to drive back their venemous Darts upon themselves or to temper their Poyson into Physick and extract a healing Balm out of the Stings of those Scorpions In which how careful and diligent he hath been is abundantly manifest from the glorious success for considering the vast opposition that hath been made against it even from its infancy how is it possible it could ever have subsisted had it not been guarded by an invisible hand No sooner did this light upon a Hill appear in the World but all the four Winds immediately conspired to blow it out yet which is miraculous to consider still the harder they blew the brighter it flamed and though for the first 300 years it was the main and almost constant exercise of the Power and Policy the Wit and Cruelty both of Devils and Men to suppress and ruine it yet still it thrived and encreased under the most powerful means of its extirpation It conquered by suffering gathered strength by bleeding and like a head-strong Floud still the more it was checked the more it swelled and over-flowed till at length it filled the Earth as the Waters cover the Sea. Which if well considered is an amazing instance of the vigilant and powerful Providence of our Saviour which hath not only preserved this burning Bush from consuming but made it spring and flourish in the flames And though since those Primitive Persecutions he hath many times for wise and gracious ends let loose the Wolves upon his Flock and permitted them to worry and sometimes almost to devour it yet still he hath kept a strict and steady Reign upon their Power and Malice and when they have served his ends hath check'd and stop'd them in their savage career and when they have thought the trembling Prey their own hath stretched out his own Almighty Arm and snatched it from their devouring jaws So that while they are clubbing all their Power and Policy against it he that sits in the Heavens laughs them to scorn the Lord hath them in derision and doth contemn their impotent malice which he can manage as he pleases he can either prevent the mischievous effects of it or cause them to recoile upon themselves or make those very persecutions with which they design to destroy his Church the means of its enlargement and propagation and what in his own infallible Wisdom he thinks best that he hath always done and will always do for his Church and People For many a time have they afflicted me from my youth may Israel or the Church of Christ now say many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me the Plowers have plowed upon my back they have made long furrows but the Lord is righteous he hath cut asunder the Cords of the wicked and in his own due time will confound and turn back those that hate Sion And as he exerciseth a most vigilant Providence over his Church in general so doth he also over all the faithful and obedient Subjects of it whose interest is as dear and precious to him as his own bloud for they are not only the purchase of his bloud but also the Trophies and Conquests of his Spirit which makes them his by a double Propriety and more peculiarly entitles them to his care and protection they are living Members of his own Body and as such he feels their pains by a most tender sympathy and therefore his Providence is as much concerned for their defence as his Eye-lid is to defend the Apple of his own Eye Zech. 2.8 and therefore though he exercises a merciful Providence over all men yet these he incloses out of the Common of the World and fences about with a peculiar care These are his Iewels and he keeps them in his Treasury under the strongest and most inviolable security He is always watching over them for good and it is his peculiar and continual concern to protect and defend them to keep off Temptation from their Souls and Calamities from their Bodies and so to over-rule and direct the course of things as that whatever befals them may concenter in their happiness For though he many times corrects them with his own hand and permits them to be oppressed and afflicted by others yet still he doth it with a most gracious intention either to cure or prevent some disease in their minds or to excite and exercise their graces or to wean them from the love of this vain World and discipline them for a blessed Eternity and whatsoever evils happen to them in the course of his Providence still he takes care to extract good out of them and so to contrive and order the whole Scene of Affairs as that in the issue all things may still work together for good to them that love God and are called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 IV. And lastly Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and doth always continue to perform in his blessing and rewarding all his faithful Subjects in the Life to come for this as he himself declares he hath power to do so Rev. 2.7 To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. I will admit him in a
participation of the blessed immortality of Heaven so also Rev. 3.21 To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my Throne even as I have overcome and am sate down with my Father on his Throne And he promises the Bishop of the Church of Smyrna in particular Be thou faithful to the death and I will give thee a crown of life Rev. 2.10 In all which places he expresly declares his Royal Authority to reward his faithful Subjects when they leave this World with the joys and felicities of the World to come and this Authority he is continually exercising in his heavenly Kingdom For when ever any faithful and obedient Souls depart from their bodies he presently sends forth his Angelick Messengers to conduct them safe to the immortal Regions and there to lodge them in some one of those blissful Mansions in his Fathers House which he went before to prepare for them where free from all the disturbances of flesh and blood and of a vexatious and tumultuous World they live in continued ease content and joy wrapt up with the ever-growing delights of contemplating loving and imitating God and of the most wise and amicable Society and Communication with each other in the enjoyment of an endless bliss and pleasure for so we are assured from Scripture that the happiness of the righteous doth commence from the moment of their departure hence So Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them and with St. Paul it was the same thing to depart from hence and to be with Christ Phil. 1.23 which necessarily implies that upon his departure he expected to be immediately with Christ and elsewhere he teaches that to be at home in the body was to be absent from the Lord and to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.6 8. neither of which can be true if the Souls of good men go not to Heaven immediately when they go from hence but that they do so is as plain as words can express it in that promise of our Saviour to the Penitent Thief Verily verily I say unto thee this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luke 23.43 From whence it evidently follows that even in the very Article of a true Penitents death Heavens joys do attend his departing Soul to receive it immediately when it is dislodged from the body Thus in the very moment of its departure hence the Pious Soul is transported to those blessed abodes beyond the Stars which are the proper seat and pure Element of Happiness where the blessed inhabitants live in a continued fruition of their utmost wishes being every moment entertained with fresh and enravishing Scenes of pleasure where all their happiness is eternal and all their eternity nothing else but only one continued Act of Love and Praise and Ioy and Triumph where there are no sighs or tears no intermixtures of sorrow or misery but every heart is full of joy and every joy is Quintessence and every happy moment is crowned with some fresh and new enjoyment But of this blessed state I have given an account at large Part. 1. Chap. 1. and 3. And this is that blessed reward with which our Saviour crowns his faithful Subjects immediately upon their departure hence so that he doth not permit them to lie sleeping in the dust unrewarded till the end of the World but as soon as they have finished their work upon Earth admits them to the joy of their Master to all the felicities that their separated spirits are capable of in those several degrees and measures of perfection which they there arrive to in which happy state they remain during their separation from the body expecting the farther completion of their happiness in a glorious Resurrection by which their Bodies and Souls being reunited their whole Humane Nature shall be filled with bliss to the utmost stretch of its Capacity And now having shewn what those Regal Acts are which Christ hath always performed and doth always continue to perform I proceed in the III. And last place To shew what those Regal Acts are which are yet to be performed by him before he surrenders up his Kingdom and these are reducible to three Heads First He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by the Conquest of its enemies Secondly He is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection Thirdly He is yet to judge the World. I. He is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of its Enemies For if we consult the ancient Prophesies concerning the vast extent of our Saviours Kingdom we shall find that there are a great many of them which as yet were never accomplished So Psal. 2.8 9. Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron thou shalt dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel whereas hitherto it is certain Christ was never possessed of the uttermost parts of the earth nor did he ever yet break his incorrigible opposers with a Rod of Iron or dash them in pieces like a Potters Vessel so also Dan. 7.4 it is foretold of Christ that there should be given him Dominion and Glory and Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him and that all Dominionâ— should serve and obey him ibid. ver 27. so also Dan 2.34 35 44 45. that the stone cut out without hands by which all agree is meant the Kingdom of Christ should become a great Mountain and fill the whole earth and that it should break in pieces and consume all those other Kingdoms Thus also it is foretold that the Lord should be King over all the Earth Mich. 5.4 and that there should be but one Lord and his name one Zech. 14.9 and that he should have Dominion from Sea to Sea and from the Rivâ—r to the 〈◊〉 of the Earth Psal. 72.8 and that all Kings should fall down before him and all Nations serve him ibid. ver 11. and that all the ends of the earth should remember and turn to the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations worship before him because the Kingdom shall be the Lords and he shall govern among the Nations These and sundry other such like Prophesies there are which as yet it is certain were never accomplished according to the full import and intent of them Wherefore we may certainly conclude that there is a time yet to come before the consummation of all things wherein our Saviour will yet once more display the victorious Banner of his Cross and like a mighty man of War march on conquering and to conquer till he hath confounded or converted his Enemies and finally consummated his victories in a glorious Triumph over all the Powers
of the Earth For the Scripture not only foretels this universal conquest of his but also describes and delineates the whole method and progress of it which upon laying the Scripture Prophesies together in their proper Train and Series seems to me to be this that the opening of this great Scene of Providence will be the conversion of the Iewish Nation those obstinate and hitherto implacable Enemies of our Saviour whom notwithstanding they have been a thousand times over conquered slaughtered and oppressed and do to this day continue scattered over the face of the whole Earth he hath preserved by a strange and unparalleled Providence for above sixteen hundred years together a distinct and separate people from all the Nations of the Earth to shew his mighty power in them and once more render them what they have always been the Subjects of his miraculous conduct For by a wonderful effusion of his Holy Spirit upon them such as that was on the day of Pentecost though far more extensive he will all of a sudden and in a most surprizing manner open the eyes of this blinded Nation and powerfully convince them of the error and wickedness of their infidelity and malice against him whereupon with one heart and one mind they shall return to the Lord and with penitent tears wash off the guilt of the blood of their Saviour which like an Heir-loom hath hitherto descended upon them from one Generation to another for thus Rom. 11.25 26. I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is hapned to Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer c. From whence it is plain that that blindness which then hapned to Israel and which continues on them to this day shall one day be removed viz. about that time when the Conversion of the Gentiles shall be compleated and that then all Israel and not a small remnant of them as at first shall be saved so also 2 Cor. 3.14 16. But their minds are blinded meaning the People of Israel for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord the vail shall be taken away where he first supposes that Israel that till then was blinded and that till now remains so should turn unto the Lord and then asserts that then the vail of ignorance which hindered 'em from discerning Christ in the Figures and Prophesies of the Old Testament should be removed from before their eyes And now the Jews being thus converted by the power of our Saviour shall under his victorious Banners be conducted into the Holy Land and repossessed of their ancient native Country whither they shall be close pursued with mighty Hosts of the Eastern Infidels and be reduced by them into imminent danger of utter desolation in which extremity of theirs our blessed Saviour will make bare his Almighty Arm and in a most miraculous manner confound and scatter those mighty swarms of Infidels and crown his Israel with Victory and Triumph The fame of which miraculous events spreading far and wide even to the utmost ends of the Earth shall in a little time convince all the Heathen World of the truth of Christianity and prevail with the Kingdoms of the earth to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ And now the Kingdom of Christ in this World being arrived to its full extent and growth Truth and Peace Charity and Justice shall reign and flourish over all the Earth Now all the World shall be Christendom and Christendom shall be restored to its ancient Purity For now he who is to come with the Fan in his hand will throughly purge the Floor of his Church from all that Chaff of Superstition and Idolatry Schism and Heresie Irreligion and Immorality with which it is almost totally covered and the true Faith the sincere Piety the generous and unaffected Vertue which Christianity teaches and prescribes shall be the universal livery and cognisance of the Christian World For much about the time of this Conversion of the Iews and that glorious Call of the Gentiles thence ensuing that corrupt and degenerate Faction of Christians whom the Scripture calls the mystical Babylon and the Antichrist and which for several Ages hath been the great Nuisance of Christendom will in these Western parts of the World muster up all its Forces to destroy and extirpate the purer Professors of Christianity by a general persecution in which attempt for some time this Faction will be very prevalent and successful when all of a sudden the Kings and Princes of the Earth who have thitherto been partakers with it in its foul Impostures and corruptions being either awakened by those miraculous Conversions of the Jews and Eastern Gentiles or convinced of their errors by the powerful impressions of his Spirit in whose hands the hearts of Kings are will turn their Swords upon this Antichristian Faction whose Cause they have hitherto espoused and conspire to root it out from off the face of the Earth which being effected the Western Church will universally reform it self according to the Standard of the Church of Ierusalem which will then be in a literal sense the Mother of us all Thus partly by destroying and partly by converting its Enemies our Saviour will yet mightily enlarge the borders of his Kingdom and advance it to the utmost pitch of purity and splendour that this state of mortality will admit and in this happy state he will preserve and continue it for several Ages till a little before the commencement of the General Iudgment at which time the Devil who had been hitherto chained up will be loosed again to work in the Children of disobedience to excite them to delude and deceive the World again and to persecute the sincere Professors of Christianity with incessant cruelties when all of a sudden and while they are securely triumphing in the success of their Villanies they shall be surprized with the Day of Judgment which like a Thief in the night shall come upon them and put an end to all their mischiefs for ever II. Another of those Regal Acts which he is yet to perform is to destroy Death the last Enemy by causing a general Resurrection of the Dead which being one of the great Articles of our Creed I shall insist more largely upon it and endeavour First To prove the certainty of the Fact and Secondly To explain the manner how it will be performed I. I shall endeavour to prove the certainty of the Fact viz. that our Saviour shall raise the dead which is as plainly and frequently asserted in holy Scripture as any Proposition contained in it for so 2 Cor. 4.14 we are assured that God will
Lye i. e. a known and wilful falsehood because it depended as I shall shew by and by upon matters of fact which he could not but know whether they were true or false So that if these facts were false he was a wilful Deceiver in affirming them and building his Doctrines upon them But how could he be reasonably suspected of lying whose whole life was such an illustrious example of goodness and unspotted integrity of manners For it is to serve either their Covetousness or Ambition their Envy or their Revenge that men turn wilful Deceivers none of which Vices nor so much as the least appearance of them are visible in the life of Iesus but their contraries continually shone through the whole course of his Actions and if none of those Vices ever appeared in him that could any way tempt him to lye and deceive it is not only unjust but unreasonable to suspect him Thus by the sanctity of his life he not only instructed men in his Father's Will but also confirmed them in the belief of it IV. As a Prophet also he sealed his Doctrine with his bloud which is the highest pledge that any Mortal can give of his truth and integrity While he was preaching his Doctrine to the World he foresaw all along that he must either recant it or die for it and therefore it is not imaginable that he would have proceeded to divulge it had he not believed it to be true For what man in his wits would ever publish a lye to the world when he knows beforehand he must either recant it with shame or assert and maintain it with his bloud But such was the nature of his Doctrine that he could not believe it to be true unless it were so because the truth or falsehood of it depended upon matters of fact wherein he could not be deceived namely that he was the Son of God that he came down from him and had dwelt with him in unspeakable glory and happiness from the foundations of the world Iohn 17.5 upon the truth of which facts depended the Authority of his whole Doctrine but whether these were true or false he could not be ignorant if he were in his wits which no body can doubt that considers the exactness of his Conversation and the wisdom and dependence of his Doctrine Now if he were first in Heaven and was sent down from thence to preach to the World there is no doubt to be made of the truth of his Doctrine and whether he were or no he could not be ignorant if he were not there he not only died with a wilful lye in his mouth which is not reasonably imaginable of a person of his unspotted Piety and Vertue but he also published it to the World in his life notwithstanding he knew it to be a lye and foresaw he must either dye for it or shamefully recant it which is not imaginable of a person of his wisdom and soundness of mind So that considering that he could not but certainly know whether his Doctrine were true or false his sealing it with his bloud is an unanswerable attestation of the truth of it and accordingly his bloud is made a great Testimony of the truth of his Gospel 1 Iohn 5.8 and S. Paul tells us that he witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate 1 Tim. 6.13 that is in affirming before Pilate that he was the Son of God and King of the Iews even when he certainly foresaw that he should forfeit his life by it he took it upon his death that he had preached nothing but the truth to the world V. As a Prophet he also instituted an Order of men to publish and declare his Doctrine to the World. Whilst the gift of Prophecy continued in the Iewish Church there were certain Schools called the Schools of the Prophets in which men were trained up under some great and eminent Prophets who were the Masters of those Schools in the knowledge of divine things and the practice of Piety and Vertue that so being educated in wisdom and goodness they might be the better disposed and qualified to receive the Prophetick influx and deliver God's Messages to the people For out of these schools God ordinarily called those persons whom he imployed and sent forth to prophesie to their Kings and People and accordingly our Saviour when he began to revive the spirit of Prophecy in his own Person which from Malachi till then which was for the space of four hundred years had been utterly extinct immediately erected a School of Prophets consisting of his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples to whom as it seems he afterwards added thirty eight more Vide Acts 1.15 over whom he himself presided as the great Master Prophet in order to the instructing their minds in all divine wisdom and forming their manners by the strictest rules of Piety and Vertue that so when ever occasion required they might be duly qualified to Prophesie to the World. And accordingly as those ancient Masters of the Prophetick Schools had ordinarily their Scholars personally attending on them and upon emergent occasions did frequently send them forth as their Ministers upon Prophetick Messages Vid. 2 Kings 9.1 and 1 Kings 20 35. so our blessed Saviour kept his in ordinary attendance about him that so they might hear his Doctrine and see his Miracles and observe his Conversation and upon particular occasions he sent them forth as his Ministring Disciples to Prophesie in his name Vid. Luke 10.1 And out of this Prophetick School of our Saviour the Primitive Prophets of our Religion were called and sent forth to preach the Gospel through the World. For that his Gospel might be taught through all succeeding Ages to the end of the World he first erected this sacred School and when he was to leave it he deposited a standing Commission in the hands of his twelve Apostles whom he ordained to preside in it in his room by which he impowered them not only to ordain and send forth the present Disciples of it viz. the Presbyters and Deacons to teach his Gospel to all Nations but also to derive down the same authority to their Successors through all Generations to come For as the Father hath sent me saith he so send I you Iohn 20.21 and as he sent them so they still sent others and so in an uninterrupted line of Succession hath this Commission been handed and derived from one Generation to another the Bishops who next succeeded the Apostles in presiding over the Sacred School not only still ordaining other Bishops to succeed them but also still admitting other Presbyters and Deacons who are as the Disciples of that School to Minister under them in the propagation of the Gospel Thus Christ as the Great Prophet of the Church hath erected a standing Prophetick School or Order of men authoritatively to teach and declare his Gospel to all succeeding Ages of the World. VI. And lastly As he was a Prophet also he sent his
Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain to his Disciples the Doctrine he had taught them and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles For as Elias the Great Prophet of Israel when he was snatched up into Heaven let drop his Mantle and with that derived that holy Spirit on his Disciple Elisha by which he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles so Iesus the Great Prophet of the World when he ascended into Heaven derived that divine Spirit upon his Apostles and Disciples by which he himself Prophesied and confirmed his Prophecies by miraculous Evidences while he was upon Earth Vid. supra p. 66 67 c. For in all likelihood the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost not only on the Apostles but also upon all the rest of the hundred and twenty Disciples of whom we read in Acts 1.15 For of these consisted the Prophetick School of our Saviour who in all probability separated them while he was yet upon Earth from the rest of his Followers to be the Heralds and Preachers of his Gospel to the World and if so we may reasonably conclude that the Holy Ghost fell on them all as well as on the Apostles to qualifie them for that work which together with the Apostles they had been fore-ordained to Indeed as the Apostles were placed in a higher station than any of the rest as being authorized by Christ to superintend and preside over them so they received a peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost in which none of the rest communicated with them and that was conferring by imposition of hands the Holy Ghost upon others For so in Acts 8. we find that when Philip had converted the People of Samaria he could not confer the Holy Ghost on them but Peter and Iohn are sent thither for that purpose who laid their hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost verse 17. Now by thus deriving his Holy Spirit on his Apostles and Disciples the blessed Iesus still proceeded by them to Prophesie to the World till through their Ministry he had fully consummated his Prophetick Office and revealed and explained the whole Doctrine of the Gospel For till such time as the whole New Testament was compleated his Ministers generally preached by the immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost who as I have shewn at large p. 67 c. not only recollected to their memories those Doctrines which Christ himself had taught them but also explained them fully to their minds and thereby enabled them to explain them fully to the World and when this was once finished and the whole Doctrine of the Gospel committed to Writing and collected into a Volume the Spirit of Prophecy was withdrawn from the Ministers of Christianity who were from thenceforth obliged to supply the want of it by their own study and industry For now the Gospel being fully revealed there needed no farther Revelation and for the Holy Spirit to reveal over again to mens minds what he had plainly enough revealed already and set before their eyes would have been but actum agere to multiply actions to no purpose Whilst the Gospel lay hid in the Eternal Counsel of God out of the reach and prospect of humane understandings it was necessary that the Holy Ghost should immediately reveal it to the minds of those who were to declare it to the World otherwise it is impossible it should ever have been known to Mankind but when once he had fully revealed it to them and declared it by them and transmitted their declaration by a standing Scripture to all succeeding Generations to what end should he still proceed to make new Revelations of it unless it were to gratifie mens sloth and idleness and excuse them from the trouble of searching and studying that Scripture in which he had taken care to transmit his Gospel to them But though that blessed Spirit hath never been wanting to Mankind in any necessary assistance yet when once he hath put things within our own power he always expects that we should do them and not sit still with our hands in our Pockets expecting that he should do them for us Since therefore by transmitting to us the Scripture he hath put it within the power of its Ministers to understand and teach the Gospel he expects that they should exercise that power in a diligent study of those things which lead to the true understanding of Religion and not depend upon new Revelations for the understanding of that which he hath already sufficiently revealed to them For thus till the whole Old Testament was finished God continued the Spirit of Prophecy in the Iewish Church after which he immediately withdrew it and wholly remitted his People to the conduct of the Priests and Levites who in their forty eight Cities which were so many Vniversities for their education in divine Learning diligently read and studied the Law and thereby accomplished themselves to preach and explain it to the People And in like manner God continued the same Spirit of Prophecy in the Christian Church till the whole New Testament was revealed and written and Copies of it dispersed through all the Churches and from thenceforth the Spirit of Prophecy ceased and in the room of its first inspired Ministers there succeeded an ordinary standing Ministry who by their Learning and Industry and diligent search of Scripture were to supply the defect of immediate Revelation and to qualifie themselves to teach and instruct the several Flocks that were committed to their Charge In short therefore the Spirit of Prophecy remained upon the Ministers of Christ till such time as it had fully revealed and clearly explained the Gospel to them and when this was done and they had transmitted its Revelations to writing there could be no farther need of it unless it be supposed either that he had not sufficiently revealed the Gospel to them or that he hath some new Gospel to reveal And thus you see what it is that our Saviour hath done in the discharge of his Prophetick Office. And considering all I know not what farther he could have added to compleat and perfect it and to render his Prophecy effectual to teach and instruct the World. So that if after all these mighty performances we still remain in darkness and ignorance the blame of it wholly redounds upon our selves for he hath in all respects abundantly performed his part towards the enlightening of the World and chalked out to us the way to our happiness with such plain and visible lines that if we are but willing to walk in it we cannot mistake or wander from it but if we will be so supine and negligent as to concern our selves no more about it than if it were only a Fanciful description of the Road to Vtopia or the High-way to the World in the Moon it is impossible we should be throughly acquainted with it how plainly soever it is described It is true there are some Doctrines in
his continual intercession in Heaven Royal Authority to dispense that Promise to us doth by vertue of that Authority actually pardon us upon our actual repentance So that as soon as ever we perform the condition of Gods grant of pardon our Saviour who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts and perfectly discerns our sincerity immediately pronounces our sentence of pardon and by a particular application of that general grant to us absolves us from our obligation to eternal punishment and freely receives us into Grace and Favour For though the completion and publication of our pardon is reserved for the day of judgment when we shall be absolved from all punishment i. e. not only of eternal misery but also of corporal death and temporal sufferings in the publick view and audience of the World yet it is certain that every penitent Believer in Jesus is actually pardoned by him in Heaven as soon as ever he believes and repents that is he is in foro Christi and before the Tribunal of his Royal Judgment Absolved from the obligation to suffer eternal misery which he lay under during his state of impenitence and Christ in his own mind judgment and estimation hath Judicially thus pronounced concerning him By vertue of my Fathers grant to all penitent offenders and of that Royal Authority which he hath committed to me I freely release thee from all that vast debt of everlasting punishment which thou hast too justly incurr'd by sinning against him Thus as the Father forgives us vertually by that publick grant of mercy which for Christs sake he hath made to all penitent offenders so the Son forgives us actually by that Royal Authority which the Father hath given him to make a particular application of that his general grant to us upon our actual repentance and as it is by the Fathers grant that the Son pardons us so it is by the Sons application of it that the Father pardons us and therefore we are said in or by Christ to have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Col. 1.14 i. e. to be forgiven for the sake of his blood in consideration whereof God the Father hath given him power to forgive us for so he himself tells us that all power in Heaven and Earth was given him Matth. 28.18 and there is no doubt but in all power the power of forgiving sins was included for so S. Peter tells us that through his Name i. e. by his Authority or judicial sentence Whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 10.43 And thus you see what the first Regal act is which our Saviour hath always performed and will always continue to perform viz. forgiving of sins II. Another of his Regal acts of this kind is punishing obstinate offenders For as he mediates for his Father in ruling and governing us he must be the Minister of his Fathers providence and being so whatsoever divine punishments are inflicted upon offenders are to be look'd upon as the stroaks of his hand and the Ministries of his power for he hath the Keys of Death and Hell i. e. the power of punishing both here and hereafter Rev. 1.18 and accordingly he threatens the corrupt Churches of Asia that he would remove their Candlestick and that he would fight against them with the sword of his mouth that he would come upon them as a Thief and that he would spew them out of his mouth Rev. 2.5.3.16 and Chap. 3. Vers. 16. all which is a sufficient proof that the punishment of offenders both here and hereafter is committed to him as a branch of that Royal Authority with which he is invested by the Father in the execution of which Commission he many times Chastens bad men in this life in order to their reformation and amendment for as many as I love saith he i. e. wish well to I rebuke and chasten Heb. 3.19 and many times he persecutes them with exterminating judgments thereby hanging them up in Chains as it were as publick examples of his vengeance to warn and deter the World from treading in their impious footsteps For so he threatens Iezebel and her followers I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not behold I will cast her into a bed i. e. into a Bed-rid and irrevocable condition and them that commit Adultery with her into great tribulation and I will kill her Children with death and all the Church shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and heart and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Rev. 2.21 22 23. And though for wise and gracious ends he oftentimes spares bad men in this life and sometimes shines upon them a continued day of prosperity without any cloud or interruption yet he always overtakes them with the fearful storms of his vengeance in the life to come For no sooner do their souls depart from their bodies but they are immediately consigned by his warrant into the hands of evil Angels those skilful spiteful and powerful executioners of his justice under whose savage Tyranny they indure all the tortures and Agonies that the wrath and power of Devils together with their own awakened consciences and furious and unsatisfied affections are able to inflict Of which see Part 1. Ch. 3. For that the souls of bad men are transmitted into a state of wretchedness and misery immediately upon their separation from their bodies is evident from the Parable of Dives and Lazarus wherein in the first place Dives immediately after his death is said to be in great torment in Hell and this while his body lay buried in the grave Luk 16.22 23. which is a plain argument that in all that interval between death and the resurrection of the body the souls of bad men abide in a state of torment for secondly this torment of Dives's soul in hell was then when his Brethren were living upon earth and under the teaching of Moses and the Prophets ver 27. and 28 29 30 31. which shews that our Saviour supposes it to be at that very time when he delivered this Parable and consequently he supposes all bad men who were then dead and whose condition he represents by that of Dives to be then in Hell and there suffering unspeakable Agonies and Torments and if so then it 's plain that when ever impenitent souls leave their bodies they are carried by Devils into some dismal abode and there kept under a perpetual discipline of torment and in this deplorable state they remain expecting that fearful day of accounts when their condition through their reunion to their bodies and that dread bodily Torment they must then be condemned to will be rendered yet far more intolerable III. Another of those Regal Acts which our Saviour hath always and always will continue to perform is his protecting and defending his Kingdom in this World. For thus he promises his faithful Church of Philadelphia Because thou hast kept the
beams of Majesty and its face displaying a most beautiful lustre and its whole substance shedding forth from every part a dazling glory round about it and this I conceive is that which he himself calls his own glory Luke 9.26 When he i. e. the Son of man shall come in his own glory that is the glory of that illustrious heavenly Body wherein he is now arrayed besides which bright and luminous Robe in which like a meridian Sun he shall visibly shine over all the World the aforecited Text tells us that he shall also come in the glory of his Father by which I conceive is meant that which the Hebrews call the Shechinah and the Scripture the glory of the Lord viz. a body of bright shining fire in which the Lord was especially present and with which as the Psalmist expresseth it he covered himself as with a Garment Psalm 104.2 for in 2 Thess. 1.8 we are told that he shall be revealed from heaven with flaming fire and so he descended on the Mount in fire Exod. 19.18 and that fire is called the Glory of the Lord Exod. 24.17 That fire therefore in which our Saviour shall be revealed from Heaven seems to be of the same nature with that fiery Shechinah or visible glory of the Lord in which he descended on Mount Sinai though doubtless it will be far more glorious as being designed to adorn a far more glorious solemnity And this Glory being added to the natural brightness and splendor of his glorified Body will cause him to outshine the Sun and drown all the lights of heaven in the conquering brightness of his appearance So that when he comes forth from his aetherial Palace and appears upon the Eastern heaven that immense Sphere of visible glory which will then surround him will in the twinkling of an eye spread and diffuse it self over all the Creation and cause both the Heavens and the Earth to glitter like a flaming fire III. Thirdly We will consider the Carriage on which he is to come which as the Scripture tells us shall be a Cloud so Acts 1.11 the Angels tell his Disciples who stood gazing after him as he was ascending into Heaven the same Iesus which is taken from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven Now if you would know how that was the 9th Verse will inform you where it 's said that he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of sight and therefore as he ascended into Heaven on a Cloud so in like manner he shall from thence descend upon a Cloud also and accordingly our Saviour himself declares that we shall see the Son of man coming on the Clouds of Heaven in power and great glory Mat. 24.30 So also Mat. 26.64 Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven and in this very manner do the Iews expect the coming of their Messias as appears by that gloss of one of their ancient Masters on Dan. 7.10 si meruerint Iudaei veniet in nubibus Coeli which Raimund Pug. fid thus explains If ever the Jews deserve that the Messias should come he shall come gloriously according to the Prophet Daniel that is in the Clouds of Heaven And then he tells us farther ideo moderni Iudaei dicunt Messiam non venisse quia non viderunt eum venire in nubibus coeli therefore do the modern Jews say that the Messias is not yet come because they never saw him coming in the clouds of Heaven and it seems very probable that the great offence which the high Priest took at our Saviours saying that they should hereafter see him coming in the clouds of Heaven Mat. 26.64 65. was this that it was a tradition among them that the Messias should so come and that therefore he look'd upon that saying of our Saviour as a blasphemous pretence to his being the Messias as much as if he should have said though I have done enough already to convince you that I am the Messias yet you shall hereafter see that very sign of my being the Messias upon which you so much depend and without which you will not believe viz. my coming in the clouds of Heaven which therefore I am apt to think is the sign of the Son of man in Heaven of which our Saviour speaks Mat. 24.30 For so not only the Iews do Character their Messias but also the Heathen their Gods cloathed in a Cloud Thus Homer Iliad lib. 5. represents God coming to Diomedes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with his shoulders wrap'd in a Cloud and so also Virgil represents Iupiter coming to assist Aeneas Aen. 7 Radiis ardentem lucis auro ipse manu quatiens ostendit ab aethere nubem i. e. shewing him a Cloud from Heaven flaming with rays of light and Gold. So that to appear in Clouds it seems was looked upon both by Iews and Gentiles as a divine sign and Character and accordingly this sign was given by our Saviour to the Iews in that glorious representation of a Captain with his Legions issuing out of the Clouds a little before the destruction of Ierusalem recorded at large both in Iosephus and Tacitus and will hereafter be given to the whole World in a far more glorious manner at the opening of the day of Iudgment for then as the Psalmist expresses it he will make the Clouds his Chariots and ride down from the Heavens on them in a triumphal procession shining with unspeakable Glory and Majesty So that as when he ascended a bright and Radiant Cloud was prepared to receive and carry him up to the Seat of the blessed so when he descends there will be a vast sheet of condensed aethâ—r in the form of a radiant Cloud and such it 's probable was that on which he ascended prepared to receive him and to waft him down from above to the place appointed for the general Asâ—izes and this very Cloud or bright aetherial substance on which he shall come will perhaps be that Throne of Glory in Matth. 25.31 on which he shall sit whilest he is administring judgment to the World for this substance being not only naturally luminous but also accidentally illuminated from the Sun of Righteousness whom it bears will to be sure be sufficiently Glorious to deserve the name of A Throne of Glory IV. Fourthly We will consider the Retinue and Equipage with which he shall come which as the Scripture tells us will consist of innumerable myriads of Saints and Angels for immediately upon the notice that he is going down to solemnize the general Judgment all those blessed spirits of just men made perfect whom he hath redeemed and glorified from the beginning of the World shall forsake their mansions of glory to attend him in his progress for so Enoch prophesied of old behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment on the ungodly Jude
14.15 and that by these ten Thousand he means the whole body of the Church Triumphant is evident by that passage of S. Paul 1 Thess. 3.13 where he prays that they might be established in their Christian course till the coming of the Lord Iesus with all his Saints and indeed since they are all to re-assume their bodies and to be made partakers of the Glorious Resurrection it 's necessary that they should all come down along with him and return to this earth where the old matter of those bodies lies wherein they are to be reinvested and to this illustrious retinue of glorified Saints shall be joyned the heavenly hosts of the holy Angels for so Christ himself tells us that he shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and that he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him Mat. 25.31 And S. Paul tells us that he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess. 1.2 And as the Angels shall come down along with him so in all probability they shall come in a glorious appearance cloathed in bright aetherial bodies in which to adorn the triumphs of that glorious day they shall be conspicuous to all the Inhabitants of the Earth Neither shall their coming with him be only for shew and pomp but the Scripture plainly tells us that they shall minister to him in that great transaction For at his issuing forth from the heaven of heavens these mighty hosts of Angels shall march before him with the Archangel in the head of them who with a mighty voice or sound like that of a Trumpet shall send forth an awakening summons to all the Inhabitants of the grave to come forth and appear before the Judgment Seat at which Tremendous voice which with an all-enlivening power shall be reverberated through all the vault of heaven and penetrate the most secret repositories of the Earth the dead shall rise and the living shall be changed and transfigured and all shall be set before the dread Tribunal to undergo their Trial and receive their doom For so 1 Thess. 4.16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and in 1 Cor. 15.52 the resurrection of the dead is made the consequence of the sounding this Trumpet for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And so also Mat. 24.31 our Saviour tells us that at his coming on the clouds of Heaven he will send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from whence it is evident that the Angels then minister to him to raising the dead and assembling them to Judgment and hence that which is called the voice of the Archangel in the above cited 1 Thess. 4.10 is elsewhere called the voice of the Son of God John 5.25 because as it will be animated by his power so it will be pronounced by his authority and as they shall minister to him in raising the dead to be judged so shall they also in executing his Sentence and Judgment for so Mat. 13.41 42. He tells us the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth From whence it 's evident that when he hath pronounced sentence on the workers of iniquity he will by the ministry of his Angels chase them into that everlasting fire whereunto he hath doomed and devoted them Thus when he comes to judg the World all his holy Angels shall come with him and that not only to contribute to the glory and splendor of his Circuit but also to minister to him in his Judgment so that his retinue shall consist of all the Inhabitants of heaven who shall all come forth together with him and bear him company in this his Triumphant progress through the skies by which we may easily imagine what an amazing spectacle his coming down from heaven will be to the Inhabitants of the earth when they shall see him descend from his Imperial Seat far above the starry Skies with all the Train-bands of heaven about him the Captain of the Angelical Host in the front of innumerable Angels marching before him and with his mighty Trump ringing a peal of Thunder through the Universe and with ten thousand thousands of the Spirits of just men made perfect following after him with Crowns of glory on their heads and Songs and Halelujahs in their moâ—ths O blessed Jesuâ— how will this glorious and dreadful sight confound thy Enemies and ravish thy Friends make those that hate thee tremble and gnash their teeth and those that love thee lift up their heads and shout for joy V. And lastly We will consider the place to which he is to come concerning which all that is certain from Scripture is this that when he comes down from Heâ—ven he will fix his Throne or Judgment Seat in the Air at such a convenient distance from the Earth as shall render him visible to all its Inhabitants For so 1 Thess. 4.17 it is said of the righteous that after their being raised or changed they shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air which is a plain argument that the Lord will sit in judgment on them in the Air since thither they will be caught up to him after they are raised and judged Thus in that very Air which is now the seat of the Devils Empire shall Christ fix his Throne to manifest to all the World the consummation of his Victory over the Powers of darkness There shall he sit in Majesty and Glory where now the Devil and his Angels reign and in the publick view of the World shall even in their own dominion spoil those Hellish Principalities and Powers and having chained them at his Chariot Wheels make a shew of them openly triumphing over them there where they now domineer and tyrannize over this wretched World shall he set his foot upon their necks and from thence shall he tread them down into everlasting darkness and despair Thus that he may expose himself to the more publick view and the Devil to the more publick shame and confusion he will choose to keep his general Assizes in the Air. Being therefore arrived into the airy Regions after a long and glorious progress from the highest heaven there he shall sit down upon the Throne of his glory as some think over against Mount Olivet the place from whence he ascended whither all People Nations and Languages shall be gathered before him to receive their everlasting Doom And now let us imagine with our selves in what a glorious and tremendous Majesty he will appear to the World from his