Spirit or Holy Ghost whom Christ hath substituted to carry on his Mediation for God with men in his absence is no other than the third divine Person subsisting in the eternal Godhead And indeed considering the mighty part he was to act viz. to Mediate under Christ for God with men the same reason which rendered it necessary for Christ to be God to qualifie him for this Office vide Page 24. do render it altogether as necessary for the Holy Ghost to be so And indeed how is it possible he should operate upon so many men together at such remote distances as he is obliged to do by his Office and at once move every member of that vast Body of Christ the Catholick Church dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth unless like an Omnipresâ—nt soul he be diffused through the whole and co-exists with every part and if he be Omnipresâ—nt â—e must be God. And now having given an account of the Person and Quality of this Divine Spirit I proceed Secondly To explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediatorship for God with men In order to which it is to be considered that this subordination of the sacred Persons in the holy Trinity proceeds not from any inequality of Essence but from the inequality of their personal Properties For as to their Essence they are all of them God i. e. infinite in being and perfections and being infinite they must all be equal there being no such thing as more or less in infinity and then being equal in Essence they must necessarily be equal in essential Power and Dominion and consequently as such are no way subject or subordinate to one another But as to their personal Properties it cannot be denied but they are unequal for the Father who begot must in that respect be superiour to the Son who was begotten and the Holy Ghost who proceeded must in that respect be inferiour to the Father and Son from whom he proceeded and upon this inequality their subordination is founded For as there is a stated Number in the Trinity by which the sacred Persons are determined to Three so there is also a stated Order by which they are ranked into a First a Second and a Third which Order is not made by mutual consent or arbitrary constitution but founded in the nature of those personal properties by which they are distinguished from one another For as the Father being the Fountain of Godhead to the Son must be first in order of nature and as the Son together with the Father was the Fountain of Godhead to the Holy Ghost and therefore must be second to the Father and in order of nature before the Holy Ghost so the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son must of the Three be in order of nature the Third For so the Scripture expresly asserts that he proceeded from the Father John 15.26 and also that he is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4.6 and the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 and the Spirit of Iesus Christ Phil. 1.19 And being the Spirit both of the Father and the Son he must be supposed to proceed from both And where-ever the Holy Ghost is in the Old Testament called the Spirit of God it is in the Hebrew Ruach Elohim in the Plural which seems to intimate that he proceeded not from one but from two divine Persons i. e. not from the Father alone but from the Son also So that though as to their Godhead they are all equal yet in order of nature and in respect of their personal properties the third is inferiour the second superiour and the first supreme and being unequal in those personal Properties by which they stand related to each other it is very reasonable that according to these their personal inequalities they should be subordinate to one another and consequently that the Father who is the Fountain of the Divinity should be supreme in the Divine Monarchy and that the Son who was begotten of him should minister to him and that the Holy Ghost who proceeded from the Father and the Son should minister to both And accordingly in all its external actions and administrations this hath ever been the Oeconomy of the Holy Trinity for the Father to act by the Ministry of the Son and the Son by the Ministry of the Holy Ghost For so before the Fall of man and consequently before this Mediation of the Son commenced it is evident that even in creating the World the Father acted by the Son and therefore is said to have made the World by him Heb. 1.2 and the Son acted by the Spirit who is said to have moved upon the face of the Chaos Gen. 1.2 for that by the Spirit of God there is meant the third Person in the Holy Trinity we have reason to believe because he is elsewhere said to have made man and to have garnished the Heavens as hath been already shewn And in the same Method of subordination the Godhead hath always proceeded in its transactions with the world and that more especially and remarkably in this great affair of Mediating with mankind wherein the Father hath always used the Ministry of the Son and the Son the Ministry of the Holy Ghost but in the matter of the Mediation it is evident that this subordination of these sacred persons was founded not only in these their personal inequalities but also in a mutual agreement between them in which the Son agreed with the Father that in case he would be so far reconciled to Rebellious Mankind as to grant them a Covenant of mercy and therein among other blessings to promise them his Holy Spirit he himself would assume our natures and therein not only treat with us personally in order to the reducing us to our bounden Allegiance but also die a Sacrifice for our sins upon which agreement the Father long before the Son had actually performed his part of it even from our first Apostasie granted his Spirit to mankind which Spirit was granted to this end that under the Son he should Mediate with men in order to the reducing them to their due subjection to the Father For all that heavenly influence which the Holy Ghost sheds forth upon the minds of men is wholly Mediatorial in God's behalf and in order to the reconciling men's minds unto him and therefore in this his Mediation he must be supposed to act in subordination to the Son who is supreme Mediator and accordingly as the Son hath been and will be always Mediating with men by this blessed Spirit even from his Ascension to the end of the World so I make no doubt but he always Mediated with them by the same Spirit even from the Fall of man to his Incarnation For so in the time of the Old World we read of the Spirit 's striving with men i. e. in order to the subduing their stubborn Wills to a due subjection to the Will of the Father Gen.
the Holy Ghost So that between these Sacred Three there is an internal necessary subordination that can never be altered or inverted and therefore there is no doubt but that as they will always be subordinate so they will always act subordinately The Father as the first the Begetter and the Fountain of Divinity will be always first and supreme in the divine Monarchy the Son as begotten by him will still reign in subordination to him and the Holy Ghost as proceeding from both will continue to reign in subordination to both Thus to everlasting Ages only the Trinity in Unity shall reign and by its own immediate Will and Influence rule and bless all that Heavenly World over which it spreads its Almighty Wings and so it shall be all in all SECT XII Of the Reason and Wisdom of this Method of Gods Governing sinful Men by his own Eternal Son in our Natures THough we are not able either by our natural Reason or Revelation to fathom the depth of the Divine Wisdom or to trace out all the reasons of its Methods and Conduct yet upon diligent inquiry we can plainly discern the Tracts of an admirable Wisdom in all the stated Methods of Providence and though we cannot say that this or that is the main or only reason why God doth so or so for infinite wisdom may have infinitely greater and infinitely more reasons of its actions than our short-sighted Reason can at present discover yet by comparing one action of his with another and diligently observing the drift and tendency of them all how they concur to one common end and subserve each other to promote and accomplish it we cannot avoid discovering reason enough in them to convince and satisfie us that they all proceed from a most wise and intelligent Agent and this more especially in the admirable Oeconomy of the Mediation viz. the eternal Son of God's assuming our Nature and therein becoming our Prophet Priest and King for what â—easons there are why he should assume our nature therein to be our Prophet and our Priest hath been shewn before And now we shall proceed so far as our short Inquiries will reach to shew what admirable reason there is why he should be our King also to rule and govern us in the same assumed nature wherein he is our Prophet and our Priest of which according to the best â—ight that Revelation affords us there are these five Reasons assignable First That he might govern us in a way more accommodated to this degenerate state of our Natures Secondly That he might the more effectually cure and prevent the spreading contagion of Idolatry Thirdly That he might the more powerfully incourage our obedience Fourthly That he might oblige us to himself with a stronger tie of Gratitude and Ingenuity Fifthly That he might give us the more ample assurance of our future Reward I. God governs us by his own eternal Son in our natures the better to accommodate his Government to this our degenerate state which renders us extremely unfit to be governed immediately by God. It is true whilst man continued in his Primitive Innocence and Perfection he was in a condition fit to converse with God face to face and to live under his immediate Dominion for then his Sense being under the conduct of his Reason and all his brutal affections intirely subjected to the government and directions of his superior faculties he was as much ruled and influenced by the objects of his Reason as he is now by those of his Sense and was as powerfully moved and affected by what he only knew and believed as he is now by what he sees and feels so that then God that great invisible Spirit who is removed from all the perceptions of bodily sense and is only perceivable by our Reason and Faith did as powerfully impress mans hopes and fears and all the other principles of action in him as he could have done had he appeared as amiable and dreadful to the mans sight and feeling as he then did to his faith and reason In this state and condition therefore man was duly qualified to be governed immediately by God to receive his impressions and to be moved and acted by the over-ruling influence of his immense perfections But when once he had degenerated from this pure and blessed State of his nature and had thrown off the Government of his reason and subjected himself to the tyrannick sway of his brutal appetites he thereby unqualified himself to live under Gods immediate Dominion For now he being governed by his sensual appetites and they by the sensual Objects that surround him scarce any thing else can strike upon his hopes and fears but what is carnal and sensual or if any thing else doth to be sure some carnal object immediately interposes and breaks the stroke and renders it faint and ineffectual so that now God who is solely the object of our faith and reason can scarce be admitted to speak with our hopes and fears by which we are made to be governed or if he be his soft still voice is immediately drowned in the perpetual clamour which these sensitive goods and evils raise about us Wherefore having thus unqualified our selves by our Apostacy from the primitive state of our nature to live under the immediate Wing and Government of God and he being resolved in tender commiseration to us not to abandon us for ever did in his infinite wisdom project a new Method of governing us more accommodated to this our degenerate state viz. by uniting himself to sensible matter and therein addressing to our bodily senses in audible voices visible appearances and finally in our own form and nature which of all other sensible things we are most apt to be affected with to love and honour and reverence and obey For so immediately after his Fall God appeared to Adam probably in a glorious human form and spake to him in an audible voice and afterwards he did the same to the Patriarchs and to the whole Nation of the Jews from Mount Sinai among whom he also dwelt in a visible glory by which means he acquired to himself the same advantage of governing those sensual men that sensible objects had which by striking on their bodily sense did more powerfully insinuate themselves into their Wills and Affections But all these sensible appearances of God were only as so many preludia to his assuming our nature into personal union with his Godhead and therein exhibiting himself familiarly to the bodily senses of mankind which tho he now ceases to do as being exalted far above our sight on the right hand of God the Father there to reign till the consummation of all things yet seeing we believe he is there visible in himself cloathed in a most glorious human form we can by imagination supply the want of our sight of him and reach him by our inward sense tho we cannot come at him by our outward and whereas were he a mere
to his Church was nothing but what he himself had first received from the Father so that though it was from the Father that the Son had his authority to send the Holy Ghost yet it was from the Son that the Holy Ghost had his Mission immediately And accordingly you may observe that after Christ's departure from this World the Holy Ghost acted immediately under Christ as the supreme Vicegerent of his Kingdom For next and immediately under Christ he Authorized the Bishops and Governours of the Church and constituted them overseers of the flock of Christ Acts 20.28 it was he that chose their Persons and appointed them their Work Acts 13.2 and gave them their several Orders and Directions Acts 15.28 Acts 16.6 in all which it is evident he acted under Christ and still continues to act as his supreme Substitute and Vicegerent and accordingly he is stiled by Tertullian the Vicarious vertue or power as he was the supreme Vicar and Substitute of Christ in mediating for God with Men so that now the Holy Ghost is subordinated to the Son not only by vertue of his procession from him together with the Father but also by vertue of his being purchased and obtained by him of the Father by his meritorious Death and Intercession I proceed III. To shew what it is that this Holy Spirit hath done and still continues doing in order to the effectuating this his Mediation For there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and some things which he hath always done and will still continue doing to the end of the World of both which I shall give some brief account in order to the fuller explication of the Ministry of the Holy Ghost under Jesus the great Mediator First therefore there are some things which he hath done and now ceases to do and of this sort were those extraordinary operations he performed in order to the Planting and Propagating Christ's Gospel in the World upon and after that his Miraculous Descent of which we read in Acts 2. For when Christ was departing from his Disciples into Heaven he ordered them to stay at Ierusalem and not to undertake that mighty work of Planting his Gospel through the World till they were endued with power from on high Luke 24.49 which power from on high was no other than that miraculous assistance which upon his Descent the Holy Ghost did afterwards vouchsafe them upon which Order they return to Ierusalem and there continue till the day of Pentecost fasting and praying together in an Upper Room when all of a sudden the Holy Ghost descended upon them in a visible body of bright shining fire and endowed them with all those Heavenly powers which were requisite to qualifie them for the propagation of Christ's Gospel through the World. For as they were to be the first Planters of the Gospel it was requisite First that they should be able to speak the several Languages of those Nations to whom they were to preach Secondly that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrines which they were to preach Thirdly that they should be able to give the most convincing evidence of the truth and divinity of their Doctrines Fourthly that they should be conducted by Infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry against all which necessities the Holy Ghost abundantly supplied them For First He inspired them with the gift of Languages without which they must have spent a great part of their lives before they could have been capable of preaching the Gospel to the World in learning the several Languages of the several Nations they were to preach to which must have very much retarded the progress of the Gospel And therefore the Holy Ghost upon this his miraculous Descent did in an instant infuse into them the Habit of speaking several Languages insomuch that all of a sudden and without any Rules of Grammar or previous instructions they were heard to speak to the great astonishment of their Auditors in the fifteen several Tongues of fifteen several Nations Acts 2.4 c. And though they were immediately dispersed abroad in the World and some of them into remote Countries whose names perhaps they had never heard of yet still where-ever they came they were inspired with the Language of the Country which they spake as freely as their own Mother Tongue And this was a vast advantage to them in their Ministry because they were not only enabled by it to preach the Gospel to all Nations but were enabled in such a manner as gave a mighty confirmation to their Doctrine For their very gift of speaking being a miraculous effect of divine power was an undeniable demonstration that what they spake was divine Secondly The Holy Ghost fully and clearly instructed them in the Doctrines which they were to preach and this was no more than what was necessary For what they preached who were the first Planters of the Gospel was to be the standard of truth and falshood to all succeeding Generations and therefore it was highly necessary that they should be fully and clearly instructed in the Doctrine of the Gospel that so their Successors in all Ages might safely relie on their Authority But whilst they were under the Personal Discipline of our Saviour who instructed them by Humane Methods i. e. by proposing his Doctrine to their Ears and through their Mediation to their Vnderstandings it is plain they made but very slow and slender improvements For after all his pains with them they continued very ignorant of some of the most material Articles of Faith and at best they had but gross Apprehensions of the nature of Christ's Kingdom and of the ends and reasons of his Death and were very diffident even of his Resurrection and the reason was that Christ taught them as a man doth a man i. e. by words which are only the audible Images and Representations of things which being liable to misapprehension and oblivion some of them they utterly foâ—got and some of them they grosly misunderstood But when the Spirit came upon them a wondrous Light broke all of a sudden into their Vnderstandings by which they discovered farther into the Gospel Mysteries in an instant than they had done under all our Saviour's teaching For though the Spirit taught them no new Doctrines but did only repeat and explain to them what our Saviour had taught them before for he shall receive of mine saith Christ i. e. of my Doctrine and shall shew or explain it unto you yet it is evident he taught them much more effectually than our Saviour For he spoke not to their Ears but to their Minds and represented things more nakedly and immediately to their understandings he conversed with their spirits even as Spirits do with Spirits without involâ—ing his sense in articulate sounds or material representations but objected it to them in its own naked light and characterized it immediately on their understandings And as he immediately
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
Imprimatur CAROLUS ALSTON R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Domesticis â—nii 26. 1686. THE Christian Life PART II. Wherein that FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF Christian Duty THE Doctrine of our SAVIOURS Mediation is Explained and Proved VOLUME II. By JOHN SCOTT D. D. Rector of S. Peters Poor London The Second Edition LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in S. Paul's Church-Yard and Thomas Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange 1687. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER THis second Volume of the second Part of the Christian Life had long since been made Publick had it not been for an unfortunate Accident which befel me when it was almost finished by which I was necessitated almost to begin again and cast the whole into a different Method from what I first designed for according to my first Draught this second Volume had not ammounted to much above half of what it now is only I intended to have added some Notes at the end of it for the fuller proof and explanation of several Points therein handled which now I am forced to leave out the Book being already swell'd so much beyond my first Intention only three or four of them I am forced to Print with it because I had referr'd to them in two of the Sheets which were Printed before I new model'd the whole Design I pray God prosper this Work according to its honest Intention and that will be an abundant compensation for all the Pains and Labor I have undergone in composing it THE CONTENTS SECT I. OF the Signification and Notion of a Mediator pag. 4 c. Six general Articles proposed to our belief in Scripture concerning the Person and Offices of the Mediator First That he is designed and authorized to this Office by God who is our absolute Lord and Sovereign 6. Vpon what accounts the belief of this is necessary 8. Secondly That this Office to which he is Authorized consists in acting for and in the behalf of God and Men who are the Parties between whom he mediates 10. the belief of which Article carries with it the most indispensible Obligations to Christian Piety and Vertue 11. Thirdly That his Mediation proceeds upon certain terms and stipulations between God and Man which terms he obtained of God for us and in Gods Name hath published to us 17. what these terms are ibid. the performance of these Terms our Saviour solicits both of God and us 18. Fourthly That as he acts for and in the behalf of God and Men so be partakes of the Natures of both 23. That he should partake of the Nature of God was highly necessary to qualifie him for this sublime Office of mediating for God with Men 24. and the same necessity there was that he should partake of the nature of Man 27. That he should also partake of the nature of both no less requisite to qualifie him to Mediate for Men with God 30. That he is God as well as Man proved from Scripture 34. and also that he is Man as well as God 39. Fifthly That as he partakes of the Natures of both so that he might transact Personally with both he was sent down from Heaven to us and is returned from us to Heaven 42. Of the Birth and Personal Vnion of the Divine and Humane Natures in Christ 44. Of his Death Resurrection and Ascension 46 c. Sixthly That upon his return to Heaven there to mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the Divine and Omnipresent Spirit personally to promote and effectuate his mediation for God with Men 49 50. This Divine Spirit is the third Person in the Triâ—une Godhead 50. That there is a third Person subsisting in the Divine Nature and that he is the same with the Spirit of God in the Old Testament 51. And first That this Spirit is a Person ibid. Secondly That he is a Divine Person 53. Thirdly That he is the third Divine Person 56. Of the subordination of these Divine Persons and that it arises not from any inequality of Essence but from the inequalities of their Personal properties 57 c. That there was always a subordination of the Son to the Father and of the Holy Ghost to both 58. That in the affair of the Mediation this subordination was founded not only in the inequalities of their Personal properties but also in a mutual compact and agreement 59. That the Holy Spirit acts and hath always acted under Christ in the Kingdom of God 60. That by the Holy Spirit Christ himself acted while he was upon Earth 60 61. That this Spirit is sent both from the Father and the Son and of the different nature of their Missions 61 c. Some things which the Holy Spirit hath done in the pursuance of his Ministry to our Saviour and hath long since ceased to do as first he inspired the Apostles and Disciples of our Saviour with the gift of Languages 65 66. Secondly He fully instructed them by his immediate Inspirations in the Doctrine which they were to teach the World 67 c. Thirdly He gave the most convincing evidence of the Truth and Divinity of their Doctrine 70. Fourthly He conducted them by his infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry 72. Of the cessation of these miraculous Assistances 74 c. Other things which the Holy Spirit hath always done and always continues in pursuance of this his Ministry as being continually present with the Church 76. We receive him in our Baptism 77. Of the different manner of his ordinary Operations now from what it was heretofore 78 c. That these his ordinary Operations are all performed by impression of thoughts 81 82. they are all reduced to five Heads First Illumination 83 c. Secondly Sanctification 85. Thirdly Quickning or Excitation 88. Fourthly Comforting and supporting 90. Fifthly Intercession 93. SECT II. Concerning the particular Offices of Christs Mediation From the respective states and conditions of the Parties between whom Christ mediates is shewn the necessity of his being Prophet Priest and King 98. The order in which our Saviour proceeds in the discharge of these Offices 100. SECT III. Concerning the Prophetick Office of Christ. The great need of this Office 101. That the Messias was to be a Prophet 102. Of the import of the word Prophesie 103. The admirable accomplishments of our Saviour for this Office shewn in three Particulars First That when he came down to Prophesie to us he came immediately from the Bosom of the Father 104. Secondly That he came down into our own Natures 160. Thirdly That while he abode among us he was always full of the Holy Ghost 109. how effectualy he discharged this Office shewn in six Particulars First He made a full declaration of his Fathers Will to the World 113. Secondly He proved and confirmed what he declared by Miracles 116. Thirdly He gave a perfect example of Obedience to what he declared and proved to be his Fathers
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
Essentials of Christian Worship 307 c. Thirdly In all the Essentials of Christian Regiment and Discipline 309. SECT X. Concerning the Ministers of the Kingdom of Christ. Which are of a fourfold Rank and Order First The supreme Minister of it is the Holy Ghost p. 315. Secondly next to him are the whole world of Angels both good and bad and as for the good they are subjected to Christ by the Order and appointment of God the Father ibid. That the good Angels were not subject to him as Mediator till his ascension into Heaven but had their distinct regencies over the several Gentile Nations 316 c. But upon Christs ascension these their distinct regencies were all dissolved and they subjected to Christs Mediatorial Scepter 320 c. And as for the bad Angels they were subjected to him by just and lawful Conquest 322. That this Conquest he obtained while he was upon Earth but especially in his last agony 323 c. Seven particular instances of the Ministry of good Angels under Christ first they declare upon occasion his mind and will to his Church and People 331 c. Secondly they guard and defend his subjects against outward dangers 333 c. Thirdly they support and comfort them upon difficult undertakings and under great and pressing calamities 334 c. Fourthly they protect them against the rage and fury of evil spirits 336 c. Fifthly they further and assist them in their religious Offices 340 c. Sixthly they conduct their separated spirits to the Mansions of Glory 342 c. Seventhly they are hereafter to attend and minister to him at the general Iudgment 345 c. The Ministry of evil Angels to Christ in four particulars First they try and exercise the vertues of his subjects 347 c. Secondly they chasten and correct their faults and miscarriages 351 c. Thirdly they harden and confirm incorrigible sinners 354 c. Fourthly they execute the vengeance of Christ on them in another world 357 c. The third sort of the Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the Kings and Governors of the world 361 c. by their subjection to Christ they are not deprived of any natural Right of their Sovereignty 363 c. But in the first place have the same commanding Power over all indifferent things and that in Ecclesiastical Causes as well as Civil that they had under the Law of Nature 364 c. And secondly are as unaccountable and irresistible as they were before 365 c. What thâ—se Ministries are which Kings are obliged to render our Saviour shewn in general from Isa. 49.23.476 c. Particularly first they are to protect and defend his Church in the profession and exercise of the true Religion 377.378 secondly they are to fence and cultivate its peace and good order 378 c. they are to chasten and correct the irregular 379 c. they are to provide for the decency of its worship and for the convenient maintenance of its Officers and Ministers 381 c. The fourth sort of Ministers of Christs Kingdom are the spiritual or Ecclesiastical Governors 383. That Christ hath erected a spiritual Government in his Church 384 c. That this Government is Episcopal proved from four Arguments first from the institution of our Saviour 388 c. secondly from the practice of the Apostles upon it 393 c. thirdly from the Vniversal Conformity of the Primitive Church to this Apostolick practice 404. fourthly from our Saviours declared allowance and approbation of both 421 c. Of the Ministers of this spiritual Government which are either such as are common to the Bishops together with the inferiour Officers of the Church as first to teach the Gospel 427 c. secondly to administer the Evangelical Sacraments 429 c. thirdly to offer up the publick Prayers and intercessions of Christian Assemblies 431 c. Or such as are peculiar to the Bishops as first to make Laws for the peace and good order of the Church 433. secondly to ordain to Ecclesiastical Offices 436. thirdly to exercise that spiritual jurisdiction which Christ hath established in his Church 439. fourthly to confirm such us have been Baptized and instructed in Christianity 446 c. SECT XI Of Christs Regal Acts in his Kingdom Which are of three sorts First such as he hath performed once for all of which there are four first his giving Laws to his Kingdom 449 c. That what Christ taught as a Prophet had the force of Law ibid. His Law spiritual 450. His Laws reduced under two heads first his Law of perfection 452 c. secondly his Law of sincerity 455 c. The second of those Regal Acts which he hath performed once for all is his mission of the Holy Spirit 457. A third is his erecting an external Polity and Government 458 c. Another sort of Christs Regal acts are such as he hath always performed and doth always continue to perform of which there are four first his pardoning penitent Offenders the nature of which is explained 461 c. the Scripture attributes it both to Christ and God the Father 462. that both of them have an appropriate part in it 463. The part of God the Father is first to make a general Grant of Pardon 464 c. secondly to make it in consideration of Christs death and sacrifice 466 thirdly to limit it to believing and penitent sinners ibid. c. The part which Christ performs in it is to make an actual and particular application of this general Grant of his Father to particular sinners upon their faith and repentance 474 c. The second of these Regal Acts of Christ is his punishing obstinate Offenders 476. A third is his protecting and defending his People and Kingdom in this world 479 c. The fourth is his rewarding his faithful subjects in the life to come 483 c. The third last sort of Christs Regal Acts are those which are yet to be performed by him of which there are three first he is yet farther to extend and enlarge his Kingdom by a more universal conquest of his Enemies 485 c. secondly he is yet to destroy Death the last Enemy by giving a general Resurrection 492 c. this proved from his own Resurrection ibid. The Objections against this argument and the Doctrine of the Resurrection answered 494 c. The manner of the Resurrection described at large from 1 Cor. 15.42.501 First this mortal body is to be the seed or material principle of our resurrection 502. secondly this seed must die and be corrupted before it is to be raised and quickened 503. thirdly this dead seed is to be raised and quickened by the Power of God 505. fourthly it is to be raised and quickned into the proper form and kind of a human body 508. fifthly this human body is to be very much changed and altered 510. the change that will be made in the bodies of good men is
utmost force of Law that is by Law established on the most dreadful Penalty he hath so far as his Regal Authority extends compelled us to the performance of our part of this Covenant so that if we do not perform it it is not to be attributed to any neglect or omission of the Mediator who to oblige us to perform it hath most faithfully acted for God even to the utmost extent of that power wherewithal he invested him And so on the other hand in acting for us as our Intercessor he hath taken no less care to insure God's part of this Covenant to us than he did to insure our part of it to God. For this Covenant being granted to us by God in consideration of a valuable satisfaction for our sins Christ hath not only rendered this satisfaction to God by dying for us and thereby purchased for us a just right and claim to all the blessings which God hath promised on his part if we perform what he requires on ours but in the vertue of this satisfaction he also appears for us at the right hand of God there to plead our right and to prefer our claim by exhibiting that vocal Bloud and those importunate Wounds with the price of which he purchased and obtained it So that now we are intitled to all the blessings of this Covenant not only by God's Promise but by Christ's Purchace too and to secure both we have Christ himself advocating for us in Heaven with the price of that Purchace in his hands So effectually hath he transacted for us in his Mediation with God in our behalf that we have the highest security imaginable that if we perform our part of this Covenant God will not fail to perform his since in so doing he would not only violate his own truth which he hath engaged to us by promise but also injuriously defraud his own Son of what he hath duly purchased for us by his Death and claims upon that Purchace by his Intercession For he intercedes for no other blessings in our behalf but what he purchased for us upon a consideration that was not only infinitely valuable in it self but also freely accepted by his Father and he purchased no other blessings for us but what are specified in this gracious Covenant so that he asks nothing for us but what he hath a right to obtain nothing but what he purchased by his bloud and is in strict Justice due to his meritoriouâ— sacrifice and consequently nothing that his Father can deny him without doing him the most outragious wrong and injury and therefore this we may be as confident of as we can be of any thing in the World that whatsoever he hath purchased for us he will not fail to ask and that whatsoever he asks he will be sure to obtain Thus Christ by his Mediation between God and Men hath taken the most effectual care to insure the mutual performance of this everlasting Covenant to both Parties For to insure God of our performing our part he hath bound it upon us by a Law enforced with an everlasting Penalty which is the strongest obligation he could lay upon us And to insure us of God's performing his part he duly purchased it for us by his Death and in vertue of that just Right he ever lives to claim it by his Intercession which is the strongest obligation he could lay upon God so that now as God cannot fail in his part without violating his Truth and Justice which would be to destroy his own Being and un-god himself so neither we can in ours without exposing our everlasting well-being and plunging our selves body and soul together into everlasting wretchedness and calamity And hence I suppose it is that our Saviour is called the surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7.22 or as the Greek word may be rendered the Trustee between both Parties to see that they mutually perform their several parts of this Covenant to each other which Office our blessed Lord hath faithfully performed in that he hath taken the utmost care to oblige both God and us mutually to make good our several engagements to each other For though he hath not undertaken for us that we shall certainly perform our part yet he hath undertaken to oblige us to it by the highest and most urgent reason which was all that he could reasonably undertake for Beings that are free to good and evil and if notwithstanding he hath thus obliged us we will be so desperately obstinate as not to comply he hath undertaken to chastise our obstinacy with a most dire and exemplary vengeance And since he thus proceeds in his Mediation upon the certain and stated terms of a Covenant which he himself hath published and revealed to us we may hereby most certainly inform our selves what he expects from us and what we are to expect from him For now we are sure that all he can expect from us is that we should faithfully perform our part of this Covenant that is that we should implore the assistance of God's holy Spirit and diligently to co-operate with it so as to repent and return from our evil ways to the sincere practice of all Christian Piety and Vertue and that herein we should persevere to the end and less than this he cannot admit without being an unfaithful Trustee for God of that blessed Covenant upon which he Mediates And now we are also sure that all we can expect from him is that if we implore the assistance of his Spirit we shall have it that if with his assistance we repent we shall be pardoned and that if being pardoned we persevere in well-doing we shall be crowned with everlasting life and less than this he cannot obtain for us without being an unfaithful Trustee for us For if he should exact less for God of us or procure less for us of God than that Covenant upon which he Mediates obliges God and us to he would be wanting in his care one way or t'other to see this Covenant with which he is intrusted duly and impartially executed and either defraud God or us of some part of that right which it devolves upon us which we have all the assurance in the world he will never do So that now we proceed upon certain terms and do know infallibly what to trust to we know that our Mediator exacts of us the whole and intire condition of the Gospel-Covenant that this he will certainly accept but that this he expects without the least defalcation or abatement so that if we heartily implore the assistance of his holy Spirit and co-operate with it we have all the assurance in the world that we shall be effectually enabled to render him that sincere repentance and obedience he requires and that if we repent we shall be pardoned and if we persevere in our obedience be advanced to everlasting glory On the other side we know infallibly before hand that if we refuse to submit to this condition or
6.3 in doing of which he even then Mediated for God with Men under the Great Mediator and so he hath continued to do through all successive Ages of the World. For there is nothing more apparent from Scripture than that it is under Christ that the Spirit acts in the Kingdom of God upon which account he is called the Spirit of Christ 1 Pet. 1.11 even as by the ancient Jews he is called the Spirit of the Messias as was observed before and this Spirit whom St. Peter calls the Spirit of Christ was as he himself there tells us the Spirit which was in the ancient Prophets by which it is evident that long before Christ came this Spirit was his and that he acted by him And even when he came down into the World to transact personally with men he generally acted by this holy Spirit For so at his Baptism we are told that the Holy Ghost descended on him in a bodily shape Luke 3.22 upon which it is said that he went away full of the Holy Ghost Luk. 4.1 after which it is plain that it was by this Holy Ghost in him that he Prophesied and wrought his Miracles for so Isa. 61.1 the Prophet attributes the whole Prophecy of Christ to the Spirit of the Lord which was upon him and in Matt. 12.28 our Saviour himself affirms that he cast out Devils by the Spirit of God and therefore he calls the Jews attributing his miraculous works to the Devil blasphemy against the Holy Ghost Matt. 12.31 because it was by the power of the Holy Ghost that he wrought them Now as the Father's acting by the Son implies the Son's Subordination to him so the Son 's acting by the Spirit implies the Spirit 's subordination to him which subordination of the Spirit in his Mediatorial Office is immediately founded in that Compact of the Son with the Father upon which he undertook the Mediation For the Spirit was a part of the purchace of the Son's Bloud and whatsoever he purchased he purchased of the Father by compact and agreement with him so that now he hath a right to the Spirit 's Ministry not only by vertue of his proceeding from him together with the Father but also by the purchace of his own Bloud whereby he obtained the promise of him from the Father For so the Holy Ghost is said to be shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour i. e. through the Intercession he makes in vertue of his meritorious Sacrifice Tit. 3.5 6. For whatsoever comes to us from God through Christ is part of what he hath purchased for us and in Rom. 5.5 6. he makes Christ's dying for the ungodly the reason of the giving the Holy Ghost to us The promise of the Holy Ghost therefore being part of the purchace of Christ's bloud he by his Advocation in Heaven obtained the performance of it of the Father even as he doth the performance of all his other promises For the Father being the supreme person in the Holy Trinity is the prime and Original Fountain of all our blessings and every good thing we receive is derived from him to us through the Son and by the Holy Ghost and even the Holy Ghost himself is derived to us from the Father through the Advocation of the Son. For so he himself tells us I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter namely the Holy Ghost Iohn 14.16 So that though Christ hath purchased the Holy Ghost of the Father as he hath also all the other blessings of the New Covenant yet it is plain this Purchace vests him not with a right to bestow and send him without the Father but only to obtain him of the Father upon his Prayer or Advocation and so of all those other blessings So that still the Father is the supreme Source from whence the Spirit and all those blessings are derived to us and it is from his hands that the Son procures them by his powerful Intercession in short therefore Christ by his death purchased a right of the Father to obtain of him by his Intercession Authority to send the Holy Ghost to Minister for and under him in his Mediation for God with men and accordingly he promises his Disciples that when he departed this World he would send the Comforter to them Iohn 16.7 where he uses the very same phrase as he did when he Commissioned his Apostles to minister under him As the Father hath sent me so send I you John 20.21 and accordingly his sending the Comforter must denote his Commissioning him by the Authority he had received from the Father to minister under him in his Mediation for the Father For so in Iohn 15.26 When the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testifie of me where first the Son is said to Commission or send him Secondly to Commission or send him from the Father i. e. by Authority from him And thirdly to Commission or send him to testifie of him and therein to minister to him and so in Luke 24.49 when he was just ascending into Heaven he tells his Disciples Behold I send the promise of my Father upon you i. e. the promise of the Holy Ghost and accordingly Acts 2.33 St. Peter tells us upon that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost that Christ being exalted to the right hand of God and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost i. e. having by his Intercession received authority of the Father to send the Holy Ghost according to that promise which he had before purchased of him with his bloud he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear i. e. this Miraculous Gift of the Holy Ghost in all which places it is evident that the Holy Ghost was substituted commissioned and sent by the Son authorized thereunto by the Father to minister under him For as the Son acts by the Father's Authority as he is his Minister so all that authority which he communicates to others to act under him he must derive Originally from the Father and consequently that Authority by which he sent the Spirit to act as his Minister he must have derived from the Father whose Minister himself is and hence the Father is said to send the Spirit in the name of the Son i. e. to appoint the Spirit to act under the Son and by his authority Iohn 14.26 as the Son is said to send the Spirit from the Father i. e. by the authority which he had received of the Father and this I verily believe is the reason why the Apostle in Eph. 4.8 quotes the Psalmist with that variation he ascended up on high saith he speaking of Christ he led Captivity Captive he gave gifts unto men whereas the words of the Psalmist are He received gifts for men Psal. 68.18 to denote that that gift of the Holy Ghost which Christ gave
proposed the divine light to their minds so he also illuminated their minds to discern and comprehend it he raised and exalted their intellectual faculties and as a vital form to the light of their reason did actuate and thereby enable it to comprehend his Revelations And hence Acts 19.6 we are told that the Disciples who upon St. Paul's laying his hands on them received the Holy Ghost spake with Tongues and Prophesied i. e. explained the deep Mysteries of the Gospel for so Prophesying in the New Testament doth most commonly signifie hence 1 Cor. 13.2 the Apostle makes Prophecy to consist in understanding divine Mysteries and Knowledge and in ver 9. We know in part saith he and we Prophesie in part so that the effect of their receiving the Holy Ghost you see was Prophecy that is a clear understanding of and ability to explain the Mysteries of Religion A plain evidence how effectually he taught them in that they no sooner became his Scholars but they were fit to be the Teachers of the World. For though it seems probable that he as well as our Saviour instructed them gradually in the knowledge of the Gospel since it was some time after this first descent that the Mystery of the calling of the Gentiles was revealed to them yet it is very apparent that he instructed them much faster than our Saviour had done and much fuller and that those impressions of divine truth which he made upon their understandings were much more vigorous and clear and therefore could not be so easily either forgotten or mistaken by them And accordingly our Saviour himself tells them that he had many things to say unto them but they could not bear them such was the narrowness of their capacity and the way of his teaching Howbeit saith he when the spirit of truth is come he shall lead you into all truth John 16.12 13. and teach you all things John 14.20 Thus the Holy Ghost fully instructed them what Doctrines they were to preach to the World and by his immediate inspirations enabled them to deliver down the truth to us the whole truth and nothing but the truth Thirdly The Holy Ghost enabled them to give the most convincing evidence of the Truth and Divinity of their Doctrines without which it was impossible they should ever have succeeded in their Ministry But the only certain evidence they could give that their Doctrine was divine was the testimony of Miracles For there is nothing which pretends to be divine can any otherwise evidence it self to be so but by something that is apparently divine and there being nothing apparently divine but what is plainly and evidently a miraculous effect of divine power it follows that Miracles only can attest the Divinity of any Doctrines Wherefore to enable the first Planters of the Gospel to convince the World that their Doctrine was divine it was highly requisite that they should be endowed with this divine power of working Miracles and accordingly so they were upon this miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost upon them For so Acts 2.43 upon this coming of the Holy Ghost on them we are told that many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles so also Acts 4.30 31. that upon their praying that God would stretch forth his hand to heal and that signs and wonders might be done by the name of Iesus God in answer to their Prayer filled them with the Holy Ghost that is enabled them by his Spirit to effect these signs and wonders they had prayed for It is true indeed they had in some measure this gift of the Holy Ghost before this miraculous Descent even while our Saviour was among them but that was very sparingly and only upon some particular occasions and for the effecting some particular Miracles but our Saviour promised them that upon his going to the Father to send the Comforter to them They who believed on him should not only do the Works which he did but greater works than those John 14.12 and accordingly when after his Ascension the Holy Ghost came upon them he continued with them and upon all occasions impowered them to do all kinds of Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine so that whereas before the greatest part of these miraculous signs of the divinity of the Christian Doctrine were performed by Christ himself in his own Person and by that means confined to the place of his Personal habitation which was too narrow a Theatre for many Spectators to behold them the Holy Ghost by working Miracles in his name of all sorts and upon all occasions in and by his Ministers who were presently to be dispersed over the face of the whole Earth did much more amply display his divine power and with greater speed spread the renown of it through the World and by constantly impowering so many persons in so many parts of the World to perform so many miraculous things in Christ's name did as it were carry him in open Triumph through the World and at once display his Majesty and Power over the face of the whole Earth For what Christ did in his own Person while he was on Earth that and much more the Holy Ghost did in the persons of all his Ministers and the Holy Ghost did that at the same time in a thousand parts of the World which Christ did only in one and by these miraculous effects which are therefore called the evidence and demonstration of the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.4 the Holy Ghost asserted to the World the truth and divinity of those Doctrines which the Ministers of Jesus taught For this gift of Miracles expired not with those Primitive Ministers but was continued down to their Successors for several Generations together until the Christian Doctrine was propagated through the World and then when it had done its work and accomplished its end it was withdrawn as being no longer necessary Fourthly and lastly The Holy Ghost conducted them by his own infallible advice through all the emergent difficulties of their Ministry For the work wherein they were ingaged was attended with difficulties that were utterly insuperable to Humane Wisdom and Power For first their work being such as required an invincible courage and firm integrity of mind a watchful prudence and spotless purity of manners it was highly needful especially at first a good beginning being of vast importance to all great undertakings that they should be infallibly directed what persons were fit to be ordained to it and which of those were mosâ— fit and proper for the several Countries and Provinces of the World and then through the whole course of their Ministry they were fain to contend with all the united Wit and Malice of the World and were very often sent to preach among strange Nations whose Tempers and Manners they understood not and still where-ever they came they had Spies upon them to watch their Designs and observe their actions and ever and anon they were accused and impleaded by subtil and
insinuating Orators before the Tribunals of their Enemies and there forced to answer for themselves Besides that they being to convert both Iews and Gentiles between whom there was an inveterate aversion and to unite them together into one communion it could not be otherwise expected but that great dissentions should arise among their own Converts as accordingly it hapned which if not managed with infinite prudence must needs give a great disturbance to them and interrupt the course and hinder the success of their Ministry And in such difficult circumstances it was almost impossible for them not to miscarry without being conducted by an infallible prudence and circumspection under all which exigencies the Holy Ghost served the primitive Church in the same capacity as the Vrim and Thummim did the ancient Iews i. e. as an Oracle to advise them in all cases of difficulty and direct them in the management of all their great and weighty affairs Thus in that difficult case which of the Apostles should be sent forth to the Gentiles the Holy Ghost either by a Bath Col i. e. Voice from Heaven or an immediate inspiration thus directs them Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 13.2 and when they went forth among the Gentiles the Holy Ghost advises them where they should preach and where not Acts 16.6 and so also in the choice of their Bishops they had always the Direction of the Holy Ghost so in Acts 20.28 it is said that it was the Holy Ghost that set them over the Flock and S. Paul tells Timothy that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Episcopal Office wherewith he was invested was given him by Prophecy i. e. by the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost and S. Clemens who was a Disciple of the Apostles tells us that in those times they ordained Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discerning by the Spirit who should be ordained and again that they did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having a perfect fore-knowledge who they should chuse And thus also for composing the differences which arose between their Iewish and Gentile Converts they had the immediate advice of the Holy Ghost who directed them to that wise expedient Acts 15.28 by which the peace of the Church was secured for the present and afterwards maintained in despite of all the attempts of seditious Incendiaries to break and divide it And thus having recourse upon all occasions to this infallible Guide they were never at a loss either what to say or how to behave themselves the Holy Ghost making good to them what our Saviour had promised them When they bring you before Magistrates take no thought what ye shall answer for the Holy Ghost shall teach you at the same hour what ye ought to say Luke 12.11 12. These are the extraordinary things which the Holy Ghost acted for and under Christ in order to the planting and propagating his Gospel through the World and which he continued to act so long as it was necessary for that end For as for the first the Gift of Tongues it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Gospel had been preached to and some Converts made in the several Nations the First-fruits of whom were always ordained to the work of the Ministry and when once the several Nations had Natives of their own to preach the Gospel to them in their own Languages there was no farther necessity of this miraculous Gift of Tongues And then as for the second the Gift of Revelation it seems to have been continued no longer than till the whole New Testament was revealed and the several parts of it were collected into one Volume and distributed to the several Churches after which there was no farther necessity of any new revelation But as for the third the Gift of Miracles it seems to have been continued much longer than either of the former as indeed there was longer occasion for it especially for that of ejecting evil Spirits who for many Ages had been the Gods of the World and detecting their frauds and impostures that so by beholding the manifold Triumphs of Christ's power over them the Heathen might be at length convinced of the falseness of their own Religion and of the truth of Christ's and accordingly this gift as I shall shew hereafter was continued in the Church for above two hundred years together till it had wrought its designed effect i. e. had sufficiently detected the fraud and malice of those Idol Gods to the conviction of all that were convincible and then it was withdrawn as being no farther necessary And then as for the last viz. the Gift of Counsel and Direction it seems to have been continued no longer than till the Government of the Church was every where established and its Affairs reduced into a stated course and method by which sufficient provision being made against those emergent difficulties with which the state of Christianity was perplexed this Gift also ceased together with the reason and necessity of it Thus by these extraordinary Gifts and Operations the Holy Ghost continued to sollicite the cause of Christ and his Religion in the World till by their invincible evidence he had baffled the malice and prejudice of a deluded World and captivated Mankind into the belief and obedience of the Gospel and this being effected he discontinued those Extraordinaries and now proceeds to solicite the same cause in a more ordinary and standing way and method viz. by co-operating with mens minds and wills in a more humane and regular manner by joyning in with their Reason and thereby influencing their Wills and Affections which brings me to the 2. Second sort of the Holy Ghost's operations viz. that which he ordinarily doth and always hath done and will always continue to do For upon the cessation of these his miraculous operations the Holy Ghost did not wholly withdraw himself from mankind but he still continues Mediating with us under Christ in order to the reconciling our Wills and Affections to God and subduing that inveterate Malice and Enmity against him which our degenerate nature hath contracted For it is by this blessed Spirit that Christ hath promised to be with us to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 and Christ himself hath assured us that upon his Ascension into Heaven he would pray his Father and he should give us another Comforter meaning this Holy Ghost that he might abide with us for ever John 14.16 and accordingly the Holy Ghost is vitally united to the Church of Christ even as Souls are united to their bodies For as there is one body i. e. Church so there is one Spirit i. e. one Holy Ghost which animates that body Eph. 4.4 and hence the Unity of the Church is in the foregoing verse called the Vnity of the Spirit because as the soul by diffusing it self through all the parts of the body unites them together and keeps them from flying abroad and dispersing into
which he very often imprints on us with that life and vigour and repeats and urges with that efficacious Ardour and restless Importunity that unless we are strangely obstinate we cannot find in our hearts to repel or resist them Fourthly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on mens minds is comforting and supporting them or inspiring their minds with such joys and refreshments as are necessary to support them under the difficulties and temptations they are here exposed to For this operation of the Spirit is a standing provision against such Difficulties and Temptations as are too great for an ordinary patience and courage to conâ—est with and is not ordinarily vouchsafed to us but only at such times when we are called to do or suffer something beyond our selves and above our own strength and ability in which cases we are secured of this supporting influence of the Spirit by that Promise 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithful who will not suffer ye to be tempted above what ye are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it For thus we read of the Primitive Church that they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Acts 9.31 i. e. had the constant supporting influence of the Spirit of God to strengthen and bear up their minds under that mighty work and grievous persecutions they were to undergo and the Apostle makes it his earnest Prayer to God for his Christian Romans that he would fill them with all joy and peace in believing that is in their profession of the Christian Faith and that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 And accordingly we find the Ages of Persecution abounding with remarkable instances of this operation of the Holy Ghost For whereas constant Persecutions never failed to exterminate false Religions from the World witness the Heathen Religion and the Christian Heresies the Priscillians Arians and Donatists which whilst they were tolerated or connived at did mightily encrease and multiply but under vigorous persecutions immediately shrunk and in a little time dwindled into nothing the true Christianity on the contrary bore up its head under the heaviest oppressions and triumphed in the midst of flames and was so far from being vanquished by all the barbarous cruelties of its Persecutors that the more they persecuted it the more it conquered and prevailed which doubtless is in a great measure to be attributed to this supporting influence of the Holy Spirit which still accompanied its Confessors and Martyrs For how was it possible that a company of tender Virgins delicate Matrons and aged Bishops could ever have endured those long and dolorous Martyrdoms as many times they did when their Tormentors took their turns from morning to night and plied them with all kinds of cruelties till they were oftentimes forced to give over and confess that they had not heart enough to inflict the Tortures which those poor Sufferers had courage enough to endure How could they have sung in the midst of Flames smiled upon Racks triumphed upon Wheels and Catastaes and there challenged their Executioners as they often did to distend their Limbs to the utmost stretch to tear their flesh with Vngulae to scorch their tender parts with fires and rake their bowels with Spikes and Gaunches How I say could they have endured all these miserable harrasings of their tender flesh with the most witty and exquisite Tortures and this sometimes for sundry days together when for one base and cowardly word they might have been released when they pleased had they not been supported with an invisible hand and refreshed with such strong consolations as not only abated but sometimes quite extinguished their pains And the same comforts though not perhaps in the same degree other good men have frequently experienced sometimes upon their undertaking some great and Heroick Office of Piety or Vertue sometimes in their conflict with some great Temptation sometimes when they have been sorely oppressed with some mighty sorrow or affliction and sometimes in the hour and extremities of Death for it is only upon these or such like extraordinary occasions that the Holy Spirit usually administers these great Consolations to our minds And this he also performs in the same manner as he doth the aforenamed operations viz. by suggesting to and vigorously impressing comfortable thoughts upon our minds for there is no doubt but that as he can impress on us what thought soever he pleases so he can also impress it with what strength and vigour soever he pleases and accordingly as he impresses a comfortable thought on us more or less vigorously it must of necessity be a greater or a less consolation to us if he think fit and our state require it he can imprint a comfortable thought on us with that strength and vehemence as that it shall even ravish us from our sense and so ingross all our attention to it as that we shall be altogether mindless and insensible of any pain or pleasure of the body For thus it is usual for serious Contemplators in their profound Muses to collect and call together all their animal spirits to attend that work so as that many times there are none or not enough at least remaining to supply the Offices of their sense and carry on the inferiour operations of Nature and if we our selves by intense thinking can thus alienate our minds from sense we may easily suppose that the Holy Ghost who hath the command of our minds can when he pleases stamp a joyous thought so vigorously upon them as that it shall instantly transport them into an ecstasie and ravish them from all Corporeal sensation And that thus he hath done is notoriously evident in the above-named Martyrs whose Senses were many times so intranced by the rapturous contemplations their minds were seised with that they lay smiling and sometimes singing under the bloudy hands of their Tormentors without any apparent sense of those long and exquisite cruelties that were practised upon them And though the blessed Spirit seldom applies these strong and powerful Cordials to pious minds but in such great and urgent extremities it being much more for their interest to be kept humble and lowly than to be ravished with continued comforts yet ordinarily he administers a standing peace and satisfaction to them and when ever their necessities call for it he inspires them with such degrees of joy and consolation as their case and condition requires Fifthly and lastly Another of these ordinary operations of the Holy Spirit on Men's minds is Intercession by which he enables us to offer up our Prayers to God with such ardent and devout affections as are in some measure sutable to the matter we pray for For Prayer being the immediate converse of our Souls with God wherein our minds are obliged to withdraw themselves from sense and sensible things and wholly to retire themselves from those Objects to
thenceforth to reside and make his constant abode and from whence and by whom he would for the future communicate himself to Mankind And accordingly the sign which God gave to Iohn Baptist by which he might know the Messias when he saw him was this Vpon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost i. e. who from himself or from his own fulness shall communicate the Holy Ghost to the World Ioh. 1.33 For so full was Jesus of the Holy Ghost that he not only prophesied himself and did miracles by it whensoever he pleased but he also communicated it to his own immediate Disciples and impowered them to communicate it to others and hence it is said that God gave not the Spirit by measure to him John 3.34 i. e. with limitations and restrictions to such particular times or ends and purposes but in that unlimited manner as that he could not only act by it himself whensoever or howsoever he pleased but also communicate it to others in what degree or measure soever he pleased For so Ioh. 20.22 it is said that he breathed upon his Disciples and bid them receive the Holy Ghost and Acts 8.17 we are told that upon their laying their hands upon others they also received the Holy Ghost And by this unlimited fulness of the Holy Ghost which our Saviour received at his Baptism he was perfectly accomplished for his Prophetick Office. For the Holy Ghost abode in him after that visible glory in which he descended disappeared even throughout the whole course of his Ministry and hence Luke 4.1 we are told that being full of the Holy Ghost he returned from Iordan and after he had finished his forty days Fast in the Wilderness he returned from thence in the power of the Spirit into Galilee ver 14. where in his own City of Nazareth he began to Prophesie declaring and manifesting that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him vers 18 to 23. and at Cana in Galilee he began to work Miracles and thereby to manifest forth his Glory Joh. 2.11 Thus by Prophesying and confirming his Prophecies by Miracles he exerted that fulness of the Holy Ghost which was communicated to him at his Baptism And now since before he came down to Prophesie to us he was from Eternity in the bosom of the Father and since when he came down he was clothed in humane nature and in that nature was inspired with such an unbounded fulness of the Holy Ghost as that he could not only Prophesie himself and confirm his Prophecy by Miracles when he pleased but also communicate these his Gifts to others in what measures and proportions he thought fit to enable them to Prophesie for him wheresoever he thought meet to send them what can we imagine farther necessary to compleat and accomplish him for the Prophetick Office I proceed therefore in the next place to shew how throughly and effectually he discharged this Office which will plainly appear by considering briefly what those things were which as a Prophet he performed all which are reducible to these six Heads First He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World. Secondly He proved and confirmed what he had declared by Miracles Thirdly He gave a perfect Example of Obedience to what he had declared and proved to be his Father 's Will. Fourthly He sealed his declaration with his own Bloud Fifthly He instituted an Order of men to preach what he had declared to the World. Sixthly He sent his Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain to those men what he had declared and to enable them also to prove and assert it by Miracles I. He made a full Declaration of his Father's Will to the World viz. in those Sermons Parables and Discourses of his which we find recorded in the four Evangelists in which the whole Will of God concerning the Way and Method of our Salvation is fully and perfectly revealed For thus S. Paul declares to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus that he had kept back nothing that was profitable for them but had testified both to the Iews and Greeks repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ Acts 20.20 21. and ver 27. he tells them that he had not shunned to declare unto them all the Counsel of God. Now it is certain that this whole Counsel of God which he had preached was only that account of our Saviour's Discourses and Actions which S. Luke gives us in his Gospel who as Irenaeus tells us was a follower of S. Paul and did compile into one Book that History of our Saviour's Life and Doctrine which S. Paul had taught and delivered and if so then the whole Counsel of God must be contained in this Gospel and accordingly S. Luke tells his Theophilus in the beginning of his Gospel That forasmuch as many had set forth a declaration of those things that were surely believed among Christians it seemed good unto him also having had a perfect understanding of all things from the first to write them down in order that he might know the certainly of those things wherein he had been instructed From whence I infer that supposing that S. Luke performed what he promised his Gospel must contain a full declaration of the Christian Religion For first by promising to give an account of those things that were surely believed among Christians he engaged himself to give an entire account of Christianity unless we will suppose that there were some parts of Christianity which the Christians of that time did not surely believe Secondly In promising to give an account of those things of which he had perfect understanding from the first and in which his Theophilus had been instructed he also engaged himself to give a compleat account of the whole Religion unless we will suppose that there were some parts of this Religion which S. Luke did not perfectly understand and in which Theophilus had not been before instructed And the sâ—me may be said of the three other Evangelists viz. that their Gospels do severally contain all the necessary Articles of Christianity though the last of them seems to have been wrote upon a more particular design viz. more fully to explain than any oâ— the former Evangelists had done the Article of the Divinity and eternal generation of Jesus Christ the Son of God. And if the whole of Religion be contained in these Gospels which are only Histories of our Saviour's Preaching and Actions then it cannot be denied but that he made a full revelation of God's Will to the World. It is true there are sundry other divine Writings annexed to these Gospels which together with them compleat the New Testament viz. the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles but these pretend not to declare any new Religion to the world For as for the Acts of the Apostles it is only an Historical account of the Preparations
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
which he shed 1600. years ago he still intercedes for us with the same effect and success as when he first presented it to his Father in Heaven Upon which account there was no need that he should offer himself often as the High Priest entered into the holy place every year with bloud of others for then must he have often suffered since the foundation of the World but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to take away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.25 26. So that Christ's one Sacrifice being of perpetual vertue and efficacy and being as such perpetually presented to the Father in heaven he therewithal makes a continued and uninterrupted Intercession for us and will continue to do so to the end of the World. Hence we are said to be sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus once for all Heb. 10.10 And whereas every Priest standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away sin this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God vers 11 12. and this offering his one Sacrifice for sins in heaven being for ever it is a perpetually continued act of Intercession for us For so it is said that he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 i. e. he ever lives in Heaven so as by his perpetual presence there to make perpetual Intercession for us And upon the account of the perpetuity of this his Priestly Act of Intercession he is said to have an unchangeable Priesthood not barely because he continues for ever for so he might have done and yet â—eased to have been a Priest but because he continues for ever exercising his Priesthood or presenting his Sacrifice Heb. 7.24 And hence also he is said to be a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck that is not only to be a Royal Priest as Melchisedeck was which as I shewed before was the proper Character of Melchisedeck's Priesthood but to be a Royal Priest for ever Heb. 7.17 For Melchisedeck was not only a Royal Priest but also a Type or Shadow of an eternal Royal Priest and that as he was without Father and without Mother without descent or Genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like unto the Son of God abideth a Priest continually Heb. 7.3 where the Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without descent or Genealogy explains what is meant by without Father and without Mother i. e. without any Father or Mother mentioned in the Genealogies of Moses so the Syriac version whose Father and Mother are neither of them recorded in the Genealogies in which he very much differed from the Aaronical Priests whose Fathers and Mothers names were constantly recorded in the Jewish Genealogies as appears from Esdr. 11.62 and so also Philo on the Decalogue tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the descent and Progeny of the Priests is kept with all manner of exactness So that there being no Genealogy at all of Melchisedeck in Scripture he is introduced into the History like a man dropt down from Heaven for so the Text goes on having neither beginning of days nor end of life i. e. in the History of Moses which contrary to its common usage when it makes mention of great men takes no notice at all of the time either of Melchisedeck's birth or death and herein he is made like unto the Son of God i. e. by the History of Moses which mentions him appearing and acting upon the Stage without either entrance or exit as if like the Son of God he had abode a Priest continually So that as Moses's History treats of Melchisedeck without taking any notice of his beginning or end as if he were a Royal Priest for ever so Christ in truth and reality is a Royal Priest for ever because by the perpetual Oblation and presenting his Sacrifice to the Father he perpetually exercises his Priesthood and makes a continued intercession for Mankind IV. This address being made by the continued Oblation or presenting of his sacrificed body to the Father is in the vertue thereof always effectual and successful For his Sacrifice as hath been shewn at large was the price of his purchace of those blessings he intercedes for the price which God by a solemn agreement with our Saviour had obliged himself to admit and accept For the only blessings he intercedes for are those which are specified in the New Covenant which New Covenant God granted to Mankind in consideration of the meritorious Death and Sacrifice of our Saviour and accordingly when he went to offer up himself a Sacrifice for us he tells us that it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to what was determined or agreed on between his Father and himself Luke 22.22 And hence our Saviour tells us that his Father in consideration of what he was to suffer did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Covenant to him a Kingdom Luke 22.29 which Kingdom includes a Kingly power to bestow upon his faithful Subjects the Rewards of his Religion which are the blessings of the New Covenant and of this Covenant by which God obliged himself in consideration of Christ's Death to bestow this Kingly power upon him that of Heb. 10.7 seems to be intended then said I Lo I come in the Volume of the Book it is written of me to do thy will O God where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render the Volume of the Book may perhaps be more truly translated the Instrument Indenture or Covenant that is between thee and me For so the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers signifieth any sort of writing and particularly a Bill Deut. 24.1 according to which sence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must here signifie the volume or folding of a Bill or which is all one an Indenture or Covenant When therefore he sâ—ith Lo I come in the Indenture or Covâ—nant which is between thee and me by which thou hasâ— bequeathed or covenanted to me a Kingdom or power to bestow such and such blessings on my faithful Subjects in this Covenant I say it is exprest or written that I should come to do thy will i. e. to offer up that body which thou hast prepared for me a Sacrifice for the sins of the World ver 5. And indeed how could it have been foretold of him as it is Isa. 53. that he should justifie many by bearing their iniquities and that he should see the travail of his soul i. e. for our Salvation and be satisfied had not the Father obliged himself by Contract and Covenant to justifie and save us in consideration of his Sacrifice And indeed this whole Prediction carries with it a Promise from the Father to Christ that upon the consideration of his Death and Sacrifice he should be effectually impowered to save and justifie us Since therefore the Sacrifice
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
Third Person in the Holy Trinity of whose Person and Ministry under our Saviour in his Kingdom I have treated at large from P. 49. to P. 98. II. Therefore the next Order of Ministers by which Christ rules his Kingdom are the Angels of God that is the whole world of Angels whether they be good or bad Angels of Light or Angels of Darkness In the prosecution of which Argument I shall endeavour first to prove the thing viz. That the Angels both good and bad are the Ministers of Christ in the Government of his Kingdom Secondly To shew wherein their Ministry doth consist First That the Angels both good and bad are Christ's Ministers in his Kingdom For as for the good Angels they are subjected to Christ by the Order and Appointment of God himself who is the Father of Spirits and to whom they are inviolably obedient And for the bad they are subjected to him by just Conquest contrary to their own Wills and Inclinations Of each of which I shall endeavour to give some brief account First The good Angels are subjected to Christ by the Order and Appointment of God to whom they are always inviolably obedient It seems at least very probable that before our Saviour was Exalted upon his Triumphant Ascension into Heaven to the universal Empire of the World under God the Father the Angelical Powers were not all of them subjected to his Mediatorial Royalty but that some of them had their distinct Regencies and Presidentships immediately under God the most high Father over such and such Nations and Countries as he in his Grace thought meet to allot to them for so it is evident the Septuagint thought when in Deut. 32.8 instead of he i. e. God set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Children of Israel they render it He set the bounds of the Nations according to the number of the Angels of God for as the ancient Jews distributed the Gentile world into seventy two Nations so they also reckoned seventy two Angels that presided over them and indeed considering what follows ver 9. For the Lord's portion is his People Iacob is the lot of his inheritance it seems very probable that this translation of the Septuagint was the true sense of the Original viz. that whereas God distributed the Gentile world into so many Nations as there were President Angels to be their Guardians and Governours he reserved Israel to himself as his own Lot and Portion over which he intended to preside immediately in his own person and therefore as a learned Writer of our own hath observed it is not at all improbable but that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Sons of Israel as it is now in our Hebrew Copies the ancient reading whence the Septuagint translated might be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Sons of God and that El might either be mistaken by the Transcribers for a final abbreviation of Israel or changed into Il which is the contraction of Israel and if in the ancient Hebrew it was the Sons of God it is no wonder that the Septuagint rendered it the Angels of God the Sons of God being in Scripture a very common Appellation of Angels But whether this be so or not it is evident that when God threatned to withdraw his personal presence from Israel upon their worshipping the golden Calf and to put them under the Conduct of an Angel Exod. 33.2 3. the meaning of it was that he would no longer preside over them in his own Person but subject them to the Government of a President Angel and therefore ver 20. he bids them beware of this Angel and obey his voice and not provoke him for saith he he will not pardon your iniquities which plainly shews that this Angel was to have had a ruling power over them to pardon or punish them at his own pleasure so that that which God here Threatned was that he would put them in the same condition with other Gentile Nations who were subjected to the Government of particular Guardian Angels and so change their Theocracy into an Angelocracy And so as it is evident Moses understood him for ver 15 16. he thus prays If thy Presence go not with me carry us not up hence for wherein shall it be known here that I and thy People have found grace in thy sight is it not that Thou goest with us so shall we be separated I and thy People from all the People that are on the face of the Earth where it is very plain that that which distinguished Israel from all other Nations was this that God himself in his own Person immediately presided over them and that if this distinction were taken away by God's withdrawing from them and subjecting them to the Presidence of an Angel they would be left in the same condition with other Gentile Nations who must therefore be supposed to be under the immediate Conduct of President Angels And this is most evident of the Kingdom of Persia and the Kingdom of Greece in particular Dan. 10.13 20. where there is mention made of two Angels under the Character of the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece and also of a Third viz. Michael who is stiled one of the chief Princes and Michael your Prince ver 21. and elsewhere the great Prince which standeth for the Children of thy People Dan. 12.1 and upon what other account can we suppose them to be stiled the Princes of those Countries but because they presided over them as their Guardians and Governours It is true as for the last of them viz. Michael he is supposed by very learned Expositors to be no other than God the Son who as I have proved at large was always the Prince and Guardian of Israel but if he were not God the Son but merely a created Angel it is certain he was not the President or Guardian of Israel since as was shewn before they had no other Guardian but God himself but in all probability he was the Prince of those Angels that ministred to God the Son in his Guardianship and Government of Israel and consequently that Angel of his to whom he intended to subject them when he threatened to withdraw his personal Conduct from them upon which account he might be called their Prince because under Christ he had a Principal share in the Protection and Government of them Now these Guardian Angels seem to have been Archangels or the Princes of the distinct Orders of Angels for so Michael is not only stiled an Archangel Iude 9. but he is also said to have an Army of Angels under his Command and Conduct and with them to have fought with the Dragon or Satan who was also an Archangel and his Angels Rev. 12.7 Now though Michael supposing him to be a created Spirit was not a Guardian Angel yet the Prophecy of Daniel by stiling him one of the Chief Princes plainly assures us that he was an
is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repents Luke 15.10 we cannot but suppose that so far as their own ability and the Laws of the invisible World will permit them they do promote and further our repentance since in so doing they contribute to their own joy and in a word since the Scripture assures us that the Angels are present in our holy Assemblies which that passage of S. Paul seems necessarily to imply 1 Cor. 11.10 For this cause ought the woman to have power over her head i. e. to be veiled in the sacred Assemblies because of the Angels or out of a decent respect and reverence to those blessed Spirits who are supposed to be present there since I say they are present in our Religious Assemblies we cannot reasonably suppose them to be present merely as Idle Auditors and Spectators who have nothing else to do but only to observe and gaze upon our holy solemnities and therefore must conclude that their great business there is to assist us in the performance of them to remove our indispositions and recollect our wandrings to fix our attention excite our affections and inflame our devotions for besides as they are the Ministers of the divine Providence they have many opportunities of presenting good objects to us and removing temptations from us of disciplining our natures with prosperities and afflictions and of so ordering and varying our outward Circumstances as to render our duty more facile and easie to us besides which I say as they are Spirits they have a very near and familiar access to our souls not that they can make any immediate impressions on our Vnderstanding or Will which are a sphere of light to which no created spirit can approach it being under the immediate Oeconomy of the Father of Spirits but yet being Spirits there is no doubt but they may and oftentimes do insinuate themselves into our fancies and mingle with the spirits and humours of our bodies and by that means never want opportunity both to suggest good thoughts to us and raise holy affections in us For that they can work upon our fancies is apparent else there could be neither Angelical nor Diabolical dreams and if they can so act upon our fancies as to excite new images and representations in them they may by this means communicate new thoughts to our understandiâ—g which naturally Prints off from the fancy those Ideas and Images which it there finds set and composed And as they can work upon our fancies so there is no doubt but they can influence our spirits and humours else they have not the power so much â—s to cure or inflict a disease and by thus working â—pon our spirits they can moderate as they please the violence of our passions which are nothing but the flowings and reflowings of our spirits to and fro from our hearts and by influencing our humours they can compose us when they please into such a sedate and serious temper as is most apt to receive religious impressions and to be influenced by the Heavenly motions of the Holy Ghost These things I doubt not the blessed Angels can and frequently do though we perceive it not and though by the Laws of the world of Spirits they may probably be restrained from doing their utmost for us that so we may still act with an uncontrouled freedom and be left under a necessity of a constant and diligent endeavour yet this we may be sure of that as the evil Angels are always busie to pervert and seduce us from our duty so the good are no less active to reduce us to and assist us in it VI. Another instance of the Ministry of Angels in the Kingdom of Christ is their conducting the separated Spirits of his faithful Subjects to the Mansions of Glory It was an ancient Tradition among the Jews that the Souls of the Faithful were conducted by Angels into Paradise of which the Chaldee Paraphrase makes mention on Cant. 4.12 and this Tradition of theirs is confirmed by our Saviour Luke 16.22 where he tells us that when Lazarus died he was carried by Angels into Abraham's bosom i. e. into that place of refreshment where the Soul of Abraham who was the Father of the Faithful dwells and in all probability that fiery Chariot and Horses wherein Elias was mounted up to Heaven 2 Kings 2.11 was nothing but a Convoy of Angels and accordingly Tertullian de anima c. 52. stiles the Angels Evocatores animarum i. e. the Messengers of God that call forth the lingring souls out of their bodies and shew them the Paraturam diversorii the preparation of those blessed Mansions where they are to abide till the Resurrection And this Office the good Angels do perform to the Souls of the faithful not meerly to congratulate their safe arrival into the world of blessedness though there is no doubt but that they who do so heartily rejoyce in the Conversion of sinners are ready enough to congratulate their Glorification but that which seems to be the great reason of this Ministration of theirs is to guard holy Souls when they leave their bodies through those lower Regions of the Air which are the Seat and Principality of the Apostate Angels who may therefore be very reasonably supposed to be continually lying in wait there like birds of prey to seize upon the Souls of men as soon as they are escaped out of the Cage of their bodies into the open Air and either to sâ—are and terrifie them in their passage to Heaven or to lead them away captive into their dark Prisons of endless horrour and despair and therefore to prevent their affrighting good souls which is all the hurt they can do them as they pass along through their Territories they are no sooner parted from their bodies but they are taken into the custody of some good Angel or Angels who guard them safe through the Enemies quarters and beat off those evil Spirits from them that would fain be infesting and assaulting them and it is not at all improbable but that by this very thing those evil Spirits do distinguish what Souls do belong to them from what do not viz. their being destitute of or attended with this holy Guard of Angels When they behold a separated Spirit under this Heavenly Convoy they fly away from it with infinite rage and envy to see it irrecoverably rescued out of their power to make it miserable but when they perceive one destitute and abandoned of this Angelick guard they immediately seize it as their own and so commit it to their Chains of darkness And as the good Angels do guard good Souls as they pass through the Air against the power and malice of the Prince of the power of the Air so they also conduct and guide them to their Mansions of blessedness For when the departed Soul is wafâ—ed through the Air into those immense tracts of Aether wherein the Sun and all the Heavenly bodies
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
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after
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
his own Fables or that the Author of the Seven Champions should have laid down his life in the defence of S. George's killing the Dragon would not all the World have concluded them incurably distracted But as for the Apostles their excellent Writings are a sufficient demonstration that they were men of very sound intellectuals and therefore tho we should suppose them to be so wicked as to love lying for its own sake we cannot suppose them to be so mad as to love it better than their own lives as they must necessarily do if their Testimony of our Saviours Resurrection were false But supposing that one or two of them should have proved so frantick yet it is incredible that so many hundreds of men and women should all agree together at the same time in the same mad project viz. to throw away their lives for no other purpose but only to cheat and abuse the World and that no one of them should be induced by all the hopes and fears that were set before them to confess and discover the mad conspiracy When they began to report the Story they could not but foresee the consequence of it viz. that they must either recant it and thereby proclaim themselves Impostors to the World or else lay down their lives for it So that had they known it to be false it would have been a Prodigy of Impudence in them and Folly together not only without hope of benefit but within prospect of a certain ruin to have divulged a known lye to the World and under the severest Persecutions to have persisted in it without the least regret of Conscience or concernment for their own ease and safety There never was the like instance among men and I dare say there never will be so long as men love themselves and continue in their Wits and to imagine that of the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection of which there is no parallel example among mankind is an Argument that we have much more inclination than reason to be Infidels This therefore is plain that the Witnesses of Christs Resurrection gave as great a pledge of the truth of their Testimony as it was possible for mortal men to do and if those men may not be believed who attest a thing upon certain knowledge and seal it with their blood there is no credit can be given to any human Testimony because a mans life is the greatest security that he can possibly give for his honesty VI. Another Circumstance requisite to render a Testimony highly credible is that the Witnesses do give some certain sign and token that what they testifie is true and this the Eye-witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection did For in token that what they said was true they themselves wrought sundry Miracles in his name for so we read of the Apostles that they went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with signs following Mar. 16.20 and that with great power i. e. miraculous works the Apostles gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Iesus Acts 4.33 and also at Iconium the Lord gave Testimony to the word of his grace and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands Acts 14.3 And the same was done by S. Stephen at Ierusasalem Acts 6.8 and by S. Philip at Samaria Acts 8.6 7. and by S. Paul at Ephesus Acts 19.11 And S. Paul assures us That from Ierusalem and round about unto Illyricum the Gospel had been preached by him with mighty signs and wonders and by the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.19 all which things being recorded in an Age wherein if they had been false they might easily have been disproved it had been the wildest project in the world for the Apostles to have pretended to them had they not been notoriously true for they must needs think that all the World being prejudiced against them would be sure to keep a very strict and watchful eye on them and that if upon the severest enquiry they were at any time taken tripping in this their pretence of working Miracles their fraud will soon ring through all the World which must unavoidably prejudice their Cause a thousand times more than all the Miracles they pretended to could advance it and for men that had the eyes of all the World upon them falsly to pretend to work such innumerable Miracles as they did and this not in corners but in publick view and to name the places where they wrought them and where they knew there were thousands that could and would certainly detect and disprove them would have been the most prodigious instance of impudence and folly together that ever was acted by men in their Wits But so notoriously true was the matter of Fact that their most inveterate Enemies amongst both Jews and Gentiles have not the confidence to deny it although indeed they attributed it even as the Jews did our Saviours Miracles to the power of Magick for so in their Talmud Tractat de Idol c. 1. the Jews celebrate S. Iames the Apostle as eminent for the gift of Miracles by whom the Nephew of Rab. Samuel being bit of a Serpent would not be cured because every Disciple of Jesus was wont to heal in his name And Lib. Sabbat Ierosol they tell us of a Son of Rab. Iose who having swallowed Poyson was cured by a Christian in the name of Jesus And as for the Heathen Iulian himself he confesses that S. Paul did very wonderful things for he says that he was the greatest and most expert Magician that ever was vid. Cyril Alex. lib. 3. and the same he pronounces of S. Peter also id lib. 9. So also Celsus frequently charges the Christians with doing their mighty works by the power of some Demon adding a fiction of his own viz. that they had received from Christ certain Magical Books by which they were instructed to perform all their Miracles vid. Origen cont Cels. p. 302. and several other places which is a plain confession that such Miracles were commonly performed by Christians But that they did not perform them by any confederacy with evil Spirits as these bad men affirm is evident because one of their greatest and most common Miracles was dispossessing these evil Spirits of mens Bodies and their own Temples and Oracles For the truth of which they often provoke their Adversaries in their Writings and Apologies to come and make experiment of it Thus S. Cyprian in his Epistle to Demetrian Proconsul of Africa O that thou wouldst but hear and see when the Devils whom thou worshipest are adjured and tortured by us and with the spiritual Rods and Torments of our Words are ejected out of the Bodies they possess when howling and roaring in a human voice they confess the Iudgment to come Do but come and see whether these things we say are not true And a little after If thou wilt come saith he thou shalt see those whom thou worshipest for Gods stand
bound and tremble as miserable Captives under our hands Others of them appeal to the Consciences of the Heathens themselves who had been Spectators of their miraculous Victories over these infernal Spirits So Minutius Faelix All these things are very well known to a great many of your selves that your Gods are forced by us to confess themselves Devils when by the torment of our words and by the fire of our Prayers they are chased out of human Bodies even Saturn and Serapis and Jupiter and the greatest of those Gods you worship being overcome with sorrow are forced to acknowledge what they are and tho it be to their shame especially when you are present yet they dare not lye but being adjured by the true and only God they quake and tremble in the bodies they possess and either leap out immediately or vanish by degrees Others of them offer to make the experiment even before the Tribunals of the Heathen and to answer for the success with their own lives So Tertullian in his Apologetick Let any man that is apparently acted by one of your Gods be brought before your own Tribunals and if that supposed God being commanded by any Christian to speak doth not confess himself to be a Devil as not daring to lye to a Christian take that malepert Christian and pour out his blood immediately Yea how often saith he a little after only upon our touch of and breathing upon possessed persons are these Gods you adore forced to depart out of their Bodies with grief and reluctancy you your selves being present and blushing at it And these things as Origen tells us cont Cels. lib. 7. were ordinarily performed even by the meanest Christians which is a plain Argument that it was done merely by the power of Jesus without any Conjuration or Magical Art. And can we imagine that the Devil without any constraint from some superior power would ever have quitted that Tyranny he had so long exercised over the bodies and consciences of men who had thitherto adored and worshiped him or that he would ever have confessed himself to be a Devil to those men who sought the ruin of his Kingdom and made use of his Confessions to that purpose had he not been forced to it by the Authority of the Father of Spirits Is it likely he would have exerted his power to the ruin of his own interest and the amendment of those Souls he had insnared and captivated as he must necessarily have done should he have impowered the Witnesses of our Saviours Resurrection to confirm their Testimony by Miracles And since they all along declared they did them in the name and by the power of Iesus to be sure if it had not been so the God of truth would never have impowered them to impose such a cheat upon the World. These Miracles of theirs therefore were plain signs and tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead and that not only as they were so many divine seals by which God himself did confirm their Testimony whose goodness and veracity could never have permitted him to set the seal of his miraculous power to a lye But besides this the Apostles Miracles were so many plain demonstrations that Jesus was risen and alive since they did them all in his name and by his power For how is it possible that Jesus could have impowered them to do Miracles had he been still among the dead and in a state of inactivity A dead man can do nothing himself much less can he impower others to do Miracles So that by those miraculous Works which the Apostles did by the power of Christ they did in effect thus bespeak the World Look here O incredulous World if nothing else will persuade you that our Lord is risen and alive behold the vital operations which he exerts in us his Disciples tho of our selves we are as impotent as you yet no sooner do we invoke our great Masters Name and implore his Aid but we are presently enabled to perform mighty things beyond the power of any mortal Agent without any other Charm but his powerful Name we raise the Dead bind the Devils restore the Blind recover the Lame and cure all manner of Diseases and is not this as plain a token of his being alive as if he were now standing before you in our room and doing all these things in his own Person If he were dead still he could not act in us as you see him do and therefore if nothing else will convince ye that he is alive again behold these mighty powers which he exerts in us and be at length persuaded by these sensible tokens of his activity which we produce before your eyes that he is risen from the dead For it is worth observing that this gift of Miracles was never so plentifully communicated to the Apostles as after Christs Ascension into Heaven for before he ascended he commanded them to tarry at Ierusalem till they had received the Gift of the Holy Ghost or which is the same thing the Gift of Miracles Acts 1.4 5. and this gift as he himself tells them vers 8. was to enable them to bear Testimony to him unto all the World for he being now ascended into Heaven they could no longer produce his person to convince unbelievers of the truth of his Resurrection and therefore to supply this defect Christ gave them the gift of Miracles that that might be instead of his bodily presence a plain and sensible token of his being restored to life again And indeed this was as certain a sign of it as if he had continued upon Earth and openly conversed among men in the view of the World for the most crrtain sign of life is action and by what hath been said it is apparent that Christ did not more visibly act in his own Person when he was upon Earth than he did in the persons of his Apostles after he ascended into Heaven These miraculous Operations therefore which they performed by the Power of Jesus were all of them so many plain and sensible Signs and Tokens of the truth of what they did attest viz. that Jesus was risen from the dead So that considering all these circumstances of the Apostles Testimony I dare boldly affirm that from the beginning of the World to this day there never was any matter of Fact more sufficiently and credibly testified than this of the Resurrection of our Saviour and by raising him from the dead God hath bore witness to him before all the World that he really is what he pretended to be the true Messias and only Mediator between himself and us Which brings me to the second Head I proposed to shew what an excellent convincing Argument this is of the truth of our Saviours Doctrine and Mediation and how effectually it justifies his pretence of being the true Messias and only Mediator 'T is true all the Miracles which our Saviour wrought while he
consequently he was before all time and the most ancient of all things Again as they affirm of their word that it is not separated from the first Good or Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but of necessity is together with him being separatee from him only in personality Plot. En. 5. l. 1. c. 6. So S. Iohn affirms of his Word that it was with God from the beginning ver 2. that is in an inseparable union and conjunction for otherwise all other things were as much with God as he Again as they affirm of their Word that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the cause or artificer of the World for so all the Platonick Schools frequently stile him and so Plato himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. which World the Word which of all things is the most divine framed and set in order Epinom and Philo call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Instrument by whom God made the World Phil. lib. Chereb So S. Iohn affirms of his word that all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made ver 3. Again as they affirm of their word that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. if I may coin a word the Be-er and that this Be-er 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. is not a dead Be-er that is neither life nor mind but that mind and life and Be-er are the same thing Plotin Enn. 5. lib. 1. c. 2. So S. Iohn affirms of his word that in him was life ver 4. As they affirm that the life or being of their Word was knowledge or understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. neither is this Mind or Word in Potentia neither is it self one thing and its knowledge another but its knowledge is it self or its own being ibid. lib. 3. c. 5. So S. Iohn affirms of his Word that his life was the light of men i. e. that it consisted of knowledge which is the light of human minds ver 4. as they affirm that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Intelligible light proceeded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the word Phil. de Opif. mund and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that all light is from this word or wisdom Aristâ—b apud Euseb. praepar p. 324. So S. Iohn tells us of his Word that he was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world ver 9. In short as they stile their word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Son of God Plot. Enn. 5. l. 8 c 5 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Son or Child of God the full beautiful mind even the mind that is full of God as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the most ancient Son of the Father of the Universe Phil. lib. cui Tit. Deterius perfâ—ctiori semper infestum esse And also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the first born Son of God Ibid. lib. 1. de Agricuâ—t So S. Iohn stiles his Word the only begotten Son of the Father ver 14.18 Thus from first to last S. Iohn discourses of his Word and in the same Phrase and Language gives the same account of him as the Jewish and Gentile Divines did of theirs so that he must be supposed either to mean the same thing by him viz. a divine eternal Person or to design to make the World believe he meant so for he who speaks or writes must either equivocate and dissemble his meaning or mean according to the vulgar acceptation of the words and phrases he speaks or writes so that supposing S. Iohn doth here sincerely express his own meaning no man that understands the common use and acceptation of his phrases can reasonably understand them any otherwise than of a divine Person and whether this were not his meaning at least in all appearance I appeal to a very indifferent Judge viz. Amelius a Pagan Philosopher who very well understood the Language and Doctrine of the Gentile Schools concerning the divine Legos or Word so often mentioned in their Writings and who casting his eyes upon this discourse of S. Iohn doth with all confidence pronounce this to be the sense of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. this was that Word who according to Heraclitus existed from Eternity and made all things and whom by Iupiter the Barbarian places in the order and dignity of a Principal declaring him to have been with God and to be God and that all things were made by him and that in him all things that were had life and being Vid. Euseb Praep. Evan. 540. Page 51. Line 3. d For thus Porphyry as S. Cyril quotes him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the divine essence extends it self to three persons whereof the highest God is the Good after him the second is the Maker of the World and the third is the Soul of the World for to this Soul the Divine Essence extends it self And of these three divine persons Plotinus hath treated at large whom he expresly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three persons that are principles viz. the Good or the One the Mind and the Soul assuring us that these Doctrines concerning this divine Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they were no new or of yeâ—terday but were anciently though obscurely taught and that what is now discoursed concerning them is only a farther explication of them but we have faithful Witnesses that these Doctrines were taught of old and particularly in the Writings of Plato himself before whom also Parmenides delivered them And indeed Plato very frequently mentions these three divine Persons particularly Phileb p. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. but Wisdom and Mind can never be or act without Soul wherefore in the Nature of God there is a Kingly Soul and a Kingly Mind And indeed so ancient is this Doctrine of three divine Persons subsisting in the Godhead that Proclus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Tradition of the three Gods in Timae Plat. p. 93. for so they sometimes call these three Persons three Gods though as themselves elsewhere explain it they are only three subsistences in the same divine indivisible Essence And the same Proclus calls this Doctrine of the Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the divinely inspired or delivered Theology which teaches that this World was compleated by these three By these and sundry other testimonies that might be produced it is evident that the ancient Divines of the Gentiles acknowledged a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead the last of which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Soul for so thee Chaldee Oracle quoted by the above-named Proclus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. after the Paternal mind which in our Language is God the Son I Psyche or Soul dwell and this Psyche or as our Scriptures phrase it Holy
Females and Proselytes and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles as not being at all offensive to them as Circumcision was it being one of their own Religious Ceremonies and much less painful in its own nature But though this was of a quite different nature from Circumcision yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room and to serve its religious ends and purposes viz. to transact and seal and ratifie the new Covenant between God and us For in Baptism the Party Baptized makes a solemn Vow and Profession by himself or his Sponsor of fidelity and Allegiance to God through Jesus Christ and hence Baptism is called the answer or promise of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 For in the Apostolick Age as Origâ—n tells us in Num. Homil. 5. there were certain questions proposed by the Minister to the Person to be Baptized which St. Cyprian calls Interrogatio Baptismi the Interrogation of Baptism Now the questions proposed were first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou renounce the Devil To which the Party answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do renounce then he was asked again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dost thou consent to resign thy self to Christ To which he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do consent and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention was that in all Probability which the Apostle here calls the answer of a good Conscience and if so it is certain that these words do imply our formal Covenanting with God in Baptism Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection where it is plain that those Phrases buried with Christ and risen with Christ are only the sense and signification of that Eastern custom in Baptism viz. of Plunging the Baptized person under water and raising him up again which being Sacramental actions must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy and the significancy of them the Apostle here plainly tells us wholly refers to the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's Death and Burial and the raising up again to his Resurrection The true import therefore of these Baptismal actions must be First a solemn profession of our belief that as we are buried under water and raised up again so Christ died and was buried and raised up from the dead which being the principal Articles of Christianity do include all the rest Secondly They also import a solemn engagement of the Party baptized to die to and endeavour utterly to extinguish all his sinful lusts and affections even as Christ died and was buried and to rise from the spiritual death of sin into newness of life even as Christ rose from his natural death to live for ever Since therefore in their Baptism they did by the same actions signifie their belief of the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with their own resolution of dying to sin and rising to righteousness they might very well be said to dye with Christ in those actions to be buried with Christ and to rise with Christ since what is represented as done together is representatively done together and it is usual in Sacraments to call the representing signs by the names of the things which they represent For so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover and the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper the Body and Bloud of Christ and for the same reason the plunging under water and raising up again in Baptism is here called dying with Christ and rising with Christ because in the same actions Christ's natural Death and Resurrection and our spiritual Death and Resurrection are represented together The meaning therefore of the above cited passage is plainly this You cannot be ignorant that when you were baptized into Jesus Christ you made a solemn Profession that you would conform your selves to his Death in dying to sin even as he died for it so that in your Baptismal immersion you were representatively buried with him that so as Christ was raised from the dead so you in conformity thereto might live a new regenerate life for if we conform to his Death in dying to sin as we promised to do in our immersion we shall be sure to conform to his Resurrection also in living to Righteousness as we promised to do in our rising out of the water again By which it is evident that Baptism is on our part a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the conditions of the New Covenant And indeed the very phrase Baptized into Iesus Christ can import no less than a solemn resignation of our selves to Christ in Baptism For so the phrase Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 plainly denotes the Jews giving up themselves to him to be governed by him as the Minister of God. And accordingly the Apostle tells us that so many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and putting on Christ is opposed by the Apostle to making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 and therefore must necessarily denote an ingagement of our selves to a strict observance of the Laws of Christian purity or which is the same thing a promise or stipulation on our part of universal obedience to his Laws By all which it is evident that in this solemnity of Baptism we put our selves under Christ as our Head and Covenant with him to be ruled by him in our Faith and Manners And as in this Ceremony of Initiation we strike Covenant with him so doth he with us For in this sacred Action the Minister is the authorized Proxy of Jesus Christ and therefore his giving the holy Sign is Christ's own action and doth to all intents and purposes as much oblige him as if he did it in his own Person For since Christ is not upon Earth and so cannot transact the New Covenant with us in his own Person it is necessary he should do it by Authorized Proxies impowered by himself to do it in his Name which Proxies being thus Authorized by him do as effectually oblige him by those federal Rites which they perform in his Name as if he himself had performed them in his own Person For he doth what they do by his Authority and is as effectually obliged by what he doth by them mediately as by what he doth by himself immediately For thus his Commission runs by which he Authorized them and their Successors to the end of the World Go teach all Nations baptizing