flesh It began at Nicknames and the Jewes were they that began to call names first as interpreters have observed And it began early almost from the time when the seed of Abraham first received that badge of difference You heare on 't in Jacobs time To give our sister to one that is uncircumcised that were a reproach to us Gen. 34. 14. say the sons of Jacob in the case of Dinah And after amongst all the race of the Jewes both good and bad in all ages The same was used as a reproach as by Sampson Judg. 15. 18. by Jonathan 1 Sam. 14. 16. By David Chap. 17. 26. 36. By Saul Chap. 31. 4. They judging it though but a circumstance yet far worse then death it selfe to dye by the hands of the uncircumcised or have the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph 2 Sam. 1. 20. And in the Prophets uncircumcised and uncleane are all one Isa. 32. 1. When they would accurse one to the most accursed death as all Nations according to what they have esteemed the worst of Deaths they have accordingly expressed such like curses As Abi in malam crucem among the Romans Let him dye said the Jew the death of the uncircumcised as Ezek. 28. 10. When they imprecated the most ignominious buriall Thou shalt lye in the midst of the uncircumcised Ezek. 31. 18. A person excommunicate accursed and a heathen was to them all one Let him be as an heathen Mat. 18. and they distinguish themselves from the Gentiles by appropriating the title of sinners wholly to the Gentiles we that are Jewes BY nature and not sinners of the Gentiles Gal. 2. 15. and God foreseeing how apt their spirits were to grow from hence into an abhorrency of all other Nations made a specall Law to prevent it concerning some particular Nations Deut. 23. 7. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite for he is thy brother thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian because thou wast a stranger in his Land Next see this enmity expressed in their carriages and dealings with the Gentiles they not onely not communicate with them in sacris in holy things but their zeale was such and this after the light of Christianity appeared to them that they would have killed Paul Acts 21. 31. for no other crime but this ver. 28. This is the man hath brought Greeks that is Heathens into the Temple and hath polluted the holy place ver. 28. nay they accounted it an abhominable thing {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as in 1 Pet. 4. 3. the word is rendred abominable Idolatry and so the vulgar Here to keepe company that is familiarly yea or so much as to come unnecessarily to one of another Nation founding all this upon that which was a peculiar command upon a speciall ground against the Ammonites and Moabites Deut. 23. 6. Thou shalt not seeke their peace nor their prosperity all thy dayes for ever This they extended to all Nations and This to that rigidity that they would not doe ordinary courtesies of common humanity Non monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti sayes Juvenal not tell a mans way to a poore wanderer an act of civility Non ad fontem deducere to lead to a well for water which was an act of charity The Woman of Samaaia therefore wonders at Christ Joh. 4. 8 9. How is it that thou being a Jew askest drinke of me which am a woman of Samaria for the Jewes have no dealings with the Samaritans Each one of you sayes Christ will and that on the Sabbath day loose his Oxe or his Asse from the stall and leade him away to watering Luke 13. 15. but they would not doe thus much for an Heathen though ready to perish for thirst not shew him a Well hard by sayes the same Juvenal in the same place Quaesitum ad fontem solos deducere verpos not give a cup of cold water which Christ makes the least of curtesies save onely to their own * Verpi as we say vermin and circumcised ones So Juvenal scoffs them hoc Judaicum Jus This is the Jewish Law And no wonder of all this for indeed they accounted all the Heathen as beasts made to be destroyed upon the mistake of their Commission concerning those seven Nations given up by God the Judge of the World in whose soveraignty it was into their hands Even Christ speaking in the common language of the Jewes calls the Syropheniciam Woman and all the Gentiles doggs Mat. 15. 25 26. as the Turkes call Christians at this day yea out of their own records some of the Rabbinicall interpreters upon Deut. 21. 11. they have delivered that they accounted them feris deteriores worse then beasts nuptias eorum innuptas their marriages no marriages and therefore nec homicidium nec adulterium in eos committi posse that it was no adultery to abuse their Wives no murther to kill any of them no robbery to take from them by never so much violence Which Josephus Albo Justifies in his disputation adversus Christianos giving this reason that be that lived without their Law and worshipt false Gods he was a common enemy in eum illicitum nihil and nothing can be unlawfull that is done against him by them Can malice be supposed to rise any higher and yet in that Nation it did against these poore Gentiles 1 Thess. 2. 16 17. Contrary they are to all men and it followes forbidding us to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved The Apostle speaking it by way of aggravation of their malice seemes to intend it not onely consequenter that they denied them the Gospell without which they could not be saved but farther intentionaliter what was in their intentions that suppose they had thought the Gospell a meanes of salvation they would have forbad it to be preacht to them that they might not be saved Is there not worke for a Peacemaker now This on the JEVVES PART And can we think the GENTILES were behind hand with them and yet the truth is the Gentiles were the more moderate of the two as the 11 verse here and the Parable of the good Samaritane that poured Oyle into a strangers wounds and the story of the Samaritan Woman All shew for shee layes fault on the Jew that HE would not aske water of a Samaritan and not è contra It were too much to reckon up all that might be out of their Poets and Historians I will but so far make mention of some Testimonies of the Gentiles hatred against the Jewes as they make up a parallel with what hath beene said of the Jewish enmity against the Gentiles thereby to manifest that the Gentiles were even with them if not in malice get in jeeres and scornes 1. Did the Jewes reproach them as uncircumcised as you heard the Gentiles on the contrary scorned the Jewes as much for circumcision calling them Apellas Judaeus Apella Curtos so * Horace
intent of such a sacrificiall Covenant the Apostle speakes Heb. 10. Now further to finish this Branch let this be added That Christ was not simply offered up as a sacrifice to confirme a meere or bare league of peace and amity betweene us sometimes such sacrifices afore spoken of were designed onely to make and bind new Leagues and Covenants betweene such parties as never had beene at variance But here in this case of ours as there was a Covenant of amity to be strucke so there were enmities to be abolisht and slaine as the text hath it and that by this sacrifice and slaying of his flesh which cannot be conceived otherwise to have beene transacted but that as in other sacrifices offered up the trespasses were laid upon the head of the sacrifice and so in a significant mystery slaine and done away in the death of the thing sacrificed And that as in that other way of reconciling us to God The Lord did lay upon him the iniquities of us all namely against himselfe as Isay speakes in allusion unto the rites and the signification therof in those sacrifices to which this text simularly speakes when it saies He slew the enmity in himselfe v. 16. So answerably it was in this which is its parallel All the enmities and mutuall injuries and feuds between us the people of God were all laid upon him and he tooke them in his flesh and in slaying thereof slew these also and abolisht them that so he might reconcile them in one body And so the same nailes that pierced through his hands and feet did naile all our enmities and the causes and occasions of them to the same Crosse as 2 Coloss. insinuates So as we are to looke upon Jesus Christ hanging on the Crosse as an equall Arbiter betweene both parties that takes upon himselfe whatever either partie hath against the other Lo here I hang saies Christ a dying and let the reproaches wherewith you reproach each other fall on me The sting of them all fix it selfe on my flesh and in my death dye all together with me lo I dye to pacific both Have therefore any of you ought against each other Quit them and take me as a sacrifice in bloud betweene you onely doe not kill me and each other too for the same offence for you and your enmities have brought me to this altar of the Crosse and I offer my selfe as your peace and as your Priest will you kill me first and then one another too And thus if taking all your sinnes against God himselfe upon his flesh and sacrificing it for you is of prevalency to kill and slay that enmity much more is it of force to kill these your enmities also Thus like as by assuming the likenesse of sinfull flesh he killed the sinne in our flesh so by taking these our enmities and animosities in his flesh he slew and abolisht them and as his death was the death of death so of these And like as he cured diseases by taking them on himselfe by sympathy 't is said of him when his healing of them is recorded Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses And as not our sinnes against God onely but our sicknesses by sympathy so not our enmities against God onely but our animosities one against another and by bearing them abolisht them by dying as an Arbiter betweene us slew them and therefore in the text he is called our peace not our peacemaker onely when this peace amongst our selves is spoken of to note out as Musculus observes that he was not onely efficiently our peacemaker the Author of our peace but our peace materially the matter of our peace by the sacrifice of himselfe God is stiled our peacemaker our reconciler God was in Christ reconciling the world but not our peace this is proper to Christ and why but because he onely was the sacrifice of our peace and bore our enmities Even as he is not only called the Redeemer so God also is but redemption it selfe Now for a coronis to this first Branch and withall to adde a further confirmation yet that Christs death was intended as a sacrifice to these ends for amity and unity among Gods people we may clearly view and behold this truth in the Mirrour of the Lords Supper One most genuine and primary import whereof and end of the institution of it being this very thing in hand I shall have recourse thereto againe in the next Branch also upon the same account that now The Lords Supper in its full and proper scope is as you know a solemne commemoration of Christs death offered up upon the Crosse or if you will in the Apostles owne words it is a shewing forth his death till he comes And doe this sayes Christ in remembrance of me namely in dying for you and so withall to commemorate with application to themselves the principall ends and intendments of that his death which is therein acted over afore their eyes Hence therefore I take this as an undoubted maxime which no knowing Christian will deny and it s the foundation of what I am now a building That looke what principall ends purposes or intendments this Supper or sacrificiall feast holds forth in its institution unto us those must needs be lookt at by all Christians in the like proportion to have been the maine ends and purposes of his death to be remembred So that we may argue mutually from what were the ends of Christs death unto what must needs be the designed intendments of this Sacrament And we may as certainly conclude and inferre to our selves what were the intendments of his death by what are the genuine ends of that Sacrament These answer each to other as the image in the glasse doth to the principall lineaments in the face the impresse on the wax to that in the scale the action the signe and remembrances to the thing signified and to be remembred Now it is evident that Christ upon his death instituted that Supper As to be a seale of that Covenant of Grace betweene God and us ratified thereby so also to be a communion the highest outward pledge ratification and testimony of love and amity among his members themselves And accordingly it being in the common nature of it a feast looke as betweene God and us it was ordained to be epulum foederale a Covenant feast betweene him and us the evidence whereof lyes in this That he invites us to his table as friends and as those he is at peace withall and reconciled unto So in like manner betweene the Saints themselves it was as evidently ordained to be a Syntaxis a love feast in that they eate and drinke together at one and the same table and so become as the Apostle saies ONE BREAD And againe looke as betweene God and us to shew that the procurement of this peace and reconciliation betweene him and us was this very sacrifice of Christs death as that which made our peace God
met representing them equally and alike unto God and so reconciled them to God in one body As you heard he bore their enmities in his flesh and so abolisht them so withall He bore their persons considered as one collective body and under that consideration reconciled them to God And this superadds to the former consideration of being a Sacrifice for their enmities mutually for that he might have been and have performed it for each of their persons considered singly and apart But further we see Hee was pleased to gather them into one body in Himselfe If you aske me where and when this Representation of all the Saints was by Christ more especially made and when it was they were lookt at by God as one body The text tells us ON THE CROSSE By which He thus reconciled us to God in one body I will not now insist on that which at first to make my way cleare I was so large upon That that kind of reconciliation of us wrought by Christ for us on the Crosse is here intended to all which this may be added That it was that Reconciliation which at once tooke in and comprehended all both Jew and Gentile in all ages into one body which was never yet since actually done but therefore then was done in himselfe That which is now onely left for clearing my way is the opening the import of those words in one body which clause is that I take for my foundation of this second Paragraph There is a question among interpreters whether by this one body in the text be meant the Church onely considered as one mysticall body in Christ or onely the body and humane Nature of Jesus Christ Himselfe hanging upon the Crosse I would to reconcile both senses take in both as conducing to the reconciliation of us 1. Supposing which is necessary Christs person His humane nature or His Flesh v. 15. to be the Ubi the substratum the meeting place and Randezvouz of this other great body of the Elect where this whole company appeared and was represented so to be reconciled unto God For indeed what the Apostle mentions here apart and at distance each from other His Flesh v. 15. and Body v. 16. these elsewhere he brings together 1 Coll. 22. Having made peace IN THE BODY OF HIS FLESH through death Which body as hanging on the Crosse was 2 cloathed upon when most naked with this other body which He Himselfe tooke on Him to sustaine and represent and to stand in their stead even the whole body of His Elect His body personally His becoming by representation one with that His other body mystically His In sum in the body of Christ personall as the body representing the whole body of Christ mysticall as the body represented was met in one afore God and unto God And in that one body of Christ personall were all these persons thus represented reconciled unto God together as in one body by vertue of this Representation V. SECTION The influence That our being reconciled to God IN ONE BODY hath into our reconciliation mutuall in two eminent respects IF any shall aske what influence and virtue this their being considered as one body met in His body and under that consideration reconciled to God hath into their reconciliation one to another I answer much every way neither is it mentioned last as last in order but as the foundation of all other considerations thereto belonging 1. In that they were thus all once met in one body in the body of Christ both in his intendment and his Fathers view This consideration if no more hath force enough in it to bring them together againe in after times Even this clandestine union such indeed in respect of our knowledge of it then yet having all three persons the witnesses in Heaven present this precontract this anticipated onenesse this forehand union hath such vertue in it that let them afterwards fall out never so much they must be brought together again and be one Heaven and Earth may be dissolved this union thus once solemnized can never be frustrated or dissolved what God and Christ did thus put together sinne and devill men and angells cannot alwayes and for ever keepe assunder His Fathers donation of them to Him and Christs own representation of the same persons to His Father again have a proportionable like virtue in them for there is the same reason of both Now of the one Christ sayes All that the Father giveth me shall come to me Joh. 6. 37. Christ mentions that gift of them by the lumpe to him by the Father as the reason or cause rather why they could not ever be kept from him And as none can keep them from him because given of the Father to him in like manner and for the like reason the whole body of them cannot be kept one from another because presented by him againe to the Father Christ mentions both these considerations as of equall efficacy in that prayer whereby he sanctifyed that Sacrifice of himselfe John 17. Thine they were And thou gavest them me All mine are thine and thine are mine And I pray v. 21. that they all may be one and that in this world as we are Christ then not onely died for his sheepe apart that they might come to himselfe as Joh. 10. 15. but further that they might be one fold as it followes there And as the Evangelist interprets Cajaphas prophecy Hee died to gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad Joh. 11. 51 52. To make sure which gathering to come He in and at His death gathered them together representatively they met all in him and ascended the Crosse with him as Peters phrase is of all their sins therefore much more their persons 1 Pet. 2. 24. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} He himselfe carryed up in or together with his body our sins up to the tree ascendere fecit sursum simul cum seipso The Crosse was the first generall Rendezvouz in this world appointed for him and his members where they were crucified in him and with him as the Apostle often speakes Christ told the Jewes If I be lifted up Joh. 12. 32. speaking of his death on the Crosse v. 33. I will draw all to me And here you see the reason of it for in their lifting up him they lift up all his with him as hung to and adjoyned with him in one body in his body This great and universall loadstone set in that steele of the Crosse having then gathered all these lesser magneticke bodies pieces of himselfe into himselfe the vertue hereof will draw them all together in one againe as they come to exist in the world They may be scattered they may fall out but as branches united in one root though severed by winds and stormes and beaten one from and against another yet the root holding them in a firme and indissoluble union it brings them to a quiet
order and station againe And if the now scattered Jewes must one day come together and make one body againe because those dry bones the Umbrae the ghastly Shadowes of them were seene once to meet in Ezekiels vision how much more shall the Elect coalesce in one New man because they once met in him that is the body and not the shadow If those Jewes must meet that the prophecy the vision might be fulfilled these must much move that the end of his death and his hanging on the tree may be fulfilled in whom all visions and promises have their Amen and accomplishment As in his death so in his resurrection also they are considered as one body with him Isay 26. 19. Together with my dead body they shall arise sayes Christ and both in death and resurrection one body to the end they may be presented together in one body all at last Coloss. 1. 22. and in the meane time in the efficacy of these forehand meetings are they to be created into one new man v. 15. and that even {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} ONE individuall man Gal. 3. ult. not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} one bulke body or thing onely This one new man which they are to grow up into answereth exactly to that one body which was then gathered together represented and met in him on the Crosse bearing the image of it and wrought by the vertue of it The second is that if such a force and efficacy flowes from their having met once as One Body then much more from this which the text addes that they WERE RECONCILED TO GOD in that one Body This clause In one Body was on purpose inserted together with their RECONCILIATION TO GOD to shew that they were no otherwise esteemed or lookt at by God as reconciled to him but as under that representation view and respect had of them as then by him that so dum sociaret Deo sociavit inter se their reconciliation with God was not considered nor wrought onely apart singly man by man though Christ bore all their names too but the tearmes were such unlesse all were and that as in one body and community together among themselves reputed reconciled the whole reconciliation and of no one person unto God should be accounted valid with him So as their very peace with God was not onely never severed from but not considered nor effected nor of force without the consideration of their being one each with other in Christ Insomuch as upon the law and tenour of this Originall act thus past God might according to the true intent thereof yea and would renounce their reconciliation with himselfe if not to be succeeded with this reconciliation of theirs mutually And allthough this latter doth in respect of execution and accomplishment succeed the other in time the Saints they doe not all presently agree and come together as one body yet in the originall enacting and first founding of reconciliation by Christ these were thus on purpose by God interwoven and indented the one in the other and the termes and tenure of each enterchangeably wrought into and moulded in one and the same fundamentall Charter and Law of reconciliation mutuall then which nothing could have been made more strong and binding or sure to have effect in dne time VI SECTION This Reconciliation of the Saints to God considered as in One Body Held likewise forth in the Administration of the Lords Supper And one eminent foundation of the institution of fixed Church Communion hinted Herein THe impresse and resemblance of this namely Christs Reconciling us to God in one Body wee may likewise perceive And I shall mention it the rather to make the harmony of this with all the former still more full in the administration of the Lords Supper in which we may view this truth also as wehave done the other That Supper being ordeined to shew forth his death looke as he dyed so it represents it As therefore Christ was sacrificed representing the Generall assembly of Saints so in one body reconciled them to God so this Supper was ordeined in the regular administration of it to hold forth the image of this as neer as possible such an ordinance could be supposed to have done it For answerably the seate the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of it is a Communion of many Saints met together in one Body And not otherwise Thus 1 Cor. 10. 17. For we being many are òne bread and ONE BODY He had said v. 16. That the Lords Supper it was the Communion of the body of Christ c. that is a Communion of Christs Body as to each so as of a company united together among themselves and accordingly the Apostle subjoynes this as the reason For we whom you see doe ordinarily partake of it are many not one or two apart and those many are one bread and one body One bread as the signe One Body as the thing signified And thus we are then considered to be when Christ as dying is communicated by us For to shew forth His Death is the end of this Sacrament The seate therefore or subject of partaking in this Communion of Christs Body and Bloud and which is ordained for the publique participation of it is not either single Christians but a many nor those meeting as a fluid company like clouds uncertainly or as men at an ordinary for running Sacraments as some would have them but fixed setledly as incorporated Bodyes Which institution having for its subject such a society as then when Christs Death is to be shewne forth doth suitably and correspondently set forth how that the whole Church the Image of which whole Universall Church these particular Churches doe beare as a late Commentator hath observed upon that plaee was represented in and by Christ dying for us under this consideration of being One Body then in Him And there is this ground for it that the whole of that Ordinance was intended to represent the whole of his Death and the imports of it as farre as was possible So then looke as the Death it selfe and his bitter Passion are represented therein both of Body in the breaking the Bread which is the Communion of his Body of the Soule in the Wine which is called the Communion of his Bloud and this is the bloud of the New Testament so expressed in allusion to that of the Old in which the bloud was chosen out as the neerest visible representer of the invisible Soule that could be The life lies in the bloud for the spirits which are the animal life doe run in it so spake the old Law and the Poet the same Sanguine quaerendi reditus animâque litandum He termes the Sacrifice of the bloud the Sacrifice of the Soule and so Wine was chosen as the neerest resemblance of bloud being also the bloud of the Grape As thus the death it selfe in all the parts of it so the