with-hold no good thing c. Psal 84.11 4 Nor shall this happy state be ever taken from him but though through workings of the flesh a man may not be always sensible of these things nor have always actual rejoycing while here yet his state is always such and shall hereafter appear and be most sensibly and perfectly such for this life here begun by Christ and by his Spirit never shall terminate or end but increase and be more full as to the injoyment and perception of it in the abiding believer on the Son of Man till it be most immutably perfect They that seek God shall Praise him their hearts shall live for ever Psal 22.26 Death shall not put an end to this life when the body dies the man even then shall be in a living state of the Spirit or inner man in a truly happy and joyful condition though it appear not upon the body of man or to the view of the natural man much less shall it terminate after death to the Spirit made perfect for it being with Christ shall be in a better state then while here Phil. 2.21 23. To be dissolvd and to be with Christ is far better then to be here much less shall this life cease fail or terminate in the state of the resurrection for that state is most properly and fully called Eternal Life Mark 10.30 In the world to come Eternal life because then neither Soul nor Body shall die any more but then 1. The body shall be in an eternally unchangeably happy and blessed state of life a glorious body like the glorious body of Christ. Phil. 3.20 Raised up in honour incorruptibility power and glory so as it shall never feel or be capable of feeling hunger thirst pain weariness weakness decay sickness old age or any other trouble any more forever For there shall be no more death nei-neither sorrow nor crying c. for the former things are passed away Rev. 21.3 with 7.16 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. 2 The Soul and inward man shall be perfect in its knowledge of conformity to and joy in God and in Jesus Christ our Lord For then we shall see as we are seen know as we are known Then that which is perfect being come that which is in part shall be done away 1 Cor. 13.10 12. Then we shall have fulness of joy in Gods presence and pleasures at Gods right hand for evermore Psal 16.12 1 Joh. 3.2 There shall then be no more ignorance or envy nor sorrow nor care nor whatever may render the Soul in the least defective in its happiness but the favour of God and of the Lamb as a clear River of pure waters pure and immixed and never failing shall fill it perpetually with all Heavenly and Spiritual fruitfulness in every good thing Rev. 21.4 11. and 22.1 Isa 11.9.13 Deut. 33.23 Yea 3. The whole state of the man both in Body and Soul and with respect both to God and Men a state of perfect freedom from all evil Nothing in themselves to treuble or disquiet and nothing from without themselves either of wrath and curse from God he shall neither inflict any evil upon or with-hold any good from them but as one perfectly well pleased with them perpetually fill and satisfie them with his favour and blessing afford them his fellowship and the fellowship of the Lamb and whatsoever so happy a Spring may pour forth to them and therefore neither shall any evil befall them either positively from any man or from any other Creature Angel Devil or any other thing to molest or annoy them the Devil and all his Instruments their Enemies and all evil things being for ever removed from out the Creation or what of it the Saints shall have to do with except so as they may look upon and behold their miseries Isa 66.24 And as the happiness of the Saints may be seen by their Enemies for aggravating their miseries Luke 13.28 16.23 and all other things and persons filled with good for and towards them and not with any thing that may in the least be evil and troublesom to them nor privatively for they shall be in no danger to loose any thing of the good they have or shall have none of those deprivations and losses that here afflict and exercise them shall they then be capable of being exercised and tried with no more Widdowhood or loss of Children or of Fathers Mothers Friends no loss of Riches Honours Pleasures Habitations Ornaments or any thing but what they here lost or were deprived of shall in a better manner and more to their comfort be restored if they were such as appertain to the Kingdom their Relations Husbands Parents Wives Children c. shall be restored then with Christ though not as such Relations or as having such dependance then on them as here but in a far more perfect satisfying and glorious manner Nor shall any one thing or person in the world with-hold from them or any of them any one thing that they may have any need of or good by so that their state then shall be a state of perfect life and that everlasting a spiritual and spiritually sensible and intelligent life an holy life an happy and Eternal life wherein the shall have full knowledge of God and his favour blessing righteousness in the full perfect and perpetual performance of all his blessed promises a full and perfect injoyment of the Lamb and of all the virtues and products of his Cross and sufferings and fellowship of his joys and glory and of and with one another even all the whole company of them in the most perfectly united peaceable satisfying way and manner for ever the fulness of the Spirit filling them all and every one with all Spiritual excellencies and satisfactions for ever and in that their fellowship with Christ and one another they shall have an everlasting full and perfect glory glorious Kingdom and Inheritance such as from the beginning of the world men have not heard of or perceived by the Ear or the Eye seen besides God himself being the glorious things which God hath prepared for them that wait for him Isa 64.5 A life worthy our most constant and earnest seeking after laying hold of and embracing But now Quest 4. How shall they that believe on Christ the Son of man have this Eternal Life Answ I may answer to this diversly with respect to 1. The way to their having it 2. The maner of their having it 1. In respect of their way they have and shall have it 1. Through sufferings and death even as our Lord Christ himself that way entred into his glory It is a faithful saying or the word is faithful for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him And if we suffer with him we shall also Reign with him If we even we who at present believe in him deny him he will also deny us 2 Tim. 2.11 12 13. Through much
Palaces wherewith they have made him glad Psal 45.8 And we find his Spouse clothed and adorned by him and for him too in Ezek. 10 11 12 13. and in Rev. 19.7 8. But of these things I shall not speak more largely III. We have seen the perfections of man Let us a little as we may view also those of the Angels He is also called the Angel of the Covenant Angel is in English a Messenger and therefore so translated in our later Editions of the Bible in Mal. 3.1 The Angel of Gods presence that saved Israel Isa 63.9 And that redeemed Jacob out of all evil and had power of blessing Gen. 48.16 And surely He is the highest and best Messenger or Angel that was ever sent of God being his only Son Nor can we find any excellency in the Angels in which he doth not out-strip them They are said to excel in strength doing Gods commandments Psal 107.20 but they excel not nor equalize him in either They cannot uphold all things by the Word of their Power as He doth Heb. 1.3 Nor could they stand under the weight of our sins as He did 1 Pet. 2.24 Therefore they give him the preheminence and judge him only Worthy to receive the Power Riches Wisdom and Strength Honour Glory and Blessing Rev. 5.12 Nor do they Gods Commandments like or equally to him who obeyed to the death the Death of the Cross laying down his life at his Fathers commandement and delighting to do his will therein so as to bear and take away our sins by the sacrifice of himself Philip. 2.8 Joh. 10.18 Heb. 9.26 and 10.5 6. Psal 40.48 Joh. 14.31 They are also intelligent and understanding spirits great in knowledge and excellent in speech 1 Cor. 13.1 yet far short of him for God hath found folly in them saith Job 4.18 but Christ is the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 knowing his Father whom none else so knows Matth. 11.27 and grace is poured into his lips so as God hath blessed him for ever Psal 45.2 They are also great in power especially such of them as are called Principalities and Powers Eph. 1.20 21. but not equal with Christ to whom all of them are commanded to give worship He hath obtained a far more excellent name by inheritance then they as may be seen Heb. 1.5 6. to the end They are indeed Spirits but ministring Spirits to him He is the Lord that Spirit the quickning Spirit so as none of them are 2 Cor. 3.16 17. 1 Cor. 15.45 So that in him are all the perfections and more then all the perfections of Creatures Yea CHAP. XXII Secondly That in Christ are all things Answering the Needs of Fallen man all things that pertain both to Life and Godliness AGain he is and in him are all things answering the Needs of his fallen Creatures of Mankind All things pertaining to Life and Godliness and they are given us in the knowledg of him 2 Pet. 1.3 Let us view that in either Branch First All things pertaining to Life he is and are in him for us And that both as 1. Necessary to the Being and Upholding of it not only as by his Death and Sacrifice we are and this Old World for us is upholden so as that we may subsist and Live as it were from Death or the state thereof which we were Obnoxious to under a comfortable Injoyment of a natural Life and Being and have therein opportunities of seeking the Lord Psal 73.3 Acts 17.26 27. But also in reference to a Spiritual life and happy being in and from him And so whereas First It 's necessary to our so Living that we be Begotten from the Dead to live to God he is the Begetter of men thereto the everlasting Father Isa 9.6 Who Begets in his own likenes as Adam did in his but far better Children because Adam Begat none till he was fallen into Sin and Misery whereas Christ Begets as one acquit of sin and raised from Death in and unto Righteousness and Life an holy Seed a blessed off-spring Children of Light and heirs of Life everlasting Yea he is the very Seed of Regeneration as held forth in his Testimony by the holy Spirit the Immortal Seed whereof the Sons of God are Begotten the Word preached in the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.23 24 25. And as he himself is the first Begotten from the Dead so by his Resurrection from the Dead he Begets from Death and quickens to a Lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 with Ephes 2.1 Col. 2.12 John 5.21 25. And this as to the Soul here as he will also by his powerful Voice quicken the Dead in Body to Life again at his Coming being the quickning Spirit John 5.28 29. 1 Cor. 15.45 And in both respects the Resurrection and the Life John 11.25 Yea and he gives Power to others and makes them Instruments to Beget Children to God and to bring them forth for him too as in 1 Cor. 4.15 The Apostle tells the Corinthians he was their Father for in the Gospel he had Begot them yet so as in Christ Jesus there is none can Beget Children to God but in him and his Virtue And as they are the Fruit of the travail of his Soul Isa 53.10 So in and from him others are instrumental Mothers to Travail in Birth with them also Gal. 4.19 2. The Children Born must be Nursed up and he is the prime in Nursing what he Begets and brings forth for he can no more forget them then no nor so much as a Mother her sucking Child Isa 49.14 15. He nourishes them principally though he makes his Servants Instruments of Nursing them up too with the sincere Milk of his Word which he also primarily is as more understandibly discovered to the weak in his heavenly Doctrin 1 Pet. 2.2 Isa 55.13 Heb. 5.13 Yea and he comforts his Children as one whom his Mother comforts Isa 66.13 And surely its by manifesting himself to them that he gives them comfort John 14.16 17 21. And in this Nursing up and causing to live as the living Child must have So 1. He is the Bread and Water of Life John 6.35 and 4.10.14 his Flesh meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed And as the living Child needs clothing So 2. He is the Clothing and Apparrel For he as our Righteousness put on by us in believing on him and his Virtues as adorning us is our Raiment and Ornament too Whence that So many of us as have been Baptised into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 And Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 And he bids us Buy of him white Raiment that our Nakedness may be covered and that our shame may not appear Rev. 3.18 3. It must have harbour and Lodging And he is the Dwelling-place for his Children in all Generations Psal 90.1 Where is sweet Peace Rest and Safety Psal 4.8 and 91.1 He being a house of Stone a strong habitation to defend and save us from our Enemies Psal 31.4
helpfulness of others what is the hope of his calling what the unsearchable riches of his grace to be believed and preached by us Eph. 1.18 19. 3.8 and to that purpose say as the Psalmist Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so shall we sing and praise thy power Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thy own glory and excellencies so shall we see and sing of them CHAP. XXIV Some Usefulness of this Doctrine by way of Exhortation and first To look to Christ as lifted up for Vs in all Cases Use 3 ANd surely all that hath been hitherto said of the lifting up of this Son of man and of the end of it may provoke and lead us Exhort 1. To look diligently to him as so lifted up that in looking to him we may be inlightned and our faces may not be ashamed as is said Psal 34.5 He being set or lifted up of God both in himself first and then to us that we might behold him and that in seeing or looking to him we might be strengthned and framed to believe on him and seeing and believing on him we might be saved and have eternal life according to the good and holy will of God Joh. 6.40 Isa 45.22 To which 1. God himself directs and commands us saying Behold my servant whom I uphold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my holy spirit upon him c. Isa 42.1 And 2. Christ himself also calls us saying Behold me behold me to a Nation that was not called by his Name Isa 65.1 And look to me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth Isa 45.22 And 3. The holy Spirit exhorts and commands us saying All ye Inhabitants of the World and Dwellers on the Earth when He lifteth up an Ensign on the Mountains see ye and when he bloweth a Trumpet hear ye Isa 18.3 And there is great Reason for it For Motive 1. If we refuse to look to and behold him how then shall we hereafter look upon him when He comes in his glory and calls us to an account and when we must make a reckoning to Him of our doings when He shall set before us that God for our good and welfare out of his abundant grace and mercy to us gave him his only begotten Son and He himself for us and how He through his great and heavy sorrows and sufferings was exalted and lifted up for us as an Object prepared to our hands and every way sufficient able and ready to save and heal us and we after all that would not turn away our eyes from beholding vanity to look upon and consider Him such a loving and lovely Object an Object so fair and beautiful so comely and glorious both for escape and for delight for safety and life Isa 4.2 Psal 45.2 as He was and is to us How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation as was prepared before the face and answerable to the needs and wants of all People and published and lifted up to us If they that despised Moses law dyed without mercy as we noted before under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment shall he be counted worthy that hath trampled under foot the Son of God such and so excellent a one as we have seen before in part counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified a common or unholy thing and hath done despight to the spirit of grace c. Heb. 2.3 and 10.28 29. This would be now seriously considered by us As also that Motive 2. If we look to Him the benefit will be great for He will help and heal us at all turns He is of vertue and force to heal our hearts minds and consciences in all cases as it was with the Brazen Serpent what-ever were the stings and wounds received by the fiery Serpents in looking to the Serpent of Brass they were cured of them None of them were so slighty as that they had any promise of living with them without looking to that nor any so deep and dangerous but that in looking up to that they lived So is it here None so good so holy or so little sinful as that without looking to Christ they may expect to be saved and to have eternal life nor are any so bad or desperately wicked but in a hearty serious and timely looking to Christ they may be healed and live for ever Let that then move us to look to him as delivered up to Death for our offences and raised again from the Dead for our Justification glorified at the right hand of God and lifted up in the Gospel by the Holy Spirit and in the exercise of the spiritual gifts of God's Servants given them to that purpose yea in every case let us look to Him to be healed and saved by Him As for instance Case 1. Are we sensible of our sins and sinfulness and ready to despair because they are so great and manifold The way to be healed of such wounds upon our hearts and consciences the fears horrours and smarts of such stings is to turn the eye hither to the Son of man the Lord Jesus not to pore upon our selves our own unworthiness inability to satisfy Gods justice by any sorrows bewailings confessions or amendments of ours nor to set our selves as conceiting our selves able to help or heal our selves by any such courses or by any devises or contrivances of our own or others as Plaisters of our own making or others commending or giving but only to mind and look unto the perfect Law of Liberty continuing to look thereinto that we may see what He is and what He hath done and suffered for us what satisfaction He hath given to justice what Redemption He hath obtained what Peace he hath made what Pardon is Proclaimed in Him for whom He hath suffered according to the Spirits testimony in the Scriptures and to whom He proclaims and preaches Peace there-through the greatness of his love and freeness of his Grace to Man-kind c. Thus the Apostle Peter preached Christ to those who were prickt at their hearts at their hearing that they had been guilty of murthering Christ directing them to believe on Him upon that account that there was in Him remission of sins and the Holy Ghost to be given them by him and they looking to him and yielding up to what He so looked to wrought in them were comforted and healed Act. 2.37 38 41. So also in Act. 3.13 14 19 26. He proposed to others guilty of the same fault the consideration of the blessing in him the Seed of Abraham for all the Families of the Earth and that to them the Jews first God sent Jesus to bless every one of them in turning every one of them from their iniquities The like in Act. 5.30 31. And the Apostle Paul to the Jaylour ready to make away himself and inquiring in a great affrightment what he should do to be saved directed him to
14.31 and the Love both of God and of Christ to us 1 John 3.16 17. and 4.9 10. able to move our hearts to love him again 1 John 4.19 Yea both his Love to his Disciples John 14. and 15.9 10. as an example and motive to us to love them that are his Disciples and our Brethren John 13.34 35. and 15.12 And his Love to those who were ignorant of him lost and perishing as an example to us to love such and a motive as we our selves were such to love such also with a love of compassion yea such as are strangers from us Eph. 2.11 12 13.19 2 Cor. 8.9 Rom. 5.6 1 Tim. 1.15 1 John 3.16 17. Gal. 6 10. Yea his Love to his Enemies is an Example and Motive to us to love to our capacities our enemies also Rom. 5.10 Mat. 5.44 45. Ephes 5.2 1 Pet. 2.21 Yea in this lifting up this Son of man by his Spirit is also the Presence and Efficacy of his Spirit as a Spirit of love to infuse love into us and frame us to love 2 Tim. 1.7 8. Yea Case 13. Would we be furnished with any Virtue and framed to and directed in any good way Look hither and behold Christ Crucified for us and lifted up there-through for and to us and here we may find Motive Inducement and Spirit to inable and frame the heart thereto Yea in most things if not in all Pattern and Example thereof as to say In Bowels of Mercy behold his mercifulness to us Luke 6.37 and 10.37 In kindness Tit. 3.4 In humbleness of mind Phil. 2.5 6 7. In meekness and lowliness Mat. 11.29 In gentleness 2 Cor. 10.1 In long-suffering 2 Pet. 3.9 and 1 Pet. 2.21 22. In forbearance and forgiveness Col. 3.13.14 In patient putting up of wrongs 1 Pet. 2 21 22 23. In love and obedience to God Phil. 2.8 John 14.31 In submission to Superiours in the World Mat. 17.25 27. Isa 49.7 In giving place to wrath Mat. 12.14 15 16 18 19. Isa 42.2 For mens loving their Wives Ephes 5.25 26 c. And to say no more Case 14. In case of loss of our Friends Brethren Relations Husbands Children c. as we have him for a Pattern of Submission to his Fathers Will in taking out of his hand and drinking the Cup he gave him to propose to our selves and imitate in looking upon him John 18.11 So also looking upon him as lifted up for and before us we shall see cause to be submissive to God therein For was it not more for God to give his Son for us and expose him to such Sufferings and Death then to take away a Son or a Daughter a Wife or a Husband or a Friend from us Seeing also by his Sons death he hath made a way through Death to better injoyments and greater happiness then they could have here in this life and hath given to his Son through his death the Keys of hell and death to bring or keep out from Death as he pleases Yea He is the Resurrection and the Life so as the Dead in him shall Live again Yea they do in their spirits live in his Presence and have a fuller Injoyment of him then we have while here Phil. 1.21.23 Rev. 1.18 19. John 11.25 26. And he is the Lawful and Sovereign Lord of all and so of us and ours a Just Righteous Holy Merciful and Good Lord whose Work is perfect and all his Ways judgment Deut. 32.4 Psal 145.8 9. and therefore doth us no wrong in any thing yea aims at our good and profit in all things Heb. 10.8 9 10. And if we believe that Jesus Christ Died and Rose again so we believe that them who sleep in Jesus God will bring With him for the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we that are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so we shall be for ever with the Lord These words minded and these things looked to will be for comfort to us 1 Thes 4.14.17 As also that in the mean time the Lord is nigh at hand to us to help us and this Son of man as a Child born to and for us and a Son given us is also an Everlasting Father the Wonderful the Counsellor the Mighty God the Prince of Peace And he will be a Counsellor a Comforter a Provider for and Protector of us and better to us then many Fathers or Mothers Sons or Daughters Friends or Relations Isa 9.6 Yea in a word 〈◊〉 The looking to him is the way to have our understandings inlightned into all Truth our minds renewed our hearts cleansed comforted healed filled with peace joy hope and every good fruit our Souls saved from all evil of sin both guilt filth snare and punishment and from the pollutions of the World and power of Satan and so from every evil thing and our whole Conversation rightly ordered In a word it s the way to be saved from perishing out of the way and much more from perishing in the end and to have and injoy Eternal life Oh therefore let us in all cases and at all times look to him and wistly behold and view him and to that purpose Oh let us with David make it the one thing desired by us That we may dwell in his house and be always beholding the fair Beauty of the Lord and inquiring in his holy Temple Psal 27.4 Seeing also Motive 3. There is nothing else that we can turn to or look upon that can or will do any of these things for and in us no Law or Doctrine if this be rejected and put away or that is beside or swarveth from this no work frame or device of our own or others no Plaister Medicine or Course we can take will heal us in any thing so as to better our conditions For sure if Moses Law will not do it which was given from God himself the exactest and best that ever was given beside then much less will any humane Laws or Injunctions Impositions Works Ceremonies Practices of our own or others but if we turn from this Object we must needs go after vain things and things that cannot profit us because they are vain And though we may kindle fires to our selves and compass our selves with sparks and walk in the light of our own fire yet we must perish and lie down in sorrow 1 Sam. 12.19 20 21. Isa 50.11 Yea though we set any Precepts or Ordinances of Christ before us to observe and practise yet if we observe and practise them without seeing and looking to him and so believing and depending on him for wisdom Strength and Blessing we shall deceive our selves and do like them that made the Word of the Lord to themselves Precept upon precept Precept upon precept Line upon line Line upon line here a little and
THE BRAZEN SERPENT OR GOD'S Grand Design VIZ. CHRIST'S Exaltation for MAN'S Salvation in his believing on Him OR The Right Way to Regeneration and therethrough to the Heavenly and Eternal Kingdom Discovered by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself for our sure Direction therein Considered Opened and Applyed with a double Excursion touching the Glory and Excellency 1. Of the Gospel of Christ 2. Of Christ Himself By J. HORN an Unworthy Servant of God in the Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ and sometimes Minister of Lin Allhallows in Norfolk Isa 52.13 Behold my Servant shall deal prudently or shall prosper He shall be exalted extolled and be very high As many were astonied at thee his visage was so marred more than any Man and his form more than the Sons of Men so shall He sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at Him c. Isa 55.5 Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy one of Israel for He hath glorified thee Psal 99.10 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his Foot-stool for He is holy Psal 21.13 Be thou exalted O Lord in thine own strength so will we sing and praise thy power Respiciamus nos in faciem serpentis aenci elevati Christi si volumus à pravorum Daemonum suggestionibus serpentinis liberari respicere autem est fide in ipsum tendere Bern. de pass Dominica LONDON Printed for Benjamin Southwood at the Star near to Serjeants Inn in Chancery-Lane 1673. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Gentle Reader LO Here I present thee with what as to the matter treated of is a most needful and excellent Subject worthy thy most serious consideration the Grand Design of the God of Glory the Devise that He in his Infinite wisdome and goodness devised for our recovery from sin and misery and for reducing and bringing us back to life and safety the product and birth of his eternal purposes and most deep counsels for our welfare and happiness A Subject never sufficiently looked upon never throughly enough seen into while we can see but with mortal eyes and imperfect understandings the great Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen yea very intensively pryed into 1 Pet. 1.12 of Angels preached to us Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3.16 The great Catholicon the Soveraign and Vniversal Remedy for all our spiritual distempers and diseases the supply of all our wants the support of us in all our weaknesses temptations and troubles the instructer and helper of us in and unto all our services the stay of us in this life in and under all its various vicissitudes and changes the joy and comfort of our hearts in Death the Raiser and Resurrection both of our Souls to lively hope and comfort when oppressed with griefs and cast down with sadness and also of our Bodies to immortality and Eternal happiness in a word the spring original and fountain of all our felicity the great subject of the Doctrine both of the holy Prophets and of the holy Apostles the substance and body of all the types and shadows in the Law of Moses the accomplishment and fulfilling of Predictions and Prophecies and the ground and end of all our future hopes and expectations Such I say not is this Treatise but the subject treated of and directed to herein for it is no other than Christ himself and Him crucified and through sufferings and death raised up again and glorified Glorified of God for thee in his own glorious actings in and upon Him and glorified of God to thee by the spirit of God in his word and testimony glorified both ways to save and deliver thee from the stings of the old Serpent and to bring thee to glory A Subject which who can sufficiently treat of for who can shew forth all his marvailous acts who can set forth all his praises Psal 106.2 A Subject much too great for my imbecillity and stupidity too deep and high and large and long for my narrow head and heart to reach its dimensions so as to handle it and set it forth worthily A Subject in my reception of it into and conception of this Discourse about it in my mind and earnestness of my heart to draw it out and incorporate it in this body and give it these lines and lineaments so pleasing to me or perhaps rather my exercise therein that it drew me on with so eager an intention and rapid a motion as indangered my miscarrying of it before its perfection for I received in my self in a manner the sentence of Death before I had finished it till God renewing my strength beyond my expectation and confidence it attained to this Period God therein both shewing me my weakness and perhaps also chastening my unworthiness and unmeetness for such an undertaking and my darkning wisdome so much by words without knowledge and so slenderly and slovenly handling so excellent a subject both therein and since in its sticking so long and coming out at length with so many Errata's in its impression and yet also shewing his great power and goodness in what I received of him for my reviving I confess I had some eye in it upon a good and gracious Woman who had met with some exercise in the death of her only Son and intended she should have had one of the first rights of it as for comforting her also I put in some expressions respecting that her tryal in some part of its application but the Lord pleased to put an end to her days also before it could arrive at her and be perused by her He designing to comfort and satisfy her spirit I trust with another and far perfecter sight of the glory of this blessed Son of man here treated of then this so weak a discourse could have given her of him I trust its conception was not altogether without the Holy Ghost though as it was imbodyed in and by me I cannot but see and acknowledge its too great likeness to me in imperfection It is a rule in Philosophy that Quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis Whatsoever is received of another is received after the manner or measure of the receiver We cannot expect that a Bucket can contain the Ocean and the purest Wine received in a fusty Cask will somewhat tast of it The Eternal Word as conceived in the Virgins Womb was made partaker of her Flesh and as therein brought forth by her appeared a weak and little one not according to the Immensity and Infinity of the Word but in such small and finite dimensions as agreed to the humane nature and the narrowness of her Womb in which it was formed and therefore He was capable of being wrapt in swadling cloths and laid in a Manger and afterward of being taken up in old Simeon's armes and of growing in stature in wisdome and in favour both with God
according to the testimony of God by his Holy Spirit concerning him Psal 106.3 and accordingly in their hearts liking loving and desiring after the knowledge and enjoyment of him trusting in and cleaving to him with purpose of heart Psal 31.23 Cant. 1 2 3 4. 2.4 5. 5.7 8. 8.6 7. 1 Cor. 16.22 Isa 26.8 9. Phil. 3.7 8 9 10.1 John 3.23 Acts 11.23 24. 2. In their word speaking nothing but what is high holy and honourable concerning him Holding forth the word of life and blessing and speaking well of his name Psal 47.6 7. 98.1 4. 66.1 2 3. 100.1 2 4 5. 3. In their Life and Conversation for there also he may be lifted up and glorified and magnified of us yea both in life and in death Phil. 1.20 As therein also he may be blasphemed dishonoured and denied as is implied 1 Tim. 6.1 Tit. 2.5 1.16 But surely he ought not to be denied blasphemed or put to reproch by us or by occasion of us He hath not so deserved of any man but to be blessed and highly honoured And that is best done when to a high commendation of him in our words we add also such a conversation and carriage as speaks him excellent in our esteems and experiences of him When we shew that he is upright and that there is no unrighteousness in him Matth. 5.16 2 Thess 1.12 Psal 92.15 1 Pet. 2.9 11 12. Now though the lifting him up by his Father in the acts done to him in his personal body in his calling him to upholding and accepting him in raising him from and rewarding him for and after his Sufferings and the obedience and service done and performed by him for us be the main and most fundamental lifting him up absolutely necessary with respect to us and our Regeneration and Salvation Yet I apprehend That the lifting him up also as to manifestation and commendation of him to and in the eyes of others both by the Spirit of God and by men especially his holy Saints and Servants that desire and are set for his Glory and the good of others is here also with the former way and acts directly included and intended And indeed as to his being lifted up of God both Father Word and Spirit it must be so as we have partly said because it was so purposed and decreed of God It was his purpose and grace given us in Christ Jesus before the world that is made manifest now by his appearance in what God hath wrought by and done to him for us 2 Tim. 1.9 10. And as for mans exalting him and lifting him up in his ministration and service in the Gospel and in heart and life it 's no more then God requires of us and his love and the excellency in and love of Christ to us obliges us to and challengeth of us And therefore so it must and ought to be also Psal 96.3 4. But because that must be lifted up the necessity of his being lifted up hath direct and main respect to the end whereto he is to be lifted up that is That whosoever believeth on him may not perish but have eternal life As also the necessity that he be so lifted up As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness hath reference thereto Therefore I shall not more fully speak to the necessity of his being lifted up and so lifted up till after the speaking to those two following Points The Son of Man must be lifted up that 's the second Point The other two follow in order The manner how and the end to which he must be and must be in such manner lifted up For I shall also leave the Use of all this till we have considered and viewed those Points also they both appertaining to the full view of this which is the main Point CHAP. VIII The third Point That the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness Where several Analogies and Agreements between them are considered Point 3 HOw the Son of Man is to be lifted is the next Point to be spoken to and that is As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness In which may be implied 1. As verily and certainly as that was done so must this be done also and indeed that lifting up of the Serpent being a type and figure preaching forth this lifting up of the Son of Man must not be made frustrate for then as a type it should have failed and been false Where the shadow goes before the body follows And where the type and figure was fore-ordained to instruct into the truth that was to be revealed there the truth also thereby signified must in its time take place and be accomplished all things written of him in the Law of Moses also whether Prophecy or Type and Figure must be fulfilled Luke 24.46 But not onely so but also 2. As so As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness So even after such a sort and manner must the Son of Man be lifted up There is agreeableness correspondency and answerableness between the one and the other as may be seen in many Particulars As 1. In the occasion of it There the people walking in the Wilderness were disobedient murmured against God despised his mercy bounty and goodness and provoked him in wrath to send fiery serpents among them to bite and kill them and as a remedy there against that Serpent was commanded to be and accordingly was lifted up And so here men in the wilderness of thâ—s world being ransomed by Christ out of that sentence of Condemnation that lay upon us all for our first Fathers Transgression and under a state of much mercy and bounty from God yet not without trials and temptations are found sinning against God and despising the Heavenly Manna Christ Jesus and the knowledge of God in him and discontent with Gods dealings through the temptations of sin and Satan and so fall under his power and are obnoxious to destruction This occasions a necessity of lifting up the Son of Man both in his exaltation by God and unto men for their healing Yea our first Parents and we all in them being tempted though in a Paradise listening to the Tempter and siding with him to a discontent with Gods allowance to us in the Creation because one Fruit was forbidden and to a desire of and coveting after what was unlawful and forbidden us fell under the power of the old Serpent the Devil and Satan So as by him to be stung and wounded to death even a death of our souls and spirits from the life and favour of God and of both body and soul to be exposed to and filled with misery and mischief to destruction and as a remedy against that Bite it was necessary Christ should be lifted up on the Cross and dye for us and be raised up again and exalted to a state of Power and Glory for raising us up and so he is
That whosover believeth on him might not perish but have eternal life He doth not say indeed that Gods end is simply that every one might have eternal life without respect to their believing or whether they believe or not But yet he saith Verse 17. That the world through him might be saved Which is as much as that the world through what he hath done and doth for them might in looking to and believing on him would they so do be saved As also it 's said He gave his flesh for the life of the world John 6.51 That is that the world set free by his death sustained in his flesh from the first death so as out of it to as all shall 1 Cor. 15.21 22. be raised might also in feeding thereon live and not dye the second Death Nor doth he say that every one might believe on him and be saved and have eternal life but it is said that John bare witness to the light that all men through him might believe John 1.7 8. And the Apostle saith God wills all men to be saved and come to the knowledge or acknowledgment of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And another Apostle that God would not that any man should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 And God sent the Prophet Ezekiel to say to the People As I live I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked but rather that he should turn and live which is all one as if he had said that he might believe and have eternal life for of such a life the Prophet doubtless is to be understood But he saith here that every one that believeth or whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have eternal life In which we may note these six Points or Observations implyed and signified Viz. 1. That men even the World as the next verses mention are in themselves generally in danger of or in the way to perishing 〈◊〉 there needed no indeavour for preventing it if no danger of it 2. That God hath no pleasure or likement that they should perish but rather that they should have eternal Life His using such a means or providing such a remedy to prevent the perishing and that men may obtain the life eternal clearly implies that in both its branches 3. That the Son of Man is the only person or Medium by whom we may be preserved from perishing and obtain eternal life And he is the Medium God hath appointed to those purposes This is clear in the whole scope of the Verse and in the verses following 4. That thereto it 's needful even for escaping perdition and obtaining eternal life and it's Gods good will that men believe on him the Son of Man so ordered of God for them 5. That it 's the gracious mind of God that every one that believeth on the Son of Man should not and accordingly whoso believeth on him shall not perish but have eternal life 6. That in order both to mens believing on him and also to their not perishing but having eternal Life in their so doing it 's Gods gracious mind and in it self needful and necessary that He the Son of Man be so lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness Of these in order and with convenient brevity or inlargement Obser 1. That men even the World are in themselves generaâ—ly in danger of or in the way to perishing This is evidently declared in the Scriptures of truth Yea all that God hath done to Christ in abasing and raising him and all that he doth through Christ in his words and works in his calls counsels repoofs corrections c. are declared to be done primarily and directly while it is a day of his grace and patience towards any to prevent or keep men from perishing which would have been and would be needless and groundless if they were not without it in danger of perishing Far be it from us to make God the God of Wisdom or only wise God to do or say so much in vain or needlesly or without ground or cause Nor is that perishing simply a bodily dying which God doth nothing to prevent that it should not at any time or at all come upon us but a perishing from Gods presence so as to be utterly lost miserable and undone Man was wholly and universally fallen into sin and misery even under the sentence of Death and Condemnation the first Death in the first Adam and therein we were in danger to have perished bâ—cause 1. As the people here in the Wilderness were bitten by the fiery Serpents and their bite was so poysonous venemous and perilous that it caused Death Num. 21.6 So there the old Serpent the Devil and Sathan inticing and tempting man to sin through Adams and Evah's listening to and acting according to his temptation he got power over them and all in them that is all men to bite them to Death by bringing them under the sentence of that righteous Law wherein God hath denounced death to them in case of their acting so as he inticed them For therein 2. All have sinned and are come short of the glory of God or are deprived of it Rom. 3.23 By one man sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed over all men because all had sinned Rom. 5.12 The wages of Sin being Death Rom. 6.23 Not only a bodily Death but a Death of the whole person that sinned in being deprived of the favour and presence of God Psal 30.5 3. And from this no man could deliver himself nor be delivered by any other Creature the sentence of God and his Law standing against us and binding it upon us which no meer Creature could bear upon himself so as to redeem us from it nor had any power enough to raise us up from under it for who can stand under or prevail against God's anger Psal 98.7 8 9 11. 130.3 Nah. 1.6 If Christ had not dyed for us yea and risen again we had all perished in this Death and there had been no Resurrection out of it 1 Cor. 15.12 18 21 22. But we are redeemed from this first death by Jesus Christ having therefore given himself a Ransom for all and dyed for all and brought all to be under his gracious Lordship and dispose having so satisfied the justice and pacified the wrath of God for that offence as that whereas all had sinned and came short of the glory of God they are all justified by his grace as to that through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And as by one offence the Judgment was unto all men to Condemnation So through the Righteousness of one the free gift is unto all men to justification of life 1 Tim. 2.6 Rom. 14.9 3.23 24. 5.18 So that no man shall perish in this first Death for ever but all shall be raised again there-from For as in Adam all dye so in Christ all shall be made
him and accept him heartily being discovered and Preached to us to which end also God added the Law for discovering of our sins that so we might look after accept and imbrace the Saviour whom he had fore-promised to us Gal. 3.19 22 24. Yea the very promise and declaration of that Saviour shews us to have been miserable Yea and yet if we neglect him to be in a most miserable condition for in that one died for all It 's most brightly testified that All were dead Yea and in that it 's such a one that died for us as Gods only Son it signifies and testifies yet more The greatness of our misery in our selves and of that death we were fallen into that put us into a need of such a ones dying for us 2 Cor. 5.14 But that will fall in in the third proposition or observation CHAP. X. The second Observation briefly spoken to and some Objections against it answered Obser 2 THe Second Observation is That God hath no pleasure in the death or perishing of men but that they rather should have eternal life And this is evident 1. By his own assertion under his oath that we might be the more confirmed in it as was noted above in Ezek. 33.11 Where he swears As he lives he hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but rather that he turn and live And sure if not in the wickeds in no mans death seeing it's the wicked that he every where threatens with Death As he saith to the wicked in the same Chapter Vers 8 Thou shalt surely die And The Soul that sinneth it shall die Chap. 18.3 20. And the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him ver 21. And yet he saith and sweareth that he hath no pleasure none neither secret nor revealed that the wicked should die 2. And his holy servants assert the same who have had his mind and grace in their hearts and declared it faithfully The Apostle Paul asserts That God wills all to be or that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And the Apostle Peter that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 And the Prophet Isaiah represents the Lord calling all the ends of the Earth to look to him and be saved Isa 45.22 3. The many addresses that God in and through Christ by his Word and Spirit makes unto sinners to call and bring them to Repentance that they might live and not die are so many evidences and convincing demonstrations of his love to Mankind and that he hath no desire or delight that they should perish but have everlasting life For we may not think such a wicked and impious thought of the Almighty who is love and charity truth and goodness it self as if he should pretend one thing and intend another That he signifies one thing to be his desire and will outwardly and desires and intends the contrary inwardly and so dissembles with his lips seeing he protests the contrary Viz. That the opening of his lips are right things That he speaks right things and wickedness is an abomination to his lips That his words are all right and that there is nothing froward or preverse in them Prov. 8.7 6 8. Isa 45.19 Far be it from us to think that he is like to the wicked whom his Soul abhorreth to cover hatred with deceit As is said Prov. 26.26 Now thinking holily of God and according to truth we shall perceive the desire he hath of mens welfare abundantly testified in his addresses to us diverse ways As 1. In his calls and counsells frequently given us As it s said Wisdom cries out she lifts up her voice in the streets crying how long ye simple turn at my reproofs c. Prov. 1.20.23 And doth not Wisdom cry and Understanding lift up her voice Can that be denied Is not that evident and that to men indefinitely yea and to the worst of them therefore it follows that she stands in the top of high places where and whence she may best be heard and cries To you O men I call and my voice is to the Sons of Men. O ye simple understand wisdom and ye fools be ye of an understanding heart Prov. 8.1 2 4 5. And so Turn ye turn ye why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Yea this was one great end of our Saviours coming into the World in order to his saving the World Viz. To call sinners to Repentance Mat. 9.13 John 12.47 2. In his promising them great and glorious things upon their hearing and obeying his calls Turn ye at my reproofs behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my words Prov. 1.23 So in Prov. 8.32 33. Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at my Gates waiting at the posts of my doors For whoso findeth me findeth life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Aske and ye shall receive seek and ye shall find Mat. 7.7 8. And abundance the like 3. In his threatning sinners if they will take the course to perish and will not listen to his counsels As Because I have called and ye refused I stretched out my hands and no man regarded I also will laugh at your calamities I will mock when your fear cometh Prov. 1.24 26 c. O wicked man thou shalt surely die Ezek. 33.8 And many the like 4. In his reproving expostulating and reasoning the case with men that he might perswade them to their own good Why will ye die O house of Israel Ezek. 33.11 Ho every one that thirsteth come to the waters and ye that have no money come buy and eat yea come buy wine and milk without money and without price Why will ye lay out money for that that is not bread and your labour for that that satisfieth not c. Isa 55.1 2 3. 5. In his chastening men also for their follies in neglecting and refusing their own mercy in order to their awakning to Repentance that they might live As he saith I smote them thus and thus yet they turned not to me saith the Lord. As implying that he smote them to that end they might turn Amos 4.6 7 11. All these things doth God twice and thrice with men that he might keep them from going down to the pit c. Job 33.29 6. In his exercising long patience and forbearance towards them with much bounty and goodness to the same end that is To lead them to repentance As is exprest Rom. 2.4.5 With 2 Pet. 3.9.15 Isa 30.18 Waiting that he may be gracious Yea 4. The next Observation is an evident confirmation of the truth of this Namely the gift of Gods only Son the Son of Man for if he gave his only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the World evident it is then that he loved the World and if he loved it he desired not that it should perish but rather be saved
her hand which signifies a putting forth her strength and tendring her help to men to turn them to her self and bring them in to God Prov. 1.4 5. 1.20 24. 4. In his reproofs and judgments even to and upon the Heathen for not calling on his name to which believing on him is necessary Rom. 10.14 it being excellent in all the earth and declared by his wondrous works Psal 79.6 Jer. 10.25 Psal 8.1 9. 75.1 Mal. 1.11 14. And for not glorifying him as God nor being thankful to him but withholding the truth in unrighteousness seeing what was to be known of God was manifested in them and God shewed it to them so as they knew but liked not to have him in their knowledge Rom. 1.18 19 20 21 28. Yea for not believing God as now the Jews believe him not Rom. 11.30 All imply that God requires that men believe him and believe on him as made known to and among them But much more evident is this in his often reproofs of Israel among whom he was more signally made known Psal 76.1 2. 147.19 20. in his faulting and judging them for not hearing and hearkening to his voice law and words but rejecting them and for not liking to have him for their God the object of their stay trust and confidence but turning adulterously from him after others Psal 81.9 10 11 12. Isa 66.3 4. Jer. 2.5 13. 6.19 7.25 26. though using more special means with and towards them so as he vouchsafed not to any other Nation to make them cleave to himself Jer. 13.11 Yea his very condemning men both here and hereafter for their not believing on the Son of Man is an evidence that he would they should have believed on him John 5.40 3.18 19 36. 5. Yea in a word all that I have said on Observ 2â— about Gods desire of mens Salvation and living rather then that they dye and perish are evidences of the truth of this also that God requires that men believe on his Son the Son of Man as evidenced and lifted up by him and that their so doing is acceptable to him for so much as that believing on him is necessary to that Salvation and living with him 2. As for the acceptableness of it his requiring it and using or vouchsafing means and power for it and his threatning and punishing men for not improving them thereto and profiting by them so as to practise it evidence that also But much more clearly is this evidenced to and in them that believe 1. In his forgiving their sins as it is said To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive forgiveness of their sins Acts 10.43 2. In his justifying them as righteous there-through as it is said By him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not have been justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 3. In giving them the priviledge to be his Children as it is said To them that received him to them he gave this power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name John 1.12 And Ye are all the Sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26 4. In blessing them as it is said So many as are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham being reputed as his Children Gal. 3.7 9 29. And in a word 5 In that they shall not perish but have eternal life And so this Point of the acceptableness to God of mens believing on Christ is confirmed by the next Observation and what is contained in it Which we shall nextly consider reserving the Use of this Observation in its several branches to afterward CHAP. XIII The fifth Observation having two branches the former of them is here explicated what the perishing is from which the believer on the Son of Man is preserved and how he is preserved from it Obser 5 WHosoever believeth on the Son of Man shall not perish but have eternal life and it is the gracious mind of God it should be so This the next Verse also confirmeth wherein it is said God so loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life And in Verse 36. where it is said He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life And in Chap. 6.40 where it is said This is the will of him that sent me that he that seeth beholdeth the Son and believeth on him should have everlasting life c. But here it is to be minded that he saith not that whosoever believeth on him should not be sick or poor or tempted or dye in Prison or on the Gallows or any such like violent death by men and their authority or any thing of the like nature For any of these may and sometimes do befall those that believe on him For Hezekiah was sick and so was Lazarus the brother of Martha and Mary whom Jesus loved John 11.1 3 11. And so was Epaphroditus Phil. 2.27 30. And Lazarus that begged at the rich mans door was poor and God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith Jam. 2.5 And both Christ himself and his Saints Paul and Peter and many of his Worthies were tempted And we account them happy that endure temptation and so they are For when they are tryed they shall receive a crown of life which God hath promised to tâ—em that love him James 1.12 5.11 Heb. 2.18 11.37 And many Confessors of his Name and Truth have dyed in Prison or been put to shameful deaths for his Names sake as in Heb. 11.35 36 37. besides many other places of Scripture may be seen Let no man therefore think himself unhappy or not approved of God and of Christ in his believing because of such thiÌ„gs as Sathan is busie to tempt some to think 1 Pet. 5.8 they being not the things which God sent his Son to keep those that receive and believe on him from Neither let any man promise himself that in his believing on Christ he shall be saved from such things befalling him otherwise then he sees good to save him there-from lest missing of his hope and expectation therein he should be offended John 16.1 2 3. Think not saith our Lord that I am come to send peace on earth but a sword c. Nor is it said That whosoever believeth on him should have a rich and prosperous life in this world free from crosses and exercises for that is included in the peace which Christ would not have us think that he came to send upon earth Peace in the Hebrew and Scripture Language signifying prosperity No nor a long life upon earth or great promotions and honours with men Much less is it said that they should live here for ever No we see Death is common to all Abraham is dead and the Prophets be dead and so be the Apostles and all others must
all sins and trespasses through the virtue of his most precious Blood Acts 3.19 Mat. 25.35 36 46. And thus being preserved and saved by him they shall not perish from the way nor in the end but shall have Eternal Life of which we have nextly to consider CHAP XIV Of the second Branch of the fifth observation what Eternal Life is and how the believer on Christ shall have it Qu. 3 THe third Query to be considered under this Observation is what that Eternal Life is which the believer on the Son of man shall have To which I answer briefly that 1. It 's not this natural life for that with all its enjoyments must and will have an end and its good to mind that and the shortness and hiddenness of the time of it and the hiddenness and oft times suddenness of the coming of death that we may not trust to this life or rest in any of its enjoyments but be moved more diligently to seek after and lay hold of that which is indeed Eternal life concerning which I may add that 2. It 's more and hath more in it then can be now either fully expressed or conceived only some hints of it we have in the Scriptures and according to them we may understand something thereof and so we find that it is variously set forth and spoken of in the Scriptures as sometimes 1. By the causes of it or that from whence it springs and issues and so 1. Jesus Christ himself is called Eternal Life the life of the believer when Christ who is our life shall appear Col. 3.4 I am the Way the Truth and the life Joh. 14.6 The bread of life that he that eats shall live by and shall live for ever Joh. 6 51. The resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 Yea expresly that Eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us 1 Joh. 1.2 And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding heart to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus christ this is the true God and Eternal life 1 Joh. 5.19 20. And its true to say That he that believeth on the Son of man shall have him as in Heb. 3.14 Now are we partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our Confidence stedfast to the end we have and shall have him here with us and for us I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine Cant. 2.16 6.3 And he saith I will be with thee I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Deut. 31.6 8. Josh 1.5 with Heb. 13.5 And we shall have him for ever with us and be ever with him in the new Heavens and new Earth and new Jerusalem in the world to come Rev. 21.3 4. with 1 Thes 4.16 17. 2. The favour of God in Christ is life In thy favour is life Psal 30.5 And this he shall have that believeth on Christ the Son of man He that finds him who is the wisdom of God finds life and shall obtain favour of the Lord. Prov. 8.34 And this is such a life as nothing can happen to the believer on him that can extinguish it or prevail against it I am perswaded neither Life nor Death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.38 39. That we believing on him should not be failed by him or deprived of his favour to us that 's without all peradventure included in it 3. The knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ is Eternal life This is life Eternal that they may know thee the only true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ Joh. 17.3 And this they who believe on the Son of man shall have for they shall receive the holy Spirit the Spirit of the Father and of the Son that shall teach them all things so as they shall not in the issue need to say one to another Know the Lord for they shall know him from the least to the greatest as is expresly promised in the Covenant or New Testament whereof Jesus Christ is the Mediator and which he hath undertaken to see performed to them that believe on him and depart not from him See Joh. 7.38 39 14.26 16.13 with Heb. 8.11 2. Sometime for the effect of Christ and of the knowledge and favour of God both as enjoyable here through faith and as enjoyable hereafter in the full fruition when those that see now darkly through a Glass stall see as they are seen and know as they are known 1 Cor. 13.12 And that effect is the living joyful happy state of the Soul and so of the whole man for ever as it is said He shall live for ever and he shall never die Joh. 6.51 58. and 11.25 26. Which is spoken of the Spiritual and Heavenly life or state of the Soul here and hereafter joyful and happy never to have end but especially of the state both of the body soul together hereafter and it includes and contains in it both 1. A continual living in a state of forgiveness and acceptance with God which is a truly joyful and happy state in which the Soul hath cause of real joy and gladness as it is said Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Psal 32.1 2. Blessed is the man who knows the joyful sound Psal 89.15 And happy is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his help c. Psal 146.5 6. A state in which the Soul is passed from death to life and shall not come into condemnation Joh. 5.24 2. A continual in dwelling of the the Spirit of Life as a Spring of Spiritual Life and motion toward God and for him even the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of life and the operation and efficacy of him in the Soul though not always sensibly felt here as it is said He that drinketh of the water that I shall give him it stall be in him a Spring of living waters springing up in him unto Etetnal life Joh 4.14 So as this Spring shall never fail him that believeth going on and continuing to believe on the Son of man 3. A continual state of safety from all evil so as to its being destructive or hurtful to the Soul or in due time affective and a state of Title to and Interest in yea and injoyment of all that is good in a first-fruits and by Spirit here and fully and actually and for ever hereafter there shall no evil happen to the just Prov. 12.21 All things are the believers 1 Cor 3.21 And all things shall work together for his good Rom. 8.28 Psal 25.10 The Lord God is a Son and a Shield and he will give grace and glory and
affliction we must enter into Gods Kingdom Acts 14.22 No partaking of this life but through death and that 1. Through a Spiritual Death or death in and of our Spirits to false life as to the life of or in sin life to the world and to the Law as thinking to have life thereby as in our own righteousness according thereunto No living to righteousness and to God but in dying to sin and to the world so as to cease to be slaves or servants to them Rom. 6.10 11. Gal. 6.14 1 Pet. 2.24 nor is there any living to Christ and so to God but through dying to the Law as to our hopes and rejoycings in our own righteousness according thereunto Gal. 2.19 And in these kinds of deaths there are pains in self-denials taking up our cross for Christs sake Mat. 16.24 2. Through the bodily Death for neither is there any entring into the joys and glories of Heaven and of the life to come so as to the actual full fruition of them but through bodily Death and Grave except of such as shall be found alive at his appearing 1 Thes 4.15 16. that so we may be made conformable to the death of Christ and be planted therethrough into the likeness of his Resurrection in our body also For the way to this life is also 2. Through the Resurrection from the dead otherwise if we should dye in our selves to false lives and never rise up in a true and divine life we could not have eternal life The life of Christ is a life from the dead whence he is called the first begotten or first-born from the dead Col. 1.18 Rev. 1.5 and so all that share with him therein are raised up to a life from the dead too First raised up in their spirits with him through the faith of the operation of God Col. 2.12 3.1 crucified with Christ to self and flesh and sin and all false life but yet so as they live yet not they but Christ liveth in them Gal. 2.20 And then also at the great day of Christs glorious appearing their dead bodies shall be raised up by him and be made like his Thence the Resurrection said to be to those that have done good a Resurrection to Life Joh. 5.28 29. and Christ in telling us that they who believe on him shall have everlasting life once and again adds And I will raise him up at the last day Joh. 6.40.44 as implying that they must pass through death and be raised up again thereunto 2. In respect of the manner of their having it they have it as they have Christ himself who is their life the ground foundation authour and the fountain of it Col. 3.3 4. and so only in receiving abiding in and enjoyment of him and so 1. They have it here in a sense not in the fulness and perfection of the fruition of it for we are not capable of having it so now and here while we have not Christ in Person with us but they have it now 1. In Christ the Heir of it and the root and spring of it that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us 1 Joh. 1.2 5.11 12 13. as they have him theirs and have union with and interest in him through whom also they have it 2. In a first fruits of the Spirit and of the Life that is in and by it and so in a begun life or happy state of forgiveness acceptance spiritual quickning c as before said 3. In the promise of the whole even of the full fruition of it to be had hereafter God and Christ have given it them in his Will and Testament so as in believing on the Son of Man they are made Heirs of it Tit 1.2 3.7 1 Joh. 2.25 This is the promise that he hath promised us even eternal life 1 Joh. 2.25 See also Gal. 3.29 And so they have it 4. In the hope of it Tit. 1.2 1 Pet. 1 3 4. 2. In the state to come they shall have it 1. Upon their dissolution and going to Christ in their spirits more fully resting in and with Christ and being blessed Phil. 1.21.23 Rev. 14.13 2. Upon their Resurrection in the full perfect and perpetual possession and fruition of it for ever Mark 10.30 A portion infinitely desirable and worthy the looking after and yet this is the portion of every one that believeth on the Son of Man without exception No respect of persons no difference of stronger or weaker believer as to the future enjoyment or present right to and interest in it by and through Jesus Christ There is neither Male nor Female Jew nor Greek Circumcision nor Uncircumcision bond or free but all are one in Christ Jesus and if Christs then Abrahams Seed and Heirs according to promise Gal. 3.28 29. And yet in the rewards to be received in the Davidical Kingdom or the thousand years reign at the coming of Christ and before he deliver up the Kingdom to God the Father and God be all in all there will doubtless be different degrees of Glory and Honour conferred according to mens different works services faithfulness and fruitfulness in their services and greatness of their sufferings for him as is hinted in those parabolical passages Be thou Ruler over ten Cities be thou Ruler over five Luc. 19.17 19. otherwise it would be all one to serve Christ little or much here to be abundant or sparing in the work of the Lord contrary to that of the Apostle He that soweth liberally shall reap liberally and he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly 2 Cor. 9.6 Though yet a shorter work more singly done may have equal reward with a larger not so singly done as the Parable of the Labourers in the Vineyard Mat. 20. may seem to import Wherefore Let us be always stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the works of the Lord knowing that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord Rev. 20.6 with 5.10 1 Cor. 6.2 3. with 15 24 28.58 CHAP. XV. The application of the two former viz. the fourth and fifth Observations in part in exhortation to believe reproof for not believing incouragements to continue in believing on the Son of Man and some directions thereto THE consideration of the two last mentioned observations shewing the necessity and advantage of believing on the Son of Man as also the nature of this believing is and may be very useful upon diverse accounts As to Use 1. Exhort and press all men to believe on the Son of Man the Lord Jesus Christ as declared and set forth unto them in and by the discoveries teaching and operation of God and his Spirit vouchsafed to them And that they may believe on him to listen to mind and embrace and hold fast the Faith or Doctrine of him in which is the power spirit and hand of the Lord moving and enabling to believe yea begetting in the heart this faith that is so necessary and profitable for men For
fast and not turning therefrom be sure not to fail of it and we have their prayers for us that we may therefore hold fast and go on to the end with manifold provocations by word writings and examples to it Yea and many of our enemies too though they hate us for the the thing it self as practised by us yet they preach and approve what they hate in their doctrines and declarations even as the Jews approve and magnifie those Scriptures which hold forth what the Christians belieâ—â— though they believe not what is in their own Scriptures Joh 5.45 46. and 10.34 Yea and we have all Gods providences therein working together for us all things working together for good to them that love God all the paths of the Lord mercy and truth to them that keep his Covenant and his Testimonies Psal 25.9 Rom. 8.28 Yea all things ours Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the World or life or death or things present or things to come all are ours if we be Christs as Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.21 22 Gal. 3.29 and therefore great encouragement have we to hold fast faith and go on believing in the Son of man the Son of God Encour 3. The great profit and benefit proposed to be received and injoyed in beleiving on him both the avoiding and escaping so great misery as perishing and the greatness of the good things contained in the eternal life to be injoyed a great recompence of reward Therefore cast we not away our confidence it 's life a Kingdom yea Eternal life and an everlasting Kingdom the Kingdom and Glory of our Lord Jesus Christ an eternal weight of glory Heb. 10.36 2 Thess 2.14 1 Pet. 5.10 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Yea and Encour 4. All the assurances given us of the certain fulfilling of what is said herein certifying us that we shall not perish but have Eternal life in such believing are strong Encouragements to us worthy to be minded by us As to say 1. We have Gods promise for it God that cannot lye hath promised Eternal life to the believer Tit. 1.2 1 Joh. 2.24 25. And faithfull is he that hath promised and he will perform it Heb. 10.23 And if we would trust an honest man upon his word or promise may we not much more trust God 2. We have the oath of God That by two immutable things in which it is not possible that God should lye namely his promise and his oath we might have strong consolation that flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us seeing therein appears the immutability of his counsel Heb. 6. 17 18. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord to Abraham and in him to his seed them that are Christs Gal. 3.29 that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thee Gen. 22.16 Heb. 6.13 And if we believe men upon their solemn oaths shall we not much more believe God when to confirm our faith he adds his oath to his promise ingaging himself thereby to the performance 3. We have manifold evidences of Gods truth and the truth of his Word in which these things are covenanted and promised all that evidences Gods truth and faithfulness in making good his words increases this assurance and that 's much as the casting off the Jews for their Idolatry and unbelief according to what or so far as Moses and the Prophets long since fore-signified Deut. 31.17 18. 32.21 22. 30.1 with Rom. 9 10 11.11 The calling and bringing in us Gentiles to be his people which was prophesied off long before while we were all worshippers of Idols and Devils Yet God hath made good this against all appearing probability even then when that one Nation that had the Oracles of God and boasted themselves to be his people and to have him for their God and he a greater God than all the gods of the Gentiles was for their sins rejected so as to have their City sackt and burnt their Land laid wast their people destroyed by famine pestilence sword and led captive into all lands and that by those who opposed the Lord his word and ways and were ready to attribute all their successes to the strength of their Gods or Idols and the ruine of their enemies to the weakness of their God Judg. 16.23 24. 2 King 18.33 and 19.22 Yet even then by the preaching of the Apostles a few despised persons he got himself the victory over them and brought in the Gentiles against all the malice of the Devils and thier worshippers to confesse him and his oracles the holy Scriptures Many other things might be noted to confirm the truth of the Scriptures as but I shall note it as another ground 4. The raising up Jesus and so sending us his own Son his only begotten according to the promises and prophecies that fore-went of him to be our Saviour the light to lighten us Gentiles and to be his salvation to the ends of the earth Act. 13.32 47. and 26.22 23. with Isai 42.1 6. 49.6 7 8. And he was discovered to be the Son of God by the testimony of the Scriptures of the Prophets by his own miracles and doctrine by the voyce of God and by the Spirit of holiness in the resurrection from the dead Joh. 5.36 37 39 and 20.31 Rom. 1.3 4. He as given of God for us and giving himself to be the ransome of our souls the propitiation for our sins the peace-maker and reconciler of us to God is an evident witness and assurance of the love and faithfulness of God to us and that in our believing on him he will be to us the Author of eternal salvation and everlasting life Isai 55.4 1 Tim. 2.6 Heb. 5.7.9 Having not spared his own Son but delivered him up to death for us all How shall not he with him freely give us all things Rom 8 32. 5. The holy Spirit given us as an earnest of the inheritance both as gifting the Apostles and believers at first with extraordinary and most usefull gifts inabling them to work miracles wonders and signs according to the fore-sayings of the holy Prophets Joel 2.28 29 in the name of Jesus witnessing therein to him and to the truth of his doctrine and also as inlighting the mind renewing the heart and assuring the conscience by his divine and heavenly operations in which we have included those three witnesses on earth mentioned in 1 Joh. 5.7 8. The Spirit inlightning and gifting the water washing and cleansing and the blood pâ—â—ging and pacifying and so the spirit by all assuring the conscience give assurance of Gods truth and faithfulnesse in making good his promises for saving the believer from perishing and giving him Eternall life Having therefore such motives and incouragements to believe and such assurances of welfare therein How should we not be strengthned to believe on him and to follow on to believe yet more and more strongly against all temptations and oppositions using
requisite that the doer thereof obtain for us and give to us the Spirit of Life and power from God to quicken and enliven us to hope in and love God and there-through to be Holy to God and preserve in that holy state against all Oppositions and Enemies yea and to raise the dead and possess them of the everlasting Kingdom and the fulness of God and of Divine joys and satisfactions therein which be works of Omnipotency agreeable only to Divine Nature and Majesty 2. For his being called forth to and suffering death for us the necessity thereof we have seen before in order to our salvation We must have perished in the first Death and Judgment had not he endured it and given himself the ransom for us much less could he have offered up himself a spotless Sacrifice through the Eternal Spirit to make a purgation of our sins and obtain Eternal Redemption for the taking away the following sins committed by us against the Grace and Mercy of God exercised towards us and extended to us in our several persons and making reconciliation for us nor could there have been an improvement of his Sacrifice by making intercession or mediation for preparing us for and bringing us to Eternal Life Indeed there could have been no sins of that nature last mentioned and therefore nothing to save from them nor any Oblation or Offering of him self had he not suffered for his offering himself supposes a suffering first Heb. 9.24 25 26. And therefore without this that would have found no place nor any thing that follows thereupon unto Eternal Life for which no Roome had we perished in and never been raised from the first death 3. And without his Resurrection neither had the Redemption from the first Judgment been perfected that Death had not been Abolished or Evacuated and he that had the power of it destroyed nor the Resurrection from it obtained Much less could he have received in the Nature of man any power or authority to meditate with God and work in and with men in order to the preserving the Sinners from perishing or for the obtaining and giving to any or bringing them to Eternal Life These being the works of a living not of a dead Person 4. Nor could he have appeared for us as the great High Priest in the presence of God for us in the Holy of Holies upon the Mercy Seat and Cherubims of Glory set down on the Throne of Majesty on the right of God unless he had been Exalted with Gods Right Hand being raised again And without that he could not have sent forth the Holy Ghost and given Gifts to men for making him known nor meditated with God for men that their Sins might be forgiven their Consciences purged their Hearts purified and so they prepared and fited for and brought by him through the Resurrection of the Dead and by his just Doom and Award as the great Judge of all unto Eternal life Yea in a word seeing it is his being every way perfected through his sufferings and so being made the Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him that renders him a meet Object to be believed on and affords sufficient ground thereto That which was needful to render him an Object to be believed on must needs be understood also to have been needful or necessary to his preserving from perishing and giving eternal life to any For if he be able to preserve from perishing and to give Eternal life without these things then would he also without these things be an Object meet to be for them believed on And so what was said on the former Branch proves the truth of this also CHAP. XVIII Another Conclusion proving the necessity of his being Lifted up by way of Demonstration to men by God and men both unto mens-believing on him and abiding in that believing Conclusion 2 THe lifting up of the Son of Man by way of Declaration of his Worth and Excellency and Commendation of him to men rendring him Glorious and an Object worthy and fit to be believed on for Life and Salvation is Necessary to the begetting and furthering distinct and explicite Faith or belief on him in order to their attainment of Salvation and Eternal life by him This I shall speak to in two Branches either of which is also evident and manifest Branch 1. Necessary it is for mens believing that he be so lifted up by way of Demonstration for necessary it is for mens believing on him that they know him and understand good ground and reason for believing on him For Faith or Believing is not only an Act of the Heart and will closing with an Object coming to seeking help of and relying and trusting upon it for that help but also of the understanding Such an Act of the Will aforesaid as proceeds and springs from the Understanding Discerning and Perceiving good reason and ground for what it doth therein as may be seen in what was Noted in the Acts and things included or contained in believing on him and as may be seen in what both the Prophet David saith in saying They that know thy Name will trust in thee Psal 9.10 And in what our Lord Jesus Christ saith in John 6.44 45. That no man can come to him namely to seek and help and Salvation in and from him believe in him and depend on him for it except the Father that sent him draw him And that that drawing is by the Fathers teaching so as that Whosoever hears and learns of him comes to Christ For Hearing and Learning of him pertains to the right informing of the understanding in the things Taught as also in that it s said Faith cometh by hearing and hearing is of the Word of God Rom. 10.17 Only here it is to be minded that we speak of Explicite Faith or Actual Believing and not of an Implicite Believing or of Gods gracious Imputation of Faith to Children or the like â—â—cepting them in their not Acting against as if believing on him For certain it is that the actual Faith that is by hearing is such as proceeds from an information of the Understanding and so an apprehension of some good cause or reason to Believe the thing informed of and in or upon the Object commended to us in such Information Clear it is that no man believeth on any thing or Person for any help or good to be received there-from unless he apprehend there is Ability and Probability of finding help or good from it Now no man can come to or believe to find such great effects as preservation from Destruction Misery and Wrath deserved by our sins and threatned of God to us because of them and a being raised up from Death and Grave to eternal Life and Happiness from an ordinary man that nothing differs from another but is in the same state of Sin and Death and of the same Infirmity and Impotency with others Nor from an ordinary Prophet or good man that
perfect possessing them of himself and of that Eternal life that is in him Such the true Church its Manners and Priviledges Use 10. Lastly that at length we may come to a Conclusion By all that hath been said we may be and let us be provoked and stirred up to admire Love Laud and Magnifie the Lord even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great Love and Grace that hath devised found out made set forth and discovered such an Object as this to be looked to by us and therein such a way of Salvation and Life Eternal for us That hath chosen out of the People the Son of man one of us as it were as to his Humanity and united that to and filled it with the Deity and its infinite Virtues and perfections that he hath magnified his blessed Son and that through so great Sufferings and Abasement to so high Dignity and Glory in the Nature of man for us and so lifted him up also in the discoveries of him by his Spirit in the Gospel to us even to us such sorry and miserable Creatures so fallen and rendred so unprofitable that we neither could or can be of any advantage or profit to him that so in his being lifted up before us and looked to by us we might be healed of all our spiritual Diseases and Maladies delivered from all the things of the old fiery Serpent the Devil and Satan the venome and poyson of it and the pain and destruction brought into and upon us by it the sin and guilt thence derived the infirmities death grave hell that it brought upon us Yea and from all the several stingings of the said Serpent and his Angels and Instruments whether by inward Temptations and their Prevalencies or outward sufferings and afflictions keeping us alive that we may not die of them Yea so expelling the venome and poyson of them and infusing Virtue and Vigour into us that we may be safe and found from them and live in a perfect life and walk in a perfect way and serve and honour him This Grace may be somewhat Illustrated by Gods dealings of old with Israel they were in a sore and heavy Bondage in Egypt God beheld it came down and with various Wonders wrought deliverance for them so as he brought them all out thence not one of them being left behind and then also he became their Perfect Alsufficient Merciful and Faithful Leader and Bringer in in their following after him into the Land of Canaan Even so God seeing us mankind all in great misery and destruction under the Power and Tyranny of the Devil and the first Death and Judgment which we fell into in and through Adam came down in the person of the Son and by more wonderful ways of bearing the Judgment and Curse of the Law for us tasting Death for every man and giving himself a Ransome for all men hath bought all men from under that misery the Free gift being to all men through his Righteousness to Justification of Life Rom. 5.18 So as to justifie them from that fault and condemnation so as they live now under the patience of God and merciful Lordship of Christ as Lord of all through his said Death and Sufferings who also offers to all men in the Gospel a free Justification of them from all their forepast sins in yielding themselves up to his Government so as they may live in his Sight Yea and now the same Christ that died for all and every one and hath so Ransomed us is become the Leader and Captain of our Salvation calling all men to look to and follow him Isa 55.4 Heb. 2.10 with Psal 50.1 Prov. 1.20 23. Isa 45.22 And he will save them in so doing and every way secure them from perishing and bring them into the possession of an Heavenly Canaan an everlasting and glorious Kingdom For which Guidance and Conduct of us thereto he is every perfected and most gloriously Accomplished with Power Authority Strength Wisdom Riches for Supply of all Wants and is infinitely Merciful and Gracious Compassionate and Faithful and will not fail or be discouraged but will bring every faithful Follower of him or Believer on him to the Injoyment of his Kingdom Indeed as there God having saved his People out of Egypt afterward destroyed those that believed not which also for our Admonition the Apostle Jude would have us to remember though we have once known it but that was not through any defect or want of Power Pity or Faithfulness in God toward them but through their unbelief not depending on him obeying and Following him but stubbornly rebelling against him and provoking him to anger with their Disobediences towards and withdrawings from him So also here though all men be Ransomed by Christ from perishing in the first Death and Condemnation that namely which passed upon all men in Adam before any man was Born to him yet there will many perish in the second Judgment that which shall be by Christ after all are Dead and Raised again In the second Death but that proceeds not neither from want of Power or Pity Fulness or Faithfulness in Christ but from the want of their Compliance with his Calls and Counsels to believe on and Obey him as the Scripture every where declares as was Noted before in Use 7. It 's most sure that every one that will hearken to his Voice and Believing on him Follow him shall have Eternal Life Yea and though many Sins and Failings may be found with us in our Hearing and Following him as well as many sticks and Hang-backs before our first yielding to him to be Followers of him as were also found in Israel Exod. 5. and 14. Yet as there were many Sacrifices and a Priesthood appointed to make atonement for their offences so as they were kept still in Gods favour and under his conduct to the Land of Promise not stubbornly and persistingly rebelling against him so here also we have a far better Priest and Sacrifice greater fuller and faithfuller and of an eternal vertue and continuance to keep the Followers after Him from perishing from Gods favour and for bringing them to the injoyment of eternal glory so that we may well say Herein is manifested the love of God to us in that He sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Yea we may well cry out with admiration and thankfulness Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou hast so visited him c. Heb. 2.6 7. Yea surely in the mindfulness and consideration of this his so rich and wonderful love and mercy which led him to this as the next verse saith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but
be justified by the Law of Moses and all its sacrifices yea so as to justifie all from that first Sentence of Condemnation so as they shall none of them perish therein but be all raised up again there-from The Free gift herethrough abounding to all men to the justification of life Rom. 3.22 23 24. 5.18 1 Tim. 2.6 1 Cor. 15.21 22. This honour God put upon none else Man or Angel to call them forth to that Judgment to satifie for and redeem any man from death and destruction But he hath so magnified his Son as to look upon him as sufficient to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole World If it be a magnifying a man as Job saith to take pains with him in visiting him every morning and trying him every moment that he might purifie and purge him from sin and render him fit for fellowship with him Job 7.17 18. Surely then it was much more a magnifying the Son of Man and a greater account made of him to take him as an offering and oblation a ransome and expiation for the sins of the whole World so as upon that account to uphold and spare the whole World during the day of his grace and patience and to justifie and save for ever all that come to God and abide with him in and through him 3. In his raising him up from the Dead which was an eminent Act of the exaltation and lifting up of his Person A lifting him up from the gates of Death that he might shew forth his praises in the gates of the Daughters of Sion As is said Psal 9.13 And of this raising him up from the Dead may that be understood prophetically that is written in Psal 30.1 2. Where this Phrase is used of lifting up I will extol thee O Lord for thou hast lifted me up and hast not made my foes to rejoyce over me Comparing it with ver 3. Where he saith O Lord thou hast brought up my Soul from the Grave Thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit Or rather as the Hebrew Word more properly signifies and as Symmachus reads it thou hast quickned me or made me alive again from my going down into the pit Or as some read it from them that go down into the pit in which he also was mightily declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1.3 4. 4. Most fully in his exalting him at his right hand in his Ascention and taking him up into his own Glory that 's called an exalting or lifting him up Act. 5.31 For it 's the same Word that is here Translated lifted up Him hath God exalted or lifted up with his right hand a Prince and Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins This was most evidently and fully a glorifying of him according to what himself also said John 13.31 32. Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him If God be glorified in him God shall also glorifie him in himself and shall straight way glorifie him Of this it 's said God raised him from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 A lifting him up indeed For herein he was lifted up 1. As to place both out of Grave and Hell and also out of and above the Earth into the heavenly places as in Ephes 1.20 21. He raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies or heavenly places for he is not entred into the holy places made with hands into which the High Priests under the Law used once a year to enter but into Heaven it self Heb. 9.24 To which agrees 1 Pet. 3.22 He is gone up into Heaven Yea far above all Heavens All these visible and perceptible heavens or what are known to us Ephes 4.10 Into Heaven it self and far above all Heavens As opposed to the Earth from which he Ascended and went and where other high Priests used to Minister Heb. 8.4 Unto which Earth he shall descend again from Heaven when he comes again to Judge the World in righteousness Act. 1.11 1 Thes 4.15 16. As he was not in the Grave when he was risen So being now in Heaven he is not upon the Earth in respect of that body and personal Being in which he Ascended and went up to Heaven He was taken up into Heaven So as he truly said I am no more in the World but I come to thee John 17.11 And I leave the World and go to the Father John 16.28 And me ye have not always Namely present with you in body in such a manner as he said The poor ye have always with you Matt. 26.11 2. In respect of state He is lifted up and exalted to dignity and honour into a more excellent and glorious condition then either he himself was in here among men or then other either Man or Angel is in A State 1. Of greater felicity then ever any other man or Angel was or is in his Body which was here subject to many infirmities and weaknesses in the similitude of sinfull flesh capable of being put to pain and smart and sensible of troubles and injuries yea actually abased dishonoured and made vile is now glorified and become glorious A body of glory as it s called in the Greek Phil. 3.20 And such is its Glory that in its appearance from Heaven to St Paul the glory shining from it was in brightness far surpassing the glory of the Sun at mid-day Act. 9.3 22.6 26.13 Compared with ver 16. And Chap. 22.14 With 1 Cor. 9.1 15.8 Yea the glory of its shining to him struck him blind so as that he could not see so as the glory of the Sun in its greatest brightness will not at least on such a sodain at any time do Act. 22.11 And as for his person he is so in the presence of God and so immediately beholds his face and is filled with his favour and glory that he is in that fullness of joy that is therein and of the pleasures that are there for evermore The hope and assurance of which exceedingly animated and incouraged him in his sufferings and unto them so as to endure the Cross and despise the Shame as appears comparing Heb. 12.2 With Psal 16.8 9 10 11. Which the Apostle Peter applies to Christ as Prophetically fore-seen and spoken of him Act. 2.25 This excellent and most happy State was the Son of Man to be lifted up into and accordingly into it he is lifted up and exalted Being glorified with Gods own self with the glory he had with him before the World was John 17.5 The Son of Man or Christ in the Nature of Man being taken or received up into glory 1 Tim. 3.16 So owned of God as no other either Man or Angel So favoured as to have it said to him so as to none of the Angels Thou art my Son this day have
it again When the People some of them said that it Thundred others that an Angel spake to him John 12.28 29. But these things were known to few 2. In his speaking and working by him such things as never any spake or did for the words that he spake he spake not from himself as man alone but of or from the Father who dwelt in him and he it was that did the Works John 14.10 Whence he saith to Philip Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else believe me for the works sake ver 11. With Chap. 15.24 7.46 And that God did magnifie him in this and lift him up among men The Apostle Peter testifies Act. 2.22 Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God by Miracles Wonders and Signes which God did by him c. As also 3. By his raising him from the dead glorifying him and maintaining his cause and name against all oppositions and gathering in a Church to him and upholding it in the midst of Persecutions c. Of which things I shall not inlarge 2. Of God the Word or Son also even by himself or his Divine Being or Deity exerting and putting forth it self and so glorifying him as the Son of Man And so it behoved him and he did it Both 1. In Work As in his working glorious Miracles Thus it s said upon his turning Water into Wine at that Marriage in Cana of Galilee This beginning of Miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory But more fully in his rising from the dead and ascending into Heaven and giving gifts from thence unto men as some Apostles some Prophets c. Whence he saith No man takes my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again This Commandement have I received of my Father John 10.18 For as it is said that he was raised again from the dead by his Father and his glory So also it is said that he rose again in and by the power of his divine Spirit And that he died rose and revived that he might be Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord it over the quick and dead Rom. 14.9 And he rose again the Third day according to the Scriptures 1 Cor. 15.3 4. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned in the Spirit 1. Pet. 3.18 And so that he Ascended and went up on high and gave gifts unto men Psal 68.18 Eph. 4.8.9 2. In his Word Preaching forth himself and his own excellencies As he saith I am one that bear witness of my self and my Father that sent me he beareth witness of me Though he said If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true As implying that of himself as man only he bare not witness of himself if as Man only he had so done his Witness might have been slighted But he as the Word though made flesh witnessed of himself as in his works so in his word too and his witness as witnessing so was true For he knew whence he came and whither he went John 5.31 8.14 18. And so he declared himself in the Man-hood as the Son of man or the Word made Flesh to be the Son of God to be in Heaven and come from Heaven and to know the things of Heaven John 3.11 12 13 16. And so when he said here he must be lifted up we may understand him to say in such intimations and declarations of his excellencies as those were So he testified of himself that he is the Light of the World John 8.12 12.46 The bread of Life the bread that came down from heaven The living bread His Flesh meat indeed and his Blood drink indeed Necessary to be fed upon to the obtaining everlasting life And such as 〈◊〉 gives everlasting life to all that feed thereupon John 6.35 48 50 51 55 56. c. That he knows the Father and is known of the Father John 7.29 10.15 That he gives the water of Life which whoso drinks it shall be in him a spring of living waters springing up unto eternal life And causing Rivers of living waters to flow out of his belly or inward man as being the Baptizer with and giver of the holy Ghost John 4.14 7.37 38 39. Act. 1.5 With John 15.26 That he is The good Shepherd The door of the sheep knowing his sheep and giving to them in their following him Eternal Life John 10.3 9 11 15 28 29. That he is the Resurrection and the Life So as that He that believeth on him though dead he shall live he that liveth and believeth on him shall not dye for ever John 11.25 26. That he is The way the truth and the life John 14.6 The true vine John 15.1 4. And many the like But chiefly he is and was lifted up And that I might have referred the two former to the testimonies of the Father and Word as being brought to us and our cognizance by him 3. By the holy Spirit whose business it is to witness of Christ taking his things and shewing them and so glorifying him John 15.27 16.14 And so it is prophetically said of him That when the Enemy shall come in like a stood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him which Standard or Ensigne is Christ of the Seed of David of the Root of Jesse Isa 11.1 10 11. And put him to flight Isa 59.19 And he was to lift him up and hath and doth diversly as 1. By fore-testifying glorious things of him As that he as the Seed of the Woman and so as the Son of Man should bruise the head of the Serpent Overthrow his plot against us and our well-fare and take away his acquired power and jurisdiction over us and open the way for us into Paradise and so to God again Gen. 3.15 That he as the Seed of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and so as the Son of Man should be the blessing of or bringer forth of blessing to all the Nations or families of the Earth Gen. 22.18 26.4 28.14 With Gal. 3.8 That he as proceeding out of the Tribe of Judah should be the Shiloh the peaceable one or peace-maker Vnto whom should be the gathering of the People Gen. 49.10 That he should be the Prophet raised up from among the People and so as the Son of Man whom all the People should hear in all things that he should say unto them Deut. 18.15 18. That he should be as the Seed of David and so as the Son of Man the Great King and Governour upon whose shoulders the Government should be The Wonderful the Counsellor the Mighty God the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace Of the increase of whose Government and Peace there should be no end upon the Throne of David and upon his Kingdom to order and to establish it with justice and with judgment
upon which they Ascend and Descend John 1.51 Rev. 19.10 And so we find the Angel Gabriel lifting up and commending the Messiah in his work and business Dan. 9.24 27. where he speaks both of the cutting off the Messiah and of the fruits and consequents thereof as the finishing transgression making an end of Sin making reconciliation for iniquity bringing in everlasting Righteousness c. The Angel Gabriel also brought down an honourable Testimony of him in which he lifted him up in Luk. 1.26.31 32 33. Where he said to the Virgin concerning him That He should be great and be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God should give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall Reign over the house of Jacob for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end c. As also an Angel lifted him up to the Shepheards at his Birth Saying to them Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you You men in distinction from us Angels is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Luk. 2.10 11. Yea A multitude of the heavenly Host then also immediately being with that Angel honoured and lifted him up at his Birth Praising God and saying Glory to God on the highest and on Earth peace and good will toward men Luk. 2.13 Angels also witnessed to his Resurrection Mat. 28.2 5 6 7. Luk. 24.4 5 6 7 23. And to his Ascending up to Heaven and return from thence Act. 1.10 11. Yea and of his Glory there received as is evident in those Doxologies or Glorifyings of him mentioned Rev. 5.11 12. 7.11 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was stain to receive Power Riches Wisdom Strength Honour Glory and Blessing 2. I might add also That all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth and such are in the Seas do exalt and lift him up for so John tells us he heard them all saying Blessing Honour Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Rev. 5.13 But I only briefly mention those and come to those Creatures that are most concerned in him and his praises even our selves Men. And so he hath been is and must be lifted up By 3. Holy men his holy Apostles and Prophets as also by all his Messengers Servants and Saints even his whole Church through the helpfulness and by the power and strength of the holy Ghost as instruments in his hands And so he was lifted up and exalted 1. By the holy Prophets which were before his coming For To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name all that believe in him shall receive the forgiveness of sins Act. 10.43 And the Apostle Peter speaking again of the Death Resurrection and Exaltation of Christ tells us That all the Prophets from Samuel and those that followed spoke of those days Aâ—â— 3.24 Namely those in which those things were done and accomplished And that they Prophesied of the grace brought now unto us 1 Pet. 1.10 Whence also the Apostle Paul saith That he testified to small and great saying no other things then those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass Viz. That Christ should suffer and be the first that should rise from the Dead and shew Light to the Gentiles and to the People Act. 26.22 23. 2. By John the Baptist who was the immediate forerunner of Christ a Prophet and more then a Prophet Being the Man sent of God to bear witness to Christ the Light That messenger sent before his face to prepare the way for him And his work and business was in bearing Witness of him to exalt and lift him up that all men through him might believe And he did highly lift him up and bare an honourable testimony of him as that he was before John and he himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of his Shoes That He is the Christ the true Light the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World the Baptizer with the holy Ghost the Bride-groom that hath the Bride c. John 1.6 7 8 9 15. 3. By the holy Apostles also whose office and business it was to be witnesses to him John 15.27 And to Preach and proclaim him so as to set him forth lift him up exalt and magnifie him in and unto all things And they by the holy Spirit and the holy Spirit in an by them and their Ministry according to the Doctrine of the Prophets fore-given forth by the holy Spirit concerning him Rom. 1.1 2 3 have highly extolled and lifted him up Preaching him 1. As to his person The Son of God Even the same that according to the Spirit and Divine Nature was in the beginning with God and God He by whom and for whom all things were made whether in Heaven or Earth visible or invisible Thrones Dominions Principallities or Powers all things were Created by him and for him and that by him all things consist he being before them That he is the Heir of all things the express character of the Fathers Person and the brightness of his glory The Wonderful the Councellor the Mighty or great God and our Saviour The Immanuel God with us John 1.1 2 3. Col. 1.15 16 17. Heb. 1.2 3. 1 Tim. 3.16 Tit. 2.13 Isa 9.6 That he is the Christ the Messiah He that was prophesied before of and promised by all the Prophets of God from the beginning of the World The only excellent person designed of God and promised from the beginning to be the Author Procurer and Dispenser of all grace and blessing to us John 1.41 45. Mat. 1.21 22 23. 1 Pet. 1.20 21. The very Christ Act. 9.20 22. He that was in the form of God not thinking Robbery to be equal with God but was sent of God in the nature and fashion of a man to be the Saviour of the world Phil. 2.6 7. John 3.17 Gal. 4.4 5. 1 John 4.14 2. As to his work and business that it was totally for us and our good a work of exceeding advantage to us and necessity for us Not to Condemn the World but that the World might be saved by him John 3.17 Not to judge the World but to save it John 12.4 7. And that by taking away its Sin John 1.29 And that by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 1.3 9.26 Giving his flesh for the life of the World John 6.51 And so that he might by his death destroy him who had the power of Death the Devil and deliver those who by reason of the fear of Death were all their life-time subject to Bondage Heb. 2.14 15. That he might abolish or evacuate the destructive power and force of Death and bring life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 Taking away Sin and destroying the works of the Devil 1 John 3.5 8. That so he might bring us to God 1
he pleaseth to be Apostles Prophets or otherwise useful for perfecting the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the acknowledgment of the Son of God unto a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the age of Christ Eph. 4.8 11 12 13. Col. 2.3.9 That it is He that hath prevailed to open the book in the right hand of God and unâ—rose the seals and discover and declare the hidden Wisdom and secret Mysteries contained therein Rev. 5.1 6. The great Apostle faiâ—hful in all things to him that appointed him as Moses in all his house accounted worthy of more honor then Moses to be more acquainted and intimate with God even as his Son in his bosome and so fullier furnished for declaring his Glory and glorious grace and good-will and more faithful even as a son in his own house built by himself Whereas Moses was faithful but as a servant therein Wherefore as the Holy Ghost also saith to day if ye will hear his voice even his that is Gods own Son the heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds his who is the express character of his Fathers person and the brightness of his glory giving forth the fullest and brightest discovery of God and of his holy mind and will and speaking to us from heaven harden not your hearts c. Heb. 3.1 2 3 4 7. with 1.3 12.25 Secondly As the Priest in and High Priest over the house of God the most authorized and consecrated person consecrated with the Word of Gods Oath and after the power of an endless life by a sacrifice once offered for ever and that never needs to be iterated made a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck an everlasting Priest in the vertues of his once endured Death for us and therefore able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Heb. 7.25 A Priest upon the throne and so both a King and Priest the true Melchisedeck being both King of Righteousness and after that King of Peace working performing and commanding righteousnes and so commanding and prevailingly making and giving Peace far greater then Aaron Levi or Abraham Such a Priest as we needed and it behoved us to have being holy harmless undefiled and separated from sinners and made higher then the heavens Heb. 7.1.26 â—7 A great High Priest entred into the heavens even into Heaven it self by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle and by vertue not of the bloud of others as Aaron did into the figure of the heavens onely but of his own precious bloud and sacrifice Where he now appears in the presence of God for us having obtained eternal redemption Heb. 4.14 9.11 12 24. A faithful High Priest and therefore made like is brethren in all things that he might be so to make atonement and reconciliation for the people and to succour and help the tempted Heb. 2.17 18. To which end also he is both perfectly furnished with knowledge of our cases and conditions by reason both of his exceeding quickness and powerfulness as the VVord of God for searching into all things and piercing even to the dividing asunder the soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow being a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So as there is not any creature that is not manifested in his sight but all things are naked and opened as things anatomized and laid perfectly before his view Heb. 4.12 13. The Spirit that rests upon him making him quick of understanding Isa 11.2 3 4. And also as having had an experimental feeling of our infirmities and temptations as man in himself having himself suffered and been tempted yea tempted in all points like to us yet without sin and so the more acceptable and prevalent in his mediating and interceding with God for us And also perfectly merciful and compassionate towards us ready to plead for us and help us Heb. 2.17 18. with 4.15 5.1 2. So as we have great ground of encouragement from this consideration of his Priesthood and its perfection and his fitness by the vertues of his Sacrifice to make the worshippers of and comers to him and to God by him perfect to draw nigh and come with boldness to the throne of grace with true hearts and full assurance of faith to ask and receive grace and mercy to help us seasonably in all our trials and temptations Heb. 4.14 16. 9.14 10.19 22. Thirdly As a King he is set forth as furnished with the most sovereign Authority over all creatures in heaven earth and under the earth all things being put under him and the Throne and power of God given him in the manhood So as also to be every way accomplished to be the Law-giver Saviour and Judge He being indued also with all the fulness of the Spirit of counsel and might which resting upon him renders him both infinitely quick in understanding in the fear of the Lord and perfect in Righteousness in all his Government and the exercise of it Girded up in his loyns with righteousness and in his reins even in all his thoughts purposes and desires from whence issue all his words and motions for action with faithfulness Isa 11.2 3 4 5. Having a white horse under him as supported by his own Righteousness or as riding on the Heavens and having them at his command for the help of his subjects and riding swiftly and prosperously in all his Government Deut. 33.26 27. being called faithful and true and in righteousness judging and making war His eyes as a flame of fire discovering and trying all things And on his head are many Crowns Either as denoting his superlative Power or Jurisdiction over the many Countreys brought into an acknowledgment of him yea Kings and Kingdoms Or the many great Victories gotten by him over his enemies whether evil spirits or evil men engaging themselves against him and gotten by his truth against errour and impiety Or also the many praises ascribed to him And he hath a name Dignity Title Power which none knoweth but himself as signifying that he is exalted above all blessing and praise Neh. 9.5 and that none can set forth all his praises Ps 106.2 And he is clothed in a vesture dipt in bloud either because all his appearance in his Government to the spiritual eye is such as in which is manifested the vertue of his most precious Bloud Sufferings and Sacrifice for us Or because it represents the overthrow of his and our enemies And his name is called the Word of God as being the great speaker forth and Interpreter of the knowledge of God to us And he hath a sword that goeth out of his mouth A sharp cutting word full of killing convincing efficacy to all that stands cross to him which is therefore said to go out
him Gen. 22.12 How may not we then much more perceive the love of God to us in not withholding but sending down his onely begotten Son from Heaven and making him the Son of Man that he might save us This is Love indeed passing all parallel yea all knowledge Surely we need not as the Pharisees seek after another or greater sign from Heaven that God desires not our ruine but our salvation and happiness but may well rest in this unspeakable gift of God as a sufficient demonstration thereof to us accepting it with all reverence love and thankfulness This is a faithful saying and worthy all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 To save us from the curse of the Law from the wrath of God from the state of death and destruction from the power malice and rage of the Devil and in a word from all that might harm us And had that been all it had been very much but it was not all he sent him also to bring us back to him and so to eternal life glory and happiness 1 Pet. 3.18 John 3.16 Surely this may engage us also Secondly To think well of God to land and bless him perpetually as our great Benefactor our merciful Father our mighty yea almighty Helper as one that so desired our good so loved the world as to send us such a one to save us He may well expect from us and we give to him upon this account all possible love thanks dutifulness and ready obedience He is worthy to be honoured by us that had such a respect for us Well may we cry out with admiration Lord what is man that thou shouldst so magnifie him and that thou shouldst so set thine heart upon him as to send thine own and onely Son not by Adoption and Regeneration a Son onely but by eternal and divine Generation thine onely begotten Son to be the Son of Man and so in Relation and of Kindred to him to help and save him when none else could help him This was the Lords own doing and greatly worthy our admiration Psal 118.22 3. And well may we accept of and confide in such a one as this Son of Man Gods onely Son as a person fit and meet and All-sufficient to save us and to bring us to Heaven and Happiness Good encouragement may this consideration give us as well as it shews us a necessity there being Salvation and Life in none other for us to hearken to him and give up our selves wich full assurance of faith and expectation of good success to his direction and dispose We need not fear but God will be with him to help him in and carry him on with success in all his undertakings for us seeing God is in him and he is God When God sends any on any gracious message he uses to accompany them and give them good success So he was with Moses and Aaron when he sent them to Pharaoh and gave them a command to bring Israel out of Egypt and they effected it in his name notwithstanding the many threatning difficulties and discouragements they encountred with though they were but Gods servants neither of them his proper Son Indeed they led not the people into Canaan because they failed in their faith in and obedience to him not sanctifying him before them at the waters of strife He sent Joshua therefore to lead them in thither expelling and driving out the Gentiles to divide the Land to Israel for their Inheritance And God was with him therein and did not fail him nor forsake him or them that followed him and obeyed his commands but made them successfull by his assisting presence He was with Gideon also when he sent him against their enemies so as with a small handful by unlikely means he vanquished an innumerable number of enemies And what should I mention David Cyrus and divers others Now if God strengthned his servants always in their obedience to him in what he sent them to do how shall we question or doubt the Sufficiency and prevailing powerfulness of his onely Son with whom and in whom he was reconciling the world to himself and is still after a more wonderful way of presence and union of Being then with any of them Surely we may have high expectations of Life and Salvation by him He being sent of God to such purposes to and for us He being neither liable to sin as Moses Aaron and many others did nor hath death any place upon him much less dominion as it had over all them so as that he should fail there-through in his undertakings till he hath perfected what concerns us Indeed his undertakings or the things God sent him to do are and were of a far higher nature and heavier then ever he sent any others about As to take away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Destroy the power of Satan Abolish death through his own death And to save our souls But by how much his work was and is greater by so much is his person more excellent and glorious And why then should we not thankfully entertain and embrace him depend on and trust to him yielding up our selves to his guidance with greatest confidence and fullest assurance both of his sufficiency and faithfulness For in that he is Gods Son his onely Son he hath his power and virtue strength and all-sufficiency rendring him able to save us And in that he is his onely begotten he hath in him his perfect likeness and similitude and therefore God being Love or Charity full of goodness and faithfulness to us he is so also being the express character of his person the brightness of his Glory And being our Kinsman and our Brother and become so on purpose for our good what may we not expect of compassion and faithfulnes from him upon that account also Object But if the Son of God was in his love sent to be our Saviour and he so able and willing to do the work he was sent about how is it then that all are not in the issue saved from perishing nor have eternal life But so many and great multitudes as the Scriptures imply perish If he will save us who can hinder him therein seeing he being Gods onely Son and coming in his Name and Power is Almighty to do what he pleases for and to us Answ He was not sent or came to save us so as to bring us to eternal life absolutely by his omnipotent power otherwise then in a way of willing obedience to him performed by us being endued by him with capacities for such obedience He is able to save us to the utmost and he is willing but he expects that we should come and seek to him in the grace wherewith he prevents us that we may be saved by him and live with him and through him as is agreeable to what we observed in the next place viz. CHAP. XII The Fourth Observation considered and therein the necessity
and the Salvation of his Soul And if he perish as to any other hope and design which is carnal which as a man yet subject to infirmity and in many things offending he may as Abraham did in his hope and design of bringing about Gods promise by his going in unto Hagar and the birth and life of Ishmael Gen. 16 such perishings of such hopes and designes though causing some grief shall not hurt them It may be said of such as it is of the hay and stubble built upon the good foundation which shall be burnt and the builder of it suffer loss but himself shall be saved so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.12 15. The believer himself as to his great hope and design shall not perish nor shall he his Soul perish as they that draw back but his believing is to the Salvation of that both in his Death wherein he hath hope that will not make him ashamed or fail him Prov. 14.32 Rom. 5.5.6 And in the Judgment when he shall be adjudged to and enter into everlasting life Mat. 25.35 46. Qu. 2. As to the Second Querâ— How the believer shall be saved from this perishing either from the way or in the end in his Death or in the Judgment We may say 1. He shall be saved from perishing from the way by Christ 1. By his giving in light and truth faithfully to direct him and shew him the way that he should go in As it is said The meek will he guide in judgment the meek will he teach his way And what man is he that fears the Lord him shall he teach the way that he shall chuse his Soul shall dwell at ease or lodge in goodness shall not fall into snares and mischiefs Psal 25.8 12 13 14. And in beholding him who is Gods Servant upon whom he hath put his Spirit to bring forth Judgment He that is Christ will not fail to teach him and to bring forth Judgment into truth or victory Isa 42.1 3 4. Christ being come a Light into the world that whosoever believeth on him should not abide in darkness but see the light of Life John 8.12 And his word being believed and abid in as it is in believing on the Son of man keeps from sinning against him Psal 119.11 Yea it cleanseth their way and makes it more perfect ver 9. And so gives a continuance in the Father and in the Son both in dependance on them and in their favour and protection from what might harm them whether it be the World or any Antichristian principles or Doctrine 1 John 2.24 And that because Christ also therein and there-with 2. Gives in his holy Spirit to work in men both a right discerning of his truth and love and affection to it and so conformity to him in and by it his Doctrine being a ministration of Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 Yea his words are Spirit and Life John 6.63 And he hath promised that they that believe on him as the Scripture hath said to them he will give so as they shall receive his holy Spirit Joh. 7.37 38 39. Act. 5.32 We have not now his blessed Body of Flesh to see and converse with sensibly or to shew and testifie our love to as his Disciples and Mary had but instead thereof he hath left us his words and therein his mind and Commandment and we may shew love to him therein though we cannot anoint his head kiss his feet take his body in our armes which his enemies might do and one that pretended love to him in some such actions betrayed him yet we have that in which we may testifie love even his word we may attend to him in that hear him and hugg him too as it were therein take that and lay it up in our hearts keep it in our breasts and diligently observe and follow it And he that hath his Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth him and he that loveth him shall be loved both of the Fathe and of him and he will manifest his own self to him praying the Father for them and sending his holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth and abide with them for ever John 14.15 16 17 21. And he will so glorifie Christ to the Soul and shew it things to come as to make afflictions and persecutions light and bearable to it and give it peace and comfort in them and carry them above and keep them from being harmed by the prosperity and allurements of this World or by any baits or temptations It being the spirit of wisdom will make wise and fill with such discretion and understanding as will preserve from the way of the evil Man and of the strange woman and so from every false way as was noted before Prov. 1.23 2.10 11 12 15 16. Psal 119.104 17.4 And the Soul that trusts to and follows its conduct shall not miscarry To these ends also 3. He preserves them by mediating with God his Father from them that the weaknesses and infirmities and through infirmity neglects and wanderings from him being seen confessed and turned from might not be imputed to hinder or with-hold his grace and Spirit from being given forth to lead instrust reprove reduce comfort and work the works of God in them till it perfect what concerns them Heb. 7 25. And there-through he saves them to the utmost So he helped Peter Luk. 22.31 32. 4. By the exercise also of his glorious power and authority over all things he keeps off what might be too hard for us in our depending on him he will be faithful to us and will not fail nor be discouraged Isa 42.1 4. He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but with the temptation will give an issue that we may escape 1 Cor. 10.11 12. Surely the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder thereof he can and will restrain Psal 76.11 Yea and 5. By ordering merciful and faithful corrections and Chastisements to us to break us off from our purposes and hide pride from us to purge away our sins purifie and make us White and so to be partakers of his holiness that we might be kept from going down to the Pit and our life might see the light and that we being made holy might see the Lord. Job 33.16 17 29. Dan. 11.35 Heb. 12.10 11. Thus he delivers the believer on him from every evil way and preserves him to his heavenly Kingdom 2 Tim. 4.18 And then 2. He preserves him from perishing in the end 1. By receiving his Spirit when it departs hence washing it in his precious Blood and presenting it pure and glorious to himself Eph 5.25 26. Psal 49.15 Acts 7.59 Rev. 6.10 11. 2. By redeeming him from the power of the Grave raising him up from death and redeeming the body from all corruption and mortality Psal 49.15 Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 4.15 3. By his adjudging him being raised to a better condition fully blotting out
and upon his account for all things which he knows needful for us in this life also and not uncertain riches 1 Tim. 6.17 19. Whether food raiment counsel courage health friends or what else he may see good for us with submission to his wisdom and will and so 5. For outward defence and safety in our ways and services not coveting after or trusting in mans friendship and defence Psal 146.3 4 5 6. So Ezra was ashamed to ask a Guard of the King to secure him in his way to Jerusalem but sought it of God having said to the King That the hand of the Lord is for good to and with them that seek him but his power and wrath against them that forsake htuâ— Ezra 8.22 And Christ sending out his Apostles incouraged them to believe on him for safety in his work telling them All power in Heaven and Earth is given unto me and lo I am always with you to the end of the world Mat. 28.18 20. Let our conversation therefore be without covetousness and be we content with such things such things for defence and protection also as we have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear c. Heb. 13.5.6 6. For Eternal Life the receiving our Spirits in death Acts 7.59 Psal 31.4 5. The resurrection of our bodies from the death when he appears in glory John 11.25 26 5.28 29. 1 Cor. 6.14 15.21 22. The glory then to be revealed and enjoyed Col. 3.4 1 Thes 4.15 16. Rom. 5.2 Thence he is in the believers the hope the ground of their hope of Glory Col. 1.27 And where he is so looked to and depended on for all these things and in a word for all grace and glory that in the looking to and depending on him the heart and life is yielded up to him to be ordered directed and framed by him according to his Word and Will through the grace brought to us by him there the believing is right and such as hath the promise and shall have the performance of Gods salvation from perishing and of Eternal Life And great care is to be taken herein that we be not deceived with a pretence of Religion wherein yet the heart is going after and relying on or hoping in other Objects instead of Christ and God in him or upon other accounts then of the grace in him or the heart and life is not yielded up to be ordered by him And surely if in worldly things men are careful not to be paid with Copper instead of Silver and Gold or to have their Bags filled with Counters instead of currant money and that they have not false and counterfeit Deeds and Conveyances instead of what is good and valid in the Law for their Estates How much more should we be careful in the matters of our Souls that we content not our selves with a faith or believing that is not aright a believing in vain instead of a reall unfeigned believing on Jesus Christ the Son of man and the Son of God Now that we may believe on the Son of man as the Scriptures have said and as they approve and so be preserved from perishing and obtain eternal life the son of man must be lifted up And so we come to CHAP. XVII The Sixth and last Observation proposed and spoken to in certain Conclusions the first of which in two branches shews the necessity of Gods lifting up Christ in himself both as to mens believing on him and as to their being saved and living for ever by him Obser 6 THe Sixth and last Observation is That it is needful and behoveful to the end that men may both believe in Christ and also therein be preserved from perishing and have eternal life therefore also its Gods good will that Christ the Son of man be lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness How that was we have in some measure seen by whom He is and is to be so lifted up that which remains here to be considered is that it 's necessary and behoveful that he be so lifted up both with reference to mens believing on him as the next end of it and with reference to their not perishing but having eternal life who believe on him and in their believing on him which is the last and Ultimate end and to demonstrate this I shall briefly lay down and prove two or three conclusions Conclusion 1. That the lifting him up both by men upon the cross as ordered of God and by God himself in his uniting the nature of man in him to the eternal word and his calling him forth to upholding him in raising him out of and rewarding and glorifying him at his right hand after his sufferings was of absolute necessity both as to mens believing on him and as to their being saved from perishing and having life eternal in believing on him In which conclusion be two branches Branch 1. That this lifting him up was necessary to mens believing on him and that is clear because otherwise he could not have been an Object to be believed on for any of those things which we need in order to our salvation and ever-living For 1. Had he not been made one with the Word the seed of David made the Son of God he had been but a Creature and so not meet to be believed on with a divine faith or dependance on him either for procuring for us or conferring on us the things pertaining to salvation and eternal life no meer creature being so to be believed on by us or able to save us nor had he been such a one as had answered the prophesies foregoing concerning the person in whom we are directed to have our trust For he in the prophesies is described to be the Son of God I wil declaree the decree the Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son this day have begotten thee Psal 2.6 And this Son is he of whom its is said Kiss the son lest he be angry and blessed are all they that put their trust in him vers 11 12. The Son given is He that is the mighty God Isai 9.6 and if he were not so he should be looked upon but as a meer creature and so as a meer medium by whom and by which God extends his mercy and goodness and not as the extender and procurer of it we are counselled and sometimes people have been commended for believing the Prophets of the Lord who were but men indued with the spirit or gifts of the spirit of the Lord. As it is said Believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper 2 Chron. 20.20 And they believed God and his servant Moses Exod. 14.31 But not any where to believe on any man that 's a meer man but always in or on the Lord Jehovah As in the same 2 Chron. 20.20 Where he saith Believe his Prophets He saith Believe in or on
the Lord your God but not believe on his Prophets And therefore if Christ the Son of man were not also the Son of God and God Jehovah he were not a lawfull object to be believed in or relyed and depended on for procuring or conferring safety and eternal life nay nor for the mercies of this life much less those which are of that nature that it 's not possible for any that is but a creature to procure or confer But we are bid and commanded to believe on the son of man Jesus Christ Believe in God believe also on me Joh. 14.1 And this is his commandement that ye believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God c. 1 Joh. 3.23 2 Had he not been lifted up by men upon the Cross as thereto appointed of God and so called forth to supported under his sufferings for us he had still not been an object to be believed on for life and salvation as the son of man because there could have been none in him for us but we had been left under the necessity of perishing for ever the law of God being broken by us and the sentence and curse of it therethrough falling upon us we naked and open thereunto Under the Law the figure of heavenly things there was scarce any thing purged but by blood and without shedding of blood was no remission Heb. 9.22 Shadowing and signifying the necessity of the death of a sacrifice for our redemption from under the wrath of God and for the remission of our sins But no sacrifice of the law could make an expiation because of the weakness and unprofitableness of them For it was not possible for the blood of Bulls and Goats to take away sin wherefore God rejected them when it was said Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldst not have but a body hast thou prepared for me Heb. 5.6 Which was spoken prophetically of Christ the Son of God becoming the son of man signifying the necessity and certainty of his being made a sacrifice and shedding his precious blood for us to make atonement for us And indeed if our sins could have been purged or expiated and redemption obtained without the death of Christ for us and his bearing and therein and thereby making satisfaction for our sins then would his death and sufferings be rendred vain and needlesse which is horrible for us to think that God would put his own and only begotten son to such agonies sorrows and death without need for them as the Apostle implies when he saith I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness be by the law then Christ dyed in vain that is needlesly The end of his dying might have been brought about without it Gal. 2.21 Some rich man might have redeemed his brother by buying and giving to God a multitude of those legal sacrifices for him contrary to Psal 49.6 7 8. Yea and the Apostle by saying if righteousness be by the law excludes righteousness by any other means than by the death of Christ Taking it for granted that the law was the most absolute way for getting righteousness that ever was in the World besides the death and sufferings of Christ it containing precepts and appointments ordered of God and if that was insufficient surely all the riches and honours in the World could not procure it nor any doctrines or documents of the Phylosophers or wise men of the Gentiles or of any people whatsoever they being far short of God and his wisdome in appointing things pleasing in his sight so that it follows that there was a necessity of Christs death and of his being lifted up in such sense as we shewed before that he was exalted and lifted up therein because otherwise he could not have been an Object to be looked to or beleived on for salvation because no salvation or redemption from death and curse and by consequence no eternal life or lawfull power to give it could have been in him but by his death and sufferings 3. Necessary hereto also it was that he should not himself perish in his sufferings as to his humanity but be raised up again otherwise he could be no object still to be believed on for life and salvation Because had he not risen again from the dead but been lost and perished therein he could not have been as the Son of man in any capacity of helping us nor could we have been justified and acquitted from our sins by his sufferings seeing his body in which he bare our sins was the payment given to law and justice for them and had not that been raised the debt had not been acknowledged as sufficiently paid or to have been sufficient to satisfie justice Yea he being our Champion had he perished in the conflict or combate and not returned Victor we had all been routed as it fared with the Philistines when Goliah was slain by David or rather as it would have fared with Israel had Goliah killed David If Christ be not risen preaching is vain and our faith is vain we are yet in our sins 1 Cor. 15.14.17 Nor could he as the Son of man have been in a case to releive or help us any further much lesse to keep us back from perishing and give us eternal life For from a person dead while dead what help can be expected 4. Nor could he be an Object to be believed on or we have had any ground to believe on him for procuring for us further grace or dispensing it to us for preserving us from perishing in the second death or for directing leading us in the way to or bringing us to the injoyment of eternal life if he had been only raised to live as a private person or in a mean condition as before on the earth again without being exalted to Gods right hand and invested in the nature of man and as the Son of man with those Offices of the great Prophet and Apostle and High-Priest of our profession the great King of Saints and Nations and Lord of all creatures If he had not been glorified with the glory of God and filled with his fulnesse If he had been here on earth still he should not have been a Priest seeing there were Priests that offer gifts according to the Law Heb. 8. Nor would the comforter have been sent to his Apostles and servants seeing it behooved him to present himself to God as the perfect sacrifice and become the great High-Priest even in the Heavens themselves appearing in the presence of God for us and making intercession for transgressors and for all that come to God by him that he might purge the Heavens themselves from the effects and cries of our sins there and sprinkling the vertues of his precious blood there in the presence of God make an attonement and obtain and receive the holy spirit for us to shed forth upon us and to remove the guilt of our sins from before God that it might be dispensed
to us to lead us into his truth Joh. 16.7 14 16 17. Heb. 9.24 25 26. Act. 2.33 And so as the great Lord and King command deliverances honours and blessings to us we could not have him as an Object to look to to forgive us our sins to give us the holy spirit to support our spirits renew our natures guide us to death raise us up from death and give us the Kingdom if he were not impowered to do all these things and all things else for us our faith in him for all these things would be otherwise in vain But now being in all things before-mentioned lifted up made the Son of God in the nature of man delivered up to death for our sins as a ransom and attonement for us and therein supported and accepted and therefrom raised and revived exalted to Gods right hand and there glorified He is a compleat Object of faith to be believed on being every way able to help and save us One who in his death and Resurrection hath delivered us from perishing in the first death or judgment for the first offence and as exalted at Gods right hand able to save us also from the wrath to come and so from the second Death and so he will all that come to God by him through his exercise of his glorious Office of High Priest with God for us and of his Prophetical and Kingly Offices towards all men and especially those that believe and of his Lordly authority over all Creatures in Heaven Earth and Hell for our behoof and benefit and to give Eternal Life to all of us that believe on him being a person also both willing and faithful as his ready undertakings and sufferings of such things for us evince and as his glorious Offices to such purposes put upon him and received by him in a sense enjoyne or require of him I might add hereto that as all this exaltation and lifting up of the Son of Man was necessary to render him an Object to be believed on So was it also necessary for the discovering him to be such an Object which is necessary also to the begetting belief on him for God being true and one that could not lie could not nor would not have discovered that as an Object to be believed on that were not such his making peace was the ground as well as the matter of his preaching in preaching Peace Nor could there therefore have been any sending forth of the Spirit with such a discovery to inable and move to believe it His personal lifting up in those ways and particular being the foundation of all the rest nothing of the rest could have been without that but I only hint it and pass to the second Branch Branch 2. That his being so lifted up and exalted in those real Acts done to himself as is before mentioned was necessary for his saving us from perishing and for his giving us Eternal Life in believing on him and this is evidenced both in what is said before in the fifth Observation about the way of his saving us from perishing and our having Eternal Life and also in what is said on the former Branch And indeed this evinces it in general and as to all the particulars included therein that that being Gods grand design in giving him as the next Verses shew God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him mtght be saved yea and of his lifting him up as this Verse saith That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Eternal Life it follows that either these things before mentioned were necessary to be ordered and done to him to those ends or else those ends might have been otherwise brought about and so they were ordered and done to him needlesly and in vain which would impose upon the infinite wisdom or goodness of God and imply that which neither may be conceived nor conceded or granted For if there had saith he been a Law and by consequence any other way that could have given life doubtless Righteousness should have been by it Gal. 3.21 But besides that all these things were necessary to be ordered and done to him for his saving us from perishing and giving us Eternal Life may be seen also by induction For his being taken into unity of person in the Divine nature that was necessary to his saving us from perishing in the first Death for otherwise his power and ability his worth and excellency would have been too small to have done and suffered what was needful for our Redemption therefrom and for Gods acceptance as sufficient thereunto It was the work of an Infinite and boundless strength such as the finiteness of a Creature or meer man could not reach unto to stand under and bear upon himself the weight of mans Sin and Death and by bearing to overcome them and to satisfie Gods justice for the sin and abolish the death required a Sacrifice of an infinite merit and worth no meer man had either strength or worth enough for such a thing not strength to endure and overcome such agonies and death nor worth to be taken for a sufficient ransom or price of Redemption for all men no nor for any one man for no man that is but a man can give to God a ransom for his Brother a price to God sufficient for him that he may not see death Psal 49.6 7 8. But the Lord Jehovah He that is God also will Redeem my Soul saith David from the hand or power of Hell or of the Grave for he will receive me Verse 15. Nor can any meer man or Creature be able either to raise up the body out of the first death and Grave or to deliver or preserve us from the second death that we should not perish in that for he that would preserve from that must have virtue in his Sacrifice to take away by obtaining for us and dispensing to us the pardon of our following sins committed by us in our own proper persons against the light and truth of God and prevail with God for Grace and Spirit to be given to us and give it to us too to inlighten inliven and raise from Spiritual death discover the evil of sin and the deceits of Sathan so as to enable the Soul to see and avoid them and obtain and give grace for repenting of any such sins and forgiveness of them thereupon and for renewing the Heart yea he must be able to deliver from the power of Sathan and his policy or else he cannot deliver from perishing either from the way to life or in the second death in the end as the issue of perishing from the way Much less can any meer Man or Creature be able to give to us or possess us of Eternal Life because to that it 's
hand yea or but tasted and spit out again it heals not the Distemper If it fail not to heal when ever duly applied it s an approved Medicine and may have a Probatum est written upon it The waters of Jordan were manifested to be an apt proper and sufficient remedy for Naamans Leprosie in that it healed him perfectly upon his seven times washing in it though had he either gone away in his rage and not washed at all or washed but four or five or six times in it and not seven times as he commanded his Leprosie had not been cleansed The like we might say of the Brazen Serpent that healed in being looked upon though its bare setting up or being felt on would not have done it Now that to such as give up and attend to the Gospel it s a means of begetting preserving and increasing Faith it may be thus evidenced 1. In that its the way that God hath appointed and it s to be certainly believed that what God orders is and must be proper and sufficient for the end whereto he orders it his work being perfect and all his Ways judgment Deut. 32.4 We may not so injure the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of the only wise God who is Love and Goodness it self as to think that he would direct his Creatures to improper or insufficient means for their attaining the most excellent and necessary end as if he either could mistake himself or would impose upon and delude us Now that this is the means of his appointing is evident in this that the Gospel was ordered by him to be Preached For the obedience of Faith in all Nations Rom. 1.5 and 16.26 And that it Pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe To whom also it is the Power of God for that purpose Rom. 1.16 1 Cor. 1.21 Even to save them from unbelief and disobedience Yea it s called the Word of Faith Rom. 10.8 both as its the Word that is to be believed and as it begets and nourishes Faith where entertained As also the Preaching of the Cross is said to be the Power and Wisdom of God to the called to such as obey the call both to lead and strengthen them to and direct and uphold them in believing on Christ and God by him 1 Cor. 1 22r 24. As also it is that Faith where-through the Believer is kept by the Power of God to the Salvation ready to be revealed in the last days 1 Pet. 1.5 2. In that in and by it all things are given us of God pertaining to Life and Godliness both to quicken to and in believing and preserve in it and lead out to the right worshipping of God in the exercise of it 2 Pet. 1.3 as to say 1. A discovery of all such things or Objects as may move the heart to imbrace Christ and preserve it with him taking it off from all other things For therein is declared as was also noted before 2. The excellency of his Person that there is none like him for us to believe on he being the Son the only begotten Son of God one with God yea God over all blessed for ever Amen John 1.1 2 14. and 3.16 Rom. 9.5 One by whom and for whom all things in Heaven and Earth were Created and made and are by the word of his Power upheld Col. 1.16 Heb. 1.2 3. One that was in the Form and hath the Riches and Fulness of God Phil. 2.6 7. 2 Cor. 8.9 And therefore one mighty in Power Wisdom and Fulness for performing his undertakings for us to save us Isa 9.6 2. The greatness of his Love and Grace toward us in coming forth from his Father in the fulness of time to seek and save us to that purpose emptying himself of all his Riches and Glory and taking on him the form of a Servant the fashion of Men yea bearing our Iniquities on his Body on the Tree becoming poor a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs yea made sin and a Curse for us to redeem us from sin and Curse and to inrich bless and make us Righteous to that purpose Dying the accursed and shameful Death of the Cross for us Gal. 4.4 and 3.13 Phil. 2.7 8 9. 1 Pet. 2.24 2 Cor. 8.9 Isa 53.4 5 6. 2 Cor. 5.21 Which may perswade us of his willingness to save and bless us 3. That all this was done to him and suffered by him for the World the whole World for all and every one and not only for some few out of love to the world and Grace to every one God being not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance and so to the knowledg and acknowledgment of the Truth and to be saved John 3.16 17. and 12.47 Rom. 5.18 2 Cor. 5.14 15 19 20 21. 1 Tim. 2.4 5 6. Heb. 2.9 and 4.9 10 14. Ezek. 33.11 2 Pet. 3.9.15 And so reaches to and includes every of us 4. That all this he did by the Will and Appointment of God his Father in Obedience to and in Union of mind and will with him and therefore with his Likement and Acceptance who sent him gave him made him of a Woman and under the Law yea made him Sin and a Curse for us laid upon him the Iniquities of us all pleased to bruise him and put him to Griefs and made his Soul an offering for sin upheld him in all and was well-pleased with him and therefore also bare witness to him in both Life and Death but especially in Raising and Exalting him as was formerly shewed For He raised him from the Dead it being indeed impossible that he should be held of Death Acts 2.24 and gave him Glory that our Faith and Hope might be in God He delivered him for our Offences and raised him again for our Justification and did all things needful and abundant to him in Glorifying him that he might be our Saviour the Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him John 3 16 17. Gal. 4.4 2 Cor. 5.19 21. Gal. 3.13 Isa 53.5 6 10 11. and 42.1 Rom. 4.25 1 Pet. 1.21 Heb. 5.9 For as 5. It is also declared in this Doctrine He being such a Person in himself who did and suffered such things and doing and suffering them for us all by the will and appointment of his Father and in Union of will with him his said Abasement Sufferings and Death were accepted and owned of God as and so are a sufficient Ransome or Price of Redemption for all Both for freeing all from perishing in and under that Death and Condemnation which came upon all in the first Adam and for his Transgression out of which therefore all shall at last be Raised up by him and also for Freeing Discharging and Delivering from Curse and Death eternal upon the account of their personal sinnings against the Law Goodness and Grace of God in and through him all or any that upon Convincement thereof in the day of
all the goodliness of man is like the Flower of the Grass the Grass withereth and the Flower fadeth but the Word of the Lord even that word that in the Gospel is Preached to us the Word made Flesh abideth for ever That we might only look to and believe on him Isa 41.29 with 42.1 2 3 4 8. and 40.6 7. Acts 4.10 11 12 1 Pet. 1.24 25. 11. With this Doctrine and Exaltation of the Son of man therein is also the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit whose Word it is and whose work and business it is to Lift up this Standard in and by all Means and Mediums for Working and Begetting Confirming and Strengthening Increasing and Giving growth to this Faith or Belief on the Son of man He I say is present in and with it to make it Powerful and Effectual to in and upon the Heart of the Hearer that in hearing he might believe and live That he in hearing opening the Mouth to take in this Word of Faith he might strengthen and cause the Soul to Eat and feed upon Christ held forth therein EZek. 3.1 2. Whence it is called The Ministration of the Spirit and the Words of Christ said to be Spirit and Life because of the Spirit Ministred therein and there-with which Spirit quickneth and giveth Life whence also it is a Ministration of Righteousness and Life 2 Cor. 3.6 8 9. John 6.63 The Spirit is Ministred not in the works of the Law but by the hearing of Faith Gal. 3.2 In the lifting up of the Son of man or report given in the Gospel of and concerning him is the Arm of the Lord revealed Isa 53.1 And this Spirit being the Arm of the Lord must needs be powerful for all that it is given or put forth to either for begetting preserving strengthening or increasing this Faith or believing on the Son of man Whence it is also called the Spirit of Faith We having the same spirit of Faith we also believe and therefore we speak knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up by him 2 Cor. 4.13 14. And God hath not given us the spirit of Fear but of Power and Love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 1.7 As implying that it is the Effect and Fruit of the holy Spirit working in and received by men that they believe and stand strongly and stedfastly in the Faith though under Temptations and Oppositions to the contrary Whence it also follows as a further Conclusion Conclusion 4. That the lifting up of the Son of man in the sense aforesaid viz. the Magnifying and Exalting him in the view of men is the proper and effectual means though not for putting any thing into Christ for us more then God hath put into him and upon him in his real Exalting and Lifting him up in his Person for in that respect he is compleat and perfect before the Preaching and Testifying of him The preparation for the poor was perfect before God gave the word and raised up the multitude of Preachers Psal 68.10 11. Even as the Serpent was perfect in it self as to what Moses was to make it before he set it up on the Pole Yet for the conveying Grace and Blessing to men and putting his Salvation and Life Eternal into them This in part was spoken to and its truth shewed in what was said above to the way of Christs saving the Believer from perishing from the way And in what we said of the Believers receiving and having Eternal life yet something we shall further here note And so I say this way of Exalting though it puts nothing into Christ but only ascribes and attributes to him what is in him yet it brings something into men even of Gods salvation to preserve them from perishing from the way of Life and Righteousness and so from the second Death in the Conclusion and of the Eternal life that is given us in him And this may be further Evidenced and Confirmed from the Titles given to the Gospel as that it s called the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 The Gospel of Peace Ephes 6.15 The Gospel of our Salvation Ephes 1.13 The Word of Life Phil. 2.16 The Word of Righteousness Heb. 5.13 Yea The Words of Eternal life John 6.68 Which Names are given to it not only because it declares what God hath done in Christ for Reconciling us to himself and making Peace Or what Peace and Peaceableness is in the Heart of God towards us or what salvation righteousness and life are given us in him but also because it is it self the way Medium or power of God for reconciling the hearts of men to himself and creating peace in them Isa 57.17 and of saving quickning and giving life Num. 1.16 James 1.21 1 Cor. 15.2 Psal 119.93 Isa 55.3 c. Let us view the effects and fruits produced thereby in Men. 1. Therein and thereby Christ gives forth his voice and divine light to declare and discover to Men where and what they are what case and state they are in and where their safety lies and which way they may attain it Yea what not that may be useful for Men to see and know for saving them from the powers of darkness and what ignorance and error expose them to Thus as Christ is called the Light of the World so his word that declares and lifts him up is a light too a light to our feet and a lanthorn to our steps Psal 119.105 Whatsoever makes manifest is light Eph. 5.13 and this word manifests God and Christ Sin and Righteousness Life and Death and all things and therein also is the voice of God and Christ calling to us to awaken and stand up from the dead that Christ may give us light that so our feet may be directed into the ways of peace Ephes 5.13 14. yea this makes the Preachers of and walkers in it Lights too to Men as the Baptist who bare witness to Christ as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World and lifted him up as the true light the Christ preferring him before him as one who was before him was therein a burning and a shining light Joh. 1.6 7 8 9 28 29. 5.32 33. And the Apostles whose work it was to witness to and preach forth Christ and his excellencies were called the light of the World and were sent forth to open mens eyes by their word and turn them from darkness to light Matth. 5.16 Act. 26.18 For with this voice and light in the exalting of Christ is given forth 2. A certain divine force power and operation of and by the spirit to inliven quicken and so indue the hearer and receiver thereof with a capacity 1. Of seeing and discerning the light and hearing the voice of the Lord discovering and directing into the way of peace and safety and so saving from the way of errour and deceit that leades to destruction thence the light of Christ which he gives
them who through the lifting up of him are begotten to believe on his name and therewith also the spirit of adoption framing it to child-like love reverence confidence and boldness to cry Abba Father Joh 1.12 13. Gal. 3.26 27 28 29. 4.4 5. Rom. 8.15 16. and his Children find a place of refuge in him Prov. 14.26 And in this also Christ is made to the Soul redemption and in a sense sanctification as to sanctify signifies to devote to God to be in a choice relation to him 1 Cor. 1.30 5. By begetting in the heart a lively hope of glory and of the glorious inheritance which he doth through the lifting up of Christ as one raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Ghost Rom. 5.2 3. 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Rom. 15.13 and we are saved by hope as by an anchor sure and stedfast keeping the Soul from being blown away and dasht upon and split against the Rocks Rom. 8.24 25. Heb. 6.19 20. from and with which hope also is effected joy in the Holy Ghost in which the heart is saved through this lifting up of the Son of Man from its fears and griefs also Rom. 52 3. We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we rejoyce also in tribulation yea we joy also in God through Jesus Christ our Lord by whom we have received the atonement Rom. 5.3 11. 6. Yea upon any loss or decay of these things the holy spirit in the lifting up of the Son of Man drawing the eye from its idols and iniquities to which it was wandered to behold and believe on him again restores the Soul and renews his pardoning and justifying acts with renewed peace and other gracious effects and so He I. Saves the Soul from perishing in a threefold way 1. In pulling it out and delivering it from its sinful fearful perishing estate at the first turning of it in to God and Christ to believe on him Tit. 3.4 5. 2. In keeping it from falling back again into Sin and Guilt and Disquiet in preserving it in believing As we shewed largely in Branch 2. Rom. 1.16 3. In recovering it from Falls and Lapses and Restoring it again as by this way he recalled the Angel of the Church of Ephesus Rev. 2.4 5. And the Angel of the Church of Sardis from his Spiritual deadness by remembring how he had Received and Heard Rev. 3.2 3 Yea and the Angel of the Church of Laodicea is called from his Lukewarm state by the proposal of Christ before him and the good things in him ver 14.15 16 17 18 20. Yea and herein also he II. Gives Eternal Life In that 1. He hereby imparts the Spirit of Life as is forenoted with the Fruits and Operations of it in newness of Life as Righteousness Peace Holiness Hope and Joy in the Holy Ghost Yea all the Fruits of the holy Spirit in which he manifests his presence and in which the virtues of the Divine and holy Nature are evidenced are effected or infused in and by his glorifying Christ and leading the Soul in to him as Love Joy Peace Patience Meekness Temperance c. Gal. 5.22 23. 2 Pet. 1 5 6 7. with John 16.13.14 15. Yea here-through 2. Christ who is Eternal Life it self liveth in the soul and dwells in it even by this Faith in which he the Son of man is lifted up Gal. 2.20 Ephes 3.16 17. And 3. Inasmuch as Eternal life stands in and springs from the knowledg of God and him whom he hath sent Jesus Christ as is said John 17.3 And God is not known clearly but by and in Jesus Christ the Image of his invisible Majesty and brightness of his Glory And he is known in and by his being Lifted up Discovered and Commended of God to us by his holy Spirit in his Testimony It follows that Eternal life is herein given also in a first Fruits of it here as the soul is also hereby Built up to the Inheritance Acts 20.32 4. Yea surely and the fulness of Eternal life it self as it is to be possessed in Soul and Body hereafter in the Kingdom to come what is it but the influence and effect of Christs being fully and perfectly Lifted up by way of discovery of him and his Glory in his personal appearing when he who is the only Potentate who dwells in the Light which no man hath seen or can see shall manifest him 1 Tim. 6.15 16. When he appears we shall be like him perfectly like him for we shall see him as he is 1 John 3.2 And that Lifting him up and Appearance in his Glory shall probably be accompanied with the greatest Conversions a Nation born in a day Isa 66.6 Zech. 12.10 11. and the perfectest Salvation But that is a distinct way of discovery of him from what is afforded in this day Of how great Necessity Excellency and Usefulness then is the Lifting up of the Son of man in this consideration also and so in both of them both as lifted up of God in himself and with God himself and as lifted up of God and his holy Spirit in and through the Ministration of the Gospel to and by men Both that they may believe and to them that do believe on him that they may still believe and be saved And so that the Son of man must be lifted up and how and why he must be so lifted up is sufficiently shewed Though who can sufficiently lift him up Let us now view what use we may make of this also CHAP. XX. The Application First by way of Instruction from the last Conclusions shewing the excellency and glory of the Gospel with divers inferences there-from ANd first with reference to the last Conclusions about the necessity behoof-fulness and fulness of the Son of Mans being lifted up by way of demonstration and commendation of him to Men forasmuch as the Gospel is that Doctrine in which He is of God and his Holy Spirit and Servants so lifted up it tends to commend greatly the Gospel and its ministry to us as a marvailous Doctrine and of exceeding worth and benefit worthy to be received with all acceptation 1 Tim. 1.15 Well might the Apostles call it the marvailous light of God as that phrase in 1 Pet. 2.9 may be applyed thereto and the glorious Gospel or Gospel of the glory of the blessed God 1 Tim. 1.11 forasmuch as therein such glorious and excellent things are discovered no other Doctrine could or ever did discover the like seeing the glorious Son of God who is the glory even the brightness of the glory of God the King and Lord of glory is herein set forth and lifted up both as to his Person the glorious things undertook and performed by him in his Life and Death and Resurrection therefrom the glory given to and received by him as a reward of his said glorious undertakings and performances and the glory in which he shall appear again at his return And herein
1 Pet. 2.9 I do not say that all that hear the Gospel are made so but I say they have the Door opened to them that in Hearing and Believing they might be made so Yea when this Gospel is brought to a Person Family or People Salvation it self comes therein to them and life even Eternal life As it was said to Zaccheus Luke 19.9 This day is salvation come to thy house For the Gospel is the Power of God to salvation to every one that believeth for which believing also God therein opens the Door and Ministers Grace as is before shewed Rom. 1.16 And therefore also it is sometime called as the Word of salvation Acts 13.26 So also the Salvation of God Acts 28.28 Be it known unto you that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles and they will hear it And How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which began to be published by the Lord himself c. Heb. 2.3 For as God is discovering and setting before us to move to Repentance and quicken to Life the great Salvation Redemption and Deliverance from under the first Death and Judgment so as that none shall perish therein and upon that account mearly Rom. 5.10 That none might keep themselves out from hoping in and coming to God because their first Fathers sinned and they inherit their guilt and filth without remedy And also that Power and Readiness in God and Christ upon the account of his perfect Obedience Sacrifice and Righteousness to save or deliver the Believers from the Guilt of new sins fore contracted in and by our personal disobediences during the time past of Gods forbearance though committed against former and other lesser manifestations of God and of his Power and Goodness Will and Commandment as in the Works of Creation continued and his Providences mercifully ordered and especially in the Dispensation of the Law and Prophets that none might Pine away in the conscience of such sins and be kept out thereby from believing and hoping in God and in that hope Worshipping him and to accept them graciously and justifie them freely from all things from which they might not otherwise no not by the Law of Moses be justified and so to save and preserve them from the Wrath to come and from the snares of Sin and Satan which lead thereto So also in the Preaching and making known this great Grace he is saving the Receiver of it who closeth not his Eye nor stops his Ears against but obeys its discoveries from the power of Satan and Darkness and Translates him into the Kingdom of his dear Son and preserves him unto everlasting Life as is before shewed This is the Medium and Instrument whereby he effects this Salvation in and upon men yea even those who by former and lower Dispensations of the knowledg of God are wrought upon so as they do there-through Fear God and work Righteousness as they that by Nature or without outward verbal Instruction do the things contained in the Law their Vncircumcision shall be counted Circumcision That is they shall through Christ though not distinctly known be accepted of God Rom. 2.26 Yet they by the coming of the greater Means the more open revelation of the Gospel of Christ in its distinct and clear sound may be and are in receiving it saved by it that is they are delivered from former Ignorances Mistakes Fears Griefs and Dangers which the lesser means of Light sufficed not to remove So we find that Cornelius though an Angel of God testified to him that his Prayers and Alms were accepted of God and by the Spirit in the Scriptures he is recorded to have been a Godly or as we render it a Devout man one that feared God and gave much Alms to the People and Prayed to God continually Yet was directed to send for Peter that he and the other Gentiles with him might hear the word of the Gospel by him and believe and be saved for so it is said He shall speak words to thee by which thou shalt be saved and all thine house Acts 11.14 with 10.1 2 3 4. and 15.7 So that Salvation both to those who never before rightly understood closed with or obeyed any other means of knowledg and of the Fear of God vouchsafed to them as appears not that any other of Cornelius Kindred did however its evident of the Jaylor Acts 16.28 29. and of some of the Corinthians being Fornicators Idolaters c. 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. And to those also who under and by former and lesser means are wrought upon and in complying with God in them are accepted of him is the effect of the Gospel And they have a great and wonderful mercy afforded them who have the clear lifting up of the Son of man vouchsafed them that is to say the Word of the Gospel of Christ It being a fuller saving Manifestation and a more quickning Word and Discovery as now in the fulness of it come forth since the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ then by any other way of Gods bearing Witness to himself as he left not himself without Witness to the Gentiles in times past when he suffered them to walk in their own ways and they had not the Scriptures or plain Gospel-preaching Acts 14.17 Yea or then in the Prophets or Johns Ministration which Ministration of John Cornelius is said to have known though he was not thereby made a Circumcised Proselite Acts 10.36 37 was afforded For this Doctrine is also called the Word of Life not only as most plainly discovering Life given us from the Dead through the Death and Resurrection of Christ but also as infusing a spiritual Life into the receiver thereof begetting him to a lively hope as is said 1 Pet. 1.3 And to be a kind of first-fruits of his Creatures as Jam. 1.18 Whence that Exhortation ver 19. Let every man be swift to hear Yea and the Wisdom of God thence exhorts Lay fast hold of Instruction and let it not go keep her for she is thy life Prov. 4.13 And the Words of Christ are said to be Spirit and Life John 6.63 Yea Eternal Life For so Christ himself said I know that his Commandment namely which I speak is everlasting Life John 12.49 50. So Christ knew it whether others know so or believe that his Knowledg was right or not Thence also the Jews putting away this Word of God are said to have judged themselves unworthy of Eternal life Acts 13.46 And must it not needs be so when the Holy Ghost tells us that Christ himself is herein offered or given to men to be Gods salvation to them as in the very next Verse the Apostle implies when having told the Jews that they would turn to the Gentiles he adds For so hath the Lord commanded us saying I have given thee for a Light to the Gentiles that thou mightest be for salvation or as in Isa 49.6 My salvation to the ends of the Earth vers 47.
may eat of what they labour in and then 3. As for safety they serve a Master so Great as is sufficiently able and so Good that he will not fail to uphold them and save them in all difficulties and against all dangers in their faithful serving him And surely both as betrusted with God's name and honour and as betrusted with and employed about Mens highest concernments it behoves them to be 1. Faithful both to him and them to do the will of God and Christ and speak his words he gives them faithfully so as not to conceal the words of the Holy One Job 6.10 Psal 40.10 but to make known the whole counsel of God and Christ to them as Christ did to his Disciples Joh. 15.14 15. And the Apostle Paul to the Churches who shunned not to declare to them the whole counsel of God Act. 20.26 27. Yea and to declare it as God orders them to do it with such plainness putting away the hidden things of dishonesty or guile flattery and wisdom of words that may obscure and darken the truth and tender the cross of Christ ineffectual Not casting a Veil over their Faces as Moses did hiding from men the messages which they carry that they may not see to the end and tendency of them though what Moses did was done in faithfulness but using all openness and freeness of speech sincerity and soundness of doctrine without adding ought thereto or diminishing ought there-from or changing or altering any thing therein but as of sincerity and as of God commending themselves to every mans conscience and approving themselves as in the sight of God and Christ who imploy them 1 Cor. â— 17 18. 2.1 4 5. 2 Cor. 2.17 and 3.12 13. and 4.1 2. Not seeking or pleasing themselves but seeking to please God and profit men yea and please them too for their good that they might be saved 1 Cor. 9.19 22. and 10.33 Rom. 15.2 3. Not seeking Riches or Honours to themselves nor for any Pleasures of the Flesh or Injoyments of the World nor for Ease Liberty or any thing turning aside from either their attendance to God or faithful discharge of their trust towards him or towards men nor dealing unfaithfully with the Word of God as Persons partial in his Law but leaving themselves to God to provide maintenance and give honour to them as he pleases and contenting themselves with what he by his providence orders them to do the work and service to which he calls them not making merchandize of Gods Word and of the Souls of men for gain honour or livelihood and so deny the Lord who bought them but seeking only the honour that comes of God and the glory of God and good of men in all things depending on God and Christ contentedly to honour and reward them who also will do it abundantly as shall be good for them here but most fully hereafter when the great Shepherd shall appear from heaven 1 Pet. 5.4 2. Greatly diligent and industrious not giving up themselves to sloth and idleness or to follow the lusts and appetites or intangle themselves with the affairs of this World but that they may please him that imploys them seeking diligently by prayer and supplications to God for themselves and all Saints and more especially for those that they are more especially betrusted with and giving attendance to reading meditation c. that they may in their converse with God know and perceive his mind and receive the word from his mouth and be strengthned to declare it faithfully and boldly unto men not fearing their faces or being flattered from it by them and to be useful to and have cause of joy in them in their service toward whom also they are to use great diligence and therefore they are compared to and stiled by the name of Labourers to signify that they must not be idle and loyter and give themselves to ease carelesness and effeminacy they are to digg and plow sowe and plant and water and do all the work of the Lords husbandry which the people are and of his building Vineyard and Garden which his Church is Yea as Shepherds they must watch their Flocks and that by Night and by Day least any ravenous Beast devour them or disease infest or any Thief steal them or any harm from one another come to them Yea and so much the more as the souls of men are more precious then their bodies about which the earthly husbandry building and other acts and manufactures are employed the loss of the soul is of wonderful great concernment and God will require it of whomsoever the loss of it proceedeth if he would require the blood of men at the hands of men as is said Gen. 9.7 Surely much more will he require the Souls of men at the hands of men with whom they are betrusted if lost by their negligence seeing he hath valued them so highly as that he hath not spared his own Son nor Christ his own Life and Soul but hath poured it out to death to save them And shall thy Brother for whom Christ dyed perish through thy meat For thy sloth thy ease thy will or pleasure Surely if this were considered it would make men careful how they undertake the Ministry and having undertaken it how they discharge it it would make them watch and labour with diligence least any should miscarry through want thereof or through want of skill the product of sloth and idleness or some such miscarriage and so the blood of their Souls should be required at their hands as God threatned the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 3.17 18 19 20 c. 3. Great humility and lowliness of mind bewaring of pride least being puffed up they fall into the condemnation of the Devil Indeed while they look upon the heighth and honourableness of their Employment their Liberty to and Intelligence with Heaven the secrets they see into above others and the excellent discoveries they have and make of the great and high things of the Gospel and the like they may have Temptations to be proud and lifted up and many there are that are apt to miscarry that way but it is a dangerous deceit a Rock earnestly to be shunned and indeed none have cause to be less proud Considering 1. The exceeding heighth and weightiness of their place and work and their exceeding imbecility of themselves as of themselves for the discharge thereof This made Paul cry out Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2.16 Especially considering too the great woe will befall them as guilty of betraying Cods Name and Honour and his great Design the work and business of highest consequence and as guilty of the lose of Souls that are most precious in Gods sight if through their miscarriage they be lost and perish Oh therefore with what care and humbleness of mind should they walk Indeed their honour is great and their reward will be great if faithful and successful but the difficulty
Gentiles Act. 13.47 and 28.28 Surely it 's every way a heavy judgment and to be much cryed and prayed against as Psal 12.1 2. Well might the Prophet Amos from the mouth of the Lord signifie that the Famine of hearing the Word of the Lord is a worse Famine then that of bread and water Amos 8.11 12. For this is but of sustenance for the body and bodily life and that 's but a momentany and uncertain life which must however dye and depart that is indangered thereby in a bodily death out of which there will be a Resurrection again and in the state of which the Soul mean time may be blessed Rev. 14.13 but the other is of the sustenance and salvation of the Soul and the removal thereof lays open to the loss of Eternal Life and indangers the inevitably falling into everlasting destruction out of which is no recovery or redemption Oh how greatly behoves it us then to pray and pray earnestly for our selves and for our Nation that however God may please to correct and chasten us yet he would be pleased to continue with us his glorious Gospel and not take that from us and that he would vouchsafe to give or restore it to the Places or Nations that are without it or have it not so clearly with them as we have it blessed be God for it And let this suffice for the first Use the Discovery of the Excellency of the Gospel-Doctrine and the Inferences therefrom CHAP. XXI A Second Vse The Excellencies of Christ hence inferred and that is viewed First As the Excellencies of the choice Creatures are ascribed unto Him and so He the first-born of every Creature Use 2 THe Second Thing I shall note is for further Information of us from all said upon God's Grand Design of exalting and lifting up Christ the Son of Man and of the necessity and fulness of Him and his Exaltation both as exalted in Himself and as glorified by the Spirit in the Gospel for effecting Faith in us and there-through preserving us from perishing and giving us Eternal Life to inform us of the exceeding preciousness excellency and glory of the Lord Jesus this Son of Man himself from whom and whose excellency all the Glory of the Gospel and its beneficialness and advantagiousness floweth Surely He that renders the Gospel so glorious must needs excell in glory and excellency himself it s nothing but He in it that makes it rich and full and efficacious Let Men speak as gallant words as they can imagine and use all the skill that Art and Industry can suggest yea that the most wise and subtle spirit can teach them Speak with the Tongue of Men and Angels use the most powerful demonstrations Logick can make and the most perswasive arguments Oratory can invent and make use of yet if there be nothing of the Son of Man in it nothing of Christ and him crucified it avails nothing to our Salvation and enjoyment of Eternal Life But He alone discovered and the better the more nakedly and with the less artifice and use of those Sciences is able to effect all in us for God hath made void the wisdom of this world the wise the Scribe and the Disputer of this World are with him mere ciphers 1 Cor. 1.18 19 20. Deceive men they may and therefore the Apostle cautions us to beware least any man spoil us through Philosophy and vain deceit Coll. 2.8 but save men from perishing they cannot much less advance them to Eternal Life No it s this Object held forth in the Gospel that is the life and vertue of it which is the Son of man Christ Jesus Rom. 1.3 and 16.25 and therefore seeing the Gospel is so excellent by his being the matter of it how excellent is He himself who is its matter He must needs be more precious than the Gold of Ophir more glorious and excellent than the Mountains of prey Isa 13.12 Psal 76.4 That hath in him not only the excellencies of all the Creatures but all the excellencies of God also Gods great glory and mans utmost happiness all meeting in him If when Ahasuerus proposed the Question What shall be done to the man whom the King will honour Haman reasonably thought it would be no small matter which would be done to him How much more may it be thought and believed that He whom God not only will honour but honour above all must needs excell in all things that may commend him Yea He honours him with his own with all his own honour and glory which he will not give to any other besides him either thing or person Surely he must needs be infinitely and inexpressibly honourable and glorious seeing God is infinitely honourable and glorious himself and honours him not according to the dictates of the wisest and highest Creatures with whom he takes no counsel in this or any other matter but according to his own wisdom understanding and goodness which are all infinite and boundless unless then we could by searching find out God yea and find him out too to perfection whose Excellency is higher then the Heavens so that What can we do Deeper then Hell and therefore What can we know Longer then the Earth and Broader then the Sea and so altogether Incomprehensible we cannot find out and fathom all the Glory and Excellency of this Man the Son of man the Lord Jesus Well may it therefore be said of him that He hath a Name above every Name and that none knows but himself Rev. 19.12 And as himself saith None knoweth him but his Father Mat. 11.27 Yet many and great and glorious things are said of him by his holy Spirit That searcheth out all things even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 And Takes the things of Christ and shews them to us John 16.13 14 15. Things that commend him highly to us though yet his Name which is only Excellent Psal 148.13 Is Exalted above all Blessing and Praise Neh. 9.5 So that when we have searched and said all we can in and from what is Recorded of him by his holy Spirit yet we may conclude as in Psal 106.2 Who can declare his mighty Acts Who can set forth all his Praises God hath so poured out Himself and his Fulness and the Fulness of all things therein as it were into him that he is All and in all in the new Creature or Creation Col. 3.10 It hath pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell and it hath pleased all Fulness to dwell in him yea All the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily and in him we are compleat Col. 1.19 and 2.9 10. All things in Heaven and Earth hath God pleased to gather together in one even in Christ Jesus Ephes 1.10 That if any thing in either or all things in both of them may like us and satisfie us we may have them fully and transcendently in him Let us essay to View something of his Infinite
they might none of them ascend upon the Cherubims and sit down upon the Throne of God no it would have been high Arrogance and Luciferian pride and presumption to have assumed that place which was proper and peculiar to God alone The Priests or high Priests under the Law might not fit at all in the Temple but always stood and Ministred Heb. 10.11 much less on that Seat of God Only the Antichrist under the Gospel-times the man of sin presumes to seâ— himself in the Temple of God and likes to be worshipped as if he were God and exalts hâ—mself above all that is called God or that is worshipped He only of all that we read of dares to assume that Power and Place 2 Thes 2.4 A Wickedness the worst of the High-priests under the Law durst not presume to commit for this Place was reserved peculiarly to Christ Gods High-Priest Who having offered one Sacrifice once for all is set down on the Right-hand of God or of Power even on the Throne of Majesty in the highest Heb. 10.12 13. 1.3 8.1 12.2 The Father fully possessing him and putting on him all his own Power and Glory so as he the Father Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to him the Son that all men might honour the Son even as they honour the Father that hath sent him John 5.22 23. So as That he that believeth on the Son believeth not on him but on him that sent him and he that seeth him seeth him that sent him John 12.44 45. And so we have an Object to worship even the same to whom all the Gods or Angels of God are commanded to do honour Worship him all ye Gods Psal 97.7 Heb. 1.6 Him we may Worship without Idolatry against God nay it 's rebellion against God and a refusing to Worship God not to Worship him for God is in him and he is God And therefore 1. We are Baptized into his Name and therein stand ingaged to Believe Depend on and Worship him yea the Father Son and Holy Ghost have but one and the same Name Mat. 28.19 And are one 1 John 5.7 2. The Apostles therefore joyn the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father in saluting the Churches Grace and Peace or Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and to him also together with the Father and the holy Spirit they commend them 2 Cor. 1.2 and 13.14 2 Tim. 1.2 and 4.22 And well they may For First The Father and all his fulness is in him Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me saith he to Philip John 14.9 10. The Wisdom Holiness Grace and Glory yea and all the Power of the Father is in and on him And therefore also Secondly The Works of God are attributed to him As the Father raiseth up the Dead and quickneth whom he will so the Son quickneth whom he will And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have Life in himself and he hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of man John 5.21.26 27. Yea he is the Creator and Maker of all things in Heaven and Earth Visible and Invisible Col. 1.16 And the Upholder of all things by the word of his Power Heb. 1.3 For he is before all things and by him all things consist Col. 1.17 Is God the Repairer and Redeemer of his Creature He is so by Christ the great Repairer of the Breaches and Restorer of the Paths to dwell in the Ransome and Redeemer from Sin Death Hell Devil and Destruction 1 Tim. 2.6 Tit. 2.14 Gal. 1.4 and 3.13 and 4.4 5. The Father worketh hitherto in the works of Providence and he worketh also John 5.17 Yea what is said of Jehovah the Lord in that respect in Psal 146 6 10. is applicable to him as was above noted For he feeds the hungry with himself The Bread that he gives being bis flesh which he hath given for the Life of the World As he opened the eyes of the bodily Blind in the days of his flesh so he Preacheth the opening of the eyes to them that are spiritually blind Luke 4 18 19 And the Opening of the Prison to those that are bound raiseth up the bowed in Spirit loveth his Disciples as the Father loveth him John 15 9 Receiveth and Preserveth them that were Strangers to the Commonwealth of Israel and makes them fellow Citizens with the Saints Yea What things the Father doth the same doth the Son likewise John 5.19 Yea Thirdly He is what ever God is He and the Father is one one thing John 10.30 And he hath all that the Father hath For the Father loves the Son and hath given all things into his hands John 16.15 Fourthly The attributes of God are ascribed to him as Eternity He is that Eternal life that was with the Father and is manifested unto us 1 John 1.1 2. And he in the beginning laid the foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of his hands and when they perish yet he endures and his Years fail not nor have an end Immutability for he is the same and alters not yesterday and to day and the same for ever Heb. 1.10 11 12. and 13.7 Omnipotency for he upholds all things by the word of his Power Heb 1.3 The Alpha and the Omega the first and the last he that was and is and is to come the Almighty Rev. 1.8 Omnisciency Now know we that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man ask thee any thing c. John 16.30 He knew all men and needed not that any man should testifie of what is in man for he knew what is in man John 2.24 25. All things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.12 13 Ubiquity or Omnipresence Where two or three are met together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Mat. 18.20 Yea Is God the Law-giver So is he Isa 42 4. The Isles shall wait for his Law Is God the Judg So is he Judg of Quick and Dead Acts 10.42 Is God the King So is he King of all the Earth Psal 47.2 3. Yea he is All and in all in the New Creature Col. 3.11 Again as for Spirit to Enlighten Quicken and Inable us to Worship acceptably The holy Spirit in the fulness thereof dwells in and rests upon him The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and of Might the Spirit of Knowledg and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 And with him and by him he Inlightens Quickens Teaches and so fits for Worshipping God creates a clean Heart renews a right Spirit raises from spiritual death to spiritual life and so to Worship and serve God in the Spirit which Service he makes acceptable and he by that Spirit will raise the Body from the Dead and fashion it into the likeness of his
what He hath done for us and to us that He is the Son of God whom we neglect and trample under foot therein that He is the Lord that bought us whom we therein deny that it 's his precious blood the blood of the Covenant by which He procured a gracious Covenant of great and precious promises to be made for us and confirmed and ratified it and the blood wherewith we are sanctified and rendred meet to have liberty and access to and acceptance with God that is therein prophaned by us that its the spirit that discovers his grace and is of his great grace sent forth to call and cleanse us that is despited by us Heb. 10.29 2 Pet. 2.1 That they are his Members who is the Christ and his Temple who hath bought us with a great price for himself that are defiled by us 1 Cor. 6.18 19 20. Case 8. Would we see the emptiness of all our own righteousness that we do or could do for our selves for making our peace with God and obtaining his favour and acceptance Behold Christ crucified as set forth in the Gospel and that declares it and that it will not profit us Isa 57.12 for if righteousness be or could have been that way obtained then Christ died in vain but that may not be supposed therefore no other righteousness could avail us but He to be our righteousness through his Death and Sacrifice no Law could give life to us none but Christ crucified for us upon which account it was that the Apostle cryed out so of the folly and bewitchedness of the Galathians who having had Jesus Christ evidently set forth among them as crucified for them yet would turn to beggerly observations to seek to be justified by them Gal. 3.1 21. with 2.21 Case 9. Would we see our duties either to God or men what 's meet to be performed by us and how short we are in answering his engagements upon us Behold the Son of man and mind the teachings of his grace bringing salvation to us obtaining by his death and sufferings all the freedome from misery and curse and all the enjoyment of the good things vouchsafed to us and what is also for the future set in hope before us yea for ever and then we shall see our selves bound to live to him that dyed for us and rose again and to offer up to God our bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable and that that 's a reasonable service to him that it behoves us to enquire and take notice of his will as our lawful Lord by vertue of his Death Resurrection and Reviving again for us and that we ought to glorify him both in body and spirit as being his purchase and so to use all freedomes mercies and enjoyments with all sobriety righteousness and godliness that we may in nothing dishonour or disserve him but glorify him in all things looking after and waiting for giving diligence that we may be found worthy of the blessed hope set before us and to be revealed at his appearance Tit. 2.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Rom. 12.1 2. and 14.9 1 Cor. 6.18 19 20. and the looking upon and discerning the Lords body as crucified for us and given to be the Bread of Life to us is the best way to examine our selves and discern our defects and evils and to judge our selves accordingly for them that we may not be judged by Him 1 Cor. 11.28 29 30. Case 10. Would we be quickned up in our duties and way of seeking for and serving the Lord and not faint therein or be slothful or tired out through discouragements The way is to behold and look upon the Son of man lifted up for and before us that we may cast away every weight and the sin that so easily besets us and run with patience the race set before us look to Jesus the Author and Finisher of the Faith There we may see his Example and Pattern and also both Ingagement from his Love to us as the Author and hope of both success and of an infinite recompence of reward as the Finisher of the Faith set down on the Right-hand of Majesty that may make us gird up the loyns of our minds and run with Patience and Courage hoping perfectly for the Grace to be brought in at his appearance as obedient Children c. 1 Pet. 1.3 4 10 11 12 13 14. Heb. 12.1 2. Case 11. Would we be recovered from any Relapses and Decays to our former Strength and be helped to go forward in Christ Jesus Our way is to look upon the Son of man and therein to look to him for healing Virtue Thus the Apostles sets Christ Crucified and the Grace in him before the Galatians when he was in fear of them to recover them Gal. 3.13 14 16. and 4.4 5 6. and 5.1 And so Christ sets himself before the declining Angel of the Church of Ephesus wishing him to remember call to mind look back upon what he was fallen from Remember whence thou art fallen and repent Rev. 2.4 5. And so to the Angel of the Church of Sardis Dead while he had a Name to Live he presents himself as he that hath the seven Spirits of God and so Power to Revive him and as one that holds the seven Stars in his Right-hand signifying his love to and care of his Servants and yet power to do his pleasure with them and wishes him to remember or look back upon how he had received and heard and to hold fast Rev. 3.1 2 3. And to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea grown Luke-warm and in danger to be spewed out of his mouth he presents himself as the Amen the faithful and true Witness to quicken up his zeal in minding the firmness of his Promises and truth of his Reproofs and that he is the beginning of the Creation of God to mind him of his Power and Ability to stablish him or give being as he pleases to him and after declaration of his misery sets before him and directs his Eye to behold his Riches Fulness and Freeness and to buy of him what he wanted and his Love and Patience in Rebuking Correcting and standing with patience at the door knocking and waiting for admission and his readiness to come in and Feast with men upon their hearing and opening to him And to him as to all the rest he presents his Love Power and Faithfulness to Reward them that overcome and the greatness of the Rewards he will give them to Cure or Incourage them Rev. 3.14 18 19 20 21. Case 12. Would we be directed to and quickened up in the Love of God and of one another or Charity to the World of Mankind yea or to our Enemies Our way is to behold the Son of man as lifted up for and to us for there we may see his love to God his Father laying down his Life on the Cross in obedience to him as a perfect pattern for our imitation Phil. 2.8 9. John
designs to do it hateth the light neither cometh to the light least his deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.19 20. and so we find the Scriptures every where assert that the cause of Mens destruction is their voluntary rejections of the remedy as in Psal 81.10 11 12 c. When God offered himself to Israel to be their God bidding them open their mouth wide and he would fill it their refusing him his advise and counsel not hearing his voice nor accepting him to be their helper but preferring others before him procured his leaving them to themselves and their Idols and then what but misery and destruction could befall them the like we see in Prov. 1.20 24 25. Wisdom addresses her self to all within and without the City or Church of God reproving their love of their simplicity scornfulness and folly and tendring her grace and spirit to them but they generally will not answer her calls and hear her counsels nor regard the stretching forth of her hands to relieve help or draw them in to her self but put away all her counsels and will none of her reproofs and therefore destruction comes upon them the like may be seen in Isa 66.3 4. Jer. 7.24 25 26. And the like we find our Saviour and his Apostles say of the cause and reason of mens perishing not to be any want of goodness or graciousness in God or want of provision in Christ or readiness in him to help them but mens own wilfulness in refusing and putting from them the grace and truth discovered of God in and by Christ to them for their salvation that they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness 2 Thes 2.10 11 12. That they stop the ear close or wink with the eye least they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted and he should heal them Matth. 13.14 15. Acts 28.20 27. Yea the very Heathens who had the least discoveries of God and his goodness and grace that through Christ he exerciseth towards and among men yet perish upon this account that they with-hold the truth in unrighteousness that when they know God they glorified him not as God nor were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkned that they liked not to have God in their knowledge and the like Rom. 1.18 21 28. 2. As to the equitableness and justness hereof what more just and equitable then that men who will not be saved should perish that they who refuse the most excellent remedy and compleat Medicine and way of healing which the most wise and gracious God in his most perfect understanding and heighth of love and affection hath devised and prepared for them dye of their wounds which through their own default and wickedness they have brought upon themselves Yea when God hath been at a great cost and charge to provide man a Saviour and prepare them help and shewed forth his great goodness therein for their happiness when He hath not spared his own Son but delivered him as made man the Son of man for our offences and raised him again for our Justification and therein and thereby hath saved men from perishing in the first Death into which they were fallen in and through Adam and therein cured that deadly wound given them at first by the Serpent and hath glorified him and filled him with his own infinite fulness of power spirit and all spiritual grace and blessing therein both impowering him and appointing him to raise all men out of the first death which he also will not fail to do and also providing in him all things by which he is furnished for calling and drawing them in to believe and in believing on him to preserve them from the second Death and to make them to live for ever being furnished with authority and fitness to cure all such stings of the old Serpent as might and would otherwise sting them to that second Death and all this without their knowledge motion or desire Yea and through him also and by him making known to us what he hath done and calling and counselling us to come to him and accept of his grace and salvation in and through him through whom also we live and move and have our beings and are made capable of hearing and coming at his call to him in whom we are so compleatly provided for that there is no defect or want of any thing needful for our salvation and everlasting well-being yea and that we might have both the greatest ground of assurance of finding help in him and the greatest ingagements upon all accounts to hearken to and comply with his counsels and yield our selves subject to his will and commandements he hath set before men both his alsufficiency as being the Son of God and God and his having in him all the fulness of God and also the greatness of the love both of the Father in not sparing him but giving him forth and preparing him through so great sufferings to be our Saviour and of the Son in sustaining them for our sakes that there-through he might be so perfected for us how should he not be provoked to great displeasure and so to leave us to dye and perish of our wounds if they or any of us after and notwithstanding all this refuse his calls and will not submit to him to be saved and be made happy for ever by him What man of us and especially what Prince or Nobleman if he be at great cost and labour to prepare either a feast to entertain or a Medicine to heal his poor neighbours likely otherwise to perish through want or diseases could take it well if after that they scorn his love and make light of his provision and yet such is the case of Mankind towards God as the parables in Matth. 22.1 14. and Luc. 14.17 24. shew And surely the offence is so much the greater and the more inexcusable and unpardonable in us men and lays open to the greater and deserves the more severe punishment then any can be deserved from or inflicted by the greatest or mightiest man by how much God is greater than man and more uningaged to us than man and by how much his provision and love therein and the tenders and proffers thereof to men exceed all that can be found in or from men So that God will certainly be just in his proceedings against men in his condemning them and will be justified in the eyes and sight of all his Creatures both Angels and men yea the condemned ones themselves when he is judged as is said Rom. 3.4 And there will be nothing found by men to plead for themselves or condemn him when he enters into Judgment with them not so much for that his power and greatness will bear them down as because of the exceeding great equity and righteousness that will
have everlasting life we may well give up our selves unto him and say Truly we are thy Servants we are thy Servants the Sons of thy Handmaid thy perpetual Servants Thou hast loosed our bonds offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable to him which is our reasonable service of him Psal 116.16 Rom. 12.1 Yea how doth it become us to accept this his grace with all acceptation and for ever to laud and magnify Him To enter his Gates with thanksgiving his Courts with praises being thankful to him and blessing his Name Lauding and praising him that He hath passed such a Decree as this that as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him might not perish but have everlasting life And as the Son himself our Lord the Son of man hath published and will publish the Decree saying I will proclaim the Decree The Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost ends of the Earth for thy possession thou shalt rule them with an Iron-Rod c. So let us make it our rejoycing and the business we mind to proclaim the same to all calling upon all to hear it and be glad of it to imbrace and submit to it for ever blessing him and calling upon all Creatures to bless him with us who hath so Decreed for us and is so Decreed of for us Let us lift up our voice and sing for the Majesty of the Lord and cry aloud from the Sea glorifying the Lord though in the fires of afflictions and sufferings even the Name of the Lord God of Israel the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all grace comfort and consolation from the Isls of the Sea Yea let us make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth serving the Lord with gladness and coming into his Presence with a Song Giving thanks unto him because he is good his mercy prepared for us and given to us in Christ Jesus everlasting and his truth enduring from generation to generation Calling upon all to take notice of his goodness herein unto all and to praise and laud and bless him with us Yea and upon all Creatures too as in Psal 148. especially the Saints and holy ones who believing on him have title to and interest in his promises of salvation and life everlasting Yea let us praise him every where and in all things chiefly in his Sanctuary or Holy Place and Holy Ordinances looking diligently unto Jesus that we fail not of the grace given us in him through any of the politick workings of Siâ— the World and Satan to that purpose against us but that we may be accounted worthy of it to life everlasting To whom â—e Glory and Dominion Honour and Praise now and in all Ages throughout all Places of his Dominions even for ever and ever Amen And Oh that my Soul may bless the Lord at all times and all that is within me may bless his holy Name and let every thing that hath life and breath praise Him till we all come to sing everlasting Hallelujahs in his glorious Kingdom Amen and Amen Laus Deo Christo suâ— in Eternâ—m c. FINIS THE CONTENTS Chap. 1. BRief Observations upon Nicodemus and our Saviours discourse with him p. 1. Chap. 2. The words of the Teâ—t considered its Parts four main Points then observed The first Point The Type of the Brazen Serpent lifted up spoken to in some brief Notes upon it p. 22. it should have been p. 14. Chap. 3. The Second Point in part considered viz. That the Son of man must be lifted up Who is the Son of man And three Reasons propounded why Christ is so called p. 23. alias 26. Chap. 4. Two other Reasons and they the principal ones of Christ calling himself the Son of man p. 48. alias 40. Chap. 5. A twofold Sense of the Phrase of lifting up viz. putting to Death and Glorifying or Advancing and what is implied in it in the latter Sense especially p. 65. alias 57. Chap. 6. A twofold way of Exalting the Son of man viz. either by Real Action upon his Person or by Demonstration of him and of his Worth and Excellency to others The former of these Enlarged upon p. 77. alias 69. Chap. 7. Of the second way of Lifting him up viz. By Demonstration of him and of his Glory unto men by whom that was and is to be performed and wherein p. 85. Chap. 8. The third point viz. That the Son of man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness and therein several Analogies and Agreement between them considered p. 109. Chap. 9. The fourth and last Point The end of the Son of mans being so lifted up viz. That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life Six Observations drawn from hence the first of which concerning mens danger of perishing opened p. 136. Chap. 10. The second Observation spoken to viz. That God hath no pleasure in mens death or perishing and some objections against it answered very briefly p. 147. Chap. 11. The third Observation briefly spoken to shewing Christ to be the only Medicine for our misery and Way to happiness appointed of God for us and what an inducement that consideration is to love God and accept of Christ p. 154. Chap. 12. The fourth Observation considered and therein the necessity and nature of believing on the Son of man unto Salvation with its desirableness and acceptableness to God p. 162 Chap. 13. The fifth Observation viz. That whosoever believeth on the Son of man shall not perish but have Eternal life having two Branches the former of them is here explicated What the perishing is from which the believer on the Son of man is preserved and how he is preserved from it p. 182. Chap. 14. Of the second Branch of the fifth Observation What Eternal life is and how the believer on Christ shall have it p. 202. Chap. 15. The Application of the two former viz. the 4th and 5th Observations in part in Exhortation to believe Reproof for not believing Incouragements to continue in believing on the Son of man and some Directions thereto p. 212. Chap. 16. Some further usefulness of the said Observations in Cautions and Instructions p. 225. Chap. 17. The sixth and last Observation viz. about the necessity of the Son of mans being lifted up spoken to in certain Conclusions the first of which in two Branches shews the necessity of Gods lifting up Christ in himself both as to mens believing on him and as to their being saved and living for ever by him p. 239. Chap. 18. Another Conclusion proving the necessity of his being lifted up by way of Demonstration to men both by God and men both unto mens
have their share in that Yea some that have been the best have dyed the youngest As Enoch was translated far short of that age to which others then lived But that that is said is That whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Where the profit and advantage of believing on Christ is set forth 1. Negatively He shall not perish 2. Affirmatively but have eternal life Concerning which advantages I shall speak to these four following Enquiries The former two whereof are touching the former part The latter two touching the latter 1. What is this perishing from which the Believer on Christ is and shall be saved or preserved And 2. How he shall be saved from this perishing These about the former part Then in the latter 3. What that eternal life is that the Believer on Christ shall have And 4. How and when he shall have that eternal life 1. As for this perishing it may be understood to be either 1. From the way Or 2. In the end 1. A perishing from the way as it is said Psal 2.11 Kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way when his anger is kindled but a little In such a sense it is said of the Prodigal This my son was lost The Greek word signifies and is sometimes rendred yea in this John 3.15 â—6 it is so for the word here used is the same in its root with that there was perisht He was quite gone out of the way the way of life and peace Now he that credits the testimony of God concerning Christ so as seeing his beauty and goodness he believes on receives comes to attends and relies on and trusts in him shall not perish or be lost much less wholly lost from the way but being in it shall be preserved therein shall continue in the Son and in the Father 1 John 2.24 2 John 9. They who believe not on the Son of Man as evidenced to them of God they do and are in danger to perish from the way continually they that do not know come to and close with him know not the way of peace Rom. 3.18 they find not the way that tends to life Matth. 7.14 Though they seek wisdom they find it not scorning to seek and accept it of him in his way of giving it Prov. 14.6 Though they may have a zeal of God and follow after righteousness yet not seeking it by faith the belief of Gods Word and Testimony concerning him and so in a way of looking to and depending on him but as it were by the works of the Law they attain not to the righteousness that they seek Rom. 9.31 32. The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them because though they labour and toil in their own wisdom never so much yet they find not the way into the city Eccles 10.15 Yea he that believeth not on him Satan gets power to blind his mind that the light of the glory of the Gospel of Christ should not shine into them 2 Cor. 4.4 And the Gospel being hid from them they are lost verse 3. Lost out of the way of understanding And if men have known something of the Grace of God and come to Christ in some measure yet if they go not on to believe and exercise faith in him they are in danger to be lost and perish out of the way of truth and righteousness Every condition is likely to destroy them from it as to say 1. Let God try and exercise them with affliction poverty and temptations that lye heavy upon them they are in danger to perish out of the way of truth and life and to say with Jobs wife Curse God and dye or rather to do so Job 2.9 As it 's likely what counsel she gave her Husband she would have her self practised had she been in his case Asaph or the Pen-man of Psal 73. was in danger so to have done when he came to that in ver 13 14. Verily in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency for I have been plagued all the day long and chastened every morning Thus they that receive the word like seed in a rocky ground in the day of temptation fall away wanting depth of earth or rooting in their faith Matth. 13.5 6 20 21. So Israel in the day of temptation did in the wilderness The word that they heard being not mixed with faith in them nor they trusting on his salvation Heb. 4.2 Psal 78.22 23. 106.12 13. Jude 5. For if the faith or believing on the Son of Man fail then they fail of receiving his light direction strength or of the prevalency of the light and life given so as not to walk aright in the way of God and then they must needs turn out of it into crooked paths as is implied in Psal 125. That they do who trust not in the Lord ver 1 2 5. whereas if the faith or believing on the Son of God fails not for the faith or that object of faith never fails any man that trusts to it then he therein receives that understanding and discretion that delivers him from the way of the evil man that walks in crooked paths and from the way of the evil woman that flatters with her tongue yea such understanding as causes to hate every false way Prov. 2.10 11 12 15. Psal 119.104 And if a man should through temptations get a fall in the way as Peter did when through fear he denied his Master yet he will get up again and go on in his way his faith not failing as Peter did for Christ will help him up again to whom he looketh and in whom he believeth not imputing the weaknesses of his believing though reproving them And so he shall go on in his way still Luke 22.31 32. Matth. 14.30 31. 2. If God orders persecutions for the Gospel sake to befall unless the Son of Man be believed on and looked to and received in his instructions counsels and grace extended a man will perish from the way from attending to and walking with God in Christ in the way of his commandments for he will want strength and courage to persevere and so will turn to the world again either through fear of what will come the fear of man proving a snare Prov. 29.25 as it did to Israel who for fear of the Giants and strong Nations in the Land of Canaan turned back in their hearts Numb 14. and were reputed as unbelievers and destroyed therefore in the Wilderness ver 10 11 22 23. and as it was to Peter in the case above-mentioned or else through the feeling of troubles that come upon them and press them Like to many of the Israelites in the Wilderness whose souls were discouraged through the difficulties they felt in the way Numb 21.4 5. But where the Son of Man is believed on with the heart trusted to and relied upon he gives strength and courage both against the fears