6.23 but would have it as a due Debt this is not only from a Principle of Pride but also of Ignorance concerning Christ and of Enmity also against God as if he were not Wise Just and Kind enough for them 3. Consider As Man naturally desires to be so he really is under the Covenant of Works by Nature in his Unregenerate State while he remains in the old Adams Nature as a Wild Olive he abides also under the old Adams Covenant which is a broken State and likewise a Broken Covenant therefore that Man until he be broken off Rom. 11.17 from that old Root must be most miserable seeing that brokeâ— Covenant 1. Promiseth no Life but upon perfect Obedience 2. It hath no Mediator nor Surety to salve his imperfections 3. Neither is there in it any Promise of Pardoning Sin or of giving Grace 4. And every New Sin breaks anew that once broken Covenant therefore Lastly It can never quiet his Conscience as before but lays him under the Curse of it Gal. 3.10 and every man that is under the Curse is under the Covenant that causeth the Curse and who would be Cursed Woe to such as are under the first Covenant which can comfort none but upon this condition Obey perfectly and live Eternally this is poor comfort seeing Gods Commands are exceeding broad Psal 119.96 and Mans Obedience is exceeding narrow Luk. 17.10 c. yet can it curse all that fails and falls short 4. Consider 'T is then a most necessary though a much neglected Duty to be Translated from the Covenant of VVorks into the Covenant of Grace Col. 1.13 we are without God in the VVorld but not without the Devil while we are Strangers to this Covenant of Promise Eph. 2.12 we are poor empty Self-deceiving and Self-defiling Creatures under the Irritation Coaction and Condemnation of the Law Justice without Mercy in that Avenger of Blood which pursueth us and whose Heart waxes hot within him Deut. 19.6 to overtake and overcome us 't is therefore an indispensable duty to flee into this City of refuge thou art not only a Man-slayer a felo de se or Self-slayer Eccles 7.16 Numb 16.38 But a God-slayer in as much as omne peccatum est Deicidium every sin is a killing of God saith Luther as much as in us lyeth Flee therefore as a Bird to your Mountain Psal 11.1 Mat. 24.16 to the Mountain of this Covenant take hold with Joab in danger of Death of the Horns of this Altar 1 Kin. 2.28 You are stung with the fiery Serpent the Curse of the broken Covenant and there is but one remedy a look of Faith and love to the Brazen Serpent Numb 21.8 Joh. 3.14 there 's no avoiding the Curse of the First Covenant but by being Translated out of it Sodom and Satan would accept of that offer you reject 5. As Christ was given for a Covenant Isa 42.6 49.8 so all Christless Souls are Lifeless Souls they are Dead and Damned without Christ for Life and Salvation are laid up in him Joh. 15.1 2. Act. 4.12 It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.17 as the Mercy-Seat was no larger than the Ark and they never sever'd each from other this shews that Grace and Salvation extends no farther than the Covenant the Hebrew word Copher signifies a Coffering or Covering up our sins Rom. 3.25 1 Joh. 2.2 as all out of Noahs Ark or Coffer were drowned so all out of Christ and this Covenant are Damned as Joseph was the only Doer of all to save the Egyptians Gen. 41.41 44 49. Go to Joseph saith Pharaoh what he saith to you do v. 55. so Jesus is the great Doer of all to save mankind and whoever crys for fear of Famishing the Father sends such to our Joseph our Jesus he is the Angel of the Covenant Mal. 3.1 yea the Covenant it self and the grand sole undertaker in it Isa 38.14 6. Union is the ground of Communion as our Union with the First Adam gives us Communion with the Cursing-Covenant so our Union with the Second Adam gives us Communion with the Blessing-Covenant our Translation out of the first is by Union with the second there is a breaking â—ff and a grafting in Rom. 11.17 19 24. where Grace grants these God looks upon that Soul 1. As no more a Son of the old Adam 2. He is no more under the Rigour and Curse of the Law but 3. Is become an Heir of the Grace of Life I Pet. 3.7 the Grace of Union brings the Grace of Unction c. Objection But how shall I know my Union in this Covenant Answer by these Characters and Cautions for this high Building so free firm full and holy a Covenant must have Battlements built about it to keep Children and Fools from topling over Childrens Bread may not be cast to Dogs such as are 1. Ignorant Christ brings not Mercy to them but Vengeance Isa 27.11 2 Thes 1.8 2. Such as bless themselves in their sins Deut. 29.19 Psal 68.21 he will wound their scalps their Damnation slumbers not 2 Pet. 2.3 those were wilful c. The First Character for tryal of our Union is Ask thy Heart in what nature art thou In the Old Adams or in the new partaking of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Is the Old house with its fretting Leprosie pull'd down Levit. 14.44 45. and a new one erected new in quality tho' not in substance so as to Love and Hate what God Loves and Hates Rev. 2.6 all the Scraping in the World will not purifie the Walls of thy Heart without renewing Grace ye may beat a Wolf Black and Blue knock out his Teeth cut off his Claws and put a Sheep-skin upon his back yet all this will not drive away his Wolfish Nature Naturam expellas furcâ c. this may Chain him but not change him so 't is with Man tho' never so much Civiliz'd without a new Nature a new Heart hadst thou ever an Earth-quake or Heart-quake to rend thy Heart as the Jailor had Act. 16.26 canst thou experience the Death and Burial of the Old Adam and the Resurrection of the new Rom. 6.3 4. and if not thou art a Son of Adam an Heir of his Covenant and so an Heir of his Curse Gal. 3.10 Eph. 2.3 that Word knows no exception against the rule but free Grace this Curse must be born either by thy self or by thy surety 2. Character Ask under what Reign art thou as well as in what Nature Adams or Christs is thy old Lord and Husband to wit concupiscence Dead Rom. 7.1 2 3 4. this rules over us by carnal Generation 't is therefore call'd the Law of Sin a Law is that which hath Authority in it and it must be slain by Spiritual Regeneration thus none but Widdows marry Christ the High Priest of the Gospel Heb. 3.1 though 't was forbid to the High-Priest of the Law Lev. 21.14 yet those are Virgins Rev. 14.4 Cant.
necessary it is to compare all the four Evangelists together for compleating the whole Account of the Life and Death of our Dear Lord. And this Evangelist John assures us of this great Truth as being an Eye-witness of this double Witness in the blood and Water John 19.34 35. No more than what he saw with his Eyes doth the declare to us 1 John 1.3 He saw one of the Souldiers pierce the sides of Christ after he had given up the Ghost with a Spear and forthwith came there out Blood and Water which the same Author in his first Epistle calls the two things that bore Record or Testimony upon Earth This is he that came by Water and Blood not by Water only but by Blood also 1 John 5.6 Here was the foretold Fountain opened Zech 13 1â— even the sides of our Saviour to wash away Man's sin and uncleanness The God of Nature hath in such Wisdom qualified the Natural Heat of Man's Heart that nor only the Lungs are so placed as to blow cool Air upon it but also it is Situated as in a Vessel of water called the Pericardium for the Farther cooling of it and this is a Received Rule among all Learned Naturalists that if this Pericardium or skin of water about the Heart be pierced it is impossible for the Heart which is the prâ—mum vivens ultimum Moriens the first part that lives and the last that dies in Mankind should preserve life in it any longer So that this Wound the Souldier gave our Saviour in his side was a most manifest witness of the Death of Christ and as the Water and Blood did Represent the two Gospel-Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper which did properly flow from the sides of Christ all the other five Mock-Sacraments in the Romish Church flowed only from the sides of Antichrist so they Resembled the two Grand Graces the Water had the Resemblance of the Grace of Sanctification and the Blood of the Grace of Justification These two Graces this beloved Disciple would not have divided each from other Therefore he saith that Christ came by both not by Water only but by blood also To shew that we are both Sanctified and Justified by the Death of our Dear Jesus the water of our Sanctifying grace washes us from the filth of sin and the Blood of Justifying Grace cleanseth and purgeth us from the guilt of sin And seeing we are but in part and not throughly Sanctified for there is ever some remaining Corruption uncleansed Joel 3.21 c. and 't is only carryed on gradually and as it were by Inches therefore the main matter of the Joy of our Salvation consisteth more in our being Justified because the grace of Justification is one gracious Act changing our State of Wrath at one instant into a State of Favour with God and spreading a Mantle as it were to cover out of God's sight the Multitude of our black sins past present and to come by the Red Robes of our Redeemers Righteousness imputed to us So that this blood and water hold forth both the imputed and the imparted Righteousness of Christ and what our Lord hath joyned together that let no Man put asunder No Man can be truly made partaker of that Righteousness which is imputed unless he have also that which is imparted our Sanctification is a blessed Evidence of our Justification We have not need of the blood only but of the water also And tho' this Apostle in 1 John 5.8 make three Witnesses on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood yet he saith these three agrees in one for Gods Spirit doth witness with our Spirits that we are truly Justified and Sanctified by Christ Rom. 8.15 16. And this is highly Remarkable that these Kill-Christ's can do nothing against him but as God had Decreed they may kill him and wound him when killed but the least bone in this Paschal Lambs Body they cannot break as it is written Exod. 12.46 Numb 9.12 No more can Satan or his Imps break the least bone of Christ's Mystical Body his Church Let us now take a general prospect of the Death of our Dear Redeemer and make some profitable Inferences from the Sundry Circumstances thereof The 1. Inference is Oh! What an heinous Evil an only Evil Ezek. 7.5 a very bitter thing Jer. 2.19 is sin that could by no possible means admit of any proportionable Expiation or Commensurate satisfaction for it but either by the Death of the Son of God the sinners Surety or by enduring the Eternal Flames of Hell in the sinners themselves every Man as well as the first Man Adam hath eaten the Forbidden Fruit of Sin and the Divine Doom for that Crime of High Treason against the Great God of Heaven the King of Kings is dreadfully Denounced in the open Court of the Holy Scriptures to wit that the Sinner shall surely Die either by himself or or by his Surety There is an infinite offence in every Act of sin as it is acted against the Authority of an Infinite God And should the sinner live for ever upon Earth he would sin for ever against Heaven therefore Eternal Torments are appointed for that Eternal principle of sinning in the faln sinner to satisfie Divine Justice And such suitable satisfaction thereunto the Highest and most Glorious of all the Created Angels in Heaven much less any Mortal Man or the Mightiest Monarch upon Earth could not possibly undertake to make No it must be only the only Son of God that could pay down the full price of our Redemption The 2. Inference is Oh! what a sad case is this that of all Impenitent Ones and Unbelievers who have no interest in the Death of this Son of God who Dyed as the Son of Man to satisfie the Justice of God from the sins of Men These cannot say that Christ dyed for us as Gal. 2.20 c. He gave his Life a Ransom for many Matth. 20.28 But for none such as these and therefore they are like unless they Repent and Believe to bear the Eternal Wrath of God yea and it may be of Man for a while too in themselves which our Dear Redeemer hath born upon the Cross for all True Penitent and Believing Persons The 3. Inference is Oh! how Hateful and Sinful Rom. 7.13 should sin be to every Soul that cost our Saviour so much unparallel'd Sufferings to satisfie for it surely could we but take a view of sin as it lay on our Saviour's Back with such weight as to squeeze out his very Hearts blood out of his Body we should then hate it with a perfect Hatred for Torturing him whom our Souls love Nature teacheth us to avoid that Wound which is hardest to Cure and most Mortal to Life therefore do we guard to our utmost our Heads and Hearts with holding our Hands betwixt them and the Blows And should not Grace teach us to avoid sin which makes the worst Wound in the World as it wounds the Soul and
hath earned Though 't is an act of mercy in God to render unto Man according to his works so 't is said expresly Psal 62.12 Exod. 20.6 whereas in this second Covenant Man is justified freely Rom. 3.24 The word gratìs puts a difference betwixt the two Covenants The Grace of the second Covenant doth flow freely from the warm bowels and tender mercies of God to Man Though this free-grace of God to Man hath infinite and unsearchable Motives and Reasons for its Issues within himself or in it self yet hath it no grounds for its Egress to the Creature without himself or it self yea the free-grace of God found as much and as good Motives in Cain as in Abel in Judas as in Peter and in Esau as in Jacob both these two Brothers stood upon equal ground as to Divine Election Mal. 1.2 3. Was not Esau Jacobs Brother saith the Lord yet I have loved Jacob and hated Esau Intimating thereby that the Emanation or flowings forth of the Grace of God to Man hath no other original but meerly the manifestation of the glory of Gods Mercy The Kingdom of Heaven is not partum but paratum 't is not acquired but prepared Matth. 25.34 and is not the purchase of good works as those Merit-mongers the Romanists say God will have mercy upon whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth for the manifestation of the glory of his Justice God being a free Agent cannot be unjust to any because he is bound to none Rom. 9.11 12 13. to 24. Eph. 1.4 to 8. where the Apostle wadeth into that profundum sine Fundo the bottomless Deep of the Doctrine of Predestination shewing that the good pleasure of God is the Reason of Reasons and so Right a Rule as Man may not retort upon it no not for the Rejecting of some that his Mercy might be more manifest in the electing of others Inferences hence be 1. Suppose a Man under never so high Attainments of as excellent Gifts and of as eminent Parts and as strong as Adam in his state of Innocency yet being under the Covenant of Works only which leaves him to himself and to stand by his own strength when he meets with a Temptation which in the faln Estate draws forth his corruption too strong for him while he is admiring himself in the Looking Glass of his own Conceit and Fancy in the very height of his Self-confidence he is made to stagger to stumble and to fall and his failing strength cannot help him up again but all his Eminency dwindles away like a Star from Heaven and like a great Candle suddenly blown out leaves a stinking Smoke and Savour behind him This is the Effect of Mans trusting in his own strength under the first Covenant and not committing their keeping to God Jude ver 24. 2. Suppose a Saint never so weak and having such a sense of his own weakness as to think he shall never be able to hold out to the end yet being under the Covenant of Grace which promiseth an Infallible conduct in perseverance and casting himself out of all presumption in himself into the Arms of Christ in this Covenant this Soul is sustained against all the strongest Temptations without him and against all the strongest Corruptions within him and not only so but goeth from strength to strength Psal 84.9 groweth stronger and stronger Job 17.9 and increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 until he come to the measure of the stature of Christ Eph. 4.13 Let not then any sincere Soul say though never so feeble I shall one day perish by the Hands of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 or by the hands of Satan 'T is true thou art not able of thy self and by thy own strength to stand but God in Covenant with thee is able to make thee stand Rom. 14.4 Câ—â—â—mit thy self to him in well-doing as unto a faithful Creator who will rather unmake all than thou miscarry 1 Pet. 4.19 and as faithful a Covenanter Paul knew in whom he believed 2 Tim. 1.12 he is both able and faithful to fulfil his Covenanter 'T was a notable saying of Noble Luther Let Christ who died for my Soul look to the Salvation of it say and do thou likewise Ministers can only counsel you 't is Christ must keep you Jude ver 24. 1 Thes 5.24 and 2 Thes 3.3 God is faithful to keen from evil 3. This may serve to discover under what Covenant a Soul is if a Man be full of his own Righteousness and boast of his Goodness not only with comparisons I am as good as thou but also with disparisons I am not such a sinner as this Publican despising of others as the proud Pharisee did Luke 18.11 12. and as some in the Church of Laodicea did saying I am Rich and have need of nothing Revel 3.17 This is the Spirit of the first Covenant and the speech of those under it but when the Soul sees it self poor naked blind and miserable in it self and though enriched with the Gold and unsearchable Riches of Christ Revel 3.17 18. Eph. 3.8 yet dare not glory in it self but gives all the glory to Free Grace saying with the penitent Thief Luke 23.40 I was in the same condemnation and that justly with others that are Damned though I have hope to be saved 't is not I that makes my self to differ from others 1 Cor. 4.7 but 't is the Free Grace of God not the Free VVill of Man that makes the Difference 't is not I but the Grace of God in me 1 Cor. 15.10 This is the very Life and Language of the New Covenant The two Officers of Pharaoh whereof one was Restored the other Hanged were both in one condition and might have been under the same condemnation had it not been the pleasure of their Prince the favour of Pharaoh to make the Difference How much more may the great God make a Difference his Soveraignty Prerogative and absolute Dominion marking neither Merit nor Dismerit from without as Rom. 9.22 c. VVhere is boasting then It is excluded by what Law by the Law of VVorks No but by the Law of Faith which is the sum and substance of the Covenant of Grace Rom. 3.27 This is directly contrary to the Doctrine of all Romish Merit-Mongers and their Justification by Works and so is that Eph. 2.9 We are saved by Grace and not by Works lest any Man should boast as that Popish Fool Viga did saying Coelum gratis non accipiam I will not have Heaven but at a Rate it shall not be a Gift to me as Rom. 6.23 Alas those blind misted and muzled Romanists no better heeding Paul's Epistle to the Romans do more than lose all their Works of Super-erogation wherein they glory but Paul had better learned Christ Eph. 4.20 taking shame to himself and giving glory to Grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. All have sinned Rom. 3.23 The Sentence of Death is passed upon all 'T is not my
into vast Multitudes they spread further than Goshen and had Egyptian Families nigh and among them whence it was that the Destroying Angel did distinguish their Doors by the sprinkling of Blood Exod. 1.2.7.23 and that the Israelites departing borrowed of their Neighbours the Egyptians Jewels and Ear-rings c. v. 35 37. yet none save Joseph are said to live at the Court accounting with David that one Day in God's Courts was better than a Thousand in Saul's or Pharaoh's Courts Psal 84.10 and with Moses esteeming it better to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Hebr. 11.25 26. 6. It teacheth That as those Shepherd Israelites were an Abomination to the more Courtly Egyptians so every Israelite indeed Joh. 1.47 is still abominable to the Gypsies of the world Solomon saith He that is upright in the way is Abomination to the wicked Prov. 29.27 where he shews there is no love lost betwixt them There be Antipathies in Nature as betwixt the Lion and the Cock the Dog and the Sheep c. but none like that of the old Enmity Gen. 3.15 'twixt the Godly and the Wicked yet thus differing The former hates Non virum sed vitium not the Person but the Sin of a wicked man as the Physician hates the Disease but loves the Patient but the latter hates both the Grace and the Gracious 1. Grace because it contradicts his Vice which he so dearly loveth 2. The Gracious because such have a Counter-motion to his and justles as it were against him with his contrary courses 1 Joh. 3.12 Secondly Having viewed Jacob's Prosperity come we now to his Adversity the Catastrophe and Epilogue of his Pilgrimage-Comedy God did with him as the Bridegroom is said to do Joh. 2.10 kept the best Wine for the last Jacob tells Pharaoh his Days had been full of evil Gen. 47.9 He had many Crosses attending him I have as the Hebrews do numbred Seven principal ones There were others less principal that pinch'd him As 1. His hard Service in Laban's House 2. The Suborning of Leah for Rachel 3. The Fornication of Judah with Thamar unlike Joseph for Chastity 4. The detaining of Simeon in Egypt's Prison 5. The Bereaving him of his dear Benjamin c. yet the Lord was with him bore him through all as Psal 34.19 and at last brought him to a wealthy place Psal 66.12 even to sit down without any more Crosses in the fattest of that fat Land of Egypt for his last Seventeen years Gen. 47.28 so long Jacob had nourish'd Joseph Gen. 37.2 and just so long Joseph nourish'd Jacob Bis pueri Senes Old Men are twice Children The sweetest days Jacob ever saw were these Seventeen His time in Egypt was the largest white of Mercy with the least black of Misery in the whole Table of this Holy Patriarch's Life God reserved his Best for Jacob's Last yet this did not last always for at last the Infirmity and Imbecillity of old Age which is call'd an evil Age Eccles 12.1 came upon him which made his second state a state of Adversity that usher'd in Death by a lingring Sickness yet before this he saw God's Promise began to be accomplished God had said I will make of thee a great Nation in Egypt Gen. 46.3 and he saw before his last Sickness that his Offspring grew and multiplied exceedingly Gen. 47.27 God dies not in any mans debt neither will he let Jacob die till he see some part of the Payment of his Promise God is never short but oft over hit Promise nor will he suffer his Church to suffer this Seventeen years in Egypt though the first five of them were years of sore Famine for Moses in a few words of this 27th Verse minds us How 1. The Church was commodiously seated in Goshen 2. Was Accommodated with peaceable Possessions either Farmed under Pharaoh for the Land sell to him by the Famine ver 21. or frankly rather as a Donative bestowed upon her by him 3. Was wonderfully Advanced with an Increase of Wealth both in Coin and Cattel 4. And was mightily and marvellously multiplied with a numerous Off-spring above ordinary Custom which Moses further mentions as a Divine Miracle Exod. 1.12 But that which was adverse to Jacob after his so long prosperous Estate is his fatal Sickness the Harbinger of his Death The time drew nigh that Israel must die Gen. 47.29 or Hebr. the days of Israel drew nigh to die that is wherein he must yield to the stroak of Death he lying many days under this last Sickness being Sick unto Death this Jacob understood by a natural Instinct or it was Revealed to him by a Prophetick Spirit hereupon by his Paternal Authority he exacts an Oath of his Son Joseph not to Bury him in Egypt but in Canaan ver 29 30. Here we have these following Remarks First While Jacob as a Father did impose an Oath upon Joseph his Son yet as he was a private Person and his Son a publick Magistrate he useth expressions of Homage intermingled with his Injunctions saying If now I have found Grace in thy sight and I pray thee deal kindly and truely with me or Hebr. Do with me Mercy and Truth wherein as he injoins Joseph as a Son so he reverenceth him as a Prince Thus as Joseph did not disdain to Honour Jacob as his Father according to the Fifth Command Honour thy Father and Mother c. though he was but a poor old Shepherd and that in the presence of such Egyptian Courtiers then of his Retinue to whom Shepherds were an abomination at their first meeting Gen. 46.29 So Jacob the Father deems it his Duty to give due honour to his Son Joseph who was Lord of the Land at their last parting As the Divine and Natural Law did command that subjection which the Son paid to the Father in the former Instance So the Civil and National Law did require this Homage that the Father a Subject paid to his Son a Prince in the latter and herein Joseph's Dream was accomplish'd here that the Sun and Moon shall do Obeisance to me Gen. 37.9 The second Remark is God is more gracious to Jacob than his own Sayings Sentiments or Expectations when he met his Son Joseph he said Now let me die c. Gen. 46.30 yet God was so good to him as to give him a longer Lease of his Life than he desired He that could have been content to have died at that instant of having seen his Jewel Joseph shall live by a Divine Grant much longer and that a Life of peace and plenty the best part of Jacob's Life as to the quality of it was then to come when he wish'd to be gone and die few and evil had been his former days as himself says to Pharaoh Gen. 47.9 but his days which follow'd that time were few and good even all those seventeen years wherein Joseph nourish'd him paying his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
murmured at the first yet this Grace like good Oil at length wrought it self uppermost quell'd their Murmurings and made them follow Moses who step'd the first step into the Sea and such as continued unbelievers such fared the better for their Society with true Believers such probably were some of the mixt multitude Behold the force of Faith with the power of Prayer as it stopped the mouths of Lions to Daniel in the Den so it locks up the Sea here on both sides and saves Israel when Presumption destroyed the Egyptians Faith is 1. A God-pleasing Grace 2. 'T is a God-honouring Grace And 3. T is a God-obeying Grace therefore it shall not be drowned While Peter's Faith held tight he walks on the Waters but when he doubts then he sinks Faith keeps the head above Water David had fainted unless he had believed c. Psal 27.13 Faith carries them all along and leaves them not till it landed them on the other side They died in Faith Heb. 11.13 So nor will Faith leave us when wealth breach and life leave us till it land us safe upon the Shore of Glory puts us into possession of Heaven and then its work is done c. N.B. God has the Negative Voice the Sea must flow by Nature but may not by God's Power c. 5. It was miraculous likewise in respect of the Guide The Son of God in the Cloud takes the same fare with Israel and steps between them and danger Amalek cut off the hindmost of them in the Wilderness Deut. 25.18 but so could not Pharaoh do to them in the Sea unless he had been able to strike thorough this Cloudy Pillar In new perils God hath new protections and preservations for his People This Cloud that was their shade by day and their light by night marcheth the slow pace of their Women and Children and leads them gently down into the deepest bottom of the Sea as the Horse is led gently down the Hill by his Rider Isa 63.15 And the strongest Wind which then did blow and thundered could not move it out of its place Psal 77.17 18 19 20. where it is said Waters were poured down c. And that passage Psal 68.7 8 9. is brought in by the Learned to explain the Apostle's Assertion That Israel was baptized in the Cloud c. 1 Cor. 10.2 supposing that when the Cloud removed from before to come behind and became a black Cloud to the Egyptians as it passed over the heads of the Israelites it showred down Rain only for their Refreshment the Apostle taking this hint of the Psalmist and that they were Baptized in the Sea also in regard of the great Analogy betwixt Baptism as then used in hot Countreys persons going down into the Water and Israel's going down into the Sea the great Receptacle of Waters wherein they seemed to be buried betwixt two Walls of Water as in a vastly wide Sepulchre capacious enough for so prodigious a Camp out of which they were raised up as Rom. 6.4 And thus it may be said The Cloud baptized them with Fire too by night as Matth. 3.11 6. And lastly It was the more miraculous in this That Israel's Deliverance here ended in the destruction of the Egyptians who had no VVord of God to warrant their walking through the Sea as Israel had their motive was Presumption which if Despair has destroyed its Thousands hath kill'd its ten Thousands and not Faith which alway hath a word to warrant its Confidence Rom. 15.4 Psal 130.5 and 119.81 Isa 43.2 The Egyptians questioned not the lawfulness of the Act they tryed the can do it but not the may do it forgetting the difference God had observed in Goshen plaguing them not Israel Now finding the Sea calm the way fair to them at entrance they venture to pursue for Ruining Israel but find their own Ruine Aristotle tells of a calm at mid-night as well as mid-day when the Clouds overcome the Sun as well as when the Sun overcomes the Clouds We ought not to be confident at every calm The Sea was thus at the first to Pharaoh c. There is a false peace in the mid-night of sin which is presumptuous security Behold here 's the Dragon caught and chained up in the deep as that Dragon the Devil is said to be Rev. 20.2 3. only with this difference there it is done in the bottomless Pit but here the Dragon Pharaoh Ezek. 29.3 is shut up in the bottom of the Red Sea never to molest Israel more For now when God had got this Dragon into his Pound in the midst of the Sea then claps He him up close Prisoner The Chrystal-walls of Water do dissolve and return to their own fluid property yea with that judgment and discretion in this sensless Element as not to swallow up one Israelite and not to leave one Egyptian alive and undrowned save only such of them as joyned to Israel Exod. 12.38 The Sea was kind to those and they were saved for Israel's sake into whose communion they were now happily come Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus All out of Noah's Ark were drowned The same Spirit of God that moved upon the face of the Waters at the Creation and gathered them into their proper place Gen. 1.2 8 9 10. did here direct them to those different dispensations To conclude the Remarks upon this Red-Sea Deliverances Learn hence for Our comfort Tho' there lay a Sea of Trouble betwixt us and the promised Canaan of the New Jerusalem of the New Heavens and New Earth c. Rev. 20 21 22 chapters yet God in his good time will certainly dry it up as he did here the Red Sea for his Israel God hath promised Rev. 16.12 to dry up Euphrates to open a prepared passage for the Kings of the East that Kingdom of Priests Exod. 19.6 the Jews who reside mostly in the East in Turky Tartary call'd so of Tothar a Remnant and China call'd as Junius judgeth Sinim Isa 49.12 At whose Conversion the Sea shall be dryed up and they shall pass over dry-shod c. Isa 11.15 16. and Zech. 10 10 11. without either Boat to waft over or Boot to wade thorough c. This is the literal sense wherein our Bright-man and others expound the drying of Euphrates and which the Jews daily pray for Bimerah Beiamenu do it Lord speedily and in our day And we the more hope and pray for it because God can make a Nation to be born at once Isa 66.8 and dry bones to stand up and live Ezek. 37.4 5 11 19. Rom. 11.23 Their Blindness is not total or perpetual but in part ver 26. But to understand it mystically of Rome's See and Revenues which is the Spiritual Babylon and as Cyrus destroyed the Literal Babylon by draining Euphrates causing it to run into many cut Chanels and surprized it by this Strategem Jer. 50.38 and 51.36 and Dan. 5.30 31. Event is when all 's done and will be the best
this name and not fall as if we had not been anointed with Oil 2 Sam. 1.21 Thus the Lord as he ever doth did over-shoot Satan in his own Bow over-ruling the Malice of the Adversary in turning it here to the propagation of the Gospel Those Disciples were forced to flie for their lives from the Capital City of the Jews hereby the Light of the Gospel is carried to the Gentiles N.B. The great God causeth the Devil to break his own head by his own design and maketh Light to come out of Darkness Psal 112. v. 4. God is a skilful Pilot and can sail with contrary Winds using cross Providences to accomplish his precious Promises Gen. 9.27 Hereby Japhet the Gentiles were made to dwell in the Tents of Shem the Jews This scattering proved to the Church's great Advantage which like the Sea what ground it loseth on one side it gaineth on the other side No doubt God is fetching such a compass now c. 2 Sam. 5.23 'T is a great and most sacred Truth that the great God would suffer no sort of evil to be unless he knew how to bring some excellent good out of that evil N.B. The following History is a confirming Comment upon this Text of Truth The most wise God would not have permitted such a Dispersing Persecution upon this Primo-primitive Church but to over rule it for his own greater glory and for his Church's greater gain This Church at Jerusalem was now grown so great by the many Accessions and Additions to it through the great Grace that was upon it Acts 4.33 that it was become like the Hive of Bees which is so full of stock that there is not room within to receive all those little laborious Animals and therefore if they do not voluntarily remove in a Swarm they must be driven to make a new Colony in another new Hive Thus and much more the Lord dealt with this numerous over-grown and full-stock'd Gospel-Church A great many of those Evangelical Bees are driven away from Jerusalem not only to plant new Colonies of Christians in Samaria but also in many other places both among the Jews and among the Gentiles as the sequel sheweth N.B. The first Instance hereof is the planting of a Gospel-Church in Samaria whereof the Procatartick or occasional cause was this great Persecution that the Devil and his Imps raised against this first Church at Jerusalem but the Organical or instrumental cause thereof was Philip not the Apostle Mat. 10.3 but the Deacon of that name Acts 6.5 for all the Apostles still stay'd at Jerusalem Acts 8.1 This Deacon having been found faithful over a few things was made Master of more in the Ministry as Mat. 25.23 Thus he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach the Truth and able to maintain it by the Gifts of the Holy Ghost upon him purchased to himself an higher degree in the Ministry of the Church 1 Tim. 3.12 13. fairly stepping from that good degree of a Deacon therefore none should despise the Deaconship that is so honourably intituled to an higher Order c. This holy Deacon was of that scattered number whom God directed to go into Samaria where what he did the Divine Record gives a full account of it Acts 8.5 c. N.B. The Relation of his Actings there 1. Concerns his Doctrine and 2. His Auditors 1st His Doctrine is described 1. In the Matter of it Acts 8.5 12. He Preached the Doctrine of Faith Repentance and Remission of Sins by Christ alone c. 2. In the Success of it verse 6 7. a mighty presence of Divine Power prepared those to attend whom God had a purpose to save hanging their Ears as it were at the mouth of this their Minister as those are said to do upon Christ himself Luke 19.48 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They did hang upon him it signifies as the Babe hangs on the Breast the Bee upon the Flower or the little Bird upon the Bill of her Dam As Christ drew the People after him by the Golden Chain of his Angelical yea Divine Eloquence So Philip here by the powerful presence of the Spirit of Christ upon him united his Hearer's hearts as well as Ears to attend diligently unto the Doctrine of Christ He Preached to them concerning his marvelous Birth his holy Life and Death and his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and concerning the Kingdom of his Grace and Glory both which are one seeing the Kingdom of God hath its Inchoation on Earth but its Consummation in Heaven This diligent attention was a blessed preparative to these Samaritan's Conversion seeing Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 The Syriack word Methtephisin here signifies they did not only Attend to but also did Acquiesce in all he spake to them N.B. Were there more Reverend Attention to the Word and more plenary Aquiescency in it there would be more Conversion at this day N.B. But besides Philip's Evangelical Eloquence wherewith he drew his Auditory to his Oracles he wrought Miracles also which were as so many Evidences of the Truth of his Oracles and whereby he shewed God's Authority for what he Preached He healed many Diseases and cast out many Devils call'd unclean Spirits because they delight in sin that spiritual uncleanness of the Soul who cried out with a loud voice as very loth to leave their Lodgings had they not been constrained to it c. N.B. The performance of what Christ promised Mark 16.16 17. did both corroborate the Faith of those Gospel-Ministers and did mightily promote the Success of Philip's Ministry in Samaria Then 3dly The Effect hereof is briefly comprised v. 8. and There was great Joy in that City Tho' Samaria was a place of corrupted Worship and basely bewitched by the Sorceries of Simon Magus yet even there God begets a People to himself who not only rejoyced for the miraculous Cures wrought upon their Bodies but more especially for the Word of Reconciliation and Salvation Preached to their Souls N.B. Josephus saith that at Samaria was a Sanctuary opened by Sanballat for all Renegado Jews and upon the very building of the Temple upon Mount Gerizim multitudes of Jews flocked thither that call'd Jacob their Father had their Priesthood Service Pentateuch c. so that Samaritanism generally was but a Mongrel-Judaism Therefore the Jews hated the presence the are the fashions and the very Books of the Samaritans John 4.9 Now this despised Samaria imbraces the Gospel with Joy when the formerly beloved and holy City Jerusalem doth explode and persecute it N.B. Such strange Alterations doth the Free Grace of God work both in Cities and Countreys and in all Societies of Men. Once it was before this that Christ must needs go to Samaria John 4.4 Oh happy City that then lay in a sweet Saviour's way to be look'd upon with his gracious look of Love and that his Footsteps may drop fatness upon it Psal 65.11 Many believed in Christ at that time of the Samaritans John 4.40 41.